<p>I have been accepted to the UNC-Chapel Hill Honors Program as OOS, Georgetown School of Foreign Service, and Brown.</p>
<p>Possible majors:
1) Political Science
2) International Relations
3) Public Policy
4) UNC has a Peace, War, and Defense major that seems pretty interesting...</p>
<p>I would love to go to Grad School after college, ideally Stanford, NYU, Harvard, or Yale. In fact, my mother wouldn't let me NOT go to grad school lol.</p>
<p>I understand Georgetown is the best college for the fields I am interested in, however it also the most expensive at >50k. Brown would have the best "brand name"; I'm not sure how much of a factor that is in Grad School acceptances. Brown would also be about 50k. Finally, UNC would be about 33k, much cheaper than my other options, although not necessarily on the same level as Georgetown/Brown. I have been accepted to the Honors Program at UNC, so I'm not sure if that changes things. I will not be receiving any financial aid, but my parents are telling me not to worry about the price (of course). I am still hesitant to place a financial burden on them, nor do I want to incur any debt before grad school.</p>
<p>I think all three schools are great, and I am sure I'd be happy at any of them. Is it worth attending Brown/Georgetown for higher tuition? Would it be significantly harder to attend, as an example, Stanford Grad School coming out of UNC?</p>
<p>In your proposed field of study, many students end up having to pay for their own Masters degree programs. 68k would go a long way toward taking care of that.</p>
<p>Only you and your parents know which of these three programs are affordable, so I can’t tell you that you have to choose the “cheap” one. Sit down with the numbers, and talk it over with them.</p>
<p>How serious are you about a career in foreign service or other international field? Depending upon your career goals, if you get a BA from the SFS at Georgetown you may not need a graduate degree (or at least not need it right away) because it is considered a professional school, not a liberal arts education (its similar to getting a BA in business at Wharton; you really don’t need a MBA after that). If you go to Brown or UNC, you probably will need a masters to get a decent job in the field. Viewed that way, Georgetown could be a bargain.</p>
<p>Conversely, if you aren’t sure what your ultimate career goals are (and most high school students aren’t sure), then go for the best liberal arts education you can. And among your choices, that would be Brown by a wide margin. If you really can’t afford Brown, then UNC would be a very reasonable alternative but considering that your education lasts a lifetime, I would try to do the Brown route if possible.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! I am pretty set on a career in an international field, and you bring up a good point about the SFS being a professional school. I would still probably attend grad school right out of undergrad either way. Do you think it would be significantly harder to get into Harvard/Yale/NYU/Stanford grad school or law school coming out of UNC than it would be coming out of Brown/Gtown?</p>
<p>UNC is a great school. I think graduates there fair well in graduate school and professional school admissions at top universities. Your competitiveness potentially as a UNC graduate shouldn’t be a concern for you, really. </p>
<p>Given your goals, I’d actually choose Georgetown. If you have any doubts–any-- whatsoever about your intended career, I’d go with Brown.</p>
<p>Probably not. Of course, it depends upon which programs you are talking about. Just because a graduate program is at an Ivy League or other top university doesn’t mean the particular program is first rate. Some are, some aren’t. For example, the 5 top Master’s programs in international studies are Johns Hopkins SAIS, Georgetown’s SFS, Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, Columbia’s SPIA, and Tuft’s Fletcher School. Harvard’s Kennedy School is generally put below those, as are GW’s Elliot School and AU’s SIS. Brown is not even on the radar screen.</p>
<p>BTW, the Watson Institute at Brown is just a research center–it doesn’t offer degrees although some Watson faculty have joint appointments with departments that do offer degrees.</p>
<p>If you are applying to a graduate program or law school of an Ivy–statistics would suggest that there is an advantage in having your undergraduate degree from an Ivy. But certainly, a degree from UNC or Georgetown is not going to put you at a significant disadvantage. Law schools in particular are largely numbers driven–GPA and LSAT counts much more than which undergraduate school. Master’s programs are also numbers driven. PhD programs are different, and undergraduate school seems to mean more. Sometimes the most important factor in PhD admissions is who your recommendations come from–and how close those recommenders are to faculty in the program you are applying for.</p>