<p>I am going to be applying to these schools:</p>
<p>Rice (ED)
Olin College of Engineering
Stanford
Renssalear Polytechnic Institute
Colorado School of the Mines
University of Colorado - Boulder
University of California - Berkeley
Caltech
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
and maybe one other or so...</p>
<p>But the key is, I am applying to these schools saying that my chosen major is engineering. However, I do not know that engineering is really what I want to major in, so I was wondering what the political science programs are like at the schools I mentioned (those that actually have a social science department that is), because that is something I have always been passionate about and would like to major in if I do not take the engineering route.</p>
<p>Rice obviously is the one I am most concerned about, but also Stanford, Cal-Berkeley, and CU-Boulder perhaps since they are more well-rounded than other schools on the list.</p>
<p>Hi, I majored in Political Science and I'm going to grad school in that area, so I did a lot of research on Political Science departments. I hope I can help you:
Rice: Good political science department, small, nice profs.
Stanford: Excelent political science department, one of the best
University of Colorado Boulder: Good, not as good the others
Berkeley: Excelent, again one of the best
Caltech: I think they don't have political science, but social sciences of something like that. Excelent with quantitative methods for social science.</p>
<p>I don't know about the others.
Hope this helps</p>
<p>Olin is strictly engineering. If you decide to leave engineering, you'd have to leave Olin, and if you pursue an engineering major at Olin, I don't think you'd have much time for political science on the side to decide if that's what you want instead.</p>
<p>Why don't you look into the University of Michigan and Princeton too. They both have excellent Engineering and Political Science programs.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why don't you look into the University of Michigan and Princeton too. They both have excellent Engineering and Political Science programs.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Being an Ohio resident, I have vowed to never set foot or apply to the University of Michigan, no matter how good the academics are. But Princeton is one I have not considered, that's a good one!</p>
<p>That would be tantamount to cutting your nose to spite your face. Any university of Michigan's quality and reputation will have a 10%-25% acceptance rate, except for Chicago, which like Michigan (for out of staters) has an acceptance rate that overs between 35% and 55%, and Chicago does not have a college of Engineering. MIT, Stanford, Princeton all have top Poli-Sci and Engineering programs, but they are reaches, no matter how good you are. Cornell, Northwestern and Rice are not quite as selective, but they are still relative reaches. OSU is a great safety, but it is not elite. I would recommend you forget the rivalry and apply to that School up North!</p>