Feature

Pipeline to the Beltway?

Ranking which schools train the best candidates for jobs with the U.S. government.

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WASHINGTON - DECEMBER 23: (AFP OUT) U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the payroll tax bill in the White House Press Briefing Room December 23, 2011 in Washington, DC. Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the capitol came to an agreement to extend the tax cuts which will stop a two percent increase in pay-roll taxes, prevent doctors from taking a cut in Medicare payments as well as extending unemployment benefits. (Photo by Dennis Brack-Pool/Getty Images)

 

These rankings are part of the Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) survey, conducted by Paul C. Avey, Michael C. Desch, James D. Long, Daniel Maliniak, Susan Peterson, and Michael J. Tierney. All additional information provided was added by Foreign Policy and is not part of the survey results.

In this survey, IR practitioners were asked to rank which schools train the best candidates for jobs with the U.S. government. The question made no distinction regarding the type of degree earned.

1. Harvard University

Notable Alumni:
President Barack Obama, J.D. ’91,
Former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, B.A. ’50, A.M. ’52, Ph.D. ’56
Former chairman, Council of Economic Advisors, Lawrence Summers, Ph.D. ’82

2. Georgetown University

Notable Alumni:
Former President Bill Clinton, B.S. ’68
Former CIA Director George Tenet,B.S ’76
Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, M.A. ’61

 

3. Johns Hopkins University

Notable Alumni:

Ambassador to Lithuania Anne E. Derse, M.A. ’81
Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, M.A. ’80
Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner, M.A, ‘85

 

4. Princeton University

Notable Alumni:

CIA Director David Petraeus, M.PA. ’85, Ph.D ‘87
Former Secretary of State, James Baker. B.A ‘52
Former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, MCF, ‘70

 

5. Stanford University

Notable Alumni:

U.S Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, A.B. ’86
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, L.L.B ‘49
Former U.S Trade Representative Susan Schwab, A.M. ‘77

 

6. Tufts University

Notable Alumni:

Former U.S ambassador to the U.N Bill Richardson,M.A. ’70
Counselor to the U.S. State Department, Philip D. Zelikow, Ph.D.
Former U.S ambassador to the U.N. Thomas R. Pickering, M.A.

 

7. Columbia University

Notable Alumni:

Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, ‘55
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,
Former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft

 

8. Yale University

Notable Alumni:

Former President George H.W. Bush, B.A. ’48
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, J.D ’73
Former C.I.A Director Porter Goss,B.A. ’60

 

9. George Washington University

Notable Alumni:
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, M.B.A. ’71
Former U.S ambassador to China Adm. Joseph Prueher, M.S. ’73

 

9. University of Chicago

Notable Alumni:
Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Ph.D. ’72
Former U.S Ambassador to the U.N. Zalmay Khalilzad, Ph.D. ’79
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, J.D. ’67 

 

11. U.S. Naval Academy

Notable Alumni:

Former President Jimmy Carter, B.S. ’47
Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair, ’68
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, ’68

 

12. U.S. Military Academy at West Point

Notable Alumni:

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, B.S. ’74
Former President Dwight Eisenhower, B.A. ’15
Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki, B.S.

 

13. American University

Notable Alumni:
Former U.S Ambassador to the OECD Connie Morella, M.A. ’67
U.S. Senator Robert Byrd, J.D. ’63
Former Homeland Security advisor Frances Townsend, B.A. ’82

 

14. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Notable Alumni:
Former Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, Ph.D. ’66
Former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Gregory Mankiw, Ph.D. ’84
Former Secretary of State George Schulz, Ph.D., ’49 

 

15. University of Michigan/Ann Arbor

Notable Alumni:

Former U.S President Gerald Ford,B.A. ’35
Director of USAID, B.S. Rajiv Shah, ’95
Ambassador Susan D. Page, first U.S Ambassador to South Sudan, A.B.

 

16. Syracuse University

Notable Alumni:

Vice President Joseph Biden, J.D. ’68
Former U.S Secretary of Commerce, John T. Connor, B.A. ’33
Former Deputy Secretary of Defense John P. White, Ph.D. ’69

 

16. Duke University

Notable Alumni:

Former President Richard Nixon, J.D. ’37
Chief of Staff to Vice President Cheney, David Addington, J.D. ’81

 

18. University of California/Berkeley

Notable Alumni:
Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, B.A. ’37
Former Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta, B.BA. ’53
Former Secretary of State Dean Rusk, J.D. ’40

18. College of William and Mary

Notable Alumni:

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, B.A. ’65
Former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors Christina Romer,B.A. ’81
U.S ambassador to Honduras, Charles Ford, B.A. ’72

20. Four-way tie

<p> Methodology: The authors are researchers with the Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) project at the College of William and Mary. The fourth wave of the TRIP survey explores the views of international relations (IR) faculty from every four-year college and university in the United States, as identified by U.S. News &amp; World Report, for their views on various international issues. The results include the responses of 1,582 faculty members, representing more than 40 percent of IR scholars in the United States, collected between August and November 2011. The parallel survey of practitioners surveyed 244 current and former policymakers who served from 1989 to 2008 in national security decision-making roles at the level of assistant secretary, director, and designated policymaking groups within several U.S. government agencies.You can find complete results from the survey of U.S. IR scholars here. </p>
Daniel Maliniak is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of California, San Diego.

Susan Peterson is the Wendy and Emery Reves professor of government and international relations and the chair of the Department of Government at William & Mary.

Michael J. Tierney is the George and Mary Hylton professor of international relations and director of the Global Research Institute at William & Mary. Twitter: @MikeTierneyIR

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