Arabic, Middle East, Political Science, etc.?

[New001]

Figured I'd give this a try.

My plans have been pretty much thrown out over the last couple of years so I'm looking for schools to go to. I was supposed to graduate in 2008 with a degree in nuclear engineering from UIUC but that's long been abandoned.

Any knowledge of good schools for Arabic in particular, but ideally political science in the Middle East as well? Offering many other strong language programs would be a huge plus as well (Hebrew, Farsi, Russian, Italian in particular would make me interested) I've found myself in Houston, TX for the time being but that's fairly changeable if the right situation came along.

[Autocratic]

PSC in the Middle East would really be international affairs, not a political science major. I go to George Washington, which has really strong IA and Arabic programs, if you can afford it.

[Jshuttlesworth]

I take Arabic at the University of Pennsylvania and it is an excellent program. The teachers are all native speakers, small classes, etc. I have also taken some PoliSci classes that were excellent, and I took two semesters of Italian and made remarkable progress (again, all native speakers). The International programs office is also awesome, and I'm actually going to go to Morocco in the fall to study Arabic in Fes.

Also, Middlebury has this awesome language program over the summer, where you live with a bunch of people taking your language and only speak the language, etc. for 8 weeks, although I heard Arabic is filled up for this summer.

Also, Arabic is VERY hard, but very interesting IMO and very useful.

[New001]

[ QUOTE ]
PSC in the Middle East would really be international affairs, not a political science major. I go to George Washington, which has really strong IA and Arabic programs, if you can afford it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, that's the phrase I was looking for that just didn't come out at 8 in the morning or whatever ungodly hour I was up at.

Thanks.

[New001]

[ QUOTE ]
I take Arabic at the University of Pennsylvania and it is an excellent program. The teachers are all native speakers, small classes, etc. I have also taken some PoliSci classes that were excellent, and I took two semesters of Italian and made remarkable progress (again, all native speakers). The International programs office is also awesome, and I'm actually going to go to Morocco in the fall to study Arabic in Fes.

Also, Middlebury has this awesome language program over the summer, where you live with a bunch of people taking your language and only speak the language, etc. for 8 weeks, although I heard Arabic is filled up for this summer.

Also, Arabic is VERY hard, but very interesting IMO and very useful.

[/ QUOTE ]
I was on the Middlebury website the other day and put it down as one to look into more. Thanks for confirming that. The info on Penn is also much appreciated. Thanks.

[The Bandit Fish]

A friends brother went to the American University in Cairo and learned Arabic there. He came back, got his Masters at Georgetown and walked into a job with the State Dept.

[theweatherman]

[ QUOTE ]
PSC in the Middle East would really be international affairs, not a political science major. I go to George Washington, which has really strong IA and Arabic programs, if you can afford it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Im an middle eastern studies major at GW and we do have a decent arabic program. Its [censored] hard as hell. In fact I will be up all night writing an essay only 200 words long. Fun times for all.

some would consider GW expensive (its only the most expensive school in the country). I consider it astronomically expensive, but worth it as Arabic is up and coming in this country and world affairs. think russian for the past 50 years.

For those who dont want to pony up 200k for a bachelors degree I hear that SUNY albany (my hometown) has a decent islamic studies program, and for 1/5 the price.