Hello! I have been stalking CC for a solid year now, and I am thankful for all the insight that I have gained from this community. I was recently accepted to a few good schools (Brown, UPenn, Cornell, Williams, Duke). The biggest ones among them are Stanford, Yale, and Georgetown. While I am absolutely thankful for the opportunities before me, I am at a loss for which of the schools I should attend. I would like to study political science and come from a western state. Stanford is closer to home than Yale and Georgetown, and I feel like the campus culture is younger and more innovative than the other two. However, I do not know if Stanfordâs polisci is quite as good as Yale or Georgetown, which have the benefit of being close to DC and have long traditions of producing amazing men/women in law and government. Any advice/help for my current situation would be appreciated. Thank you!
The only way I would even remotely consider Georgetown rather than any of your other options (including Brown, UPenn, Williams, Cornell, and Duke, and especially Stanford and Yale) were if you were admitted into the School of Foreign Service and/or if it were significantly less expensive than any of your other options. Much as Georgetown likes to think that it is at the same level as the ivies, it simply is not. You also wonât get the type of close interactions with faculty that you would get at a school like Williams. The only upside is to Georgetown over your other choices is its Wash D.C. location, but Iâd take CA any day.
(And I say this as a Georgetown grad).
Georgetownâs Political Science department is not that good. It is certainly not ranked among the top 30 in the countryâŠunless you are referring to International Relations, in which case, Georgetown is arguably the best. But International Relations is not the same thing as Political Science, just as Engineering is not the same thing as Physics, and Business is not the same thing as Economics.
On the other hand, Stanfordâs Political Science department is absolutely world class. It is ranked among the top 5 in the country.
@MileHighCity Not sure what you mean by saying the biggest ones amongst them are Yale, Stanford and Georgetown? I get Yale and Stanford, but Georgetown, while an awesome school, is not exactly on the same level the ivies, Stanford, Duke so in your list, imo Georgetown comes last in terms of overall strength,prestige, desirability etc. Personally I wouldnât choose Georgetown over any of the other schools on your list and most people donât either. Georgetown poli sci is not that strong. Stanford, Yale, Penn, Cornell and Duke have stronger poli sci departments.
I think your main choice comes down to Stanford vs Yale. Stanford has at least just as good a poli-sci department as Yale. In most major poli-sci rankings Stanford is ranked around the same and often higher than Yale, and it has great political connections and tradition in producing alumni in government, law etc. Also Yale and Stanford have 2 of the top 3 law schools in the country which adds to their tradition in the field and the connections they have.
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2010/10/28/harvard-stanford-yale-graduate-most-members-of-congress
Proximity to DC doesnât really matter that much at this level. All they ivies, Stanford etc have amazing connections, and you wonât have trouble scoring top internships in DC.
For example: https://piw.sas.upenn.edu
I agree with you that Stanford has a more dynamic, innovative vibe than Yale. Also the number of students studying poli sci at Stanford is smaller you you will have smaller classes and a more intimate poli sci community.
Personally I would go with Stanford, but you canât go wrong with either. It comes down to fit. Yale and Stanford have major differences in terms of vibe and atmosphere.
Have a son each at Yale and Stanford, and I donât really buy the whole âinnovative vibeâ stereotype, and definitely wouldnât make a decision based on that. Both schools have pretty enthusiastic, quirky cultures, though most students are actually highly driven underneath. For every new startup at Stanford there is a creative new theater production at Yale and vice versa.
Both schools have have very strong Poli Sci Departments, so academic strength is also not a distinguishing factor. I daresay that a greater mass of students at Yale tend to be politically/philosophically engaged which means that there is a greater mass of students who share the same interests as you. For instance, groups like the Yale Daily News, Yale Political Union, or the Buckley Program are highly developed and active.
I feel the innovative vibe is to an extent is true. I feel Stanford does have a quirkier, more dynamic, less old-school vibe than Yale. But of course one will find all sorts of people in either school. Also Stanford has the Hoover Institution, one of the top public policy think tanks in the US. I think its presence does a lot in term of adding to the political diversity and discourse on campus.
Yale has also great programs and opportunities for political engagement as mentioned above.
As I said before your main consideration should be fit. The opportunities wonât be any different really.
@MileHighCity You have some great choices including Gtown. I personally would pick either Yale or Georgetown International Relations. People in the know / part of elite groups will not differentiate much if at all between these schools. Gtown is in D.C so when it comes to internship opportunities I donât think you can get better than that. Yale has an excellent PolliSci program and the acedemoc quality is just as good if not better than Gtown, all with similar prestige.
However the CC crowd will swear up and down that one must live and die by the rankings. Georgetown similarly to UCBerkeley have very vast amounts of lay prestige when it comes to the commoner/Joe shmoe. I would even say almost to the level of HYP. In other words the only schools on your list I feel could give you an advantage to Gtown is Yale and Stanford. So you are right to have them Iâm your top 3.
^ not even close. Georgetown does not have anywhere near the same prestige as HYP or the other schools on that list. Also Gtown does not have the lay prestige of Berkeley. Berkley is very prestigious but for undergrad it loses a lot of points for being a state school and having limited resources per student, oversubscribed classes etc. But there is no denying that it is a tippy top research university. Georgetown is not that. Georgetown does seem out of place on that list.
Comparing the prestige between Stanford, Yale and Georgetown is really splitting hairs. If you are only comparing universities within the top 30 or so universities in the U.S. then yes, Yale and Stanford are more prestigious than Georgetown. But in the grand scheme of things, Georgetown is an excellent and prestigious university that any student should be proud to have on their resume. Itâs kind of insanity to say that Georgetown seems out of place on a list of elite universities. Yale and Stanford are ranked #3 and #5 and Georgetown #20 in the U.S. News rankings. Theyâre all in the top less than 1% of U.S. colleges and universities. They are all excellent schools!
You also donât have to go to the most excellent political science department. For undergrad, you just need a good department at an excellent school, and you will get that at any of the three schools you are comparing.
That said, Stanfordâs political science doctoral program is ranked in the top 5 programs in the country. U.S. News ranks it #1, tied with Harvard, and the NRC ranks it between 1 and 9 (they have an idiosyncratic system that gives you a range of rankings, but itâs ranked very highly). Thereâs not a perfect correlation with undergraduate education, mind you, but it might be worth something. At the very least you know that you will have professors who are on the cutting edge and well known in political science.
Stanford also has a [url=<a href=âhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stanford_University_people#Politics%5Dlong%5B/urlâ>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stanford_University_people#Politics]long[/url] list of alumni who are in politics and government, including Herbert Hoover, several foreign presidents and prime ministers, lots of Senators, many U.S. Representatives, several governors, lots of ambassadors, and a long list of other U.S. and California state politicians. The list also includes four Supreme Court justices (Rehnquist, OâConnor, Kennedy, and Breyer) and many, many other U.S. federal judges and attorneys. And yes, I checked; most of these people attended undergrad, including all four of the SC justices.
So if you love Stanford, and you want to go there, you donât have to feel like itâs not going to set up up for a career in whatever you want to do. It will.
But Yale and Georgetown are also great choices, with good to great political science departments and long lists of alumni currently involved in law, politics and government. Really, you can flip a coin or roll a die and not go wrong.