Comparative Politics - Top 15?

[polister81]

Hi all --

Which programs would you consider in the Top 15 for Comparative Politics? Let's use the U.S. News CompPols Ranking as a starting point:

Top 10:

Harvard

UC - Berkeley

UCSD

Princeton

Stanford

UCLA

Columbia

Michigan

Yale

Duke

Others: Chicago? NYU? MIT? UNC? UW-Madison?

If someone wants to rank by geographic region, all the better.

[natofone]

I doubt that Chicago would be in the top 15 for comparative, but I'd have to say that both MIT and UW-Madison both would be.

[FuzzyDunlop]

Outside the top 6-8 schools, rankings get arbitrary and "global rankings" of comparative politics are not very useful. You should judge the programs based upon the quality of the faculty in your regional subfield of interest and in terms of whether the program as a whole can give you good training and support in the methodology toward which you are inclined.

[oscarwildebeest]

Outside the top 6-8 schools, rankings get arbitrary and "global rankings" of comparative politics are not very useful. You should judge the programs based upon the quality of the faculty in your regional subfield of interest and in terms of whether the program as a whole can give you good training and support in the methodology toward which you are inclined.

Nailed it.

Also, replace "of comparative politics" with "of any subfield", "regional subfield of interest" with "area of interest" - now you've got good advice for anybody, regardless of subfield.

[swr22]

Yeah- I think that it does depend on country/area of interest, to a large degree. Would be nice to know, though, which schools are considered good for Africa, South Asia, Russia, Europe etc

[convex]

Yale's comparative placement is really not very good. NYU is very good -- I would argue one of the best in comparative.

[Penelope Higgins]

OK. I'll bite. Name a top 10 comparative politics NYU placement who has worked with faculty still at NYU. Saiegh and Johns are the only two I can come up with, and Saiegh started out at Pittsburgh. Not exactly a stellar placement record. Still a great place for a particular kind of comparative politics, but I would not choose NYU over Yale unless I was sure I wanted to do that kind of work.

[FuzzyDunlop]

I agree with Penelope. I don't think NYU's placement record in comparative is particularly strong (certainly not "one of the best"), and they have a very pronounced methodological orientation. If you definitely want to do formal modeling and/or a lot of statistics, it could be a good choice but its not a great fit for everyone and don't kid yourself about it being competitive with the very top schools overall in terms of placement.

Yale's comparative program has traditionally been seen as lagging somewhat behind other subfields there, but they have hired some very good people recently. Its an especially good place if you want to study violence/civil war.

[brickred]

How would you rate Yale in terms of comparative political development/political economy? Any comparisons with NYU or Duke??

[Penelope Higgins]

Just my 2 cents, but if you're interested in empirical (as opposed to theoretical) comparative development or political economy, NYU is not a great fit (unless there is someone there I can't think of). Yale has Scheve, Rosenbluth and Dunning (and others); Duke has Kitschelt, Wibbels, and Lange (and others). Tough call, but you can't go wrong between the two.