Georgetown or BU for international relations: which is better for an IR major?

The biggest practical tradeoff is Washington access versus Boston flexibility. Georgetown puts you in the middle of the policy world, with the School of Foreign Service, dense alumni ties in government and diplomacy, and semester-time internships that are unusually easy to build into your college routine. BU has solid international relations options and strong academics, but its edge is broader flexibility across a large research university rather than the same level of day-to-day proximity to embassies, think tanks, and federal agencies.

For international relations specifically, Georgetown has the stronger reputation and infrastructure. The Walsh School of Foreign Service is one of the most established undergraduate homes for IR in the country, and that matters for course depth, faculty networks, and the kinds of classmates drawn to diplomacy, security, development, and global policy. At Georgetown, IR is not just one major among many. It is one of the school’s core identities.

That shows up in classes and professors. Georgetown tends to offer more direct access to faculty with real policy, foreign service, intelligence, and international organization experience, especially in areas like security studies, regional affairs, and global governance. BU certainly has respected faculty and a serious Pardee School of Global Studies, but for undergraduate IR, Georgetown’s ecosystem is usually seen as deeper and more embedded in the field.

Internships are where the difference becomes most concrete. At Georgetown, students can realistically intern during the semester at places like embassies, NGOs, Capitol Hill offices, international organizations, and DC think tanks without it feeling logistically impossible. BU students can absolutely get strong internships too, especially in Boston and during summers, but the concentration of IR-specific opportunities during the academic year is much stronger in DC.

Career-wise, Georgetown also has a more direct pipeline into foreign policy, government, consulting, international development, and related graduate programs. The alumni network in those spaces is especially powerful. BU graduates do well too, but if your goal is specifically international relations rather than a broader global studies path, Georgetown usually carries more weight.

Between the two, Georgetown is the clearer pick for an IR major unless cost or personal fit changes the equation in a major way. For this field, it offers the more specialized undergraduate experience, the more relevant location, and the more established professional network.