I need help! I want to pursue an International Relations major and later follow a Pre-Law track. All of these places offered me beyond fantastic financial aid packages. So what do you guys think University of Virginia vs. New York University vs. Lehigh University vs. Boston University. (P.S. I was accepted to Boston College but I don’t think it would be the best for my major) Any help would be appreciated.
I know Bethlehem well if you have any questions about it compared to Cville. I don’t have any first hand knowledge of of the IR programs. However, UVa does have a desirable location within a reasonable drive, bus ride or train ride of all of the federal agencies and embassies, and there are tons of UVa grads who can help with networking in every agency of the federal government and every international organization in DC.
For pre-law, assuming you do well in your studies, I’d go with UVa for law school admissions. UVa also provides a great location and context for IR.
@Charliesch I know the resources that UVa does have, and they are amazing. but I keep on thinking that there may be more opportunity at NYU or BU.
Hopefully, you will ask about the quality of each college’s IR program on the part of this website for each of those colleges. Lehigh is great for many things, but I’d be surprised if they would be as good in international relations as the other 3.
You might want to use a different title for a post, such as “How good is the International Relations Department?” to get a more targeted response.
You should look at the course offerings during a typical semester for each college. Don’t look at the total list of courses that are authorized - look for what was actually offered in one semester.
Some universities will list an enormous number of professors and instructors in a department, but only a few may actually teach a course in any one semester, and many may simply be using a university title as a resume filler for an outside consulting job.
Other universities may have tons of profs who never teach undergrads.