<p>As a Georgetown student, in the College, I'm kind of ambivalent about the true "prestige" of the SFS and the level of diffculty associated with getting accepted. Although I have met some brillant people that are in the SFS, some of the students in SFS are not the uber-intelligent individuals that you expect to be in the school. Subsequent to sharing classes with them, I have realized that some of them cannot even write proper english. Moreover, some of them didn't even score over a 1700 on the SAT!</p>
<p>But that's just my two cents...take what you want from it. The SFS is still a very well-reputed school. Best of Luck!</p>
<p>UPenn has an extremeley difficult program (40 people per year) called the huntsman program. You recieve a BA in International Economics from Wharton and a BA in PotSci from the SEAS. Thats deffinantly the most difficult program involving foreign relations.</p>
<p>Any idea how a year abroad in high school would be looked at by the admissions department? I'm thinking of a 'total immersion' year in France, attending a French high school and living with a host family. My son's high school (a competiitive independent school) will give a whole year of credit for this experience (sophomore year) but I am wondering how admissions will view it.</p>
<p>It certainly wouldn't hurt. I'd think they'd like it. Does your son already know he wants SFS his Freshman Year? I mean, you can REALLY change your mind in highschool. Have him take the trip because that's what he wants to do, not because it will help him get into SFS.</p>
<p>My son has had an incredibly strong interest in foreign language, specifically French, other cultures, and history since he was quite young. He insisted on French lessons as a second grader, elected French class as a 5th grader, and is now a freshman taking third year French. He went on a school spring break trip to France three years ago, and spent a month last summer in a language/cultural immersion program in Quebec.</p>
<p>Does he <em>know</em> he wants SFS as a freshman? It's a program that popped up in his research about where to go with his particular interests. I suppose really the question is how will the year abroad impact his college admissions applications in general -- but right now Georgetown and the SFS is a goal so this is where I chose to ask the question.</p>
<p>(My older son has a different but very strong interest that was apparent practically from birth. By middle school he had his college goals in mind, although he had not identified a specific collegiate program. Our philosophy is aim high and see where it takes you. He was successful in gaining admission to the program of his choice ... worked really hard to get there!)</p>
<p>I did a "total immersion" year in Italy at an Italian public school for my sophomore year, best decision I ever made. THe only drawback to the year abroad was that none of my classes were considered Honors or Advanced so my WGPA got killed, and the fact that going to a school taught in Italian was difficult and brought my GPA slightly lower.</p>
<p>According to the comprehensive 2007 Gourman Report, the best undergraduate programs in International Relations are, in order:</p>
<p>Tufts
Princeton
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
U Penn
Harvard
Cornell
U Wisconsin Madison
MIT
Stanford
UVA
Notre Dame
US Air Force Acad
US Military Acad
Claremont McKenna</p>
<hr>
<p>(FYI: The Gourman Report states that its ratings are based on "extensive reseach" into the following criteria:</p>
<ol>
<li>auspices, control, and organization of the institution</li>
<li>numbers of educational programs offered and degrees conferred (with additional attention to "sub-fields" available to students within a particular discipline</li>
<li>age (experience level) of the institution and the individual discipline or program and division</li>
<li>faculty, including qualifications, experience, intellectual interests, attainments, and professional productivity (including research)</li>
<li>students, including quality of scholastic work and records of graduates both in graduate study and in practice</li>
<li>basis of and requirements for admission of students (overall and by individual discipline)</li>
<li>number of students enrolled (overall and for each discipline)</li>
<li>curriculum and curricular content of the program or discipline and division</li>
<li>standards and quality of instruction (including teaching loads)</li>
<li>quality of administration, including attitudes and policy towards teaching, research and scholarly production in each discipline, and administration research</li>
<li>quality and availability of non-departmental areas such as counseling and career placement services</li>
<li>quality of physical plant devoted to undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels</li>
<li>finances, including budgets, investments, expenditures and sources of income for both public and private institutions</li>
<li>library, including number of volumes, appropriateness of materials to individual disciplines and accessibility of materials</li>
<li>computer facility sufficient to support current research activities for both faculty and students</li>
<li>sufficient funding for research equipment and infrastructure</li>
<li>number of teaching and research assistantships</li>
<li>academic-athletic balance</li>
</ol>
<p>The weight given to each criterion above varies by discipline. )
lolabelle is online now</p>
<p>I am laughing my ass off-the "Gourman" report. For a guy to "seriously" look at the Georgetown SFS and its faculty of Albright, Tenet, Lake, Feith, Aznar, Gallucci, Mchenry, Kirkpatrick, Natsios, Esposito etc. etc. etc. and its student body with its astronomical SATs and number one position in Foregin service entries, and not rate it first makes him a total fool.</p>
<p>I don't know what makes this guy Gourman tick, but there is obviously either total embarrassing ignorance or an axe to grind agenda afoot here.</p>