I’ve been accepted to PSU, UMD, and Tulane so far and I’m still waiting on Lehigh and Michigan, but those two are a tossup. I was accepted to PSU and UMD for the fall, and I got in directly for my major (political science), instead of having to start out undecided.
I’ve been leaning towards UMD because of it’s close proximity to DC for my political science major. I’m also really into sports, and UMD basketball is great and football seams to be on the rise.
I live in NJ so I’m about 3 hours from UMD and PSU. Without money being part of the equation, would selecting UMD be the wrong decision? Also, which of the 3 schools has the best political science program?
It might be a good idea to sit in on a class at each of the 3 colleges. Of those 3 colleges Tulane has the highest ranking. I’ve visited Tulane and it was a very nice campus and the students seemed relaxed and happy which I think is a big plus. Sorry I can’t say too much about the other colleges except they are good schools too.
Tulane is a smaller school located in a very unique city. Tulane has a very strong political science department, and many students combine poli-sci with other specialities to form an interdisciplinary major (i.e., political economy, international relations, a foreign language, area studies, etc). Tulane is a great place to take a leadership role in the community, as the school facilitates extensive opportunities to serve New Orleans. (It is required, in fact). Many, many Tulane students go to top law schools each year
While Tulane has Division I sports, it recently joined the American Athletic Conference and the competition in both football and basketball is far greater than they had before. Both programs are having a run of lean years in the process of adjusting to the new conference. There is a new Athletic Director and a new football coach, and next year there will likely be a new basketball coach. All that being said, if you want a better chance at a competitive athletic program during your college years, the better bets would be UMD or PSU.
In sum, you have three very good choices, but Tulane is the outlier in terms of size and location. I would visit, if possible to get a feel. Best of luck with whatever decision you make.
“Without money being part of the equation, would selecting UMD be the wrong decision?”
Why do you put it that way? Is money really part of the equation, and you are trying to deny it, or are you really in the fortunate situation that your family can pay the full cost at all of these places?
@happymomof1 Money is not a problem at umd or psu. Also, tulane is not a problem since they offered me some money to make it around the same tuition as umd and psu. I basically just wanted to know which school has the strongest political science department and best overall reputation.
I really don’t know which has the stronger political science department. However because of UMD’s close proximity capitol hill it might be easier for you to get an internship inside our government. I think you should ask each of the colleges what types of internships are generally available for students of your major.
They all have really strong political science departments. They all also have really good name recognition in different ways. Yes, Tulane is probably the “highest-ranking” on most more-or-less arbitrary ranking lists, but Maryland and Penn State are both really good, highly recognizable, have strong alumni networks, and are well-regarded universities.
Maryland of course has great basketball. Penn State also has a large athletics program. UMD has a better location than Penn State, of course (well, unless you like small college towns!). Tulane is quite different from the other two - I think it has around 8,000 undergrads whereas Maryland and PSU both have around 40,000. The vibe of going to a medium-sized research university vs. a very large public research university is going to be very different. Also Tulane is pretty urban in a large city; Maryland is close to DC but really in a more suburban area; and Penn State is a small town in a rural environment three hours from the closest city.
So yes - more alike in academics but very different in terms of life. Which do you prefer?
@MYOS1634 I didn’t realize there is a separate application to Schreyer’s, so I never applied. And I probably wouldn’t have gotten in anyway since I only have a 3.6 UW gpa. I guess I poorly phrased my last response.