Good schools for political science major?

<p>Best schools around the country for political science for students with a gpa that is around a 3.8 and ACT around a 30?</p>

<p>American
George Washington
Northeastern
Boston College
NYU
Fordham</p>

<p>holy cross has a fantastic political science program. hc also has a tremendous alumni network in the field of politics.</p>

<p>It appears you’re a Michigan resident. If that’s right, it’s hard to beat the University of Michigan which has one of the top poli sci departments in the country.</p>

<p>These are grad program rankings–undergrad programs are rarely ranked–but US News ranks Michigan’s poli sci department #4 nationally, after Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford. Frankly, with a 30 ACT your odds of getting into Harvard, Princeton or Stanford are not good. Your GPA and ACT score might get you into Michigan as an in-state applicant, but it’s no sure bet. A reasonable fallback for a Michigan resident would be Michigan State, which also has a strong poli sci department, ranked #28 by US News.</p>

<p>You certainly should consider some of the private schools mentioned here, but in the field you’ve identified, your in-state publics are among the best in the country.</p>

<p>If you’re interested in jobs, volunteering, and internship opportunities in politics, consider location. There will be a presidential election taking place while you’re in college, including primaries for both parties. It’s better to be in a swing state where there are many more opportunities.</p>

<p>Any school with a good law school will likely have a strong PS dept.</p>

<p>What is your budget? The amount that your parents will spend will likely influence where you should apply.</p>

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<p>I’m not sure why you’d think that. Law and political science are very different fields, and while sometimes there’s a faculty member or two who teaches both, that’s also true of, say, law and philosophy, law and economics, law and history, law and gender studies, and so on.</p>

<p>Of the US News 25 top-ranked political science graduate programs, 5 are at universities that don’t even have law schools (Princeton, UCSD, MIT, U Rochester, Texas A&M). Another 5 are at universities with law schools that aren’t ranked in the top 25 (UNC Chapel Hill, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Illinois, UC Davis).</p>

<p>And some universities with top law schools don’t have top-ranked political science departments. Here are some school with top-25 law schools but not top-25 poli sci programs: Penn, UVA, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, USC, George Washington, U Washington, Notre Dame, Emory, Washington & Lee. I’m not saying the political science programs would be terrible at these schools. I am saying that choosing a political science program on the basis of a law school’s strength is an unreliable approach, since there’s only a little better than a 50-50 chance that a university with a top-25 law school will also have a top-25 political science department, and vice versa.</p>

<p>Here, for the record, are the schools with top-25 programs in both law and political science: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Michigan, Chicago, Columbia, NYU, Berkeley, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, Minnesota, UCLA, WUSTL, and Texas.</p>

<p>And that also doesn’t begin to count the excellent poli sci programs at many leading LACs, which by definition don’t have law schools (the exception being Washington & Lee).</p>

<p>Thanks for the help guys. I’m leaning towards MSU as of now but I’m only a sophomore. I think living right by the state’s capitol would be great for internships and as mentioned there will be an election in my second year of college. Would be smart to be in a swing state like mich.</p>

<p>Georgetown University (Reach)</p>

<p>Dickinson would be a match.</p>

<p>You’re in Michigan. Consider the James Madison College ([James</a> Madison College @ MSU | James Madison College | Michigan State University.](<a href=“http://jmc.msu.edu/]James”>http://jmc.msu.edu/)) that’s located within MSU.</p>