What do we know? A gathering of data on various programs.

[danmark]

any ideas on DC schools like Georgetown and GWU?

[bauhaus]

Any views on the nyu visit day?

[shavasana]

any ideas on DC schools like Georgetown and GWU?

The GWU visiting day isn't until Monday. Expect comments then

[Not from me, but I know that people will probably be going.]

[Bdeniso]

Just returned from the Notre Dame recruitment weekend. Seemed like a great place(at least in IR/Security Studies). Faculty and Students seem really collegial ( suggested this is the case because there is plenty of funding for everyone so there is no competition between students.) Seemed really interested in the students work and willing to get them the training they need whether at Notre Dame or sending them to various other institutes to get the methods training the may need for their questions. Also seem to be adding new faculty which is always a good sign of the program growing.

[RWBG]

So Rochester's great. Department's really serious about training grad students, and a lot of really good people self-select into the program (a number of people had turned down offers from CHYMPS departments to go). Very close knit group of grad students. Kind of wish they had been less good so my decision would be easier. It's obviously an idiosyncratic place, but if you know you want to do formal theory or methods heavy work, I think they stack up well against any department.

[catchermiscount]

We very much enjoyed Rush 2012. To any that are active or lurkers on here, thanks for visiting. We're looking forward to a very good bunch of Pleges (sik), where "good" here refers to some convex combination of academic talent and sociability.

[kolja00]

The OSU visit was pretty amazing. The department is criminally underrated at least is the US News rankings. They have amazing people doing just about everything extremely well.

[Bdeniso]

They are bringing alot of great people in recently, which is awesome. Luckily for you and for me, it seems that there is beginning to be a revival of security studies it seems at least after a lull for a decade that I've heard my advisors lament about.

[Alptitude]

I visited Rochester and Ohio State in the past week and I want to study formal, methods, and American so take this with a grain of salt.

Rochester: They really have a close knit group of people. The professors and grad students all seem to get along. The grad students all take the formal and methods sequence so the students at Rochester are generally great at math. This can be a great thing. The classes are notoriously hard and a professor of mine from the econ department at Rochester considers the program the hardest political science program in the world. Having students who can work together and aid each other through that kind of hell can be a huge asset. Also, the program kind of goes all-out when it comes to recruitment.

Ohio State: As someone else posted, the department is great - in IR. However, they are really suffering in American and Methods. They lost Luke Keele, Craig Volden, and Alan Weisman in the last year. They are hedging all bets on their incoming hires: a guy from Stanford GSB and one from UCSD. Their formal sequence is nearly non-existent. When it comes to their formal sequence, there are maybe two students. William Minozzi is a great guy and I think he will change how we look at formal theory in political science, Jan Box-Steffensmeier is great and is renowned in her studies in time series analysis, the department wants to hire more networks people in the future but the program is really in a rebuilding stage.

Edited April 1, 2012 by Alptitude

[Otherworlder]

I know Harvard visit is going on right now, so just wondering if anyone would like to share some scoop and thoughts? I am really sad I can't go.

[Max Power]

I know Harvard visit is going on right now, so just wondering if anyone would like to share some scoop and thoughts? I am really sad I can't go.

not quite. it starts on wednesday. there was some general GSAS thing that happened over the weekend but that seemed mostly about housing and whatnot. I'll be at the department one. i can let you know how it went when i get back

[lordvader]

Anyone has ideas on Columbia? The recruitment event was the last week.

[PDCU]

I would like any information on Brown and JHU please!

[Anna87]

Anyone have information on Upenn?

[IRToni]

Bumping, just for the sake of it! Also, if anyone has something to add, please feel free!

[tpop]

Any info about IR and/or Political Theory at Ohio State?

[DKSL]

Any info about IR and/or Political Theory at Ohio State?

I promise I will provide info once I am done visiting all schools. However, take any info you get from gradcafe with a grain of salt, since we all have different priorities/research interests. 

[mseph]

Bumping this up! Because some of us are still visiting and making decisions, thought it would be nice to share what we know.

[lurker15]

Currently at a Top10 program:

 

(1) Theory job market still sucks. If you want a job in theory, Yale/Chicago are still probably your best bet

 

(2) For whatever reason, a lot of people last year really did not care for Princeton's visit days. No one doubts it is a good dept, but there were a lot of stories of profs and current grad students either not meshing well with admits, or in some cases failing to call them, etc., as scheduled. Unclear if this was a fluke or something to be concerned about going forward, but I personally know of three folks who turned down Princeton specifically because of the people. 

 

(3) The nation's best econ dept is at Stanford University. The second best econ dept is Stanford Political Science.

 

(4) From talking to friends at other T1 schools, Yale seems to have the reputation for having the most collegial faculty/also being the dept that won't flip out if you pursue something outside of academia. Have a friend at Stanford who said he would have picked Yale "hands down" if he were only choosing based on the people. 

 

(5) Yale killed it on the job market this year and also did very well last year. For all the talk about faculty exits, this doesn't seem to be impacting their placement too much

 

(6) Harvard continues to kill the job market as well. Seems to have had the best placement (along with Yale) the past 2-3 years. Stanford seems to have hit a bit of a rough patch, unclear why or how long it will last (it's Stanford, so probably not for long)

 

(7) Cornell and UNC have made some great tandem hires. Been pretty impressed with who comes out of Cornell as well. 

[kosmo]

I know the Princeton visit is going on today. Anything to share, folks? I couldn't make it halfway cross the globe because of my job.  

[ARealDowner]

There was a bit of the disorganization alluded to above, I had a one on one meeting with a faculty member who just completely forgot about it and wasn't there. That said, the department seems across the board great, particularly if you're an Americanist with an interest in institutions (especially anything with law or the judiciary). The students seemed to not have too much of a social life outside of coursework unless they lived in New York or Philly (not surprising given that it's Princeton, NJ), though a sizeable portion of those in the dissertation stage did live in one of those two cities. If you have any more specific questions, feel free to PM me.

[kosmo]

There was a bit of the disorganization alluded to above, I had a one on one meeting with a faculty member who just completely forgot about it and wasn't there. That said, the department seems across the board great, particularly if you're an Americanist with an interest in institutions (especially anything with law or the judiciary). The students seemed to not have too much of a social life outside of coursework unless they lived in New York or Philly (not surprising given that it's Princeton, NJ), though a sizeable portion of those in the dissertation stage did live in one of those two cities. If you have any more specific questions, feel free to PM me.

 

Thanks for this! I'll PM you real soon.

[AuldReekie]

Anyone go to the TAMU visit weekend?