Theory at Stanford: Thoughts?

[jarjax]

I'm an undergraduate at HYP, and am hoping/planning to apply to graduate programs in Political Theory and related fields in the near future. I was wondering what people's understanding was of Stanford's PT field? I know that it usually isn't ranked in the top 10 of PT departments (using the term ranking to refer to multiple lists here), and over the last three years it doesn't seem that they've placed any theorists. However, it is an amazingly strong program overall, and seemingly headed by Joshua Cohen, who does really high impact work. The down-side is, of course, that their department doesn't appear to run that deep after Cohen, especially in contemporary theory. Now, one might be able to draw on their philosophy department, but who knows. What are people's thoughts?

[interista]

I'm an undergraduate at HYP, and am hoping/planning to apply to graduate programs in Political Theory and related fields in the near future. I was wondering what people's understanding was of Stanford's PT field? I know that it usually isn't ranked in the top 10 of PT departments (using the term ranking to refer to multiple lists here), and over the last three years it doesn't seem that they've placed any theorists. However, it is an amazingly strong program overall, and seemingly headed by Joshua Cohen, who does really high impact work. The down-side is, of course, that their department doesn't appear to run that deep after Cohen, especially in contemporary theory. Now, one might be able to draw on their philosophy department, but who knows. What are people's thoughts?

Unless you really want to work with Cohen, I wouldn't apply to Stanford for theory. I wrote my undergrad thesis on Rawls, and I still didn't consider Stanford. Their department is more of a hodgepodge of theory-related people than a "true" theory department: Cohen is a (very good) philosopher, Ober is a (very good) classicist, and then there are some formal theory people thrown in the mix. I'm really not sure how Stanford ends up ranked in PT (top 10-17 US News) other than that non-theorists surveyed by US News rank it too high due to the overall strength of the department. That said, I'm getting rejected pretty much everywhere, and if I were to reapply again, Stanford would possibly be on my list. Theory has been ridiculously competitive this year (I graduated with departmental honors from a top-10 LAC with a 1500+ GRE and I may be out of luck).

My advice would be to apply to Stanford only if you think you won't have a shot at a top-10 program. I wouldn't apply as a safety either, because I doubt they intend to enroll more than 2-3 theorists a year, and I'm sure there are some applicants who are lured by the overall prestige of Stanford, not to mention the prospect of living in Palo Alto on a $30,000/year stipend. But if you are shooting for the top 10-20 programs, I'd throw Stanford in the mix with UVA, Georgetown, Toronto etc.

[poli90]

Stanford's reputation is for not being friendly at all to theory, and for a long time their sole major theorist was Susan Moller Okin, and I've heard informally there was some tension in the deptartment. I could see applying there if I was really interested in analytical political theory, but I would think it is behind places like UVA, Toronto, etc, and maybe even somewhere like Brown. Now, this can have its benefits as it forces you to interact more with non-theory folk, but remember that after you will be competing with people trained at departments that seem to take theory much more seriously. I could also see it working if you are interested in doing work that is between theory and say American and then bill yourself as much as an Americinist as a theorist, say like Archon Fung. I would stick with HYP+Chicago if you can...