AU's School of International Service was ranked a top school in the field of international relations in the latest edition of Foreign Policy magazine.
According to SIS Dean Louis Goodman, the Foreign Policy report was based on a study done by a social scientist at the College of William and Mary. The most recent survey, released for the second time, ranked doctoral, master's and bachelor's programs of colleges across the nation. Goodman said the previous survey had not rank international relations bachelor's programs.
SIS ranked highly in all three levels, Goodman said, noting that AU moved up more than any other school in the most recent set of rankings. According to Goodman, SIS's master's program ranked eighth nationwide, while its Ph.D. program ranked 23rd and its bachelor's program tied for 10th with George Washington University.
According to Goodman, the ratings reflect SIS's innovative and comprehensive programs, and SIS "ranked ahead of three or four Ivy League schools."
Arturo C. Porzecanski, a professor in SIS, said AU should strive to be among the top five international relations schools in the nation.
He said SIS's lack of a strong core curriculum among the school's many programs makes student preparedness more varied.
"It gives students the option to be properly trained or not properly trained," he said. "It's like having an army without basic training."
Each degree offered at SIS has a particular appeal that the survey recognized, Goodman said. The Ph.D. program, he said, offers a "multidisciplinary approach to the subject of international relations." The SIS program requires students to take classes in political science, sociology, economics and anthropology, while other national doctoral programs only require students to take classes in political science, Goodman said.
Goodman also said the SIS Ph.D. program is very selective. Of the 160 applicants this past academic year, only eight were admitted, he said.
The master's program focuses on "train[ing] people to go on to do jobs in international governmental service," Goodman said, adding that the program was also recognized by the Presidential Management Fellowship Program for the number of students it sends into government service.
Unique offerings, such as International Development, Peace and Conflict Resolution and Global Environmental Politics, also make the master's program more appealing, Goodman said.
Leslie Devereaux, a first-year master's student in SIS, said the rankings have been relatively constant.
"There's something to be said for our location and reputation," she said.
The SIS bachelor's degree, which Goodman called "the most demanding major of AU in terms of credit hours," features a strong liberal arts-based program. Students are "exposed to a number of fields of international relations and we expect them to study abroad," Goodman said.
Pooja Virani, a senior in SIS and the College of Arts and Sciences, was not surprised by the new SIS ranking.
"I feel we're already a top school, and always have been," she said. "The ranking is not going to make that big of a difference."
Goodman said that the survey is expected to be released again every two years.
Staff reporters Ali Goldstein and Jimm Phillips contributed to this report.
