<p>I am currently at a community college and am considering transferring to either Michigan State University or University of Arizona to pursue an undergrad in Political Science.</p>
<p>I know that MSU has the James Madison College program which is very recognized and popular and would be an excellent choice for polisci, however I think I would rather to go to U of A and I am wondering how the two polisci programs compare?</p>
<p>My father is obsessed with the rankings, but I just want to be able to go somewhere I enjoy while still getting a quality education. I'm sure he's worried about being able to go to grad school and get an internship and thinks that attending U of A is going to hurt my chances, but I'm not sure. Where should I transfer?</p>
<p>There are no rankings for undergrad political science depts. For graduate programs, MSU is ranked slightly ahead of UA, but the difference isn’t so great that it will matter. The structure and requirements for political science majors are pretty similar across different schools.</p>
<p>IMO, there would be some benefit to participation in MSU’s James Madison College, in terms of a student’s educational experience. As a community college transfer student, you will have missed the first two years of that program, however. I don’t know about the policies for transferring into JMC as a junior, or about the difficulty of admission. You should check into that.</p>
<p>Overall, MSU is ranked higher at the undergrad level. However, the initial impression of both MSU and UA is that both are large public universities. I think there’s probably some perception that MSU is somewhat better, as UA and ASU have somewhat of a reputation as party schools (not that anyone thinks there is no partying at MSU, however). MSU is larger than UA, but I don’t think the quality of education will be significantly different across the two schools, unless you are in special programs. I doubt that either one offers any particular advantage over the other in terms of grad school admission or internships. </p>
<p>I would decide it on the basis of best overall fit for you (in terms of location, size, campus culture, etc) balanced against cost of attendance. In fact, I’d probably give significant weight to whether there are any significant cost differences, especially if you plan to go to graduate school.</p>