<p>I'm looking to start grad school in the fall of 2009. I will have been living in Taiwan and studying the Taiwan-China relationship for about three years by that time. Hopefully, I'll also have a good level of Chinese as well. </p>
<p>I'm looking to get started early on my graduate school search (I've been doing it for months now), and I'm just looking for as many suggestions as I can get. It took me a very long time to match my interests with a program, but it seems right now that International Relations/International Affairs and/or Conflict Resolution/Peace Studies are up my alley. </p>
<p>Here are the schools I'm looking at:</p>
<p>Columbia
Johns Hopkins
UC-Berkeley
Tufts</p>
<p>You know, the usual. My dream would be to go to Columbia, and I have a former professor, himself a Columbia grad, who seems to think that I could pull it off (rather, he's the one who planted the seed in my head), but I have my doubts. While my GPA wasn't stellar in college (mostly due to changing majors numerous times), my resume since then has been exceptional. Though, you always have to wonder if it's enough.</p>
<p>So, a sort of sub question here concerns other programs that aren't necessarily top-ten. Some fall back programs, if you will. One prominent Taiwan-China scholar has suggested San Diego as one. I'm just wondering if there are any more recommendations out there for the IR/Conflict Resolution field that are in the 10-20 ranking, not top ten. I'm looking for programs that are still respectable and competitive, but maybe not as prominent as the aforementioned.</p>