<p>Any opinions? Which one's better?</p>
<p>I read somewhere WashU’s political science department is ranked #1 in the nation or at least top 5. I don’t know about international relations specifically but I think having a really good political science department means something. Sorry if I am being no help… :)</p>
<p>There are no rankings for individual undergraduate academic departments… you are either ranked for the entire undergraduate school (part of the reason why undergrad rankings are controversial), or you are ranked for the Graduate level department.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, Wash U is Top 10 for Political Science, or right around the Top 10, at the Graduate Level. They were ranked #1 in the country last year for Faculty Productivity (I forgot by whom), which measures how often professors write books, articles, journals, and are cited by other professors. It’s a very great department. Poli Sci has very strong specialities in Political Economy (combining Politics and Economics) and Political Methodology (kind of like Statistics and Politics). </p>
<p>I’ve taken some classes in Wash U’s International & Area Studies department (IAS), and am planning to either major or minor in Poli Sci. </p>
<p>The IAS department has a special focus on global problems and systems, such as the global financial system or international development in third world countries. Many of the classes have a theme of reconciling the differences between globalization and local differences between individual cultures. IAS majors complete a Senior Capstone experience, which can either be an Honors Thesis, a Senior Project (like a big research project), or taking several interdisciplinary seminar courses. It’s a very cohesive program. There are four tracks you can choose in IAS: International Studies; East Asian Studies; European Studies; Latin American Studies. There is also an entirely separate major department called Near Eastern Studies… so it would especially neat to do the IAS major focusing on East Asian Studies and get a second, dedicated major in that field as well. </p>
<p>IAS majors, by and large, always have another major or minor. It’s most obvious for IAS students to choose a foreign language to study… there are over a dozen languages you can major in (even Arabic… Wash U is one of a small handful of schools to have a major in that). Wash U has an incredible Near Eastern Studies department, which includes Japanese and Chinese. I’ve heard from many friends that Wash U’s Japanese program is probably the best in the country. </p>
<p>The Political Science department might have the widest breadth of classes of any department here (besides Anthropology, possibly). You can take very specialized classes in areas like Presidential Speechwriting; History of the American Presidency; Politics and Film; Elections and Voting Behavior; and Politics of Religious and Cultural Pluralism. </p>
<p>Here are some of my favorite IAS classes from the Course Book: British Cinema - A History; Global Gender Issues; Comparative European Politics; Chinese Foreign Relations since the Opium War; The Art and Archaeology of Japan and Korea; Italian Neorealism; Tragedy and Farce in African Francophone Literature; Mostmodern Narratives in Latin America; Postcolonial South Asia; and Urban Education in Multiracial Societies. I could go on… but there are 8 pages of course listings alone for the IAS department :)</p>
<p>Another thing you should look into is Study Abroad. I only go to Wash U so I can’t comment on what Penn does, but Wash U is very good with study abroad. Nearly every IAS major does it, and a large portion of Poli Sci students do, too. About 35% of all Wash U students study abroad from the last statistic I heard, which is incredibly high compared to most colleges. What’s nice is that if you do one of the Wash U programs, all of your credits will transfer back here so it won’t take you longer to graduate. And, your financial aid continues to apply at the same level when you go abroad. Wash U has about 100 different programs, so you’re definitely going to be able to find something that you’d want to do.</p>
<p>I’ve really enjoyed my experiences here, and honestly don’t think I could have found a nother school (even Penn) that would have 8 pages of course listing in International Studies, or 10 pages of course listings in Political Science. It would have been much harder to double major (or even an additional minor) at another Universitiy. Wash U also had the nicest dorms, best food, and the best combination of a “chill” campus life with a very involved and active student body.</p>
<p>You should look at these websites, too:
The Gephardt Institute for Public Service: <a href=“http://www.gephardtinstitute.wustl.edu/Pages/default.aspx[/url]”>http://www.gephardtinstitute.wustl.edu/Pages/default.aspx</a>
Center for New Institutional Social Sciences: <a href=“http://cniss.wustl.edu/[/url]”>http://cniss.wustl.edu/</a>
Center for Social Development: <a href=“http://csd.wustl.edu/Pages/default.aspx[/url]”>http://csd.wustl.edu/Pages/default.aspx</a>
Center in Political Economy: <a href=“http://artsci.wustl.edu/~polecon/[/url]”>http://artsci.wustl.edu/~polecon/</a></p>
<p>Oh wow thanks, that’s really helpful. I’m trying to find a balance b/w engineering and IR, so the double majoring (and harder) is a big plus for me. </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I am coming to WashU haha…</p>