<p>Hey, need your advice. does anyone know where i can get rankings for econ, international relationship and languistics undergraduate programs? (especially econ)</p>
<p>I can't help you with rankings, but Smith doesn't have an international relations or linguistics program. International relations is a minor in the government department and a Five College Certificate (which can be completed in addition to a Smith major), and a linguistics major would need to be self-designed.</p>
<p>In answer to your title (but not your OP), Smith is strong in many areas. The ones I know about are: foreign languages, government, English, and many of the sciences. I cannot say where each department ranks in a broader survey of undergraduate programs.</p>
<p>international relations is a focus of the government major (you major in government, but you specialize in international relations), but not a major in and of itself at Smith. </p>
<p>I'd be careful with rankings, they're not always reliable depending on who's doing them. Do you have access to a college counselor who can recommend good econ departments? I mean, off the bat, I can think of the London School of Economics as something you'd want to check out.</p>
<p>Another vote suggesting a more qualitative search in lieu of rankings. Even if a ranking isn't suspect because of who is doing them, they can still be meaningless to <em>you</em> if you dig down and see what factors were included--and what were not--and how they were weighted. Most people don't bother to dig down.</p>
<p>It's more work to determine your own criteria and then to get the information but then you'll probably be much happier with the results. </p>
<p>And assembling a pool of detailed subjective reports (i.e., reports that aren't the result of someone else regurgitating rankings) is fair game.</p>
<p>thx a lot for your advices. >_<
M particular interested in econ and government.
Could any current smithies talk more abt the professor?
I know smith is a bit more career orintated and always strong in job placement. Soooooo, how is the opportunities in MA?</p>
<p>Well, I'm a current Smithie, and I've dabbled in econ, though my major is gov. The Gov. profs are really great, very talented, passionate, smart, funny, quirky people on the whole. You can get a great government education at smith, no question, and between the alumnae network and the career development office you'll be able to get the internship experience you need to be competitive when you graduate. </p>
<p>The intro econ courses I've taken have been good as well. There are plenty of econ/gov majors, or econ majors with an interest in government (especially involving social justice issues like poverty, hunger, health care, etc) and there's a nice little curriculum about world poverty economics (world food systems for example) if the third world beckons you.</p>
<p>The Gov dept is very strong; D loves both Don Baumer. D says Pat Coby is a genius. Lots of students like Marc Lendler. D likes Mlada Bukovansky but she's an acknowledged minority on that one.</p>
<p>For Econ, D raves about Mahnaz Mahdavi as have other students I know.</p>
<p>Yeah, I could give or take Pat Coby and Mlada Bukovanksy, though with Pat it's mostly because I'm not interested in medevial or ancient theory, and with Mlada, it's mostly cause she's kinda boring. Don Baumer is well beloved though, and Marc Lendler is a Gov department "superstar professor". My favorites would have to be Steve Goldstein, Alice Hearst (I like her even if I hate law), and Baumer probably.</p>