Duke vs Johns Hopkins vs Northwestern

slik_nik
Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:08:12 +0000

The differences will matter more at the graduate-level; at the undergrad level, you shouldn’t be overly concerned about the “best political science department” unless you have a very specific interest in a unique specialization (for example, national security) that the other two universities don’t have. As a recent Duke grad, I consider all three universities peer-institutions, despite what others will say on this board. At the undergrad level, your engagement in your area of study matters more so than the department’s graduate program ranking. You should be considering the graduate program ranking once you graduated from college and only if you are thinking about pursuing a master’s or PhD in political science.

If you are considering public policy, Duke has an entire school dedicated to it- the Sanford School of Public Policy, and it seems like Hopkins has a similar institute that offers bachelor’s and masters degrees in public policy ([Institute for Policy Studies - Johns Hopkins University](http://ips.jhu.edu/)). I don’t know much about Northwestern’s program, but both Duke and Hopkins appear to have strong political science programs.