<p>According to this year’s Gourman report, the best undergraduate programs in International Relations are, in order:</p>
<p>Tufts
Princeton
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
U Penn
Harvard
Cornell
U Wisconsin Madison
MIT
Stanford
UVA
Notre Dame
US Air Force Acad
US Military Acad
Claremont McKenna</p>
<hr>
<p>(FYI: The Gourman Report states that its ratings are based on “extensive reseach” into the following criteria:</p>
<li>auspices, control, and organization of the institution</li>
<li>numbers of educational programs offered and degrees conferred (with additional attention to “sub-fields” available to students within a particular discipline</li>
<li>age (experience level) of the institution and the individual discipline or program and division</li>
<li>faculty, including qualifications, experience, intellectual interests, attainments, and professional productivity (including research)</li>
<li>students, including quality of scholastic work and records of graduates both in graduate study and in practice</li>
<li>basis of and requirements for admission of students (overall and by individual discipline)</li>
<li>number of students enrolled (overall and for each discipline)</li>
<li>curriculum and curricular content of the program or discipline and division</li>
<li>standards and quality of instruction (including teaching loads)</li>
<li>quality of administration, including attitudes and policy towards teaching, research and scholarly production in each discipline, and administration research</li>
<li>quality and availability of non-departmental areas such as counseling and career placement services</li>
<li>quality of physical plant devoted to undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels</li>
<li>finances, including budgets, investments, expenditures and sources of income for both public and private institutions</li>
<li>library, including number of volumes, appropriateness of materials to individual disciplines and accessibility of materials</li>
<li>computer facility sufficient to support current research activities for both faculty and students</li>
<li>sufficient funding for research equipment and infrastructure</li>
<li>number of teaching and research assistantships</li>
<li>academic-athletic balance</li>
</ol>
<p>The weight given to each criterion above varies by discipline. )</p>
<p>Man, look at that list of top 15 IR schools acc to Gourman. They all def have the top IR programs int he country. Just because Gtown isn't #1 doesn't mean it's totally out of whack. Btw, I transferred from SFS to Tufts, so I have a unique perspective to the Tufts IR vs. Georgetown IR question</p>
<p>We are going through college searches, applications, etc for the first time. We've gotten lots of helpful general info here on CC, and am hoping someone can answer this question too--
When a school is ranked highly in a certain discipline, like Tufts in IR, how can admissions staff plan for the academic distribution of the incoming class? I think there may be a space on the application where students state their academic interests, but isn't there still the chance that a very high percentage of applicants are counting on that IR program? Does the school make it a competitive major that you have to qualify for, or are they just good at estimating who will go where?</p>
<p>I think it's accepted that a certain percentage will end up being IR. I forget what percentage, though - I know that the most popular incoming major is Undecided, so they definitely account for lots of those Undecideds ending up as IR majors. I'm not sure what's meant be "qualifying for" a major, though.</p>
<p>If one were to open the course catalog of George Washington's Elliott School one would probably find a greater number of specialized international affairs courses than any combination of half the schools on the Gourman IR list. If one were to look at the Elliott School Faculty one would find many significant IR scholars. The Elliott School has a separate adminstrative structure for the School with separate Deans and a large research budget. GWU's Elliiott School is one of the most serious places on the planet for IR. However, Jack Gourman doesn't even think the Elliott School is among even the top 10 programs in international affairs!!!! </p>
<p>The tragedy of Jack Gourman is that with all the admissions hullaballoo these days, students and parents will look at his lists and his works and actually take them seriously. If we could just laugh at jack Gourman and go on he would be funny, but with his books being nicely embossed and circulated at reputable bookstores he is actually a major problem.</p>
<p>When a school offers a program that's so good, like Tufts' IR program, and kids applying to the school as well as kids already studying there know that's the case, it would be awfult o shut the premier program off to whoever is interested. That being said, many prospective IR majors end up realizing they like Political Science better, or Peace & Justice Studies perhaps, even International Letters & Visual Studies. The good thing about Tufts is that IR isn't it's only international studies program and PS, PJS, and ILVS are all great programs, too!</p>
<p>PS: vienna man seems to have a total inferiority/superiority complex. Give it up already, buddy. Gtown AND Tufts are both great for IR.</p>
<p>No honsetly, Lolabelle, wouldn't it be truly sad if someone with a great interest in IR did not even look at USC of GWU because of Gourman's list?</p>
<p>I don't think that a smart kid, who deserves to be at a great IR school, would look ONLY at the schools on Gourman's list. They would look at all schools, safety-levels that still have great IR schools, reach schools, etc. That being said, Gourman's is the only list that's ranked undergraduate IR programs so it's the best we can go by at this point. I think Foreign Policy, who ranks grad programs, should look at undergrad programs as well -- and they'd probably have a more transparent process of doing it by, which would be good.</p>
<p>bluirinka: yes, he was, but he goes to Gtown (as evidenced by his posts in the Gtown forum basically alluding to the fact that he can't believe anyone would put a school's IR program over Gtown's) , that's why I mentioned it. </p>
<p>PS: that was not a snipe at Vienna, just wanted to explain why I brought Gtown up even though it hadn't yet in this forum.</p>
<p>Gourman's "Criteria" and I would use the term very loosely seem to be that any university that establishes a separate administrative structure, provides for dedicated faculty research, develops research institutes, creates discipline specific courses in IR disciplines, has a separate budget and separate faculty, has a reputable research journal, in other words, any university that makes an actual effort to systematically address IR is automatically exlcuded from consideration.
How can a serious rating of international affairs schools exclude American University's School of International Service or USC or GWU and place the schools it has on the list?</p>
<p>Gourman's list is an insult to the entire international affairs educational profession.</p>