<p>international relations, political science and economics?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>2006 USNews for Ph.D. programs puts Brown 21 for economics, 46 for political science, and Brown has a strong international relations program within the general political science category. However, for undergraduate degrees, the strength of any particular department is mostly completely meaningless and unimportant.</p>
<p>Is there any real difference between majoring in IR and majoring in poli sci with a focus on IR besides the laguage requirement the IR major has??</p>
<p>TECHY101 -- Yes -- there are substantially different requirements. Check out watsoninstitute.org and the PoliSci site on Brown.</p>
<p>Also, iwasatypo, USNews rankings do not reflect the excellence of our departments, because those rankings strongly rely on the strength, funding, and reputation of graduate programs, which is not Brown's focus. Our International Relations program is regarded as one of the best in the country, and it is also important to note that in terms of teaching, undergrad student quality, and perhaps research opportunities, the excellence of our PoliSci and Econ departments are not accurately reflected in national rankings.</p>
<p>how are study abroad programs?</p>
<p>I noted that they are Ph.D. rankings. I also am not trying to make Brown sound worse than it is. I'm going there. I was just giving the only semi-legitimate measure I could find.</p>
<p>someone did provide a tier-ranking of poli sci and econ in the biz section of this forum....put brown 3rd tier for econs...</p>
<p>iwasatypo -- sure. I just wanted to point out the limitations of those rankings as they apply to undergrads in general, and Brown in particular.</p>
<p>Another thing to keep in mind is that most grad schools, professional schools, and employers care far more about the ranking of your school overall than the ranking of your particular department. So while the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) grad program in Political Science is ranked far above Brown's, most people would value a Brown AB in political science over one from UM.</p>