<p>^Absolutely no difference. It will depend how you do at one of those schools, not which one you attend.</p>
<p>thats kind of an ******* assumption to make</p>
<p>ah, UK , don't bother with the rankings. The has are maaaaaany prestegious schools and if one looks at say US news top 1-40 -- all those schools will offer a good education.</p>
<pre><code>Georgetown is a top-notch school. Its pretty high on the prestige scale. I don't where you got the idea it wasn't. I think comparing georgetown with an ivy is like comparing cambridge with oxford really.
</code></pre>
<p>Prestige is all relative. Although people always think DAMN Harvard. Do realize with Georgetown being so good in sports it has better name recognition than say Dartmouth IMO.</p>
<p>Personally when it comes down to it, I think there is a certain threshold you cross and once you cross that your getting a pretty damn good education. And what you put in is what you get out. I can get a better education at Georgetown than Harvard if I put more effort into it. Just because you get into HYPS it doesn't do all the work for you, you got to put in even more work to get a return especially with a school like Harvard which is more graduate focused.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is at least as "good in sports" as Georgetown, except for basketball and its special admits. All the Ivies, in fact, are more successful year in and year out in NCAA Division I athletics than Georgetown is. They are better in football, and Georgetown does not even have a hockey team. In lacrosse, Georgetown is quite good, but not as good as Cornell or Princeton. In just about everything else, Georgetown trails badly.</p>
<p>redcrimblue, most peope don't really care about college gymnastics, wrestling track, softball, Tennis or swimming. </p>
<p>Football and Basketball are the only sports that really have nation-wide appeal. Georgetown has one of the top 10 or top 15 Basketball programs in the nation. None of the Ivies have top 50 Basketball or Football programs. </p>
<p>After those two sports, you have Hockey and Baseball. Some of the Ivies, Cornell and Harvard in particular, have decent Hockey programs, but that's about it.</p>
<p>In short, most people in the US have heard of Georgetown's Basketball team...how many have heard of Ivy League sports?</p>
<p>Gtown does have a hockey team by the way.</p>
<p>Im talking about team, recognition, I do realize Dartmouth has good sports but not in the big sports, as mentioned above.</p>
<p>When on Gtown tour I over heard an adcom interviewing a waitlisted student.</p>
<p>She said that because of Gtowns success in basketball this year more people might send in deposits ect. And that it is just impossible to gague peoples response... This was shown when on the tour the only questions people asked where about basketball.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your replies and advice, which I have enjoyed reading.</p>
<p>I expected that many would encourage me not to bother with rankings. I understand the sentiment fully, and I know that my decision will ultimately be about more than league tables. But I still think they're an important factor and I'm particularly interested in hearing your comparisons between schools.</p>
<p>A few other things have come up that surprise me a little, like Duke's apparent strength (which I had no idea about) and Penn's high status.</p>
<p>I'm planning to apply for MPP (and some MPA) programs. I've just finished my undergrad at LSE here in London, and I've got a few years work lined-up before hand. My preferred programs (roughly in order) are: Harvard-KSG, Princeton-WWS (MPA), Columbia (MPA), Chicago, Berkeley, Penn (MGA), Duke, Georgetown, Cornell, Brown.</p>
<p>Obviously I will trim that list over time, but please let me know what you think - particularly if I have excluded other top programs (or, indeed, if I should remove any!)</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>How come you're not considering Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy? And Johns Hopkin's SAIS?</p>
<p>And I would take off Duke, Cornell, and Brown.</p>
<p>Seeing as how he's an Englishman, he's probably laughing his head off about Americans' obsession with "rankings" and the fuzzy line between bigtime college sports in America and academic recognition. I mean, does anyone rate the appeal of Oxford College, the U of Edinburgh or the London School of Economics based on the football, a.k.a. soccer, team?</p>
<p>UK Prospective, I think most rankings are regarding undergrad and not grad. And I mistakingly thought you were considering undergrad programs. However, I believe that your list still contains schools with strength in MPA as well as undergrad.</p>
<p>LakeWashington - aside from Stanford, Duke, and Northwestern, I don't think any of the to-ranked colleges have bigtime college sports. And of course, all three of those Universities are tops academically. </p>
<p>There is absolutely no correlation between rankings and athletics - is that what you were trying to say?</p>
<p>I was commenting on the fact that universities use athletic success to burnish their academic appeal. This worked at particularly well at Catholic schools Georgetown and, recently, Gonzaga.</p>
<p>Ohh, yeah I understand, and agree with you.</p>
<p>I thought you meant US News rankings or something took athletics into account.</p>
<p>While there is no correlation between academic and athletic success, for many potential students, there is a good correlation between active athletic programs and enjoyable undergraduate experiences. If these good athletics are mixed with superior academics, all the better. Personally, I feel that this variety of experiences is one of the strengths of American university life and engenders true school spirit and loyalty and this certainly is one of the major differences with college life at non-US universities. </p>
<p>For some students, the schools that you mentioned (Stanford, Duke, Northwestern) along with a few others (Rice, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame) have a persuasive story vs the Ivy League and other top private schools that are considered to have a more limited athletic and social life. If you buy into the idea that college is about more than academics, then these other schools (and many of the top publics) have a compelling offering with their strong athletic and oftentimes, stronger social environments. A school like Georgetown puts you in position to academically achieve almost whatever you want and, if you enjoy college basketball, Georgetown is clearly a fun school to attend.</p>
<p>Are these relatively close/accurate top undergrad IR schools? add/take out colleges from the list and explain. This list does not include schools such as Harvard and Dartmouth that does not offer IR as a major</p>
<p>1) Georgetown SFS
2) Johns Hopkins
3) Tufts
4) UPENN
5) Brown
6) UChicago (international studies?)
7) Northwestern (international studies?)
8) Pomona</p>
<p>Gtown, JHU, and Tufts are probably tied for first. One does not particularly stand out from the others.</p>
<p>GWU and American have very good programs as well.</p>
<p>I honestly believe that a major in International Relations/Studies is pretty useless. I came into Northwestern wanting to major in political science and international studies. I've since swapped int'l studies for history because I feel that my time is better spent focusing intensely on one area of the world (the Americas) for my history major and then taking some foreign policy classes for my poli sci major. </p>
<p>My advice for people interested in foreign relations is to major in policial science or history and concentrate on a specific area of the world that interests them - you'll be going much more in depth.</p>
<p>Georgetown is never having to say you're sorry. You went there to be at by far the best school in the capital of the big-dude-on-the-block country. Even Harvard, Oxford, and Moscow State can't say that.</p>