UCLAri

Berkeley lacks a professional IR program like UCSD, but their poli sci department is a great option for any undergrad.

Aruka11

As a soon-to-be graduate from Middlebury College, I can definitely attest to its great International Relations program. Through the college, I was able to study and intern in Spain and Uruguay, learned and am now nearly fluent in Spanish, and could not have asked for a better 4-yr experience.

That being said, I'm currently looking at graduate schools for IR programs, and have applied to GWU, Georgetown, Columbia, Cornell, and Monterey; thinking about JHU, Tufts, AU, etc... Are there any schools one tier down I should be looking at, as a safety school? Or schools abroad with respected programs?

UCLAri

Are you looking at an MA or PhD?

Aruka11

an MA for now, but I'm not ruling anything out

UCLAri

Aruka11,

Well, assuming you're interested in Latin America, I'd also add in IR/PS. It's hard to say what is a good fit without any sorts of stats or relevant information.

FoxKhan

Hi everyone,

I am a Political Science senior student from Romania. It is my intention to continue my studies with a MA (and a PhD afterwards) in International Relations and Diplomacy. I was looking for rankings of different International Relation programs in the world, and that is how I found this discussion.

I have read most of the posts on this topic and I found many of them very helpful in my decision of choosing the right program for me. I still have some questions, and I hope that some of you can and will help me.

I haven’t found anywhere a ranking of the top International Relations programs in Europe or Asia. I would really appreciate if someone would attempt to rank them.

I am particularly interested in some programs and schools and I would like to know what some of you think of them. There are two programs in Geneva, HEI (Graduate Institute of International Studies) and GSDIR (Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations) that I am most interested about. Also, I am interested in the program offered by SIRPA - Fudan Shanghai University. I have to mention that, I am pursuing a career as a Foreign Service Officer (or diplomat) for my country but I am also interested in working at the UN.

What other European programs do you recommend (programs in English) taking in consideration my fields of interest? The US programs, even if probably the best, are very expensive and I do not know exactly what are the possibilities of obtaining a scholarship. Also, the deadlines for fall 2007 have been passed.

Well, that’s about it for now. Thank you!

anton1212

US Masters IR Ranking

1. Tufts Fletcher
2. JHS SAIS
3. Georgetown SFS
4. Columbia SIPA
5. Yale CIAS
6. University of Chicago CIR
7. George Washington Elliot
8. American SIS
9. Syracuse Maxwell
10. NYU
11. UC San Diego
11. Denver
12. Pitt

Note 1: Yale and Chicago are often overlooked because they have such small programs, but they are both outstanding. Also, I think that being in DC is overrated. Sure DC is the place to be after graduating, but while you are studying I don’t think it is necessary unless you really want to do an internship during the academic year. Students from all the other schools have the same job connections and in many cases, smaller programs create an environment more conducive to academic work.

Note 2: Harvard and Princeton are not included on this list since they are more policy oriented MPA programs instead of true IR.

UCLAri

anton1212,

Which ranking is that? I don't know that I'd put Fletcher above SAIS or NYU over UCSD for a master's in IR...

happycollegemom

AJK~ American University is thought to be #1 in international relations in the world, with American Moscow the actual #1, and its US counterpart 2nd. this major, especially with language-type minors, or double-majors prepares students for a variety of government, profit, non-profit sectors. UN, diplomacy,State Depts., etc. or just a good basis for further grad study. hope this helps.

happycollegemom

oh, yes, and i do mean American, SIS.

UCLAri

happycollegemom,

I beg to differ. Most academics and professionals are pretty clear that JHU SAIS and Georgetown SFS are ahead of American SIS, in both academic and profession preparation.

The best recent source I can think of was Foreign Policy mag's survey.

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/IR/ir-rankings.asp
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/20...ernational.asp

Top 10 International Relations Schools for Academic Careers:

1. Harvard University
2. Columbia University
3. Stanford University
4. Princeton University
5. University of Chicago
6. Yale University
7. University of Michigan
8. University of California, Berkeley
9. University of California, San Diego
10. Cornell University

Top 10 International Relations Schools for Policy Careers:

1. Johns Hopkins University
2. Georgetown University
3. Harvard University
4. Tufts University
5. Columbia University
6. Princeton University
7. George Washington University
8. American University
9. Syracuse University
10. University of California, San Diego

anton1212

Sorry I forgot to mention that those are my personal rankings.

First thing, as survey researcher myself I must say that there are some MAJOR methodological issues with the rankings in the Foreign Policy Magazine. The survey was only asked of professors and not practitioners. Perhaps the Phd rankings are more valid, but it certainly calls into question the Masters rankings. Also, the rankings are based on the frequency of mention as a top program rather than the relative strength of the programs. This automatically gives a bias in favor of larger programs, which would almost by definition be mentioned more frequently based simply on top-of-mind recollection. It also means that while the rankings may give a good sense of the strength of a given program in general (ex. It is one of the top 10 or 20 most mentioned programs) among the top 5 programs in the list and on the margin between any two programs, the Foreign policy magazine rankings are essentially meaningless.

UCLAri,

The rankings that I included above are based on my own research about the school as well as my personal priorities in a program. Here are some of my reasons for ranking Fletcher above SAIS:

Fletcher offers greater flexibility allowing students to take 2 rather than only 1 area of specialization. Fletcher has a more academic environment, with fewer students doing internships during the academic year and requiring all students to complete a Masters thesis. In addition, Fletcher encourages students to take courses at all of the other schools at Tufts as well as courses at Harvard (especially Business and Law schools) as well as MIT. Fletcher has all of the resources of the university so students can take advantage of everything from the gym to the library – not to mention the open access to all of the other libraries at the schools throughout Boston. Obviously the greatest drawback to Fletcher is the Medford location. For a lot of people the DC location and the reputation for economics make SAIS the best program. It turns out that (according to the student government survey) a lot of students are actually unhappy with the quality of the economics courses at SAIS. As far as the DC location – if being in DC is important then there is no doubt SAIS is the place to be. However, location is not really a factor for me - I actually think Medford is vastly underrated. Anyway, Fletcher and SAIS are both Outstanding schools and I think I would be happy to attend either one, but if I have to pick which is #1 for academics it is going to be Fletcher for me.

As far as UCSD vs. NYU I definitely don’t feel that strongly, perhaps you make a good point and it is a mistake on my end. To be honest, other than Pacific studies – which is not really my area of interest – I don’t really know enough about UCSD whereas I am more familiar with NYU which I know has a really great program.

UCLAri

anton,

Personal priorities are important, but in the future it might be a helpful disclaimer to say "my personal preferences are affecting this ranking."

Anyway, I think that a lot of people overlook the fact that IR/PS isn't just about Asia, but also includes Latin America and to a lesser extent Africa. That's a lot of area covered, and only Europe is really excluded. When you consider that Asia is the fastest growing region, I think that IR/PS is in a pretty good position. Yes, I have my own biases, but I don't deny those.

As far as your argument goes, I think you might have a valid point. However, it seems to me that SAIS is generally agreed upon as stronger than Fletcher, both within the community and on the periphery. I do feel that personal priorities should come into play, but let's face it-- econ, stats, and econometrics get jobs. And SAIS has an edge on Fletcher there.

Incredulous

Anton1212 and UCLAri:

I am going to have to weigh in:

1) The schema used for academic vs. policy careers by you, UCLAri, is spot on. While I might quibble with some relative rankings within the academic list and certainly would within the policy rankings, I would not quibble at all with the way it was broken out.

2) Anton1212, you know I have argued that Fletcher is a great school and worth attending and have had friends that have had great experiences there, most of the people I know find Fletcher's location to be a significant drawback, so if collective preferences count for anything, I'd say you are exceptional. In terms of being on a larger campus (at Fletcher) vs. a separate campus (at SAIS), for me what you said is not at all an advantage of Fletcher and I think can be argued both ways; it's not definitive, though I think it breaks in favor of SAIS when considered against most persons' preferences. I REALLY liked the fact that at SAIS I didn't have to compete with other graduate students or undergrads.

Economics is a required subject at SAIS, so gripes about its quality may need to be taken with a grain of salt in terms of survey methodology; in my experience, even among people who had chosen SAIS aware of its economics requirements, there was a split about the value or necessity of them. The basic problem with economics in a policy school is that it will never be rigorous enough for the real nerds or light enough for those who are intimidated by numbers of economics. And you can't do much with a Master's in Economics itself except go and get a PhD. (In fact, most pure econ. programs dropped MAs). You know I've written at greater length elsewhere arguing almost the same point you were making Anton, but that doesn't change the fact that a significant number of grads end up with a stronger conversancy in economics overall than at other programs.

A policy school is part academic, part practical. I agree that Fletcher might be more academic in tone, but again for me that's one of the advantages of being at SAIS and in DC: you are in constant contact with people and often professors who work within "policy tanks" and government and so on who actually do the stuff in the books. I went to IR school to get a Master's with a hope that it would be academic-cum-practicality. SAIS had enough spectrum in this regard to satisfy I think all tastes from the more to the less academic. Classmates of mine went to Harvard, Berkeley, and Chicago for Poli Sci, Political Economy, and Economics, etc.

For a Master's student, the SAIS library is 99% of the time sufficient. When it isn't: Georgetown, GW, AU are more than sufficient. This level of resources is I believe overstated, especially for the purposes of a Master's program. And there's always the Library of Congress in DC.

In terms of ranking, I would rank the policy schools as follows:

Top Tier for IR:

SAIS, Fletcher, Columbia

Top Tier for Master's of Public Administration with an IR Focus:

Harvard, Princeton

Top Tier for Asian/LA focused IR:

IRPS

Dropping only is Georgetown, which is 2nd tier in DC on the graduate level, though first-rate on the undergrad level. I know Georgetown has been improving, so maybe I am a bit out of date on this, but I still think it's decidedly below the top tier I named.

I think it's hard to rank Harvard and Princeton against the IR Policy schools 'cause they have such different course foci (though their students do end up in competition often for wonkish jobs).

stuey1900

Hey, does anyone know anything about a Master's International Program(MIP)? Will this degree prevent me from being accepted into a PhD program, later in life? I know only forty schools offer this degree, so I was wondering if this degree will be recognized by schools that I'm applying to, when i decide to pursue a PhD.