William & Mary, Georgetown, Tufts, GW, American, and Macalester are good choices for international relations. I currently go to William & Mary and have recently received an offer for a paid fellowship program to do work for them abroad next summer and have done several research projects with them in the past. They are very well known for their undergraduate teaching and their international relations program. You can check out some more details about it in my post here [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18645604/#Comment_18645604%5Dhere%5B/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18645604/#Comment_18645604]here[/url]
Generally I would define the strength of an international relation program by the depth of the program, classes offers, opportunities available to students, and the alumni network. For instance at William & Mary, it has the Project for International Peace and Security (PIPS) an undergraduate program where students engage in a think tank and actually get to present their final projects to members of the State Department, which is something extraordinarily rare among institutions. Research and internship opportunities are also a good measure, and among my own friends some have recently done projects in Tazania, Bosnia, India, the Philliipines and Bangladesh, all with the guidance of a professor, so an international emphasis is something to look for.
Alumni networks are also important, as they provide you a strong basis for getting to know more about the positions and a strong reputation will help you get hired for jobs that are looking for candidates like you. Obviously colleges that are situated in DC are good for this, but colleges like W&M have a strong alum base that they have their own center in D.C. and actively run programs (semester, summer, winter) programs for students connecting them to opportunities in the D.C. area. Colleges like W&M that have a strong tradition of alum like Jefferson, Monroe, Marshall, Robert Gates, James Comey, and the current White House communications director lead to many opportunities for students.
Lastly something that you will want to look out for is classes in your concentration of interest. Many schools do this very differently. Some their international relations degree is very “loose” and flexible with little structure. Others like W&M are more structured and have a combination of specific things they want you to be proficient in like foreign languages, history, government, economics, and foreign policy. It’s up to you what you prefer, but you will want to make sure the classes you are interested in taking are included rather than just obtaining a general degree in political science.
This may or may not be important to you, but for me a distinguishing factor was faculty. W&M has a strong faculty for students, while schools like GW rely more on adjunct visiting faculty that are currently working at institutions like the World Bank. While this provides you a good outside perspective, it also limits how accessible they are outside of the classroom and the classroom experience and being close to my professors was important to me because they have provided great mentorship and opportunities.
Good luck in your search! Let me know if I can be of any further help