Heyya, you didn't say what your area of interest is, but I can respond to waveswatcher's post. My D, a freshman at Dickinson, is very interested in IR, although she also loves Poli Sci and will be majoring in that area. While many of the students spend a semester or year off campus, I don't really know how that translates into "not on campus for very long"; 3 - 3.5 years on campus doesn't strike me as having ditched the place. One thing my D likes is that the study abroad office is more helpful than many other schools in assisting the students if they want to study off the beaten track. D wants to spend a semester in a specific country that most colleges don't have on their usual lists, and the Dickinson folks are being very helpful regarding this.
They have a pretty strong international component in the Poli Sci department, and are also reputed to be good in international business. D has also enjoyed her foreign language studies there, and decided to take courses beyond her graduation requirement in that area (a great surprise to me, as she didn't like that particular language much in high school). She also mentioned that she has many international friends in her dorm and her classes.
D looked at DC schools, but decided after visiting in the end that American was too easy (be sure to sit in on a class when you go, D was taken aback at how "lightweight" the course content and students were in the particular class she attended, although obviously that was just one experience); GW was just too pricey for us; and Georgetown too hard to get into
And it is expensive to go to school in a big city like DC; she is able to keep pretty good control of her spending money at Dickinson, got a very good merit scholarship, and is still having a great time. And she will study for a semester in DC (and another in her preferred foreign country), so will still get that experience.
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