<p>What you’ll want to do instead of post here is post on the Daily Jolt of both schools. mhc.dailyjolt.com and smith.dailyjolt.com. Look for “forum.” They will give you insider information about each school. </p>
<p>I am a recent grad of MHC. I don’t know what IR at Smith is like, but I can tell you about IR at MHC - it’s fantastic. There is TONS and TONS of funding to do all kinds of summer internships (important because a lot, especially in fields like development, are unpaid). Even if that’s not a huge consideration for you becuase you are able to take on unpaid internships, scholarships will boost your resume. Our language facilities are really good, though departments are small and underfunded. This is partially due to a shift in interest from majoring in languages to integrating language study into other majors (departments get funding over the long term based on number of majors). Our IR faculty is unparalleled for a small liberal arts college - in the 2007-2008 school year we had a former ambassador to Russia and a former national security advisor teach a class. I was taught by a former State Department official, my senior thesis advisor is quoted in major sources all the time (Reuters, just yesterday), and the head of the department has strong UN affiliations. Lots of women I know matriculated into the best schools for their masters study in IR (namely, Johns Hopkins’ SAIS and Fletcher), which also speaks to the quality of the program. On top of that, MHC is one of the few schools to give financial aid to internationals, which makes for a very diverse and vibrant student body. Other resouces like the Center for Global Initiatives have really good speakers (former Afghanistan correspondent turned UN employee, as an example) and really cool events. I am currently abroad and the MHC network is also amazing - for a small liberal arts college not known on the global scale, I continuously meet people (mostly alums, but other affiliates) who know of the college, know of its professors, etc. If you have more questions feel free to post them.</p>