<p>I don't understand why on all the rankings its amazing political science program is not ranked highly. I keep hearing all these good things about it and the opportunities, yet somehow its not respected? seems odd. is this just these people like US news being incredibly biased or is this really the case?</p>
<p>The Dean at Elliott told us that they get a very big hit because they have a larger number of "part time" professors. GW,however, belives that it is a big plus to have people from the State Department, The Pentagon and even the CIA who are experts in their fields come to GW as guest instructors and give a "real world" perspective to the subject matter. U.S. News does not take this into account when they rate a school. Still, if you are discussing a treaty it might be helpful to hear from one of the people who helped negotiate it.</p>
<p>I don't really know how Political Science in CCAS is rated, but, I do know that the Elliott School of International Affairs is considered one of the top programs of it's kind in the country. I THINK number 7 undergraduate and graduate, something like that. DEFINITELY within the top ten nationwide. It is ranked higher than several of the Ivy's in this category. I have heard that the only reason it is not ranked even higher, and that GW in general is not ranked higher, is because of the part time professors, as KP mentioned. Also, as KP mentioned, people really interested in these fields would prefer to have professors who have hands on experience along with theoretical experience, and to heck with the rankings!</p>
<p>A friend of mine wanted to take Pol. Sci 002 (Am. Politics) last year. Ended up dropping because the Professor assumed that people taking his class had a bigger background in the field than introductory level. This Professor's average was a 66!
Imagine having a grade like that dropping your GPA. He was a Part Time professor. I think that helps the school not to have a strong department, and the good professors would be affected in the process.</p>