Do you actually know what depts. specialize in?

[polisciphd]

One of the things that I wish was made more apparent in the whole application process was an understanding of what different departments actually specialize in. You might think that this is easy info to come by, but it is surprisingly hard to find in some instances. So I thought I might start a thread for people to add to so that future applicants can be better informed as to what they are getting themselves into.

University of Illinois - like all big ten schools, we are incredibly quantitatively oriented. The American folks specialize in behavior here, not many people working on institutions. The comparative guys are moving away completely from any form of area studies (so if you want to do africa studies, for example, don't come here), instead they are looking at common phenomena that exist across the int. system, more topically focused than anything else. The IR people are divided pretty evenly between conflict folks and IPE. The IPE people do lots of stuff, pretty wide ranging interests, but the conflict faculty, esp. Vasquez and Diehl, focus on territory and rivalry, respectively.

Hope this helps

[catchermiscount]

It's amazing how sharp the difference is in terms of the granularity with which you look at programs AFTER you're immersed in them and AFTER you get the perspectives of faculty members that think about this all the time. Odd - very few of us get into a doctoral program and then have to write another SoP. But hey, being the exception is fun.

[rising_star]

University of Illinois - like all big ten schools, we are incredibly quantitatively oriented. ... The comparative guys are moving away completely from any form of area studies (so if you want to do africa studies, for example, don't come here), instead they are looking at common phenomena that exist across the int. system, more topically focused than anything else.

I find that really interesting since UIUC has a respected African Studies Center that offers its own MA and has Title VI FLAS funding. Weird.

[FuzzyDunlop]

Berkeley grad student here...

Like most of the Top 10, the department really isn't that specialized, at least not any more. The most specialized places tend to fall somewhere in the 10-30 range, with those schools generally looking to establish a real comparative advantage in one thing or another. That said, Berkeley was long known for being the most oriented toward qualitative research of the Top 10 and that still might be true, although the department has been changing significantly.

Comparative - There is a strong impulse toward regional specialization and really knowing your cases here. That doesn't necessarily mean not doing quantitative research, but often means using mixed-methods within a narrower group of countries in which people also do fieldwork. People here would definitely reject the idea that regional specialization constitutes "area studies." Is American politics simply area studies? On the substantive side, Berkeley is very oriented toward topics like political economy, party systems, regimes, social movements, and political behavior. There is not much in the way of civil war or legislative institutions, for example.

American - We pretty much cover the gamut, but with the strongest presences in behavior and, with recent hires, in APD.

IR - Definitely more focused on IPE than on conflict/security, although this may change.

Methods - Berkeley has been trying to position itself as adopting a particularly "pluralist" approach. There are courses in topics that are commonly seen as "qualitative" (although they really transcend that distinction) such as conceptualization and measurement. But there is now also a formal theory sequence/subfield and a beefed up set of statistical courses, with a particular focus on problems of causal inference. There is a more laissez-faire attitude toward what grad students do than at other comparable programs. Some people get really deeply into certain methods, others do not. There isn't really a set regimen of methodological training that everybody goes through.

[polisciphd]

I find that really interesting since UIUC has a respected African Studies Center that offers its own MA and has Title VI FLAS funding. Weird.

You could get an african studies masters in addition to your phd, and count those classes as your electives, but the two departments have little to do with each other directly.

[convex]

Rochester focuses on ethnography and post-modern philosophy.

(Play along.)

[polisciphd]

Ethnography is like calculus 6 right?

[Certain_Entropy]

Rochester focuses on ethnography and post-modern philosophy.

(Play along.)

we actually have a comp lit department, sort of. its under the guise of modern languages and cultures which basically a room on the 4th floor of the library.

btw you can totally use a genetic algorithm to expose the maligned constructions of post colonial projections on subaltern narratives. in theory it should traverse the discursive space of the Symbolic and isolate capitalistic incarnations the objet petit a which haunt the subaltern. In reality the algorithm will be stuck in a infinite loop because your base case is undefined.

(I'm a misfit at rochacha. one of the few "critical bs theory" guys)

[acemoglu]

Berkeley grad student here...

Like most of the Top 10, the department really isn't that specialized, at least not any more.

That view may not shared by those outside your dept. My view of Berkeley is that it is one of the bastions of qually work, especially in comparative.

The most specialized places tend to fall somewhere in the 10-30 range, with those schools generally looking to establish a real comparative advantage in one thing or another.

CalTech and Rochester, two places specializing in formal and quantitative stuff, are surely both in the top 10, just by looking at their placements.

[jvita]

This thread is very interesting, thank you for posting! I hope to hear from students in other schools soon. I guess I'm going to find this info quite useful if I ever get to the "decision" stage...

[FuzzyDunlop]

I suppose it is all relative. If you look at many of Berkeley's recent hires - Sekhon, Schickler, Wittenberg, Gailmard, etc - it is clear that they have been trying to achieve more methodological balance. If you compare Berkeley to certain places that are almost entirely quantitative, it will still look relatively "qually" I suppose.

It depends what your criteria for "Top Ten" is I suppose. These places (GSB too) do well in placement because they are highly specialized and do a good job training a small number of students to attack one specific corner of the discipline. CalTech is not even a political science department. If your criteria is a bit broader, focusing not just on placement but the impact of research done at the department on political science as a whole, then I have a hard time seeing how these places would crowd out other departments like UCLA, UCSD, or Duke that are frequently mentioned as making up the rest of the Top Ten.

[Rory_123]

Other than Princeton, which top schools are strong in global justice, international law and/or post-conflict reconciliation and transitional justice?

[chicagocat]

Anyone have thoughts on Columbia political science, specifically comparative? I know they are strong in IR. I study Europe, trying to decide between Columbia political science and Harvard Public Policy....