Was recently accepted to Georgetown, Dartmouth, and Duke - super super excited and grateful, but struggling to pick one. For context, I am hoping to major in International Relations to either set myself up for a career in foreign service or government work OR to go to law school and become a lawyer (currently leaning towards the latter). I’m also not entirely locked in on this major/career path so not sure if that will look the same for me in 4 years. I know that Gtown’s SFS is unmatched for IR but still hesitant because of the cutthroat environment that is DC… not sure I want to be with so many people who all want to do the exact same thing as me and will step on me to get an advantage. LOVE the vibes of Dartmouth, and Duke seems really nice, too. ANY advice, literally any at all would be so greatly appreciated.
For more context:
- Gtown: pretty close to home, dream since I was in middle school, great language and international relations programs but ultra-competitive and not super my vibe in terms of the preppyness (though that is probably at all of these??)
- Dartmouth: I like the quarter system and how outdoorsy it is and the prestige of an ivy is kind of clouding my judgment but super far away and cold
- Duke: not too far away, prestige is again clouding my judgment, good government programs but a lil more STEM focused than humanities. Also seems a little more intense than dartmouth
There’s not a bad choice here - and if you want to go to law school, the where matters little, if at all. Don’t believe me - Harvard Laws first year class has 147 schools - Auburn, LSU, etc. Yale - from 2020-24 - 169 schools - Loyola Chicago, Youngstown State. UVA - #8 - 133 schools - not this year but last their top schools represented after UVA were UGA and Alabama.
So take law school out - it’s not a reason to choose any of these - but where you feel comfortable is. You don’t know what your future will hold - but you can go to grad school from any of these.
Prestige is clouding your judgement - but guess what - all three are prestigious - so take that out of your equation. Call it a wash. Besides, there are kids from many schools getting jobs in IR. Mine is at a no name school and interned at a top think tank in the fall. So the where is less important and prestige means nothing once on campus - you are there day after day after day and that is most important.
College, for many, is about growth. So going so close to home - may not be expanding your self. It may be - if you are not going home, etc. but if you are using home as a crutch…
Duke is a nice distance away - close enough to pop home if needed, better weather, is gorgeous as you note - and is strong in policy and the social sciences.
Dartmouth is harder to access and the weather seems to bug you. But you like the outdoors.
There is no bad choice here although to me it seems like Gtown is too much in your comfort zone.
Given the major and future schooling, is one significantly less expensive than the others? Unless you can fund graduate school, that should be a consideration too. I’d say based on what you stated, Duke would be of more comfort than Dartmouth - but to me, both would be better than Gtown - but I’m a fan of growth and often (but not always) it’s hard to grow when you’re near home.
Best of luck.
I would say that for prestige there are equal. HYP is different level than Dartmouth. If you are sure you want to do IR than it is a non brainer with Gtown. All of these schools will set you up for a T14 law school. GPA is super important for Law school so I would say pick a school you will enjoy and excel at.
For your academic interests, Dartmouth appears entirely suitable for you:
I feel like you are maybe getting caught up in something like US News rankings, which are generic and terrible for this sort of college choice situation.
SFS is a T5 for IR. Everyone who matters thinks that way, no one will ever think, “Why didn’t this IR kid go to Duke?” They will think you went to SFS for the same reason engineers go to MIT–because of course you would. Even if you don’t end up in government or IR or even law, people in, say, business will see you went to SFS, and know you would choose that over colleges ranked higher by US News, because of course you would.
As for competition–look, I have bad news for you. The kids who want to go to top law schools are a competitive bunch. The kids who want a high-prestige job in IR/government service (an overlapping category) are a particularly competitive bunch. You are not going to escape this with college choice, particularly not if your other choices are Duke and Dartmouth (not exactly slumming it in the ambitious students category). You just have to be prepared for this as a reality.
So, personally, I feel like you should just leap into SFS with the attitude you are ready to take it on.
Academically, I don’t think you can do better (maybe not even as well) as Georgetown SFS for IR. It is among the two or three premier IR programs in the country, by rep anyway.
Obviously, Dartmouth and Duke are outstanding schools as well.
I would make a spreadsheet of all the factors that are important to you. Could be things like Cost, Curriculum, Internships, Location/Weather, Size, Food and Housing, Social Vibe – whatever. (so, visualizing it: the rows are the schools and the columns are the factors. the furthest-right column is Total Score)
Weight each factor according to how important it is to you, like – 0.1 for Cost, 0.05 for Food, 0.2 for Academics, etc. Assign a value of 1-10 for each factor at each school, multiply them all by their weight, add them up for each school… and that’s one way to declare a winner.
I’d also recommend visiting them if that is possible. Sometimes, one school will just feel the most like home.
OP: In your situation, the choice really becomes a matter of personal preference. Visit or revisit all three, then decide.
While I agree with other commenters that SFS is a top IR program, pick it only if it feels like the best choice FOR YOU. I may be reading into what you wrote too much, but I get the sense that you’re hesitating because you question whether it is the best fit. If it is just a prestige thing, I think you can ignore that, as others have noted. But if it is a fit thing, dig down and figure out why. The good news is you have 3 fantastic choices and no one will question why you picked one. They do have slightly different feels – Dartmouth rural in a small very cute town, Georgetown on the edge of a beautiful neighborhood in a major metropolis, and Duke in a picturesque green area, but more suburban feeling than Hanover NH. You can go to a good law school from any - and you can study IR at any. But the programs will feel different, and the size of the programs may be a plus or minus (small pond vs big pond, number of opportunities or folks interested in the same things), so think about the choices and how they’ll feel on you. But again, not a bad choice here!
This is truly a case where three reasonable people could make three different choices. Assuming they are all equally affordable there is no right or wrong option. Revisit if possible, go with your preference, and never look back.
Agree in general - comes down to fit. I am an SFS grad and have visited both of the other schools. To me, they have very different feels. I loved going to school in DC and could not imagine going to school in Hanover. It is so very different - in DC the city is your playground; at Dartmouth, campus is your playground (and, ofc, the surrounding outdoors). Georgetown has limited Greek life (not approved by the school) and Dartmouth is pretty Greek. Duke is somewhere in the middle. I am a parent (as you prob guessed from my user name) so my experience at SFS is probably not terribly relevant but I do not remember it being at all cutthroat. The one thing I will broach is the language aspect - not sure if that’s something of interest to you - but for me it was huge. At Georgetown you can take classes in foreign languages (perhaps true at the others now, as well) but, for me, taking a business class taught in Spanish was very useful as I worked overseas and having the professional vocabulary was huge. I think you have no bad choices and agree strongly with the others that - given that - fit is huge. Where do you think you will be happy(est)? Where do you think you will grow best? You will get a great education at any of the schools so pick the one that “feels” right. Good luck and congratulations!
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