<p>If I am interested in IR, Middle East Studies, archaelogy/anthropology, which would be a better place to attend:</p>
<p>Swarthmore ($29,000 a year)
Tufts (32,000 a year)
Washu (8,000 a year)</p>
<p>I am also recieving a lot of money to go to washu, which is a good thing for my parents, but may detract from my learning experience (because I am not in a big city or on the coast..)</p>
<p>st. louis, boston and philadelphia are all big cities. but yea, two of them are on the coastal United States.</p>
<p>Academically they will all be good. Tufts will probably have the most famous professors, and Swarthmore will probably have the brightest kids, but not by a bunch. The decision should be about where you'd be happiest, and where is financially feasible. You might want to tell the swat finaid people about your washu scholarship, and see if they could up your offer somewhat.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is not in a big city. It's in a suburb. I think the same can be said for Tufts, but I'm not as familiar with the Boston metropolitan area. While technically not in St. Louis proper, WashU does have more of an urban campus feel than Swarthmore.</p>
<p>If the difference between 29,000 and 8,000 is meaningful to your parents and if you don't strongly prefer liberal arts over university, then I just don't see the point of choosing Swarthmore over WashU. Also, when it comes to archaeology, Swarthmore doesn't have nearly the breadth of courses you can find at WashU. At Swarthmore, I imagine all of your archaeology courses would be either anthropology or classics courses with an archaeological leaning, or various independent studies that you piece together for yourself.</p>
<p>No, I really dont have a preference between lib art and university. But, between Washu and Tufts, will I really be getting a better IR education at tufts. I know the city is prolly better for the subject, but in the end, will it really make a difference? I feel as though washu concentrates more on undergrads than does tufts...</p>
<p>If there are good programs at WashU for you, and you do study abroad opportunities, which WashU should have a lot of, then I see no reason to spend the extra money on Tufts or Swarthmore. Save it for grad school or other opportunities. WashU is a great place, and very competitive to get into and to get scholarships at. Congratulations!</p>
<p>WashU is a great place, and 21-14K a year that you'll be saving is a lot of money...</p>
<p>champpb13, the savings in going to washu is a big deal, unless $$ is really of no concern to your parents. Getting from Tufts into Boston takes about the same time as getting from Swarthmore into Philly. If you are interested in IR, Swarthmore is a great place to go. Foreign Policy magazine (2007) named Swarthmore the top liberal arts school in the country to study international relations: This is the full list of the top 20 IR schools (undergrad) from the March/April 2007 issue of Foreign Policy Magazine. Maybe this will help with your search.
1) Harvard
2) Princeton
3) Stanford
4) Georgetown
5) Columbia
6) Yale
7) Chicago
8) Berkeley
9) Dartmouth
10) George Washington
11) American U.
12) U. Michigan
13) Tufts
14) Swarthmore
15) UCSD
16) Cornell
17) Brown
18) Williams
19) Duke
20) Johns Hopkins U.</p>
<p>But, as others have said, WashU is a great place and the $$ difference is significant. I don't have any familiarity with their academic porgram so I'm not able to compare their IR focus with Swarthmore's.</p>
<p>i think the course offerings pertaining to the middle east have expanded in the past few years, but when i left swarthmore (2004) it was mostly stephen bensch in the history department, who was almost universally reviled. ("avoid the furniture.")</p>
<p>anthropology shares a department with sociology, and i don't personally know any students who focused on archeology. look at the course listings, and how frequently they're offered. i have a feeling that this might not be one of swarthmore's strong points.</p>
<p>also: one advantage that tufts has, if you're interested in IR, is its association with the fletcher school, which has a top IR masters program. if you're focused, you might be able to take classes there in your junior or senior years. if you really want to do IR, tufts might be your best choice.</p>
<p>that said, i'm currently in an IR masters program at columbia, and it has made me appreciate swarthmore even that much more - small classes, (a good proportion of) professors who really care about you, amazing students.</p>
<p>PLEASE don't let any magazine's "rankings" influence your decision.</p>
<p>I believe Swarthmore has added three Middle Eastern/Islamic studies/Arabic professors since 2004. One of these slots (if I recall) is a shared tri-co postion. Then, Swat has added at least two of its own.</p>
<p>They recently added an Arabic major too. I think schools everywhere are bolstering their Middle Eastern Studies programs right now...</p>
<p>champpb13,
Magazine "rankings" aren't being offered here to try to sway you. They are being offered as a "back up" to show that a magazine which focuses on foreign policy has looked at how well undergraduate institutions handle IR studies. My comment that Swat is a great place for IR is directly related to my S, who focused on IR at Swat, and is now in a top Ph.D. program with a primary interest in IR. Sorry I wasn't more clear, nancy_reagan.</p>