<p>I'm sorry, but you all need to come to terms with the fact that the students at Harvard are a CUT-A-BOVE those at Tufts. C'mon, be honest with yourselves. If you had the choice between Harvard or Tufts is there any doubt which school you'd choose? Are you willing to make the proposterous assertion that this decision would be based on name only? Get out of here.</p>
<p>You'll get more out of the Harvard undergraduate experience because you'll be surrounded by geniuses. You'll be treated like a genius. I think that goes a long, LONG way. Better resources, larger endowment, better internships, better opportunities, better lectures, better events...wow, really do I need to go on. The fact that this issue is even being debated is too much to take.</p>
<p>But then again I actually go to Tufts so what do I know...</p>
<p>I can't disagree about better resources, larger endowment, better internships and opportunities. But I didn't apply to Harvard, so obviously my choice between Harvard and Tufts is Harvard. I know MOST people would choose Harvard. But the Harvard students I have met weren't that amazing. No, they're not representative of the whole school, but still. As I've said before, there are professors here at Tufts who are part-time because they teach at Harvard, and these were the ones that were really under par, in my opinion. Also, as an IR major, I'm thrilled to be at the place with such good IR, truly getting the most out of my TUITION money. It seems as though the money you talk about paying for Harvard will pay you back in kind with jobs and such, but really that money is for tuition. I'd rather get into Harvard grad school, which is undisputably great, and get the job opportunities then.</p>
<p>But anyway, I really do hope you get into a school that suits you!</p>
<p>I'm just curious...</p>
<p>What can you do with an IR major? I mean, just looking at the major requirements the major isn't anything rigourous. Political Science majors typically are among the lowest scorers on the LSAT's and I don't see much point at all in applying to Business Schools with a PoliSci degree unless you've gone out of your way to take alot of math courses.</p>
<p>So seriously, what do you do with an IR degree?</p>
<p>i'm double majoring in IR and Econ and hoping to go to law school.</p>
<p>Cool, although those are probably the worst majors you could've chosen if you're going to Law School. </p>
<p>I'd take some Philosophy/Classics courses before you graduate. You need some Plato, some Logic and some Ethics for certain :)</p>
<p>For real though, the LSAT is basically a philosophy test and a good portion of it is taken straight out of Logic Textbooks. "You're mother's father's sister's aunt" type of stuff.</p>
<p>Do philosophy and PM me when you wind up getting into Harvard. Watch and see...</p>
<p>Are you kidding? "What can you do with an IR major?" You can do anything! It's an interdisciplinary major with the core requirements based in economics, political science, history, and philosophy. I feel well-equipped to do most anything. There is NO set path to law school or otherwise. If you're smart, you can get most anywhere.</p>
<p>Oh come on, intro to Economics and Internal Economics cannot be considered to produce any marketable understanding of economics. There is no philosophy required in the IR major either so I don't know where that came from. And how is history marketable AT ALL? The amount of history majors in this country has declined by something like 90% in just the last 25 years...</p>
<p>But yes if you're smart you can go anywhere. Realistically though IR is not going to prepare you for Business and Law School and even more realistically people that go into politics (this is suppossed to be Tufts' speciality) want people with quantitative, reasoning and problem solving abilities. IR simply doesn't afford that to most people if the requirements for degree are any indication.</p>
<p>Rightbackatyou: I will respectfully disagree wtih you. If you think studying history has no value in the present, then, well, I just can express extreme disappointment in your statement and I'll leave it at that.</p>
<p>And about IR involving philosophy, it's not a set requirement now -- but as a member of the Director's Leadership Council for the IR Dept., I can tell you that will change for this class of freshmen -- you can read about the changes on the IR website already I think -- but in any case, current IR majors usually all take at least one or two philosophy classes (esp. with great political philosophy profs like Devigne).</p>
<p>And Intro to IR spends about 50% of the class talking about philosophy from Hobbes to Descartes to Aristotle. Most of my upper-level poli-sci classes refer to philosophy as well: IR/polisci is not a vacuum. Political theory necessarily draws from philosophical texts.</p>
<p>Lolabelle, you're going to be seeing alot of me over the next few years so please, read my posts before you comment on them. But seriously I love ya girl ;)</p>
<p>I never said history has no value. I love history, I grew up reading history, history is the point at which I began to express interest in every other facet of life. I was reading volumes on WW2 when I was 7 years old. I would major in History if I could...shoot, I would lay down in traffic for history. Of course it has immense personal and societal value, I cannot stress that fact enough.</p>
<p>The question is whether it's marketable which I think clearly it isn't. What are you going to do in todays world with a history degree? It simply isn't a major which cultivates skills that are needed in todays world. The mere fact that it is of immense personal value doesn't mean anything in the real world (would you suggest that religion is useful in finding a job?)</p>
<p>And I don't know what IR you were in. I vaguely recall some stuff about Smith and Ricardo being brushed over during a lecture but that's it. No lengthy discussions about Descartes skepticsm or Aristotles revision of Plato's forms...why on earth would you even be discussing this in an IR class?</p>
<p>Who knows. If IR would seriously start encouraging students to do extensive political theory then I'd change my opinion of it on many fronts. Seriously, how can IR students seriously consider themselves students of global relations when most of them haven't a clue of the social movements and theory which propell these relations? There is no reason why IR students shouldn't know a great deal about Plato and Aristotle above anyone, but also Marx, Hobbes, Locke and maybe Nietzsche and maybe some contemporary folks like Strauss or Rawls. Makes no sense to me.</p>
<p>Seriously, if it were just us two we could make that IR department work.</p>
<p>Your undergraduate major doesn't have to be marketable. It just has to be something you're interested in, that develops your analytical thinking skills. History does that. Philosophy does that. Political Science (incl IR) does that. So does Child Development. And anything else. Therefore, any discipline is "marketable."</p>
<p>It should provide you with skills which are marketable because those skills are what grad schools are looking for in admissions. What do you mean a degree shouldn't provide you with marketable skills? That's absurd.</p>
<p>I'm sorry, but no History doesn't provide you with rigourous analytical thinking, Political Science doesn't provide you with rigourous analytical thinking. Do you even know what analytical thinking is or are you just using it as a buzzword?</p>
<p>Seriously, read the first 20 pages of a history book and then go read the first 20 pages of any work of philosophy. Then tell me which one you think provides a rigourous analytic background.</p>
<p>LOL @ child development. What else provides you with analytic skills? African American Studies? Art History? These aren't even real majors so I don't know how you can make the titantic jump by suggesting they cultivate marketable skills for top grad schools.</p>
<p>This conversation is really getting pretty rediculous. Grasping at straws is what I think its called.</p>
<p>You obviously believe that what you're studying is the only marketable, analytical skill-building discpline. So I won't even argue with you anymore. When you're working a professional environment in a few years where all your co-workres were not all philosophy majors, then maybe you'll start to agree. Or maybe not. You seem pretty damned stubborn.</p>
<p>No, Philosophy, Economics, Classics, Maths the Sciences, Engineering are all marketable in the grad school process...</p>
<p>Keep in mind we're talking about admissions to the elite and respected grad schools ONLY. I'm sure you could get a job with a major in Art History or Child Development but if you're applying to top grad schools or any serious grad school at all you should, you know, like, major in real things.</p>
<p>Political Science isn't that bad, it just doesn't hold a candle to Philosophy or Math or something like that. Also undergraduates usually major in PoliSci thinking it good preperation for Law School...un unfortunate phenomenon considering PoliSci majors have among the lowest LSAT scores. It simply isn't a rigourous major.</p>
<p>I've gotten ~167 on all my practice LSATs and I'm an IR major. </p>
<p>All right, let's just agree to disagree. You think only ver specific disciplines are "real" disciplines; I think any discipline offered at schools like Tufts are valuable, analytical skill-infusing disciplines. The end.</p>
<p>No, Art History and African American studies are not real disciplines. Period. Nobody takes those majors seriously.</p>
<p>IR isn't bad, I wanted to major in IR. But I'm sorry, when all you can do is provide your own personal score on a practice LSAT test in humiliatingly weak attempt to refute the widely acknowledged fact that Political Science majors are among the lowest scores on the LSAT than I think clearly, if you have any reasoning skills at all, would realize there is a problem.</p>
<p>It's not a totally worthless major. I never said that. It's just not as good for the LSAT's or just grad schools in general as Philosophy or Classics or Math or something...</p>
<p>Art History scholars, African American studies PhDs would obviously disagree with you. But whatever. Let's just agree to disagree.</p>
<p>I don't actually believe 100% that Rightbackatyou is a Tufts student, but we cannot verify one way or the other...</p>
<p>But, really there's not much difference btw Tufts and Harvard students.</p>
<p>Please don't say that; the kid will go maniacal again.</p>
<p>The difference between students at the top 50 schools in the country is simply stats and ECs. Most kids at all those schools are very smart. So people should pick universities based on particular departments if they're pretty sure what they want to study (as I picked Tufts for IR); or if they're not, then go to whichever top school they get into that they feel most at home in.</p>
<p>"Maniacal" Oh brother, I'm "maniacal" now? And to cap off all the personal attacks you've all been throwing at me now comes the assertion that I'm not even a student here. Wow, you guys are really pulling out all the stops for this one, lol.</p>
<p>Can you all not deal with opinions that are different than your own? Why on earth are you attacking me in such ways and putting false labels on me? This is supposed to be a forum for information...at least I thought.</p>
<p>Anyways lets not go bonkers and say that Harvard students and Tufts students are the same. A more rediculous conclusion I simply cannot imagine. How many presidents, senators, supreme court justices, nobel laureates are Tufts graduates? Wait for it....0</p>
<p>How many folks with those type of credentials are Tufts faculty? You guessed, wait, hold on....0. </p>
<p>You guys need to get it together. There are obviously some extremely intelligent people here at Tufts and you can get a good education here. I'd never say otherwise. But if you have to go and make the proposterous assertion that Tufts students are on average the intellectual equivalent of Harvard students to try and make your case for Tufts being a great school than one has to wonder what exactly Tufts might be lacking that would lead you all to imerse yourselves in such lies.</p>
<p>Tufts alums and professors are senators, representatives, governors, ambassadors, prime ministers, and top UN diplomats.</p>
<p>We might not have Nobel laureates (yet) teaching here but we have MacArthur Genius Grant recipients as well as Pultizer Prize winners who teach at Tufts.</p>