Sociology: UChicago, Yale or Michigan AA?

[xwill]

My area of interest is historical comparative sociology and all three schools have great faculty members in the area.

Chicago has a rigid and systematic training in the first two years that students would have a general exposure to every sociological subfields. great faculties, extremely busy. intense and depressed environment.

Michigan is strong in its comparative researches and the department has lots of interdisciplinary resources. quant oriented (not very interested). Faculty care unsatisfied.

Yale has Julia Adams and Phil Gorski, two big names in historical sociology and their students got taken care of extremely well. Though the department is small and lack of choices in other areas. Placement record not good.

All three schools offer me good funding packages (Yale is slightly better)

so where to go...?

Thanks for any suggestions!!!

[rising_star]

Will the small size of Yale's department hinder your ability to study what you want? And what do you mean by "faculty care unsatisfied"?

[socialpsychg]

Honestly, you know your interests best. If you can't decide rationally (as you mentioned, all three have their pros and cons), go with your gut.

[s33]

Honestly, you know your interests best. If you can't decide rationally (as you mentioned, all three have their pros and cons), go with your gut.

I do not think you can ignore placement, particularly in an extremely competitive discipline such as sociology. In my view, rational self-interest dictates that you narrow your choice to Chicago or Michigan (both of which are terrific programs and universities).

[socialpsychg]

I do not think you can ignore placement, particularly in an extremely competitive discipline such as sociology. In my view, rational self-interest dictates that you narrow your choice to Chicago or Michigan (both of which are terrific programs and universities).

Oh, agreed on that. However, it was mentioned that the two historical sociologists treat their students well - does that mean that their placement record has been good too (although the rest of the department may be worse off)? If you haven't already, an investigation into which specific advisors have had good placement records at Yale may bring more light to the situation.