<p>Hi. There was another thread may be just a little bit similar to this one about the Best Colleges for Political Science/Government and Economics, but I think that they were mostly talking about Political Science/Government or a kind of way different major. Which I'm probably more interested in, I'm interested in Political Science, but not that I'm not interested in getting into a sociology major either...It's just that I took a political science class where the author of the textbook was from/a Harvard professor, and so I assume that Harvard has the best political science program in the United States (of America), but whereas in the sociology class that I'm now taking the author's from DePauw University, a university/one that I've never really heard of before...So now, I'm wondering does DePauw University have the best sociology program in the United States (of America)?</p>
<p>With majors like Sociology and Political Science, which are very popular majors, most all schools ranked in the Top 50 US News colleges are bound to have extremely strong programs if not the best. Your local flagship state university might even have one.</p>
<p>As far as departments go, there are several heavy weights in Sociology. According to the latest Graduate Programs rankings, here are the top 20:</p>
<h1>1. University of Wisconsin-Madison</h1>
<h1>2. University of California-Berkeley</h1>
<h1>3. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor</h1>
<h1>4. University of Chicago</h1>
<h1>4. University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill</h1>
<h1>6. Princeton University</h1>
<h1>6. Stanford University</h1>
<h1>8. Harvard University</h1>
<h1>8. University of California-Los Angeles</h1>
<h1>10. University of Pennsylvania</h1>
<h1>11. Columbia University</h1>
<h1>11. Indiana University-Bloomington</h1>
<h1>11. Northwestern University</h1>
<h1>14. Cornell University</h1>
<h1>14. Duke University</h1>
<h1>14. University of Texas-Austin</h1>
<h1>17. Pennsylvania State University-University Park</h1>
<h1>17. University of Arizona</h1>
<h1>17. University of Washington</h1>
<h1>20. Ohio state University</h1>
<h1>20. Yale University</h1>
<p>
[quote]
It's just that I took a political science class where the author of the textbook was from/a Harvard professor, and so I assume that Harvard has the best political science program in the United States (of America), but whereas in the sociology class that I'm now taking the author's from DePauw University, a university/one that I've never really heard of before...So now, I'm wondering does DePauw University have the best sociology program in the United States (of America)?
[/quote]
That's not a very good approach to take. Never judge a department based on one professor.</p>
<p>Chicago, Wisconsin, and Michigan have been dominant players in this field for eons, and for each of them it's an important part of their institutional identity. Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton are just good at everything. Interesting that Yale isn't more of a player, though.</p>
<p>Michigan also has the world famous ISR. I'm not sure how affiliated it is with the sociology department, but there has to be some kind of connection. I would also think that reseach opportunities would be plentiful there.</p>
<p>Hi yeah...when I say/said Colleges, I mean/-t undergraduate, sorry for any/the misunderstanding.</p>
<p>When I was an undergrad at UCSC I found out that the books used on the Depauw campus were often written by UCSC professors so there's a plug
UCLA</p>
<p>But the biggies are
University of Chicago...sort of created the modern discipline
University of Michigan
University of Wisconsin</p>
<p>If you're talking political science Claremont McKenna is one of the best there is.</p>
<p>Sociology is a very popular field in the United States. You can go to any school to pursue a sociology major. The big-names (Michigan, Chicago, Wisconsin, Berkeley) are very quantitative (statistics), especially at the graduate level.</p>
<p>chryseis, if by "colleges" you meant "liberal arts colleges" (LACs), you'll need to specify that.</p>
<p>Alas, I don't know of any LACs strong in sociology, but others might.</p>
<p>^^^it's hard for LACs to attract a critical mass of majors to a subject that requires the study of how different groups behave in modern industrial societies when they are themselves located so far from modern industrialized areas. The best sociology departments among LACs are probably Barnard, Wesleyan, Bryn Mawr and Bates in that order.</p>