<p>Hi guys,</p>
<p>So I am applying International Relations or Political Science for college the coming fall, and as of now I've been looking exclusively at colleges in the east coast (Boston and NY especially) because I can get more access to politics-related facilities over there (UN, White House, etc.) But now I'm also thinking of West Coast because I want to keep my options more open..however I have 3 questions needed to be answered.</p>
<p>1) Would the standard of classes in the West Coast for IR/Polit Sci be lower on average than those in the East Coast?</p>
<p>2) What schools in West Coast are good for IR/Polit Sci? I heard Stanford's good but it's out of my league...I've also heard nice things regarding Pomona.</p>
<p>And finally, </p>
<p>3)where would you guys recommend I go for IR/Polit Sci? (Region-wise)</p>
<p>Thank you guys :)</p>
<p>Claremont McKenna College in CA is a small LAC that specializes in IR - you should definitely look into it.</p>
<p>a LAC that specializes in something? aren't liberal arts supposed to be diverse?</p>
<p>"Is widely acclaimed for" would have been a better way to phrase it.</p>
<p>Foreign Policy listed the top 20 undergraduate IR programs in the country in 2007 (the number after each name is the % of respondents who mentioned it):</p>
<p>1 Harvard University 48
2 Princeton University 46
3 Stanford University 30
4 Georgetown University 28
5 Columbia University 28
6 Yale University 23
7 University of Chicago 21
8 University of California, Berkeley 12
9 Dartmouth College 11
10 George Washington University 10
11 American University 10
12 University of Michigan 9
13 Tufts University 8
14 Swarthmore College 8
14 University of California, San Diego 8
16 Cornell University 6
17 Brown University 6
18 Williams College 5
19 Duke University 5
19 Johns Hopkins University 5</p>
<p>So maybe more on the East Coast than other regions, but West Coast schools are on there too and even some in the Midwest and South. If you look at the list of Master's programs, though:
1 Georgetown University 65
2 Johns Hopkins University 64
3 Harvard University 46
4 Tufts University 42
5 Columbia University 39
6 Princeton University 38
7 George Washington University 28
8 American University 19
9 University of Denver 9
10 Syracuse University 7
11 University of California, San Diego 5
12 University of Chicago 4
12 Yale University 4
14 Stanford University 4
15 University of Pittsburgh 3
16 University of California, Berkeley 2
16 University of Maryland 2
18 Mass. Institute of Technology 2
18 Monterey Institute of Int’l Studies 2
20 University of Southern California 2 </p>
<p>Huge East Coast advantage, probably owing to what you said (the abundance of resources there). Which makes it even more interesting to see the PhD list:
1 Harvard University 65
2 Princeton University 52
3 Columbia University 45
4 Stanford University 45
5 University of Chicago 30
6 Yale University 26
7 University of California, Berkeley 25
8 University of Michigan 22
9 University of California, San Diego 20
10 Cornell University 12
11 Mass. Institute of Technology 11
12 Johns Hopkins University 10
13 Georgetown University 8
14 Duke University 8
15 Ohio State University 8
16 New York University 7
17 University of Minnesota 5
18 University of California, Los Angeles 5
19 Tufts University 4
20 University of Rochester 4 </p>
<p>A lot more diversity, especially from California.</p>
<p>If any conclusions can be drawn from all this, it's that the region in which you obtain your undergrad doesn't matter all that much if you plan to continue your education afterwards (which is almost obligatory for Foreign Service applicants).</p>
<p>Thanks for the heads up MelancholyDane. Very useful list! I suppose it's okay for me to go either West or East then, since I will probably be doing an MBA afterwards :)</p>