Foreign Policy Magazine Ranks Programs in International Relations (news item)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p><a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3718&page=1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3718&page=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Foreign Policy Magazine has just published its 2007 survey results ranking the nation's top undergraduate, masters and PhD programs in international relations. Scholars in the field were asked to select the top five programs in the country. The rankings were compiled from those responses with the scores indicating the percentage of scholars who felt each program was one of the top five nationally.</p>

<p>In undergraduate programs Harvard edged Princeton just very slightly and both were significantly ahead of the third through tenth ranked institutions. In PhD programs, Harvard clearly led the pack with Princeton noticeably behind at second while Columbia and Stanford tied for third. In Master's programs, Georgetown and Johns Hopkins surged to the fore. Of particular note were some of the smaller schools without graduate programs where the undergraduate program was still ranked in the top ten. Dartmouth stands out on this list at number nine.</p>

<p>2007 Top Undergraduate Programs in International Relations</p>

<p>Rank % Score </p>

<p>1----------48%----------Harvard
2----------46%----------Princeton
3----------30%----------Stanford
4----------28%----------Georgetown
5----------28%----------Columbia
6----------23%----------Yale
7----------21%----------U. of Chicago
8----------12%----------Berkeley
9----------11%----------Dartmouth
10--------10%----------George Washington U.</p>

<p>2007 Top PhD Programs in International Relations</p>

<p>Rank % Score </p>

<p>1----------65%----------Harvard
2----------52%----------Princeton
3----------45%----------Columbia
4----------45%----------Stanford
5----------30%----------U. of Chicago
6----------26%----------Yale
7----------25%----------Berkeley
8----------22%----------U. of Michigan
9----------20%----------U.C. San Diego
10--------12%----------Cornell</p>

<p>2007 Top Master's Degree Programs in International Relations</p>

<p>Rank % Score </p>

<p>1----------65%----------Georgetown
2----------64%----------Johns Hopkins
3----------46%----------Harvard
4----------42%----------Tufts
5----------39%----------Columbia
6----------38%----------Princeton
7----------28%----------George Washington
8----------19%----------American University
9-----------9%----------U. of Denver
10---------7% ----------Syracuse</p>

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<p>Thanks for posting this up!! I just made it a featured article on the Princeton Class of 2011 Facebook group :D</p>

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<p>This is great information, as my D is interested in IR. However, I find it strange that Berkeley is ranked 8th, and they don't have an IR undergraduate major. Any insights? She has Berkeley near the bottom of her list right now, partially due to this, but maybe they just call it something else.</p>

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<p>Yeah.. and where is JHU in undergrad ?</p>

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<p>There's a huge thread on this topic including the new Foreign Policy Magazine rankings.</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=56589&page=25%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=56589&page=25&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Some observations made:</p>

<p>1) JHU's Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), arguably the top IR Master's program, is at a separate campus from JHU Baltimore. It was a school established separately to train foreign service officers and then in the late 50s or early 60s tried to affiliate itself with its namesake's alma mater, Harvard. But Harvard refused and SAIS became JHU's tremendous gain. JHU's undergrad is probably not listed for this reason. And the following....</p>

<p>2) Most undergrad IR programs exist at PhD type academic powerhouses according to this ranking within Poli Sci departments. Therefore, good Poli Sci undergrad programs tend to = good ranking.</p>

<p>3) Likewise for PhDs, broadly speaking the best ACADEMIC IR programs largely overlap with the best Poli Sci PhD programs. </p>

<p>4) The Master's programs are more practically and policy oriented. Therefore, places like Berkeley, which don't even have a Master's program in IR are ranked, for instance, at the bottom of the top 20 in this category simply because a few of the respondents didn't even realize it doesn't have such a program and ranked it anyway.</p>

<p>5) I believe personally that such reputational confusion marked Georgetown's ranking at number 1 for a Master's. Admittedly my experience is out of date (by about 10 years) and I'll admit my potential bias, but it was my strong impression when I was in DC going to SAIS that Georgetown, while widely acknowledged to be tops as an undergrad institution, was not considered at the top for an IR Master's. On the other hand, its undergrad I think is ranked too low on the undergrad ranking. For a school which mixes policy and theory and which has a top-rate undergrad student body in IR (the BSFS program admits separately as I understand it), Georgetown should be at the top of this list, in my opinion.</p>

<p>6) These programs should have been separated, in my opinion, into THEORETICAL/ACADEMIC vs. POLICY/PRACTICAL. Then you'd see programs like Fletcher and SAIS appear differently, particularly at the PhD level. Yes, as strange as it sounds, there are people who get PhD's with no intention of going into academe.</p>

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<p>Here are the 2009 rankings:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4685&print=1[/url]”>http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4685&print=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>“Yeah… and where is JHU in undergrad ?”</p>

<p>Tied with American for 17th.</p>

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<p>How was Brown not on this list but a UC was?</p>

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<p>The UC system is excellent and is especially good with Asia and Latin America. It does a colossal amount of research, has as good a faculty as anywhere, and has hugely influenced the field in the last 30 years. Berkeley is Berkeley; UCSD redirected the field of polisci/IR, pushing it quantitative-econometrics-developing and authoritarian regime studies-political economy-lots of things going on. UCLA is also strong in these areas and really helped to pioneer political economy. Where you separate IR and political science is your own determination, but IR has certainly moved beyond a few retired ambassadors lecturing about Europe thanks in large part to the UC system.<br>
California is not close to Washington DC and has less influence and placement power in the Corridors. Maybe we should define the UC system as a bit more barebones academics and not as good at getting you to DC. There’s less tweed, snow, and grade inflation, but they’ll get you where you need to go.</p>