How is the political science department at Vanderbilt compared to other top universities in the South? Does it offer any special opportunities?
I haven’t looked up any rankings of undergrad poli sci departments. I recall the little Bowdoin has a highly ranked department in government, but you can find lists online. My Vandy grad had poli sci as one of his majors and you do have to pick a concentration within the department as a major. You also have the opportunity to graduate with honors in this dept as in all majors. The department is not small and many other majors take some of the survey courses which is true of this major at many other peer colleges as well. (implication: survey topic courses are largish by Vandy standards) Another truism is that the faculty is exceptional and many have great reputations as good lecturers (not uncommon at Vanderbilt which has strong faculty lecturers in general). Usually a class will have an election year overlapping their four years. These are always fun years at Vandy. There are many small discussion based courses for majors. I know they like Poli Sci majors to knock out a course in Econ and certainly Logic if possible…the requirements that are likely in any other peer college in this discipline. Son had a terrific cast of characters as teachers in the department and a mix of small and large courses. The fact that Nashville is a large city and the seat of a state goverment is a plus.
Vandyson took advantage of Vanderbilt’s strong summer in DC program and he actually landed two summers of excellent internships, one paid under Vandy. There are also Maymesters in DC. Housing is in the convenient Pentagon City area. Placements are extremely varied in DC. Vandy also has a DC office for the university itself. Vandy has a strong showing in the area of health care policy for obvious reasons. Ditto Educational policy. For that matter, a Vandy student has the option of attending special event lectures that are offered to be of interest in the law school, the div school or the med and business schools. This is the “up” side of attending a mid sized research university–a great varied cast of Guest Speakers open to all and a budget for such things that is large. Lots of cross interests on campus and ability to focus your major in a unique way.