accurate ranking of top polisci programs

[em2]

I don't trust USNews to rank Political Science programs. What do you all consider the top institutions, in terms of 1) placement, 2) strong faculty, 3) prestige?

[dih2]

I'd love to see this by subfield (or at least for my subfield! theory)

[guest56436]

1 hour ago, em2 said:

I don't trust USNews to rank Political Science programs. What do you all consider the top institutions, in terms of 1) placement, 2) strong faculty, 3) prestige?

So you would rather trust prospective grad students opinions about something they haven't even experienced before rather than systematic surveys distributed to professors throughout the field?

Well all know there are flaws with ranking systems but nonetheless they have been shown to correlate fairly well with placement. 

Edited February 21, 2017 by Comparativist

[resDQ]

1 minute ago, Comparativist said:

So you would rather trust prospective grad students opinions about something they haven't even experienced before rather than systematic surveys distributed to professors throughout the field?

Well all know there are flaws with ranking systems but nonetheless they have been shown to correlate fairly well with placement. 

Agree with @Comparativist. The best we can do is take the USNews rankings and possibly divide them into tiers so that minuscule ranking differences are gone. 

[krapp]

Let's be real...whatever program I end up going to is number one. The rest are all fine enough...I guess 

[jazzmintea]

4 minutes ago, krapp said:

Let's be real...whatever program I end up going to is number one. The rest are all fine enough...I guess 

Agree. No point ranking the schools when ultimately research fit and quality of your dissertation matter the most. 

[VMcJ]

Speaking of that, when the new US News Rankings are supposed to be released? From what I saw comparing their rankings for the last two decades, there are just a couple of dramatic changes, most schools are stable, and I don't expect this time will be different. But curious nonetheless... 

[Monody]

In March according to what I read on PSR.

Edited February 21, 2017 by Monody

[VMcJ]

22 minutes ago, Monody said:

In March according to what I read on PSR.

Thanks. But no info on early, mid or late March?

[Monody]

2 hours ago, VMcJ said:

Thanks. But no info on early, mid or late March?

I don't remember any but given the limited variation I would not give it too much thought.

[dih2]

Is anyone frustrated with how programs put up their placement? It seems that they should put up where every single person ended up (of course they could anonymize and lag a year or so to protect privacy). But so many places *only* list placement for those who got placement! Talk about selection bias! And virtually none identify the sub fields. 

 

Yale's is probably the most frustrating. For a while, they even had it organized alphabetically instead of by year

[Warelin]

2 hours ago, VMcJ said:

Thanks. But no info on early, mid or late March?

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/articles/2016-02-29/new-best-graduate-schools-rankings-coming-march-16

 

Looks like March 16.

[RevTheory1126]

22 hours ago, Comparativist said:

So you would rather trust prospective grad students opinions about something they haven't even experienced before rather than systematic surveys distributed to professors throughout the field?

Well all know there are flaws with ranking systems but nonetheless they have been shown to correlate fairly well with placement. 

Just to add onto this point: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~gillum/rankings_paper.pdf

It's old, but it's an informative read.

[Sbrail2]

If you don't trust USNews and are looking for an academic study into department rankings, check out Garand & Graddy "Ranking Political Science Departments: Do Publications Matter?" in PS Vol. 32, No. 1.

[Sbrail2]

There's also Masuoka, Grofman, & Feld "Ranking Departments: A Comparison of Alternative Approaches"

[RolyPolyGoalie]

On 2/21/2017 at 9:23 AM, Warelin said:

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/articles/2016-02-29/new-best-graduate-schools-rankings-coming-march-16

 

Looks like March 16.

Looks like the US News site updated with the 2017 rankings a little early: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/political-science-rankings?int=abc409.