Top Social Psych & Social Cognition Programs

[Life's Calm]

Hey everyone, I was looking into the the top PhD. programs for social psychology.  However, the rankings on the Socialpsychology.org and US News and the World Report are out of date.  Although, I know that the rankings don't mean much and that research fit is a much better metric for finding top graduate schools.  I was going to speak with a faculty member to guide me through the top program search process, but I was wondering if anyone has insight on the top/elite programs in the field right now.

 

        I'm very interested in finding out where the University of Oregon, University of Colorado, Indiana University, Kansas University, Northwestern University, and Washington University in St. Louis fall in terms of top schools.

 

 

Thank you.

[lewin]

Here's a recent article that ranks programs and scientists by research influence:

 

http://www.harzing.com/download/nosekpspb.pdf

 

 

...I'm biased towards liking it because it puts my program in the top 20

 

 

ETA: The traditionally 'best' programs for social psych are Michigan, Stanford, and WUSTL. The ivies are great too.

[Linelei]

WashU has a stellar reputation (top 20). I would add UCLA and Harvard to the list of 'best' social psych programs above.

[Guest |||]

Consider the university of British Columbia as well my friend, they often have good funding and their social psych is booming.

[Life's Calm]

On 2/24/2013 at 6:04 PM, lewin00 said:

Here's a recent article that ranks programs and scientists by research influence:

 

http://www.harzing.com/download/nosekpspb.pdf

 

 

...I'm biased towards liking it because it puts my program in the top 20

 

 

ETA: The traditionally 'best' programs for social psych are Michigan, Stanford, and WUSTL. The ivies are great too.

I appreciate the feedback. 

 

On 2/24/2013 at 8:26 PM, Linelei said:

WashU has a stellar reputation (top 20). I would add UCLA and Harvard to the list of 'best' social psych programs above.

 

UCLA is definitely a program that I have been looking into.  I really like some of their faculty.

On 2/25/2013 at 10:27 AM, NicholasCage said:

Consider the university of British Columbia as well my friend, they often have good funding and their social psych is booming.

Thanks for the feedback. UBC is rocketing up my list because of the depth and breadth of faculty interest.  My goal is to pinpoint what my exact interest are in the next year before applying.

 

 

The  more comments the merrier!!

[stereopticons]

It also kind of depends on the research you want to do. But all of the schools you listed are pretty highly ranked and have great reputations for social programs. CU, Northwestern, and WUSTL are also pretty well known for their social neuroscience research, if that interests you (social cognition is pretty broad these days.)

[Life's Calm]

You make a good point about the vague nature of my post. Generally speaking, at this juncture in my study (junior in undergrad) I'm most interested in motivation in cognition, the self, and attitudes.  I have a year and a half before I graduate and decide what my main research interest is (even though it is subject to change as I continue to learn and grow). So, right now I'm just trying to get a feel for who's the cream of the crop, and who are the well respected programs in the context of the continual rise and fall of programs.  Similarly, I'm interested in finding out who out of my list specified earlier is the cream of the crop. I appreciate everyone's comments thus far. It seems that Stanford, WashU, Michigan, British Columbia, and Oregon are elite programs. A follow-up question would be: besides Stanford, do any of the other programs listed clearly fall into an elite tier classification? Also, does anyone know where Kansas University and Indiana University fall in terms of prestige and quality of overall doctoral program training? As stated before, I will be checking with my advisor and a few faculty members in my department.