<p>What are some good schools for International Relations major?</p>
<p>It depends - undergrad or grad school?</p>
<p>Georgetown's School of Foreign Service (undergrad), Princeton (has a Foreign Affairs school named after Woodrow Wilson that you apply to in your sophomore year), Harvard's JFK school (grad), Johns Hopkins has a good undergrad program, Tufts Fletcher school (grad)</p>
<p>How good is George Washington U?</p>
<p>Also GWU, American, Michigan and Syracuse.</p>
<p>I've read that Denison in Ohio also has a strong program.</p>
<p>These rankings were published in the March/April 2007 Issue of Foreign Policy Magazine.</p>
<p>Top 20 Undergraduate Programs</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard University 48%</li>
<li>Princeton University 46%</li>
<li>Stanford University 30%</li>
<li>Georgetown University 28%</li>
<li>Columbia University 28%</li>
<li>Yale University 23%</li>
<li>University of Chicago 21%</li>
<li>University of California-Berkeley 12%</li>
<li>Dartmouth College 11%</li>
<li>George Washington University 10%</li>
<li>American University 10%</li>
<li>University of Michigan 9%</li>
<li>Tufts University 8%</li>
<li>Swarthmore College 8%</li>
<li>University of California-San Diego 8%</li>
<li>Cornell University 6%</li>
<li>Brown University 6%</li>
<li>Williams College 5%</li>
<li>Duke University 5%</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins University 5%"</li>
</ol>
<p>^^ Those rankings are meaningless. For instance, I know of countless of people who say Tufts is a great school for international relations. It doesn't get any love here. Nor does American U, George Washington, or even JHU.</p>
<p>Well, that's just what the professionals in the field say. You can ignore them if you choose.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Those rankings are meaningless. For instance, I know of countless of people who say Tufts is a great school for international relations. It doesn't get any love here. Nor does American U, George Washington, or even JHU.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Huh? Not get any love? The four schools you mentioned were all listed in Foreign Policy Magazine's survey of international relations professionals as being among the top twenty undergrad programs in the country. What do you want? Blood? How could they get any more love than being on this list?</p>
<p>It shows what Professionals know....</p>
<p>This survey methology was pretty flawed. The question asking to rate the top five best undergraduate programs was one question out of fifty broader questions encompassing the survey.</p>
<p>Many schools in that list such as UC Berkeley doesn't have anything remotely called international studies/affairs/relations major. Some schools such as Columbia doesn't even have programs specific in International relations. Maybe you can self create a independent studies major that looks like an IR major at Columbia, but the program itself doesn't exist...</p>
<p>Professors know more about graduate schools than undergraduate schools. They no nothing further than Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, etc...That's why schools that don't even have IR udnergrad programs are listed -- because grad professors have no idea what's going on</p>
<p>With that said, its surprising to see Hopkins at #19. I've always thought that international relations at Hopkins undergraduate level was superb. It is among the top programs in the nation for graduate and at the undergraduate level. The major is actually quite popular, even more popular than biological sciences which JHU is known for. Same could be said about Tufts and GTown.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Many schools in that list such as UC Berkeley doesn't have anything remotely called international studies/affairs/relations major.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What difference does that make? If we take Berkeley's course offerings tonight and christen a new International Relations major tomorrow morning, has the quality of instruction on those topics changed one iota overnight?</p>
<p>It's such a common mistake here on College Confidential to frame "what are the best xxxxx programs" so narrowly as to eliminate many superb colleges and universities on the basis of a program's name.</p>
<p>Why are you justifying this?? If you want me to admit to a greater span of colleges with superb IR programs, you should just say it. Make believe situations and justification for a flaw ranking doesn't help either.</p>
<p>The difference is that goes to prove that this ranking is highly unreliable as it ranks imaginary *international relations *department at the undergraduate level **does not exist **at UC Berkeley nor at Columbia. You can justify it all you want, it shows that if the graduate professors knew what they were talking, they would probably realize departments of IR doesn't exist, so why bother ranking them?</p>
<p>The fact is that we CAN eliminate based on name because why give misinformation?</p>
<p>What if I told you UC Berkeley is among the top ten undergraduate IR programs on CC. You actually apply, waste $60, and attend Berkeley. and then realize there is no IR program.</p>
<p>What sense does it make?? LMFAO none at all.</p>
<p>EDIT: I can imagine all the good people this ranking may have decieved. =-( There is no IR major here? what the heck?</p>
<p>
[quote]
to eliminate many superb colleges and universities
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No, just Harvard and Stanford.</p>
<p>It just is what it is. Rankings by professionals in the field. I doubt they spent much time scouring course catalogs. Or even the names of programs. (American, for example has NO "international relations", just a "School for International Service" that enrolls 1/3 of its student body.) Folks are free to ignore them.</p>
<p>School of International Service, Walsh School of Foreign Service, International Affairs, International Relations, International Studies, they are all pretty much synomous with each other.</p>
<p>I agree, there are tons of really good schools just mentioned.</p>
<p>Syracuse, Swarthsmore, Williams, Gtown, American, GWU, Tufts, JHU, Harvard, Princeton, etc.... All fine IR schools.</p>
<p>If I recall from reading the article (it's been several months), the question was along the lines of "what are the top undergrad schools to get training in international relations? There was no requirement about the name of the program.</p>
<p>I tried to find out the real question. I even checked out the original report by William and Mary. I couldn't find it. </p>
<p>But I did find this. "The respondents were asked which five undergraduate programs they considered to be the best."</p>
<p>
[quote-phead128]
Many schools in that list such as UC Berkeley doesn't have anything remotely called international studies/affairs/relations major.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't see why it should matter whether they have a separate major called "international studies/affairs/relations" or the like. All the schools at the top of this list have outstanding political science faculties including numerous top IR scholars, and all offer dozens of courses on IR and closely related topics. You can do a poli sci major at Berkeley, for example, and do the bulk of your coursework in your major in IR. Many of these schools also have outstanding area studies programs---East Asian Studies, South Asian Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and so on, which would make a nice complement to an IR concentration for a poli sci major. With all that in mind, it's no wonder the top professionals in the field would identify these schools as the best places to study international relations at the undergrad level.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley doesn't offer a subconcentration under political science or else they would have something called International studies major. Why should it matter that they have a separate major called "international studies/affairs/relations"? Because its not a ranking of political science departments. Its a ranking of IR undergraduate schools with IR deparments.</p>
<p>If students who are legitly interested in IR, they know better than to go interdiscipinary and create their own major (which of course Columbia undergrads must do to achieve an IR major) or they know better than become political science major with 'significant coursework' with IR-like courses. Both of which are not practical and would frowned upon by graduate schools and simply will not be adequate for a public policy career in the IR field.</p>
<p>So note, you can't just self create your on major that has coursework similar to the ones that are taken by IR students nor can you substitute an real IR experience with a political science degree with coursework in East Asian studies because the rankings doesn't work that way. Its a ranking of undergraduate IR schools for a reason. Schools with IR programs, are different from Schools with just political science departments. There is a ranking for those schools as well. </p>
<p>There has to be some distinction or can you just say Poli Sci:IR as Biology:Agrilculture. Can one seriously take a 'biology' perspective in ranking of Agrilcultural programs? Best bio programs doesn't mean the best agrilcultural programs. You can't just take biology and dabble in herbarias and study plant biology to achieve an Agrilcultural-like experience. As IR is a branch of Poli Sci, Agrilculture is to Biology. I only wish it was that simple that we take the branches of each of the sciences, social sciences, and humanities and clump them together based on the reputation and scholarship of the mother root of all the branches.</p>
<p>I doubt I can say like a performing arts major could possibly find classes to rival a Dance major with classes like Choreography, Dance Analysis, Dance notation, Performance/Somatic practice, Ethnochoreology. I sure bet you can learn a lot about Dance via History of Dance courses. lol</p>