<p>I am currently interested in these programs because I am in well range of admission, but I would like people to rank these programs from best to worst for me. *Also, I would like to go to Harvard, Georgetown, Hopkins, Tufts or Columbia for grad school, so please take that into consideration.</p>
<p>The programs are:
American University
Boston University
Carnegie Mellon
Case Western
George Washington U
NYU
Northeastern
Penn State
Seton Hall University
Syracuse
U of Pittsburgh</p>
<p>(Bias Disclaimer: I go to JHU)</p>
<p>Why not go to JHU undergrad and then JHU for SAIS? They even have a program (not that you can count on this because it's a competitive program but it's available) where you can do the last year or last 2 years @ SAIS and get a BA/MA in 5 years or something to that effect. International Relations is a very popular undergrad major @ JHU and people are very happy with it.</p>
<p>^I would like to go to Hopkins too, but realistically I am out of range for this program because of my poor academic record. I would like to go to one of the programs I mentioned and do well there and apply to an even better grad school.</p>
<p>please someone rank this entire list from best to worst. I know which programs may have an advantage on one another but I would like to rank this entire list.</p>
<p>Why aren't you applying to Tufts, Gtown, JHU, Columbia, etc. for undergrad?</p>
<p>My stats are way too low and still no one has ranked these programs.</p>
<p>I think it is very difficult to rank IR programs at an undergraduate level. Besides, for grad school the relative strength of the departments may be less important than the overall reputation of the university and of course your work experience, especially considering that you definitely do not need to major in IR to get into to some of the grad programs you describe. Your list includes a pretty big variety of schools in terms of both size and location. Consider Case Western - 4,000 undergrads in Cleveland vs. NYU - 20,000 undergrads in NYC ... there is a really big difference. Think about what kind of university you want to be at first, then pick the one with the best overall reputation, and finally the most important step is to work really hard and get a very strong gpa.</p>
<p>Here is the ranking of your list from US News according to overall reputation.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon (21)
NYU (34)
Case Western (38)
Penn State (47)
George Washington U (52)
Syracuse (52)
Boston University (57)
U of Pittsburgh (57)
American University (86)
Northeastern (98)
Seton Hall University (Third Tier)</p>
<p>For what is it worth, I went to NYU undergrad and with a very good gpa and a couple years work experience was accepted to the Tufts Fletcher school. However, I should point out that I didn't take a single IR course at NYU and never even thought about grad work in IR until well after graduation.</p>
<p>I remember making a similar type thread focusing on schools generally not known for IR. I got the same response with people throwing out the selective ones that I won't get into. </p>
<p>I don't know much about those schools' IR program but the post above I think makes an accurate point about just the overall reputation of the school. Also George Washington U stands out to me from that list because it is in DC and I would think being in such the political capital would be a great resource boost.</p>