Help An International Relations Major Choose UChicago

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
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<p>Hey guys, I got accepted to the university of chicago and accepted at georgetown. I was wondering whether anybody could enlighten me about the University of Chicago international relations program and whether it is as good or better than Georgetown's. I understand Georgetown has its location to its advantage, however, I really want an excuse for choosing the university of chicago over georgetown. How is the language program at the university of chicago, btw? How are internships? Guest speakers? Does the university invite many international guest speakers--like presidents of other countries, etc...? And, by the way, what exactly is endowment and why does Georgetown have so little compared to the University of Chicago (or why does the UChicago have so much?) </p>

<p>Thanks for the help, I really want to make a good decision and hopefully get a dorm at snell/hitch</p>

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<p>Ultimately, this is your decision, and you should be happy to have the choice between two really great schools. I would not want you to come to the U of C because an anonymous internet user convinced you, though, so I encourage you to do as much homework as you can and compare the two schools, academically, socially, and otherwise.</p>

<p>To answer the endowment question, I believe it has a lot to do with the fact that we were founded by a gentleman with the last name of Rockefeller :-)</p>

<p>I think the U of C is a terrific place for international studies-- it's not what the school is known for (I would say Georgetown:international relations:: U of C: economics::Middlebury:languages), but we have outstanding faculty and resources all the same, as IS is one of our most popular majors (as are economics and poly sci). I don't know anything stellar about languages, but we do offer a lot of them-- from Persian to Arabic to Urdu to obscure languages that died out years and years and years ago... is there a particular language of interest to you?</p>

<p>You should check out what goes on at International House. Aside from cool programming, it serves as a cheap hotel and a dorm for undergraduate and graduate students.</p>

<p>International</a> House at the University of Chicago</p>

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<p>An IR major at Georgetown would immediately beg the question, why not SFS? (Although IR and SFS are not the exact same thing, they are similar enough that this question arises) If you do in fact mean SFS, it is much more prestigious than IR at UChicago.</p>

<p>Also, to what end do you want to use your IR degree? Thinking through this question may help you decide.</p>

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<p>yea I got accepted to SFS at georgetown. But I also know that georgetown does have a lot of shortcomings and that most of what makes georgetown prestigious in its IR program is simply its location--not its education.</p>

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<p>Actually, I think very little of the Rockefeller endowment is left at Chicago.</p>

<p>"Endowment" is a nonprofit institution's fund of capital that is not being used in its operations (unlike, say, dorms, classroom buildings, libraries), and instead is invested and the returns on the investment (and sometimes principal) are used to support the institution's operations. The more endowment an institution has, the more it can spend to do things without raising the money on a current basis, either from ad hoc donations or from fees (like tuition). If two universities have the same tuition, but one's endowment is 20 times the other's, in theory the educational environment at the first will be richer (in many senses) than that at the second. </p>

<p>It's not always so simple. Much of any university's endowment is restricted. The funds used to endow a professorship or a football stadium cannot be switched over to pay for scholarships. Of Harvard's gargantuan endowment, pantagruellian chunks are restricted to use by the Law School, the Business School, or the Medical School, and provide very little benefit to undergraduates. (Poor babies! Luckily, however, there's pretty much enough left at Harvard to go around. And around and around.) </p>

<p>Chicago's endowment is actually small relative to many of its American peers, although it's pretty large in absolute terms. I don't know why (or that) Chicago's endowment is so much bigger than Georgetown's. If I were guessing, I would guess it's some combination of the following: Chicago, the city, has been a center of great wealth and prosperity for over a century; until the last 20 years or so, Washington hasn't. Chicago's professional schools are older, and have historically been more prestigious, than Georgetown's (except for the School of Foreign Service), and law, business, and medical schools are big endowment-attractors. Both schools have traditionally trained students for nonlucrative careers -- Chicago, academia and public service; Georgetown, public service and to a much lesser extent priesthood. Compared to Chicago, which has been seen as a highly prestigious university since its founding, Georgetown is a johnny-come-lately to the prestige world. Georgetown sits on much pricier real estate than Chicago has, and may have had to use a bigger portion of the funds it raises on buying land for dorms and labs, etc.</p>

<p>On the other hand, Chicago hasn't had any NCAA championships or Final Four appearances in my lifetime. Georgetown has, and I'll bet that helped its fundraising a ton.</p>

<p>As you can see, the differences between the two schools' endowments may or may not make a difference to you.</p>