chryseis

Hi. There was a similar thread just called Ranking International Relations Programs, but the person who started it ranked the schools by their GRADUATE programs... not undergraduate. They said that undergraduate programs are harder to rank because the overall education/prestige of the school gets in the way. (And that most everyone would say Harvard is a better school than Tufts in an undergraduate setting, just because of the foundation you get at Harvard, and the avenues that are open to you after you graduate.)

chryseis

Hi. I finally found on what I believe to be the fifth page of the similar thread an answer to my question. Here, I'll quote it: "O.K. this board is full of some (SOME) good answers and a whole lot of uninformed speculation. For undergraduate-

1. Georgetown (Best in North America)
2. University of St. Andrews (Best in Europe and the rest of english speaking world)
3. Tufts, Yale (International Studies), JHU, Columbia and on and on (This is for U.S. schools, there are much better ones like Science Po in Paris)

It does not really matter undergraduate. As long as there is a good departement and faculty, but more importantly that the school overall is good (Yale, Tufts etc.)you will be fine. At the Undergraduate level it is very hard to determine the ranking of these schools beyond Georgetown, Tufts, Yale, JHU, Columbia.

You guys are all only looking at schools in the U.S., and don't understand that when it comes to graduate IR that the field is divided into VERY specific fields, Security Studies, Government, etc.

Monterey is the best graduate in the U.S. for Non-Proliferation Studies. And in reality, Georgetown SFS graduate has only two degrees possible, Security Studies (their's is not that good) and Foriegn Service (really good).

But schools like American University Cairo are also amazing IR graduate programs.

Stellenbosch in South Africa is the best school (this is undisputed) for Security Studies, followed closely by St. Andrews in Scotland.

Kings College in London is also great for a general IR graduate program.

What really surprises people is that LSE, Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard (save Kennedy which is more domestic politics) have TERRIBLE IR programs for graduate level work, that people don;t dare go near."

Leviathan08

I was going to start this thread. This info was helpful thanx

chryseis

Hi. I finally found on what I believe to be the twenty-fifth page of the similar thread another answer to my question. Here, I'll quote it: "Foreign Policy Magazine Top 20 IR Schools

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These rankings were published in the March/April 2007 Issue of Foreign Policy Magazine.
I think these maybe the most valid/credible rankings so far.

Top 20 Undergraduate Programs

1. Harvard University 48%
2. Princeton University 46%
3. Stanford University 30%
4. Georgetown University 28%
5. Columbia University 28%
6. Yale University 23%
7. University of Chicago 21%
8. University of California-Berkeley 12%
9. Dartmouth College 11%
10. George Washington University 10%
11. American University 10%
12. University of Michigan 9%
13. Tufts University 8%
14. Swarthmore College 8%
14. University of California-San Diego 8%
16. Cornell University 6%
17. Brown University 6%
18. Williams College 5%
19. Duke University 5%
19. Johns Hopkins University 5%"

briguy

does Swarthmore even have an international relations program? All i know is that it has a political science program.

chryseis

Hi. I found something that may answer your question on the first page of the similar thread. Here, I'll quote it: "They all have some form of degree in International Relations/Affairs. Sometimes its called IR, IA, Global Policy, International Public Policy, etc. Thats because some programs are more specific than others."