<p>Can anyone tell me how the strength of the Political Science/International Relations programs at Wash U compares to similar programs at the following schools:</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
University of Chicago
Amherst College
Swarthmore
Williams
Middlebury</p>
<p>I'm interested in Asian studies specifically, and I plan on going to some form of higher degree, but I don't know if It'l be a PhD, or a JD or an MBA or something else. I just know I want to study International Relations undergrad, and want to find the best place to do it. Can anyone help me out?</p>
<p>Georgetown is definitely the strongest school on that list, followed by JHU. I can’t comment on the LACs or Chicago, but I’m pretty sure WUSTL is good, just nothing spectacular (it’s no Woodrow Wilson or Elliot school, for sure). It’s my field as well.</p>
<p>Ranking undergraduate programs at this level is useless at best. First of all you are only going to take between 15-20% of your courses in your major, 25% at the very outside. So you really have to look at the whole school and what seems best to you. Urban or rural? Big or small? Super competitive or maybe a little less so. Sports important to you? These things, along with hundreds of others, are what make the undergraduate years special. Don’t approach it like job training. All these schools will give you a fine education overall, if you take advantage of what they have to offer. In the strict classroom academic sense, you won’t learn anything at one school that you won’t at another, in terms of the basics. The particulars will vary, but that doesn’t make one better than another for an undergrad, just different.</p>
<p>Having said all that, there are certain things that some schools might offer that others might not. Off hand, I would think Georgetown and JHU would be able to more easily attract big time political speakers on a more regular basis, and certainly that might be interesting to you. Put that question to the other schools and see what they say. Also, people will talk about being in the DC area as being an advantage for internships and the like. Maybe, but remember there is a lot more competition for those slots in the area also. There are always opportunities in lots of different places, you just have to be persistent and creative.</p>
<p>The schools you have mentioned have really different cultures and atmospheres. Visit the most likely ones (or all of them if you can), stay overnight, go to some classes. See what you think, that might help narrow it down. Finally, keep in mind that over half of entering freshmen at all schools change their mind about their major, which is another good reason to pick the school you like best, not which you think ranks highest. I know you don’t think you will change your major now, but neither did most of the half that did.</p>
<p>I generally agree with fallenchemist, with one except. At most colleges and universities, IR is a part of the College of Arts and Sciences (or whatever it may be called). There are a handful of colleges or universities, however, that have distinct schools for IR. This is like, say, Penn has Wharton. American has the School of International Studies, George Washington has the Elliot school, Princeton has the Woodrow Wilson School, Georgetown has SFS, etc. There are definitely some benefits to belonging to a school of your own. That said, along the same lines as fallenchemist, the strength of one particular program should be an added benefit, not necessarily a make or break factor or a “fit” factor. I think it should play a role, but for something as up and coming as IR, it isn’t going to be as important as some other fields.</p>
<p>I believe those rankings that tall saint gave were actually for grad school, where such statistics would be more pertinent in your choice of school (although rankings really don’t mean too much).</p>
<p>The College of William and Mary has an exceptional program Margaret Thatcher (former W&M Chancellor) has gone on the record saying William and Mary has the best IR program in the country and since grad programs at W&M are limited it would make sense that she was discussing the undergrad curriculum–and the program has excellent connections in D.C.</p>
<p>I am sure W&M has a fine program, but let’s see now. A W&M Chancellor declaring that W&M has the best program. I guess that settles the issue for sure.</p>
<p>I actually thought that Madeleine Albright said that, not Lady Thatcher, but I could be wrong. Nevertheless I have heard great things about WM IR, specifically from an alumni of Georgetown’s SFS. </p>
<p>But I suppose this is not the place to discuss this…</p>
<p>I’m an International and Area Studies major at WashU, and I love our program. If you want to look it up, just go to the IAS website (should be under artsci->concentrations->IAS), but it’s not part of PoliSci, though many PoliSci courses count towards the major (such as comparitive politics). The major here is very flexible and I’ve adored all the professors I’ve had, though I’ve been concentrating in South Asian and African studies, not Asian specifically (we do have an East Asian concentration within IAS though, I encourage you to look it up!). Another great thing about our program is how supportive the faculty is, and just how many resources there are available for us, and for anyone who wants to get involved with IAS even if they aren’t majoring in it. Like someone already said, at the undergrad level, it’s not really the “prestige” of the program that matters, leave Harvard for grad school. It’s other factors such as supportive faculty, size of the program, etc that will be important to you now. We have an amazing honor society, Sigma Iota Rho, and they put on TONS of programs throughout the year that ANYONE is invited to attend - dinners, speakers, magazine issues, int’l movie showings… and they’re all really nice and welcoming and really want people to get involved. The study abroad office is really nice as well (and they’re part of our dept) - when deciding where to go abroad, I literally sat for an hour talking to Steve Shriberg listing all the advantages of each program, and he was fantastic in that he didn’t try and push me one way or the other, he just provided me with additional facts about each program and about study abroad in general, and I made the decision through just having someone who is that knowledgable to have a conversation about it with (I’m sure if you have any questions about study abroad he’d love to answer, too, contact info on study abroad site). Also, if you have any questions about IAS specifically, the secretary, Toni Loomis, is FANTASTIC, and one of the nicest ladies I have ever met, so you can ask her. She sends out emails weekly (sometimes even more than that) about every semi-IAS-related event going on around campus, and it’s really great to have a resource like her. I hope this helps! And if you have any specific questions about our program feel free to PM me or something :)</p>
<p>Also, I really want to emphasize that you might not end up sticking with Int’l Relations, so don’t let the strength of the program be the sole deciding factor in where you go. Most importantly is how happy you’ll be living in a place for four years - finding an environment in which you’ll be able to do your best academically, which may or may not be at the school with your “dream Int’l Relations” dept. And the best way to figure out where that is is by visiting and interacting with students/experiencing student life first-hand.</p>