<p>Which universities would you go to over gtown for IR?</p>
<p>You're asking this in the Gtown forum, what type of response are you expecting?</p>
<p>For undergrad? Not many. For grad? Plenty.</p>
<p>But this seems like the wrong place to ask the question...</p>
<p>Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford all have better IR undergrad rankings... not that thats the only reason to choose them.</p>
<p>Yet ironically Harvard doesnt even have an IR major and Princeton doesnt have one for undergrads (only a grad school)</p>
<p>Is SFS THAT much better than the rest of school? When we talk about IR gtown is listed top 5 with names such as harvard princeton etc. but when we talk about the school in general its top 25 with names such as Carnegie mellon, notre dame, vanderbilt, uva...</p>
<p>VeronicaTheCynic,</p>
<p>Harvard has a government major where you can study IR just as easily. So does Princeton. </p>
<p>The IR major, in and of itself, is not a better thing than a good poli sci/government degree. However, I'd say that Georgetown offers a lot of opportunities for networking that the other top privates do not. Nonetheless, let's not fool ourselves into thinking that an "IR" BA is better than a "government/poli sci w/ focus on IR" BA.</p>
<p>There's no such thing as an IR major at Georgetown. The School of Foreign Service has six highly-specialized and customizable undergraduate majors. The IR "major" at any other school is going to be equivalent to the Core Curriculum of the SFS. </p>
<p>No school anywhere at the undergrad level offers the breadth, depth, customizablity, or specialization of study that the SFS offers. There is no equivalent course of study anywhere to the Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service at Georgetown. Period. </p>
<p>You'll only see the level of specialization at the graduate level elsewhere.</p>
<p>But after college, which degree will be more beneficial- a highly specific one from SFS, or a more general "government/poli sci w/ focus on IR"? (or, what can you do with each?)</p>
<p>Seriously...neither one. Neither one is going to benefit you more or less.</p>
<p>bella - think it only depends on what you want to do with it</p>
<p>This year Tufts was ranked the strongest Undergrad IR program in the country. They have just a traditional IR major, with a number of different focuses. That's also where the fletcher school (the first International Law and Diplomacy grad program in the country) is and so as an undergrad you can take classes there and work with those students.</p>
<p>Also, the IR program is not separated out which helps allow the IR element spread to the rest of the campus and students.</p>
<p>Tufts definitely has a good program, but I don't know that I'd necessarily go there over some of the other top privates. I really haven't found that Tufts grads are any more successful than grads from other top universities at getting good IR related jobs.</p>
<p>Adam: Where did you read that? J/w</p>