<p>All right, well here's more anecdotal evidence: myself, I turned down Dartmouth and Cornell. My boyfriend turned down Brown. </p>
<p>The IR programs at JHU and Tufts are just much more stand-out than Brown's. Brown is better for other things, certainly. No matter where the OP goes, she/he will get a great education. But if he/she knows that IR is what it's going to be, it might be better to pick a school for the department than for Ivy status or otherwise.</p>