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<p>There’s a whole “Ranking International Relations Programs” thread here on CC that rates different schools and that dissects the rankings Mini cited. Look for it.</p>
<p>Short answer, IMO: these rankings are as the British would say Bollocks. A lot of the top schools listed here don’t even have dedicated IR programs. IR is a subfield of political science academically speaking. So the usual suspect top poli sci schools Harvard YP Stanford Chicago Berkeley are naturally ranked high. And then there are schools that do have dedicated IR programs and that are in DC – GTown, GW, American – that are ranked highly because of their special, dedicated infrastructure and opportunities in DC. I am not saying the DC schools don’t offer something special, but these rankings compare apples to oranges and reflect very different elements in their rankings between schools.</p>
<p>Because I have seen a lot of people start in IR and want to change or get disillusioned and go for something else – and because IR is so amorphous in terms of what one does with it – I would strongly suggest going to the place that across the board might give you the strongest education in or out of your currently selected major.</p>
<p>But those long Colby winters are a lot to think about…</p>