Oberlin may be another college to consider for the fields being considered though the campus culture is admittedly more radical left than average and the campus is 35 minutes from Cleveland in a semi-rural area.
NYU should be considered with some caution not only due to financial cost, but also because their Poli-Sci department is heavily oriented towards the quantitative “rational choice” theory.
A great thing if that’s your preferred approach. Not a great thing if the prospective poli-sci student prefers a more qualitative or IR approach to poli-sci and a major reason why a few friends who were thinking of applying to NYU’s Poli-Sci department for grad school opted to apply elsewhere.
Columbia’s Poli-sci department is much more open to different approaches, especially considering its topflight graduate IR program provides positive influences to the undergraduate program.
BC has a strong poli-sci department, but last I checked wasn’t oriented as much towards IR. Also, there’s a heavy pre-law pre-professional vibe among the poli-sci students there so that might be something to consider.
And if one’s considering Tufts and BC, why not Brandeis?
@Consolation St. Anselm’s is about an hour from Boston. And while Manchester, NH isn’t a big city it is a city and it’s 15-20 minutes away. I do know non-Catholics who attended it and loved it. There is a Muslim Student Association. For a small college, it is unusually strong in poli sci and offers a lot of political internships.
I think it’s probable that your nephew will have more prestigious options. However, I doubt you’ll find many safety schools that are as strong in poli sci. So if he’s checking out colleges in Boston, suggest he take a look.
Hopkins has a superb German studies and German language program. It’s also possible to a five year program with SAIS-- probably the best masters program in IR.
With his interests, he might want to consider Dckinson. Carlisle is not urban by any means, but it is not remote. I have a D who is also passionate about languages and she chose Dickinson mainly because of its strength in foreign languages (she wanted the nurturing and collaborative environment of a small school). 13 languages are offered and she has taken classes in 4 different languages (she is a French and Italian double major, has taken 4 semesters of Russian so far, and also took a US Diversity requirement class within the Spanish department (her mother tongue). Language classes are topped at 15 students, but at the Intermediate level and above most classes are even smaller than that. In one of her Russian classes there were just 3 students.
There are weekly language tables for every language offered and my D attends 5 of them (Spanish, French, Italian, Russian and German ones). Professors, language teaching assistants from abroad and students attend, so there is always aomeone to practice your language skills during meals. She has improved so much in her speaking skills because she gets to practice a lot. The language tables are the highlight of her day and since they are all scheduled during lunch or dinner hours she always has a group of people to dine with.
There are also language themed houses. German is housed in the International house and French is housed within the Romance Language House, which is where my daughter has lived this year. There are multiple events in these houses (movie nights, cooking classes, game nights, etc…) and the residents interact in their respective languages.
The John Montgomery scholarship has one category for kids demonstrating multiligual proficiency. It is $10,000 per year and no test scores are required.
Dickinson is always in the top 5 institutions for long-term study abroad and it has its own, well-established programs in many different countries. For French, Dickinson has programs in Toulouse, France and Yaoundé, Cameroon. For German, they have a program in Bremen.
International Studies is one of Dickinson’s most popular majors and is well regarded.
Political Science is an unusually large department for the size of the school and is also great.
Pitt has already been mentioned, but I’ll second it. My daughter has really enjoyed her linguistics classes there. She also has had the opportunity to do research as a freshman–there were several options for research that were language-focused this year. It certainly meets your "urban " criteria, and the academic merit they offer can make it a bargain too.
Leiden University in the Netherlands. It is a short train ride from the Hague and its World Court, not far from Amsterdam and Brussels, and nobody embraces multiple languages as much as the Dutch.
U of Denver. Urban (right on the light rail to get downtown), high ranked IR department, many languages offered. Just won the national championship in hockey too.
Brandeis? In the Boston area, a higher admit rate, and good in IR. Even though it is a Jewish school, there are lots of non-Jews there. It’s a popular choice for kids who graduate from my kids’ Christian high school.
Thinking outside the box: what about a Political Science program half in English, half in French at UOttawa (half tuition scholarship automatically awarded). Or Concordia (McGIll?) in Montreal, taking a “minor” or “certificate” in French?
