<p>I am researching colleges, but I have no clue which to apply to. I would apply to a lot if I had that kind of money but I am kind of [really] poor.. So I must limit myself.</p>
<p>I want to study international relations/studies with my language being Japanese. Is it better if Japanese is a minor? I don't want just a few classes, I want to know the language and study abroad to Japan. So I guess I need it to be a major? I don't know how all this college stuff works.. What colleges are strong in those departments?</p>
<p>I want a campus that feels like home (not all spread out) and near/in a city to get internships.</p>
<p>I can't really live/go anywhere too expensive. Financial aid helps with college but what about eating out and buying stuff for personal use? I need a city that won't require a large amount of cash to survive in..</p>
<p>I won't give stats because I will check that out once I get some names of schools and see if it is even possible for me to get in. I am a good student, taking the APs my school offers (not many...) I am a Hispanic female in an urban community interested in going to college where I will have a good social and academic experience. I don't want to study or party all day. I'd like a balance :]</p>
<p>Two months ago I was in (almost) you're exact same situation. My advice would be buy (or if that's too expensive check out from your local/school library) a guide to colleges (I bout Fiske's but other options include Princeton Review's, Collegeboard etc). Fiske's guide has a short little essay about each college which describes the student body, location etc.</p>
<p>As far as expenses is concerned, look into waivers for application fees. Also don't count out really pricey schools because they often offer great financial aid (which might not help with personal expesnes as you said, so maybe look into more rural places where the cost of living is less? Sorry- can't really help you there).</p>
<p>ok for IR I recommend Johns Hopkins. I'm not sure about the Japanese program but JHU's IR is really highly regarded. And they aren't too stingy on the aid, that is to say that if you can't afford and they accept you they will pay for you (even 100%). Baltimore is a cheap city, lots of colleges and college students, lots of cheap apartments and lots of cheap stuff. You just got to figure out the business with the Japanese... best of luck.</p>
<p>If you have an area of interest your actually better off than you might think. There are websites online that likely list the best IR programs, they might even rank them. The rankings aren't important, just the colleges that routinely show up in your search. Also look at well-rounded colleges just in case IR doesn't work out (you could switch or pursue a passion elsewhere). </p>
<p>Now, eliminate some schools based on personal criteria with information that is easy to look up. This might include the size of the student body, the number of students in class, region, surrounding environment, campus activites, et. al. Once this is done, research the financial aid situation for the colleges left. Once again, the numbers can be found. Some pretty expensive universities are sometimes pretty cheap after financial aid. </p>
<p>What you might have then, is hopefully a shorter list of schools (10-15, maybe lower). Now the research you do is to find the balance of academics and social life. There are numerous websites to find out about such info, although take them with a grain of salt. To be safe, only eliminate schools that definitely seem to have too much partying or too much studying. </p>
<p>It is recommended that most HS seniors apply to 3 safeties, 3 matches, and 3 reaches. Safeties are those schools where the likelihood of acceptance is very high. Look at how your SAT scores, rank, ecs, etc. compares to the student body (CC is NOT AT ALL representative of traditional college applicants). This info should be easy to find such as on the schools website. Make sure you could be happy with your safeties. Matches are those schools where your acceptance could go either way. Reaches are often those "great" schools that have very low or relatively low admission rates. Reaches are often expensive but generally provide good financial aid due to pushes in recent years for need-blind admissions. </p>
<p>Now, there are plenty of books out there to help this process. Visiting schools is recommended but I think you should only worry about that after you get your admission decisions.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins's undergraduate international relations program is a far cry from its top-ranked master's program (SAIS). Undergraduates will not have access to the amazing professors and resources at SAIS.</p>
<p>The best IR programs are listed on page</a> 25. Not knowing your stats, I would recommend (academically speaking): Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Chicago, Yale, UMich, UC Berkeley, UCSD, Cornell, MIT, Duke, Georgetown, NYU, UCLA, and Tufts.</p>
<p>Among LACs / hybrids, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, Haverford, and some others have great IR programs.</p>
<p>Narrow it down from there based on the other factors that are important to you.</p>
<p>The faculty quality and departmental resources (which determine the strength of the graduate program) are also what determine the strength of the undergraduate program, at least in ball-park terms.</p>
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GR Elton what do you base your assessment on? Why is the undergraduate program a far cry exactly?
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<p>JHU undergraduates aren't permitted to enroll in SAIS courses (edit: to the best of my knowledge--correct me if I'm wrong), and the top SAIS faculty members (e.g. Francis ***uyama) don't teach undergrad.</p>
<p>Now, in theory, you could enroll in the 5 year combined BA/MA with SAIS. But entrance to that program is extremely difficult and competitive (only</a> about eight students are accepted per year). Unless you know that you're going to have the stats and talent to get into it, it's not worth the risk of going to JHU and ultimately being relegated to taking only courses from the regular poli sci department.</p>
<p>GR Elton that doesn't mean that they don't have a good undergrad program. It might be a program of merit on its own. It is the most popular undergrad major on campus. And you are the first person to suggest that it's not a good program . (Even though most recognize that it's seperate from SAIS)</p>
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GR Elton that doesn't mean that they don't have a good undergrad program. It might be a program of merit on its own. It is the most popular undergrad major on campus. And you are the first person to suggest that it's not a good program
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<p>Compared to other international relations programs, JHU's is not strong. That's implicit in the survey I noted earlier. It's also reflected in the fact that US News chooses not to even rank it among the top IR graduate departments. It may be a popular major, but note that politics is a consistently popular major across most American universities.</p>
<p>The fact is, compared to IR programs at similarly selective colleges, JHU's doesn't measure up--unless you can be assured admission into the combined BA/MA program with SAIS, it's just not the best option.</p>
<p>Edit:</p>
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People here tend to agree, (first post on page 5 talks about undergrad programs and seems to be fairly informed.)
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<p>People are entitled to their opinions. Do note the difference between a survey of IR scholars and this website, however. And do explore the JHU international studies website. Come to your own conclusion.</p>
<p>I don't understand the survey you linked ranks JHU as #26 for the Ph.D. program. The Ph.D. program for IR at JHU is located at SAIS. You say SAIS has no reflection on the UG program, but you still sight the rankings of the PhD program? Also why not go to page 26 and look at the MA program, it's ranked #1 and is also at SAIS. </p>
<p>I don't think US News even ranks undergraduate IR programs!</p>
<p>EDIT: The PhD program has nothing to do with the UG IR program, so the rankings you cited are regarding SAIS.</p>
<p>The Johns Hopkins department of political science offers the university's PhD for international relations. That is the PhD program being rated in the survey. That is also the department which teaches undergraduate courses at JHU.</p>
<p>SAIS offers (most famously) a two year terminal masters program. It also offers a separate PhD, which is not rated in the survey I linked to. The SAIS PhD is aimed more at career professionals, while the JHU PhD is aimed at aspiring academics.</p>
<p>Again, SAIS is an incredible school. The question is whether, as an undergrad at JHU, you'll be able to take advantage of it. Unless you're one of the lucky eight individuals to be accepted into the combined BA/MA program, you will not.</p>
<p>And the US News ranking is for graduate programs (i.e. academic departments).</p>
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The PhD program has nothing to do with the UG IR program, so the rankings you cited are regarding SAIS.
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<p>You have it backwards. The PhD program is the one directly associated with undergraduate IR. SAIS is the one not associated with undergrad IR.</p>
<p>It's an imperfect but nevertheless very good proxy for the quality of an undergraduate program. At the very least, a department lacking in a strong faculty and departmental resources will almost certainly not provide a strong undergraduate experience.</p>
<p>I'm sorry that's the PhD program for the poly sci department not for the IR department. Why would a study doing IR PhD programs look at the JHU Poly Sci department and not the SAIS department (where the PhD is really an IR PhD) and make no explicit comment that that is what they are ranking?</p>
<p>"For example, Columbia, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, and George Washington rank higher in this survey of international relations scholars than these same schools fare in reputational rankings of their related political science PhD programs." page 26. They are obviously ranking IR programs because they contrast them with the Poly Sci PhD programs.</p>
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I'm sorry that's the PhD program for the poly sci department not for the IR department. Why would a study doing IR PhD programs look at the JHU Poly Sci department and not the SAIS department (where the PhD is really an IR PhD) and make no explicit comment that that is what they are ranking?
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<p>Because academic international relations is almost always studied under the heading of political science. The SAIS PhD is a professional career oriented degree. The JHU political science PhD is the academically oriented degree. Take a look at the CV of any international relations professor.</p>
<p>edit:</p>
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They are obviously ranking IR programs because they contrast them with the Poly Sci PhD programs.
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<p>I see. So why don't you point me to Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, and UChicago's "international relations" doctorates.</p>
<p>You're misreading the study. They're ranking the PhD programs that are tops in international relations--and in the academic context, international relations is studied as a subset of poli sci.</p>
<p>GR elton, I edited my previous post (I added something) and regardless of what you say if that survey was ranking the PS dept as opposed to the IR dept they would've said so. No matter what the CV of any professor says. </p>
<p>Also the PhD programs (especially in the humanities) are not a good indicator of the quality of the UG (and vica versa.)</p>
<p>Finally, in my personal experience (which is worth nill) the UG IR program @ JHU is very well regarded, as well as any IR program at the UG level will be.</p>
<p>It is very likely that they would've ranked those Universities' PS depts if they didn't have an IR dept since they would provide an equivalent experience but since JHU obviously has a PhD program specifically for IR they wouldn't be ranking the PS dept but the IR dept, or they would've noted so.</p>
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GR elton, I edited my previous post (I added something) and regardless of what you say if that survey was ranking the PS dept as opposed to the IR dept they would've said so. No matter what the CV of any professor says.
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<p>Then I suggest you email the authors of the study and ask them yourself. Or better, look up what the field of academic international relations is actually like. The reason they don't specify "political science" PhDs is because it's common field knowledge that that is the case.</p>
<p>Or if you really wish, here's what the authors note: "Most international relations PhD programs are embedded within broader political science PhD programs." This includes JHU.</p>
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Also the PhD programs (especially in the humanities) are not a good indicator of the quality of the UG (and vica versa.)