<p>I am an international student and was accepted at Tufts and The Elliott School of International Affairs.</p>
<p>I want to study Poli Sci/IR/IA .
I am very attracted by Tufts for the very strong academics and the high quality of education ( small class sizes taught exclusively by profs...)</p>
<p>However, I am also drawn by D.C. and the opportunities and professional connections GW seems to offer.</p>
<p>Do you know if Tufts graduate get good jobs, is the academic difference between Tufts and GW drastic?</p>
<p>Tufts. You can't beat its reputation in everything else (just in case you change your mind).</p>
<p>Depending on how you take your education, you can get the best of both worlds (aka go to the other one for grad school). At GW and being in DC, you are more accessible to many options for internships. GW students know how to blend both the academic experience and the professional experience to further themselves on their career/life goals. DC is the home to the federal government, IOs, NGOs and think tanks. The vast majority of them are looking for an undergraduate intern (aka free labor).</p>
<p>The thing that sets GW apart from Tufts is the opporunities that are in DC.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think being in DC during the academic year is overrated. Firstly, because the good internships -- full-time ones -- you can only do during your summer break anyway, so you can be anywhere else during the academic year. Plus, people underestimate Boston. It is the American capital for think-tanks! OxFam America is also HQ'd there. Plus the opportunities to do research at Harvard, MIT, Tufts and any other school in Boston is there.</p>
<p>lola:</p>
<p>I think there are more 'think' tanks in DC than Boston. Plus if you go to Tufts I suspect your research opprtunities will lie mostly within Tufts. At the undergraduate and possibly graduate level cross school research opportunities will be most likely be none. </p>
<p>Internships in DC will have greater access through DC schools I would imagine also. Both fine schools though. I don't see how you could make a bad decision here.</p>
<p>I'm a senior at Tufts, and I was a research associate at Harvard's Kennedy school for a semester. I also had offers from MIT and Brandeis, but turned them down. I also know several other people who have done research outside of Tufts in the IR field.</p>
<p>But I agree that both schools are good, you just have to find the best fit for you.</p>
<p>i'd go Tufts.
you can always do some amazing internship in Dc over the summer as lolabelle said.</p>
<p>It's much harder to obtain internships over the summer. You're in competition with students from throughout the U.S. and overseas, whereas during the school year you only have to compete with other students from D.C. That's the advantage of being at GWU for internships.</p>
<p>I love how people think everyone who studies IR wants to be in U.S. politics or work in an embassy. IR is so much more than that. D.C. is not only not the center of the world, it's not the center of the American world. If any place is, it's New York.</p>
<p>Regarding the remark about Boston being the center for 'think tanks', the National Institute for Research Advancement has a listing of major think tanks with the locations and D.C. was ahead of Boston 44-4. However, it should be noted that not all think tanks are listed on the website but most of the major ones and the difference is just so substantial that its noteworthy.</p>
<p>I didn't say it was the no.1 center for think tanks but is is the academic capital of America, and as a result, there are many more think tanks than D.C'ers give Beantown credit for.</p>
<p>Calling it the think-tank capital of America sounds like calling it no. 1 to me. I can see your point though, I do imagine there are D.C'ers who look down their nose at Boston or other cities like it when it comes to international affairs. I have a friend who went to Tufts and had an awesome time. However, when I think of Tufts, I think of the first graduate school devoted to international affairs. When I think of undergraduate school and the undergraduate opportunities available to a student, I think of Washington D.C.</p>
<p>wow- I'm in exactly the same situation. GW Elliot/Honors vs. Tufts.</p>
<p>I like Tufts more as a school overall- it's very very internationally focused and it seems like more fun and more attention given to its undergrads. However, nothing beats DC. Boston has a few think tanks, but for every one in Boston I bet DC has many more- not to mention embassies and government agencies. Tufts is also supposed to be better academically overall- although I'm not sure if it ranks higher as far as IR. (Foreign Policy magazine actually ranked GW higher for undergrad IR: <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3718&page=1%5B/url%5D">http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3718&page=1</a> ). </p>
<p>So overall, I have no idea. I still have two weeks to decide...</p>
<p>actually, I'm also considering Barnard. It's in NYC, which means almost as many internships as in DC, and it's affiliated with Columbia, which means I get to take as many Ivy League classes as I want. But it doesn't focus on IR (or politics) the way Tufts or GW do... a Columbia degree is more prestigious, but I don't know if I'll be as happy there.</p>
<p>The Foreign Policy ranking is seriously flawed—for one it ranks programs that don't have undergraduate majors or departments in International Studies/Relations. The reason for this is that the people asked to give their opinions, upon which the rankings are based, are graduate professors and have no idea what's going on at the undergraduate level. It is widely recognized that the best undergraduate IR/IS programs are at Gtown, Tufts, and JHU. American and GWU also have stellar programs, the difference is that they are slightly less selective—still great, though.</p>
<p>I agree with you lolabelle. I don't think that many of those schools should be included in the rankings because their programs deal more with public policy rather than international affairs. I looked into JHU's program though. They don't actually have an undergraduate program for international affairs. They include all their international studies programs in the college of arts and sciences. Its difficult to compare their undergraduate programs with Gtown and Tufts GW or even American because they dont dedicate a separate school to it and don't use as many resources as those four. I think thats why Hopkins fell to 19th at the undergrad level. However, SAIS is at the top of its field and its in the middle of D.C. I think thats the ideal place for a graduate student of international affairs and its ranking reflects as such.</p>
<p>when i say i looked into hopkins i mean i almost went there but the fact that they dont dedicate a school to international affairs as well as the baltimore location was a turn off when compared to GW</p>
<p>Tufts doesn't have an undergraduate school of international affairs either. Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy is a grad school; the IR undergrad major is granted by the College of Arts & Sciences. Doesn't mean it's not a great program!</p>
<p>true true! i also think tufts gets screwed in the rankings because they are small... but idk johns hopkins isnt in a very good location imo and when i was on campus there didnt seem to be the same type of atmosphere where it was oriented towards IR/poli sci. I havent visited tufts although i did consider it but im definitely looking into the fletcher school in about 4 years. dc and the elliott school are what drove me to gw. i love the fact that they have an entire school dedicated to my area of study.</p>
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It is widely recognized that the best undergraduate IR/IS programs are at Gtown, Tufts, and JHU. American and GWU also have stellar programs, the difference is that they are slightly less selective—still great, though.
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<p>Because these are among the few schools that break out IR as a major separate from Poli Sci. Intellectually, IR should be in Poli Sci. Thus, the best Poli Sci schools overlap significantly with the best IR schools in rankings, and this makes a lot of sense.</p>
<p>I assumed that Tufts undergrads had acccess to Fletcher resources in a big way. If they don't, how is the program set up differently than just being an add-on? Are there better internships? Are there dedicated advising resources? I assume that there are.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins is tops in IR, but for Master's and PhD at the grad school level; and this school is in DC. Undergrads, except for a few joint BA/MA students, don't have access to these resources.</p>
<p>G'Town has the best IR school undergrad, IMO, in terms of schools that have dedicated programs. JHU does not, so it doesn't enter into this discussion, since this discussion is focused on undergrad. Apparently, though, I am just learning, Tufts may not have a dedicated program either. Why should Tufts be compared to G'Town, Lolabelle, in this sense?</p>