Liberal Arts College for IR?

International95
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 05:58:42 +0000

If you are male (or identify as a man bla bla – this stuff would be far more complicated for internationals), then no, you cannot apply to MHC. You would be mostly looking at LACs, unless you have something exceptional to show for yourself, which, by the sound of it, you don’t. However, you can always apply to Georgetown, Tufts, Brown, Stanford etc to see if something works out (sometimes it does for some, usually due to amazing essays – I know a few). Sometimes you do get lucky (you do need excellent grades and test scores, though). But most times you don’t. So to be safe, apply to mostly LACs. Earlham would make an excellent safety school, and it is known for its global service programs and social science departments. You would definitely get the aid you want, and this I say from experience. You could also consider applying to my school, Reed, which is very generous to international students (many of us got more aid than we had anticipated). Also, the political science department is fantastic, and the IR professor we have is amazing (he worked for the Pentagon, for one, and his classes are filled with international students). Macalester is also a school to look into for poli sci/IR.

In light of understanding your citizenship status, I highly recommend that you STAY AWAY from the Claremont Colleges. These schools do not really care for international socioeconomic diversity, for whatever reasons. Schools like Tufts, however, though inhibited by their modest endowments, have strong interest in promoting international diversity in their schools, so they give as much aid as possible to internationals.