Updated US-News Rankings

[Dwar]

Hey All, 

Not sure if this has already been talked about, but US-News has recently updated their Political Science rankings for the first time since 2016. While the importance of ranking in actual outcome can be debated until the sun goes down, it is still noteworthy when they update the ranking list. 

Take a look (link)

[Barry B. Benson]

Interesting! Thanks for the update.

I did some digging around, and if someone wishes to compare with the previous one here is the link: Top Political Science Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools (archive.org)

[Crossed_fingers]

Seems like the rankings stayed stable for a lot of programs. Any surprises for those of you that are more in touch with the discipline?

[Dwar]

17 minutes ago, Crossed_fingers said:

Seems like the rankings stayed stable for a lot of programs. Any surprises for those of you that are more in touch with the discipline?

USC seems to have...disappeared?

The only reasoning I can see behind this is the re-classification of the USC program as either a policy or IR program? Maybe because of the unique cross discipline nature of the graduate department there? 

[sad pepe]

5 hours ago, Dwar said:

USC seems to have...disappeared?

The only reasoning I can see behind this is the re-classification of the USC program as either a policy or IR program? Maybe because of the unique cross discipline nature of the graduate department there? 

Tulane (ranked 89th last time) has also gone missing... all political science doctoral programs should be on the list right?

[sloth_girl]

5 hours ago, j12345678 said:

Tulane (ranked 89th last time) has also gone missing... all political science doctoral programs should be on the list right?

Some I'm pretty sure got reclassified as policy/international type programs. Additionally, I think I've heard of a few that aren't ranked here and there. 

I think the small bump for UCSD and small drop for Yale and Duke were most notable among the Top 10. UNC dropped out of the top 10. WUSTL and Cornell moved up while OSU and UW-M moved down a bit. Also Emory seems to be climbing up. MSU saw a sizable drop -- sexual harassment scandal may have played into that. 

I'd also say that before, there were more ties (often 3 way) between schools, whereas now that's less common. 

[Richelieu]

Also some important notes before putting too much attention into rankings...

Taken from the "Read our Methodology" section of the rankings:

"THE RANKINGS OF doctoral programs in the social sciences and humanities are based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to academics in each discipline. U.S. News conducted the survey of doctoral programs in economics, English, history, political science, sociology, and criminology and criminal justice in fall 2020 and early 2021. 

The questionnaires asked respondents to rate the academic quality of the programs at other institutions on a 5-point scale: outstanding (5), strong (4), good (3), adequate (2) or marginal (1). Individuals who were unfamiliar with a particular school's programs were asked to select "don't know."

Here is the number of schools surveyed in each discipline: 42 in criminology and criminal justice; 125 in economics; 157 in English; 146 in history; 120 in political science; and 117 in sociology. Response rates were: criminology and criminal justice, 96%; economics, 41%; English, 34%; history, 32%; political science, 46%; and sociology, 46%."

So with less than 50% response rate, I don't really know how seriously one should take these rankings. Just my two cents.

[uncle_socks]

1 hour ago, Richelieu said:

Also some important notes before putting too much attention into rankings...

Taken from the "Read our Methodology" section of the rankings:

"THE RANKINGS OF doctoral programs in the social sciences and humanities are based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to academics in each discipline. U.S. News conducted the survey of doctoral programs in economics, English, history, political science, sociology, and criminology and criminal justice in fall 2020 and early 2021. 

The questionnaires asked respondents to rate the academic quality of the programs at other institutions on a 5-point scale: outstanding (5), strong (4), good (3), adequate (2) or marginal (1). Individuals who were unfamiliar with a particular school's programs were asked to select "don't know."

Here is the number of schools surveyed in each discipline: 42 in criminology and criminal justice; 125 in economics; 157 in English; 146 in history; 120 in political science; and 117 in sociology. Response rates were: criminology and criminal justice, 96%; economics, 41%; English, 34%; history, 32%; political science, 46%; and sociology, 46%."

So with less than 50% response rate, I don't really know how seriously one should take these rankings. Just my two cents.

Modern polling companies would kill for a response rate of 32%. Like if the 32% response rate is what makes you skeptical, you better be super skeptical of basically all survey and experimental inferences within our field. 

[kestrel18]

It seems there is some politics involved in this ranking: in my humble opinion, research output and the placement record are to be considered first and foremost. New York's Political Science Department placed 15th? Rochester is at 19th?...well, compare how many New York and Rochester alumni were hired as faculty by elite schools with some other higher-ranked programs. 

[uncle_socks]

1 hour ago, kestrel18 said:

It seems there is some politics involved in this ranking: in my humble opinion, research output and the placement record are to be considered first and foremost. New York's Political Science Department placed 15th? Rochester is at 19th?...well, compare how many New York and Rochester alumni were hired as faculty by elite schools with some other higher-ranked programs. 

fwiw nyu and rochester are more boutique than full-service departments, which will hurt them in aggregate rankings. they each do a couple of things really good (and they largely recruit students in those areas so placement is fine), but they're not great once you move outside of those strengths. like in the top 10 schools you could do nearly whatever, from political theory to APD to formal theory to political economy and turn out okay, while the same cannot be said for nyu or rochester (or wustl or sorta emory for that matter). 

[gradpumpkin]

2 minutes ago, BunniesInSpace said:

fwiw nyu and rochester are more boutique than full-service departments, which will hurt them in aggregate rankings. they each do a couple of things really good (and they largely recruit students in those areas so placement is fine), but they're not great once you move outside of those strengths. like in the top 10 schools you could do nearly whatever, from political theory to APD to formal theory to political economy and turn out okay, while the same cannot be said for nyu or rochester (or wustl or sorta emory for that matter). 

What about Emory would make it more of a boutique program? Just curious what area/methodology you'd say they're oriented around, as I haven't noticed any particular direction from them like I have with WUSTL, Rochester, etc. 

[natpvh72]

Personally, I'm surprised that my school this fall (Iowa) dropped from #37 last year to #46 this year. Makes me wondering why given that it seems to be a solid program ? 

[uncle_socks]

39 minutes ago, gradpumpkin said:

What about Emory would make it more of a boutique program? Just curious what area/methodology you'd say they're oriented around, as I haven't noticed any particular direction from them like I have with WUSTL, Rochester, etc. 

They're definitely more "mainstream" than say rochester, but at emory you're still likely within this [political economy very broadly defined] framework. Likely not doing political theory, APD, qualitative stuff. 

[kestrel18]

On 3/31/2021 at 12:24 PM, BunniesInSpace said:

fwiw nyu and rochester are more boutique than full-service departments, which will hurt them in aggregate rankings. they each do a couple of things really good (and they largely recruit students in those areas so placement is fine), but they're not great once you move outside of those strengths. like in the top 10 schools you could do nearly whatever, from political theory to APD to formal theory to political economy and turn out okay, while the same cannot be said for nyu or rochester (or wustl or sorta emory for that matter). 

NY admits 20-25 students every year. They demonstrate an outstanding placement (who is better, actually?) record across various subfields, not only in formal methods/stats. For instance, their Comparative placement is also rock-solid. NY does not appear to be a boutique program. At the same time, say WUSTL (an outstanding program, accepts much fewer people. Like NY, it is also heavy-quant oriented). However, WUSTL is quite-significantly higher in the ranking. 

 

[uncle_socks]

1 hour ago, kestrel18 said:

NY admits 20-25 students every year. They demonstrate an outstanding placement (who is better, actually?) record across various subfields, not only in formal methods/stats. For instance, their Comparative placement is also rock-solid. NY does not appear to be a boutique program. At the same time, say WUSTL (an outstanding program, with all due respect) accepts much fewer people. Like NY, it is also heavy-quant oriented but is not as successful in terms of recent placements. However, WUSTL is quite-significantly higher in the ranking. 
And what about Chicago (another awesome program, but in the past)? - Even higher than NY and WUSTL. - Honestly, I do not understand how come.

NYU is very formal/econometric and is boutique with respect to that bent. They select heavily on demonstrated quantitative ability. When I visited they told me they admitted us all because we have the quant skills that it takes to succeed in their program. Read NYU's own FAQ or Samii's webpage (he also calls it a boutique program) to get some hard evidence of this: they care so much more about quant skills than anyone else. Of course most people with high quant skills don't just do pure methods; they often have substantive interests and go in the job market as an expert in that substantive field, not in pure methods. (And I'm not sure if this is causal, but people who do become methodologists tend to come from CHYMPS.)

[Theory007]

On thing that stands out to me is that Michigan is not ranked for political theory. I don't know if it ever was but I suspect that it was. All other subfields are ranked very high but not theory.

[sad pepe]

22 hours ago, natpvh72 said:

Personally, I'm surprised that my school this fall (Iowa) dropped from #37 last year to #46 this year. Makes me wondering why given that it seems to be a solid program ? 

I'm kinda surprised too, it's a great program in my mind, and not a bad placement record either. Iowa was one of my top choices last year, I was waitlisted first but unfortunately didn't get an offer in the end... But great that you'll be joining Iowa!

[natpvh72]

16 minutes ago, j12345678 said:

I'm kinda surprised too, it's a great program in my mind, and not a bad placement record either. Iowa was one of my top choices last year, I was waitlisted first but unfortunately didn't get an offer in the end... But great that you'll be joining Iowa!

Yeah. Getting a closer look, I notice that the ranks (positions) of programs receive more attention and not the avg score. For the case of Iowa, it's score was 3.1 (down just 0.1 from last edition) but then dropped from #37 to #46. This means a relatively small change in the perceived quality can result in notable up or down in ranking for a program outside top 30. This does seem to be the case in top 20 or 30 schools.

Also thanks for your kind words! Are you in on a program this year?

[sad pepe]

@natpvh72 I actually applied last year, currently enrolled in a low-ranked program -- but hopefully I'll get the most out of it.

[TrishaSeliya]

In case, anyone can’t access USNEWS.
USNEWS Rankings Top 50 (2021- Political Science Edition)

1. Stanford University
2. Harvard University
3. Princeton University
4. University of California, Berkeley (Cal), University of Michigan
6. Yale University
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
8. Columbia University
8. University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
10. Duke University, University of Chicago
12. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC), Washington University in St. Louis (WashU)
15. Cornell University 15. New York University (NYU)
17. Ohio State University  (OSU), University of Wisconsin - Madison
19. Emory University, Northwestern University, University of Rochester, University of Texas- Austin, Vanderbilt University
25. University of California, Davis (UCD), University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
27. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
28. Indiana University, Rice University, Stony Brook University, Texas A&M University, University of Maryland, College Park, University of Virginia
34. Georgetown University, Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), University of Washington
37. George Washington University (GWU), Michigan State University, University of Notre Dame, University of Pittsburgh
41. Brown University, Florida State University (FSU), Johns Hopkins University (JHU), University of California, Irvine (UCI),  University of Georgia
46. University of Colorado, University of Iowa
48. Rutgers University, University of California, Riverside (UCR)
50. Syracuse University, University of Arizona, University of Florida, University of Houston