SocingHxC Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 There might not be as much change as we think - or the results could be really surprising. A few reasons: USNWR in their grad rankings, use a metric of peer ranking/evaluation and a measure of publication record by the faculty. So this naturally favors large programs (they have more faculty and more publications) and prestigious institutions (high regard through peer evaluation.. Harvard will always Harvard, Berkeley will always be Berkeley). Also, the data for these rankings was probably taken 2-3 years ago, so any recent changes/movement might not really make a difference. I think the moral of all this though is to not take these rankings that seriously (but sadly, we do and we will when they come out). Hmm... I'm wondering about the lag time between eval and report. Any idea? I'd hope that the evaluators would want to get the report out sooner rather than [three years] later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magicunicorn Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 It's a money making enterprise for USNWR.. they rotate the rankings updates between the various disciplines to maximize their magazine/online sales. The surveys probably went out a few years ago and they just sit on the rankings to make sure they don't come out too often so that grad students like us get excited when they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faculty Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 On their website, USNWR reports that they're using the same methodology for the social sciences as last time, and that was solely peer review. They collected those ratings last fall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RefurbedScientist Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 a few from Irvine... A few or a "couple"? I suppose I just have to be patient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SocingHxC Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 A few or a "couple"? I suppose I just have to be patient. Word on the grapevine is that UMass has hired a very prominent social movement scholar who will be starting in the fall. Oh no... I guess I mistakenly read the post... None are going from Irvine to UMass. I was just referring to UMass' recent Irvine hires (about 3 in the last 3 years). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RefurbedScientist Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 Oh no... I guess I mistakenly read the post... None are going from Irvine to UMass. I was just referring to UMass' recent Irvine hires (about 3 in the last 3 years). Oh word. I knew about those. I thought we were talking faculty. Phew SocingHxC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1848ce Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 Speculation about Ohio State? From what I understand they haven't lost anyone since just before the last round of rankings came out (i.e. five years ago). In the same time they've halved their number of grads and while rising in various measures assessing faculty publications. Based on other things I've heard, I'm betting the most significant changes will happen in the 20-35 range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronM Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 I don't think they'll move significantly, I would be really surprised in they left the 10-20 range on either end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socanon Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 Does that mean they're out at midnight? Noon? 10:00a.m.? Anybody know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomDood Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 FYI, they're out now... SocingHxC and jacib 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SocingHxC Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/sociology-rankings ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid and jacib 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RefurbedScientist Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 (edited) It's like top ten musical chairs. Edited March 12, 2013 by SocialGroovements SocingHxC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RabbitFood Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Not much change.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth.Vegan Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Seeing UCSD drop bums me out :-/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SocingHxC Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Seeing UCSD drop bums me out :-/ They've been doing poorly with funding, TTD and placements, relative to other programs (especially among UCs). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magicunicorn Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 This probably explains a lot, though IMHO, a stupid decision - what good is averaging the results from 2008 and 2012 - why not just publish the 2008 ones in 2009 and the 2012 ones now? From their website: "Except in criminology, survey results from fall 2008 and fall 2012 were averaged to compute the scores. This is the first time that U.S. News averaged two years of results for Ph.D. programs in the social sciences and humanities." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faculty Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 This probably explains a lot, though IMHO, a stupid decision - what good is averaging the results from 2008 and 2012 - why not just publish the 2008 ones in 2009 and the 2012 ones now? From their website: "Except in criminology, survey results from fall 2008 and fall 2012 were averaged to compute the scores. This is the first time that U.S. News averaged two years of results for Ph.D. programs in the social sciences and humanities." I agree that this is a ridiculous decision. I wonder if there will be push back and any access to the 2012 scores by themselves. Given some schools' movement (e.g., Notre Dame from 48 to 42), there must have been select schools with significant variation between the two scores. Does anyone know where to access the 2009 scores? If so, it would be fairly easy to figure out a basic average from this year given there are only two means. It wouldn't be perfect, but would be something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronM Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 scatterplot figured out what would probably be the rankings for this year based on the averages: http://scatter.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/the-actual-201314-us-news-rankings/ ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid, RandomDood, jacib and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SocingHxC Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 scatterplot figured out what would probably be the rankings for this year based on the averages: http://scatter.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/the-actual-201314-us-news-rankings/ I was just going to post this, sir! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SocingHxC Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 I agree that this is a ridiculous decision. I wonder if there will be push back and any access to the 2012 scores by themselves. Given some schools' movement (e.g., Notre Dame from 48 to 42), there must have been select schools with significant variation between the two scores. Does anyone know where to access the 2009 scores? If so, it would be fairly easy to figure out a basic average from this year given there are only two means. It wouldn't be perfect, but would be something. The old scores can be found using web archives. The link takes a while to load, though. http://web.archive.org/web/20120223230755/http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/sociology-rankings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SocingHxC Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Word on the grapevine is that UMass has hired a very prominent social movement scholar who will be starting in the fall. Can you say who? Feel free to PM me if you want to be discrete. I'm also pumped to see what happens. I don't expect much movement in the upper tiers, but I would like to see UC Irvine and ND move up. I think Irvine in particular is one of the best programs in the country to do a a few kinds of work. So, I found out who it was... yes, was. That person has declined the offer from UMass. Groovy, if you don't know already, I'll let you in! FertMigMort 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FertMigMort Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Ah! I go on vacation and the USNWR goes crazy and decides to average rankings?! I guess that goes to show me that no good comes of relaxing. I came back to conspiracy theories about people in the top 10 who benefited from the averaging applying pressure. I did do a quick look at the comparison and found that schools that were hurt most by the change were almost all public. Interesting... I suspect that the bigger change in rankings for some programs led them to average it because they are selling the idea of prestige and reputation. That shouldn't be able to change that drastically (4 spots) in 4 years. This is just an unformed thought after getting off a transpacific flight. jacib 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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