Rankings in African American History

[lk447]

I'm trying to decide between programs for a PhD in history, and I am very certain that I want to study African American History (20th century). A lot of people reference rankings in making decisions. How can I know what schools are best in African American History? The rankings for just History won't match up exactly with this specific field, but I don't know how to tell which schools are better than others. Should I put any weight on one school being ranked higher in just History, or only look at which is better for African American History, and how can I found out either piece of information? Obviously, this is only one piece of my decision.

[maeisenb]

To get more advice, I'd post this in the history section, since there are a bunch of historians who can probably give you better ideas there.

The general views are:

1. Look at the professors you would work with to see what they work on, determine their fit, and especially how they place people. Make sure there are multiple people you want to work with too.

2. Overall rankings do matter, although probably between tiers more than anything. So Harvard is probably better to have a PhD from then say a second tier state school.

That's just a start and it's not mathematical as you said, but I'd definitely post in the historian forum as there are other people who are working on African American history over there and might be willing to give you specifics on certain programs or message with you as well.