<p>I am an international student, currently residing in prague</p>
<p>Planning to apply next year</p>
<p>My first choice would be princeton, provided that i have the required grades though(which are quite depressing at the moment; the jan SAT i just took - my first, by the way - was 660/760/600)
(and since i'm not native, my TOEFL was 267 when i took them 2.5 years ago. im taking them again this thursday since the date expired)</p>
<p>I know i'll have to improve my SATs</p>
<p>i havent yet taken IIs but I'm planning to take Math II C, Chemistry and French
(French or Chemistry could be changed for World History)</p>
<p>but i believe one of my strong points are that while living in europe for over 12 years(i am a korean, and i lived in korea for years 7 to half of year 11) i have studied mostly in international schools, hence the environment i had experienced is quite diverse - though i'm still wondering of a way on how i can emphasize thise</p>
<p>i am currently following the IB curriculum for IB Diploma. I haven't yet considered for APs as IB Higher Levels are about the same as APs (currently HL in Geography, Math, Chemistry - it is rather odd)</p>
<p>i will probably do many more ECs, but for now i have
HTH - habitat for humanity
Math Club - not sure, but will probably enter a competition
Europe@School - current project I am doing with a group and two other groups from other schools in other countries, it is a competition about creating a website on partnership in europe.</p>
<p>so.. looking ahead.. any suggestions.. please?</p>
<p>some schools i have heard of are
georgetown
GWU
tufts
but i would love to hear more about them</p>
<p>Georgetown is a great school. It has ties the the Roman Catholic church, but it's not discirminant or anything. I has--in most's opinions--the best international relations school in the country, the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service. It is is Washington DC, but has its own campus, which is a nice blend of the two. It is just getting back to the basketball prominence that it once was at, but most other sports suck. It is very difficult to get into though; it accepts ~22% of applicants, and they are almost all top students.</p>
<p>George Washington University is a great school also. It, too, is located in Washington DC, but it doesn't have a definite campus. You may or may not like it, but to really find out, you'll have to visit. It has good political science and international relations, but Georgetown is really superior in all the aspects. It gets alot of the Georgetown rejectees. It isn't good at any sports but basketball, which it has been excellent at recently. Only accepts ~38%.</p>
<p>Tufts is a good school too. It's located just outside Boston, and is just one step further away from the city than Georgetown, only about 3 minutes. They aren't really good at any sports that I know of. I'm not really sure about its strengths. It only accepts ~28% of applicants.</p>
<p>Princeton has the Woodrow Wilson School, which judging by your interest I'm sure you've heard of before. International admissions is extremely competitive, but definitely apply! You'll need to really expound on your extracurriculars, as that seems to be a major weakness. You can try to bring out your international experience through your essays. It is a common topic, however, so try your best not to make it cliche. I also lived abroad and attended an international school, and I used my experience in an essay, but not in the traditional way. I think it made my essay even better. Best of luck to you next year!</p>
<p>Graduate-level IR programs in the US were recently rated in a survey published in the Nov/Dec 2005 issue of "Foreign Policy". The highest-ranked terminal master's programs in IR, according to this study, were:</p>
<ul>
<li>Johns Hopkins, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)</li>
<li>Georgetown</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Tufts</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
</ul>
<p>JHU offers an accelerated 5-year BA/MA program, where you spend the first 3 years at JHU in Baltimore and the next 2 years at either SAIS in Washington DC, or the SAIS campus in Bologna, Italy, or Sciences Po in Paris. </p>
<p>If you are also considering graduate school after the bachelor's, then the 5-year BA/MA options at JHU are hard to beat. You can get a world-class master's degree in IR with only one more year than it would take for the bachelor's alone.</p>