<p>I am researching schools and trying to make a list for myself. I want to know which of the following schools are the best for International Affairs and Political Science:
1.University of Pennsylvania
2.Columbia University
3.Brown University
Please rate them soley based on their IA and PS programs. It would be greatly appreciated if you could add in some other tid bits about the schools. Also if you had the choice between the three, which one would you pick? Thanks! :)</p>
<p>Don’t forget Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.</p>
<p>I second the Georgetown suggestion.</p>
<p>Georgetown SFS is better than all of those schools in your desired field of study, but if you have Ivy-lust, I recommend Columbia, then Penn, then Brown.</p>
<p>Here are Foreign Policy magazine’s undergraduate international relations rankings:</p>
<p>[Foreign</a> Policy: Inside the Ivory Tower](<a href=“http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4685&page=1]Foreign”>http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4685&page=1)</p>
<p>To be more exact, they asked a majority of foreign policy academics across the country which schools prepared their students best for a career in international relations (NOT which is the best program).</p>
<p>Princeton’s Woody Woo, I can understand, but Harvard? What?</p>
<p>harvard has a pretty good political science from what i know.
if you’re looking for schools not as selective as the listed three (being ivy league schools and all), i know that tufts and middlebury has a pretty good international affairs program. pls correct me if i’m wrong</p>
<p>Is international relations and international affair the same? I still question the major differences of political science and international relations.</p>
<p>since the best schools for IR are almost all reaches, applying to some that are easier to get into, but still have good programs is important.</p>
<p>I would suggest for you to look at ( may overlook a few universities):
Harvard
Stanford
University of Michigan- Ann Arbor
University of Wisconsin- Madison
University of Minnesota- Twin Cities
Michigan State University, more so also look into James Madison College within Michigan State University, seems to be a highly reguarded program.
Indiana University- Bloomington
Georgetown
George Washington University
University of Maryland- College Park</p>
<p>Thats just a few top universities listed for the majors</p>
<p>Mini’s list is highly flawed…</p>
<p>Columbia does not offer an undergraduate International affairs/studies/relations major. It’s interdisciplinary meaning you have to create your own major. :(</p>
<p>Check out Johns Hopkins, Tufts, Georgetown, Princeton, American University, George Washington, Claremont McKenna, Stanford.</p>
<p>The best graduate schools for international relations are probably Harvard KSG, Princeton WWS, Johns Hopkins SAIS, Columbia SIPA, Tufts Fletcher, and Georgetown Walsh…with Princeton WWS, Johns Hopkins SAIS, and Columbia SIPA rounding off as the top three IR schools.</p>
<p>Political Science and International Relations are actually very different. Political science is a lot of philosophy, theory, etc. of politics. International Relations is much more specific than political science (you usually choose a specialty like international politics, international development, peace and conflict studies, international development, etc.). IR has a lot to do with case studies and globalization. IR is about the interworkings of the world whereas political science is more about the interworkings of a government. They are as different as, say, biophysics and biochemistry. They have a lot of overlap, but they are distinctly different fields. Now IR, International Affairs, and International Studies are just different spins on the same basic field.</p>
<p>Would it be worth it to create a major in the area of IR at Columbia? or would it just be better to pick a school that has the major already?</p>
<p>Yale just received a $50M gift to create a new global affairs center. </p>
<p>[Yale</a> Gets $50M Gift for Global Affairs Center - ABC News](<a href=“http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=7250027]Yale”>http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=7250027)</p>
<p>In addition to Yale, look at Georgetown, Middlebury, Princeton, and Tufts. </p>
<p>Even though Columbia doesn’t have an IR major, they offer several majors and concentrations that relate to IR. (Regional Studies, Political Science, Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures, Human Rights, etc.)</p>
<p>
On a practical note, you needn’t major in IR to go into the field. It’s quite possible (in fact likely) a place like Columbia could provide better preparation than many schools that offer IR as a major.</p>
<p>Mini’s list is highly flawed…Columbia does not offer an undergraduate International affairs/studies/relations major. It’s interdisciplinary meaning you have to create your own major."</p>
<p>First of all, it isn’t Mini’s list. It is Foreign Policy Magazine’s. Secondly, as I carefully noted, the question they asked was not which offers the best program, but which school prepares students best for a career in international relations. It is by far the largest survey of its kind in the country, with more than half of all foreign relations academics in the U.S. participating. USNEWS, for example, has nowhere close to this kind of participation.</p>
<p>In other words, the school doesn’t have to offer a major in order to prepare its students best.</p>
<p>I give much more weight to Foreign Policy’s rankings of graduate programs than undergraduate programs. Academics are much more likely to be familiar with graduate departments than they are likely to be familiar with undergraduate programs. They hire graduates with PhD’s–not BA’s. </p>
<p>People in the field who hire BA’s are not academics (who were surveyed_ but rather businesses, government, think tanks and NGO’s–who were not surveyed.</p>
<p>Virtually all the foreign policy academics I have ever met have worked for thinktanks, businesses, governments, and NGOs. Since there are more undergraduates than graduates (and hence more academics teaching them), I would expect they are more familiar with undergraduate programs. (But again, they weren’t ranking “programs”, they were ranking “preparation” - and since many of them are accepting students from multiple schools into graduate programs, this is an area they would know very, very well.)</p>
<p>If this is what you want to immerse yourself into, then I would concentrate on colleges around DC. You and get a great education at all kinds of schools, but I’d look for the schools where you will have the best experiential opportunities.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-college-majors/56589-ranking-international-relation-programs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-college-majors/56589-ranking-international-relation-programs.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/591458-international-relations-best-college.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/591458-international-relations-best-college.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/312341-foreign-policy-magazine-ranks-programs-international-relations-news-item.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/312341-foreign-policy-magazine-ranks-programs-international-relations-news-item.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/542089-narrowing-college-list-international-relations.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/542089-narrowing-college-list-international-relations.html</a></p>
<p>As people have mentioned before, there are serious flaws with the survey’s methodology, especially for undergrad, which many graduate-level professors have little or no knowledge about. </p>
<p>Johns Hopkins ranked dead last at #20 for undergraduate IR? </p>
<p>I can tell you that JHU’s undergraduate AND graduate level (world renown Hopkins SAIS <a href=“http://www.sais-jhu.edu/[/url]”>School of Advanced International Studies | Johns Hopkins University; in Washington D.C.) IR programs are probably among the two most respected IR programs in the country. (there is Princeton WWS, GTown SFS/Walsh, and Tufts Fletcher)</p>
<p>It does seem strange that several of the top programs listed, such as Columbia, Harvard, Berkeley, just to name a few for undergrad, don’t even have IR/International Studies majors, doesn’t it?</p>
<p>As far as Johns Hopkins International Studies program it is very strong. It is the most popular undergraduate major, and if you speak with students studying the program they will rave about their courses, their professors, their intern opportunities, their research opportunities, and their future job prospects. A program does not become as popular if the strength of it is not present. Yes the undergraduate program is bolstered by the relationship with the graduate SAIS program, but it does stand on its own as well.</p>
<p>I highly recommend Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Tufts, GWU, Princeton WWS, Columbia, American U, Claremont McKenna, Macalester and Middlebury for undergraduate IR.</p>