Help Ranking Programs?

[zoolander515]

I am currently considering a number of offers and was wondering if anyone was willing to rank the following programs - particularly in regard to american politics.  My primary research interest is congressional-presidential relations with a secondary interest in voting behavior (i.e. campaigns and elections).  The programs:

 

GWU

Pitt

Maryland

UVA

Stony Brook

American University

[destoso]

I'm not really working on American politics  so I can't really help you with your ranking. However, Stony Brook is among the best places to study political behavior, especially political psychology. If you like the behavioral components of your research interests a little bit more than the institutional ones you might consider it... 

 

Stony Brook offering funding? 

[zoolander515]

Thanks for the feedback.  And no, Stony Brook is not offering funding.  In actuality, I'm really only considering Pitt and Maryland (who are offering funding, along with UVA and AU), but I was just curious to see others' opinions on all six.

[AmericanQuant]

GW is the only program on that list who has scholars whose stuff I read. UVA has a reputation for being kind of antiquated (though they recently brought on the bayes-i-est, methods-i-est person from UNC I could imagine). Couldn't comment on the others.

[saudiwin]

I might add, we now have the coolest and most helpful method-y prof ever.

 

<3 UVA...

[Prospie12]

If I were you, I would seriously look at which school has the best faculty fit for you, even if it isn't the overall better ranked school. If your primary interest is institutions, I would say that GWU is your best choice. They have a really nice group of people, including Binder, Deering, Lawrence, and Maltzman. 

 

As far as your two main choices are concerned, Maryland has Karol and Lee, but they seem to have a bigger behavior group (correct me I'm wrong--I'm not all that familiar). I'm not too familiar with Pitt, either. As far as behavior goes, Stony Brook is great. And outside of Thurber (who does really good work on congressional-presidential relations), American is much much stronger in behavior (with people like Lublin, Leighley, and Lawless).

[Nords]

Any update on which direction you're leaning, Zoolander?