Job prospects at schools ranked 40-50 in political science?

[humanist]

Anyone have an inkling on what they're like?

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Obviously, it's not great, but I think the negativity is a little overstated...As a group, schools ranked in the 40-50 range routinely place students in good jobs (note, the "as a group" qualifier). If you're choosing between a couple of those schools, you need to be sure you're interests match-up with the subfield strengths of the department (i.e. judicial politics at a school like South Carolina). I also think there's a pretty substantial difference between some of those schools that the rankings methodology can't really get at. I'd be sure to ask current faculty or graduate student advisors specific questions about program strengths/weaknesses. The more opinions you can get, the better.

- Bruno

[StudentForever]

Obviously, job prospects depend on the subfield. In American, there are more job openings for institutionalists than behavioralists because there are so many more people studying behavior than institutions. I can't speak for IR or comparative.

In addition, job prospects depend on what kind of institution you want to work at. It appears as though some schools have weathered the recession better than others. Most state schools seem to have been hard-hit; however, many top schools have also been hurt by investing too much of their endowments in the market (*cough Harvard cough*).

Basically, what I'm saying is there are too many factors to give an overall good-or-bad answer.

[bees]

There are not jobs out there at the moment, but if you are starting next year the economy will be humming when you finish and lots of schools who need to hire to fill the gaps from previous years. Normally 40-50 ranked schools means that you are looking at a school ranked 30 places lower down. If you're happy working at a Boston College, Boston University, Alabama etc, then there is no reason why you shouldn't apply to some schools ranked farther down.

[Penelope Higgins]

the previous post is generally right, but note that in the past few years the hires at both BU and BC have come from top 5 departments (Berkeley, Princeton, Harvard). I don't know about Alabama. But I would say that if you get a PhD outside the top 40-50 departments, you should not expect to get your first job in a department with a PhD program.

[Ziz]

There are not jobs out there at the moment, but if you are starting next year the economy will be humming when you finish and lots of schools who need to hire to fill the gaps from previous years. Normally 40-50 ranked schools means that you are looking at a school ranked 30 places lower down. If you're happy working at a Boston College, Boston University, Alabama etc, then there is no reason why you shouldn't apply to some schools ranked farther down.

Is BC really considered to be in the top 70-80 (30 places below 40-50)? I have seen it consistently ranked in at least the top 50.

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Is BC really considered to be in the top 70-80 (30 places below 40-50)? I have seen it consistently ranked in at least the top 50.

There's a ton of slippage and variance in these rankings when you start moving down the list. This especially true amongst subfields and for departments that made numerous hires in a short span of time (see Vanderbilt in AP). I think that once you get out of the top 20 or 25 schools (or so), who you're working with becomes more important than the school you're at. Can you get a job from a lower ranked school? Sure. It's not as easy, but it happens often enough.

-Bruno

[polisciphd]

Umm, Alabama's faculty consists of graduates from

Columbia

Stanford

WashU

Wisconsin

Texas A&M

U Texas-Austin

Iowa

Vanderbilt [stanford post-doc]

SUNY-Stony Brook

all of whom rank [or have ranked] higher than 30

[DrRockso]

Is BC really considered to be in the top 70-80 (30 places below 40-50)? I have seen it consistently ranked in at least the top 50.

Gotta take the USN rankings with a grain of salt or two. BC's a smaller, theory-focused program, and actually very competitive. Southern Cal was unranked, as well, and while I don't know a lot about the program, it has high admission standards and seems to place rather well.

Similarly, it's not like the faculty at a large, R1 are going to be staffed with PhDs from Nowhereland U.