<p>i'm an IR major, and i just heard back from all of my colleges. i was accepted into Johns Hopkins University, New York University, the University of Virginia, and George Washington University (at least those are the three i'm seriously considering going to). GW is giving me 18200 dollars a year, plus i've been accepted into their honors program.
i love dc very, very much (and the internships are a huge perk), but im not sure if i should give up JHU or UVa so quickly...what do you think? i'm looking for a school that can offer me a top-notch IR program, but i recognize that i do not want to be indebted forever, and i do wish to have a family when i'm older (i'm female).
i've been agonizing over this for days, any guidance whatsoever would be appreciated!</p>
<p>my vote: JHU</p>
<p>and look into the 5 year BA/MA program with their School of Advanced International Studies!</p>
<p>Good luck :)</p>
<p>My vote: GW</p>
<p>It has a powerhouse International Affairs school that is competitive with the other 3 choices. It's not as strong academically overall, but it is still a very, very good school in an incredible city. There's way more to do in DC than Baltimore...heehee...Have you ever been to GW for a visit? One visit in April to see the beautiful Cherry Blossoms could win you over. </p>
<p>GW is such a strong school. My advice is to go there. You are going to be paying a smaller amount to go there, and it's so much fun! Going into debt when you're older is not worth it. Plus, the honors program at GW is very sheltering. You get first dibs on classes, dorms, and professors tend to give you smaller classes/individual attention.</p>
<p>i'm seriously considering GW, because of the location mainly, but does anyone, perhaps you hippodrome, know how ESIA stacks up aganist other IR programs? i know GW isn't as strong overall, but all i care about is ESIA. plus, do you know anything about their honors program? will it really give me a leg up? i want to excel wherever i am and go to a great grad school, i just want to know that gw can really take me there if i want to forego a hard core school like JHU.</p>
<p>Yes, GW's Elliot School of International Affairs has the same reputation as JHU's and UVA's. The only schools that are better than GW for undergrad IR are Georgetown and Princeton. GW's strongest program is IR, and the professors are awesome. Colin Powell has a GW degree. =)</p>
<p>I'm in ESIA, and it's incredible. I've interned at The Mexican Embassy. If all you care about is IR, then GW will carry the same or better name recognition as JHU or UVA, in my opinion. I've known people to go on to amazing jobs after graduation.</p>
<p>what does the honors program at GW offer? is it just as challenging as a more rigorous cirriculum at somewhere like JHU or UVa would be?</p>
<p>I'm in the honors program and I love it. It's very challengin, but the professors and advisors give you extra and special attention. Classes are smaller and hardly anyone gets below a B in honors classes as long as you put in the work. It also looks GREAT on resumes to be Presidential Scholars.</p>
<p>International Studies has recently surpassed BME as the most populated major at Johns Hopkins (12% majored in IR at JHU last year according to US News, while 11% majored in BME).</p>
<p>It's important to note that there is no International Studies Department @ JHU's Homewood (undergrad campus). International Studies is an interdiciplinary MAJOR @ JHU, requiring courses from the following departments: History, Political Science, Economics and foreign language. Johns Hopkins has one of the Top 10 History Departments in the nation and JHU is one of the leading universities for Political Theory- the most intellectual branch of Political Science. Johns Hopkins has exellent programs in German and Romance Languages too, so it's no surprise that the International Studies undergraduate major is likewise stellar. </p>
<p>Professors @ JHU's leading School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in DC, often come to the Baltimore campus to teach undergrads (courses are often designated at Poli Sci). In addition to SAIS, JHU has a new government center in DC where undergrads can study a semester. JHU also has a free shuttle that goes to DC which is less than 1 hour from Baltimore. I highly recommend Hopkins for International Studies and think JHU offers a much stronger liberal arts program than GW does. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>There's a difference between being 1 hour from DC and actually being in the heart of it. It's highly unlikely that students are going to have internships in DC at JHU if they have to go to class, intern, and have a 2 hour commute to boot. </p>
<p>I agree that JHU is stronger academically. However, there's no ranking of IR programs, so we have to go off of general opinions of graduate schools and employers.</p>
<p>Consider how competive admissions is to GW's Elliot School for graduate school compared to JHU. They are very similar in GMAT scores.</p>
<p>GW's Average GMAT: </p>
<p>Verbal (622)
Quantitative (680)
Analytical (701)
Analytical Writing (5.3) </p>
<p>JHU's Scores: </p>
<p>Verbal (639)
Quantitative (687)
Analytical (657)
Analytical Writing (can't find)</p>
<p>So GW actually has a higher GMAT average than JHU. GW's average is a 667 while JHU's is a 660. GW's average GPA for admissions is a 3.51 and JHU's is a 3.5.</p>
<p>Both are very similar, but GW wins if you compare by selectivity. Also, it has great professors of international affairs and good connections for internships.
It also has several international schools all over the world. I'm going to GW's Paris campus next year. I also landed an internship at an embassy.
GW has strong Latin American Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies also. Just look at a few courses GW's Elliot School has: <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Eelliott/academicprograms/ba/societiescultures.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.gwu.edu/~elliott/academicprograms/ba/societiescultures.html</a></p>
<p>I got graduate school scores from these websites:
<a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Eelliott/admissions/profile.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.gwu.edu/~elliott/admissions/profile.html</a>
<a href="http://www.sais-jhu.edu/admissions/ma/faqs.html#Q10%5B/url%5D">http://www.sais-jhu.edu/admissions/ma/faqs.html#Q10</a></p>
<p>though grad school is definitely an issue, i'm doing my best to look at undergrad program strength...assuming i cant get into the accelerated MA thing at JHU (8 kids accepted a year...jesus), then how would the program be on the whole? i wish there were IR rankings, cuz i really dont know how GW stacks up objectively and im dying to.</p>
<p>GW does stack up with JHU's SAIS. Graduate School reputation is normally similar to undergraduate.</p>
<p>im going to visit jhu on wednesday, but does anyone know what people at jhu are like? laid back, or always frazzled? btw, i really appreciate all this help, thank you all so much :)</p>
<p>Good Luck.. let us know what you thought!</p>
<p>so there are a lot of different types of students- same can be said for most Ivy League schools. There are laid back people who work hard, there are intense party people that cram once in a while to get by, there are people that study all the time, but most work hard and play hard... There are a lot of good looking students! About 30% are in frats or sororities and close to 20% play intercollegiate sports. Recreational sports and performing arts groups are big on campus. There's always a lot going on- especially in the evenings. Freshman orientation is a very exciting time and the P/F first semester would make most students pretty laid back. I think most of the students at JHU are used to working hard and are not stressed out if they learn to manage their time. Humanities classes are not graded on a curve so I can't imagine them being stressful if you're interested in the subject...</p>