I had the same dilemma a few days ago just like you. I was torn between Georgetown SFS and Brown. I am also the politics nerd who wants to study public policy or international relations. I also want to attend law school after undergrad. I did commit to Brown. Here are my two cents:
Brown is extremely flexible in its curriculum, and it’s easy to switch between multiple disciplines, and even major in two completely different ones. There are minimal requirements for a major (concentration). The SFS core is not that flexible, but flexible because there are requirements in different fields. To graduate, you have to take foreign language, history, economics, government, international relations, and some others I can’t think off the top of my head.
Georgetown and Brown send almost the same amount of people to Harvard Law / Yale Law, and the institution you do undergrad at doesn’t affect your chances for a top law school. GPA / LSAT is the most important. Also, Brown has a very lenient grading scale compared to SFS’s intense core + A/B/C/D/F system. If you want any course to be pass/fail, you have that option.
Brown’s poli sci department is respectable. It has famous faculty, including former senators, prime ministers, heads of state, etc. Georgetown SFS has the same level of renowned faculty. However, SFS has more speakers just because it is located in D.C. and foreign diplomats tend to stop by Georgetown to speak. Brown isn’t that behind on famous speakers, however. Former Prime Minister David Cameron is going to visit Brown soon.
I wouldn’t say you would be disadvantaged in terms of internships, although D.C. provides breadth and width in internships. Providence is the capital of Rhode Island, so you could intern at the State House; there are Rhode Island interest groups there as it is the capital. The one advantage Georgetown has is how Georgetown undergrads can intern during the school year, so the competitiveness for summer internships isn’t there.
I think classes are similar. Georgetown SFS and Brown both have extremely small class sizes, allowing you to interact with professors more. Faculty both care about undergrads because SFS and Brown are both very undergrad-oriented. Professors are accessible during open hours and they genuinely like teaching the students.
Honestly, you can’t go wrong with either choice. I would choose based upon environment and financial aid (and did so myself). Brown’s financial aid is surprisingly really good for an Ivy with the smallest endowment. Brown is known for its “chill” environment while everyone is ambitious and determined to study. Georgetown has the pre-professional feeling and is more competitive. Personally, I’m choosing Brown because I’m going to law school anyways, and the debt that I’d get at Georgetown would be redundant. You can go into the workforce with an SFS degree in the foreign service, CIA, state department, etc. I want to be a lawyer and eventually a politician, so I decided the SFS degree wouldn’t be worth the money for me.
TLDR; choose based on financial aid and the environment you want. Both schools have incredible programs, both schools have great prestige, and both schools open doors.