Foreign Policy magazine ranked the School of International Service the 10th best international studies undergraduate program.
SIS’s masters program came in eighth on the best graduate programs list.
The results are based on the Teaching, Research and International Policy survey performed by the Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations at the College of William and Mary.
Foreign Policy is a prominent publication about international relations.
“It’s always great to be viewed to be in the top 10,” SIS Dean James Goldgeier said. “Since we have both master’s students and undergraduates to be considered to be in the top 10 in both categories, I think it is really a great achievement for us. But, of course, our goal is to work hard to make SIS the best school it could possibly be, so we will keep trying to work our way up.”
The top 10 lists also included schools such as Stanford, Yale and Harvard University. George Washington University came in ninth and Georgetown University came in fifth for best undergraduate international relations programs.
“It’s great to be listed in that group,” Goldgeier said. “I’m delighted that the group that got this survey thought highly of us but there are all sorts of things that we do that don’t even get captured by this survey.”
Political scientists administered the survey, so it did not account for the interdisciplinary approach of SIS, Goldgeier said.
“We have an outstanding program in international development,” Goldgeier, said. “We have a very unique program in international communication. We have a program in international peace and conflict resolution that the other schools don’t. We have a global environment program that’s very cutting edge. We have a U.S. foreign policy program, which Georgetown and GW don’t have.”
SIS’s doctorate program did not make the top 10 list.
“Our PhD program is an interdisciplinary program within a school of international affairs that’s very different than the standard PhD program in international relations which typically is in a political science department,” Goldgeier said.
Goldgeier said that, while SIS’s ranking was exciting, the goal is to continue to build on SIS’s interdisciplinary approach.
“In many respects, the goal isn’t to do things here to respond to that survey but just to continue to improve on what we do and to make sure that we have the highest quality research taking place and the highest quality teaching place,” Goldgeier said.
