Liberal Arts Path to Internation Relations?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>As a student graduating from a private school of 130 students, I'm not sure of what do to do. I have the the over-the-top reccomendations and applications to get into schools like Tufts, Stanford (double legacy), and George Washington. But I'm lost, because I want a liberal arts education. My college advisor wants me to go Columbia, Georgetown, or GWU, but I can't make the jump from 120 to 20,000.</p>

<p>Will going to a liberal arts college like Colgate, Swarthmore, or Macalester limit you chance at getting into grad school?</p>

<p>Also does anyone have any comments on specific international Relations programs? I know American and the Claremont Colleges have solid programs, but what about:</p>

<p>Bucknell?
Colby?
Colgate?
Dickinson?
Kenyon?
Vassar?
Connecticut College?</p>

2

<p>Carleton College has a great poly sci/IR program that feeds a lot of students into great grad schools. The program is very rigorous but a lot of people seem to enjoy it. I know a few people who got into Harvard and Yale.</p>

<p>You should definitely give Columbia a shot though. Columbia College itself only has about 4,000 undergrads. You should add Amherst, Williams, and Dartmouth to your list too.</p>

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<p>Not in the least... Do well as an undergrad and you'll have your pick of some great programs.</p>

4

<p>My list right now is:
Emory
Stanford
Swarthmore
Williams
Amherst
Tufts
Oberlin
Colby
Dickinson
Arcadia</p>

<p>I'm not sure about Amherst, Williams, and Oberlin for international studies or relations, I know that Amherst only offers it as a concentration.</p>

5

<p>Colgate's program is very good. Its whole social studies department is very strong.</p>

6

<p>Cre8ive1, your dilemma sounds much like mine (I love IR/social sciences and LA schools). From what I've heard of Tufts, it seems to have a LA atmosphere in addition to the IR rep; check out epinions.com's reviews on the school, as someone else on this site advised me to do.</p>

7

<p>My son is a middle eastern studies major at Emory--very strong department. Actually, their political science department and international studies seem strong across the board. The tie - ins with the Carter Center and CNN are a definite plus.</p>

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<p>Creative, Williams offers an International Studies Program which is an amalgam of courses across several disciplines like political science, history, economics, language etc. Conversely their political science department is quite strong. AWS and many of the schools on your list have excellent placements at all of the top graduate programs. Choose the school with the best fit for you.</p>

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<p>Occidental is a sleeper in this area. Check out this program: <a href="http://www.oxy.edu/x652.xml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.oxy.edu/x652.xml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>And Macalester's program is stronger than those found at several schools on your list.</p>

10

<p>Don't get me wrong, great schools, but I doubt I would ever go to Occidental or Claremont McKenna, too big of a change to make. Oxy has a beautiful campus, but the atmosphere always felt like a SoCal high school and I couldn't take McKenna's drug scene.</p>

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<p>Any schools on my list that I should have second thoughts about?</p>

12

<p>Oberlin is very strong in this area. Most students interested in international relations major in Politics (and have a very good track record of getting into the best graduate schools). But note also the International Studies Concentration, which is open to students from any major: see <a href="http://www.oberlin.edu/instudnt/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.oberlin.edu/instudnt/&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

13

<p>Make sure they have EXCELLENT foreign language programs as well as IR. Trying to make up for language deficiencies in grad schools) generally speaking, is a bad idea (studies show it is the single most important reason why students in graduate schools of any kind don't complete their Ph.d's), but in IR it is even more important. Most IR Ph.D. programs will require fluency in at least two other languages.</p>

<p>Some of the high-ranking (or highly selective) LACs have mediocre-to-poor language programs. You need one that not only has courses beyond the early intermediate level, but discussion sections, and language-and-culture activities outside of the classroom. Check carefully.</p>

14

<p>So what does that say about Williams? The only complaint I've heard about Williams is that it foreign language department is lacking.</p>

15

<p>Williams is a great school, but a bit isolated, and of course difficult to get into.</p>

<p>Also look at Wesleyan, Middlebury, Bowdoin. If you're interested in International Relations, Middlebury might be a great match because it is very much an international campus, well-known for its superior foriegn language programs.</p>

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<p>I wouldn't describe Williams language offerings as lacking. Okay, it's probably not the college you would choose if language were your prime area of interest, especially if you were looking for several off the beaten track type of languages. But for popular languages and as a second major or an adjunct to a related field like history or political science, Williams language departments are fine. You can study Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian plus Latin and Greek in the Classics area and this year they're adding Arabic.</p>