<p>Which political science programs have the best reputation nationwide?</p>
<p>if i could pick two...they would be harvard and gtown...</p>
<p>prob schools in DC</p>
<p>how does Madison stack up?</p>
<p>Was in the Top 10 for years but had some stars retire and is now around Top 15. Upside is younger faculty and a good longterm reputation.</p>
<p>dnduswo,</p>
<p>Georgetown is good, but it's not top 10.</p>
<p>The top 15 are something like...</p>
<p>Harvard
Berkeley
Yale
Michigan
UCSD
Stanford
University of Chicago
Princeton
UCLA
Rochester
MIT
Minnesota
Duke
Cornell
Columbia
Wisconsin Madison</p>
<p>Throw in NYU, OSU, and a few others and you have the "top 15."</p>
<p>How the heck are there more than 15 schools in the top 15?!</p>
<p>Easy, all the sub-fields mean that some schools squeak in with some stronger areas than others.</p>
<p>thanks for the info, guys. Anyone know what caused madison's decline in the rankings? Is it still slipping?</p>
<p>A loss of top faculty.</p>
<p>Many of the top 10 to 15 programs hemorrhage on occasion, and lose faculty to other programs. UCLA is suffering from this right now as well, particularly in IR.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry much about it at the undergrad level, however.</p>
<p>^thanks ari.</p>
<p>wow - noone3 mentioned dartmouth - probably beytter tahn harvard</p>
<p>Dartmouth? Better than Harvard? For poli sci?</p>
<p>Umm...no. Harvard is clearly stronger than Dartmouth for poli sci.</p>
<p>Usually rankings are done for grad school. Honestly, no Ph.D. program will look at your education and compare the strength of the polisci program in that individual school (except for extremes, like Wharton and 5-year Med/BA programs).</p>
<p>In no particular order:</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Michigan
UC Berkeley
UCSD
UCLA
University of Chicago
Stanford </p>
<p>It seems to be a common misconception on college confidential when people ask about top poli programs, that numerous people answer stating that the best programs are in Washington DC. While Georgetown has a good program, the top programs are located well outside Washington DC. Im guessing people stating that Washington DC has the best programs has to do with people who dont know anything about poli sci departments thinking that naturally since the political action is in Washington DC that the top poli sci programs would also be there. while schools in Washington DC would likely offer great internships and such, they are not the top ranked poli sci departments. All of the top ranked poli schools, other than Michigan (which could be argued has the best poli sci department outside of Harvard), are Ivy League schools and the best west coast schools such as higher ranked UC's and Stanford.</p>
<p>"wow - noone3 mentioned dartmouth - probably beytter tahn harvard"</p>
<p>-haha i love Dartmouth and all, a relative of mine actually helped found the university. I considered attending Dartmouth, and the school is incredible, but Dartmouth's poli sci program is deffiantly not on par with that of Harvard, not even close. Plus Dartmouth doesnt offer a ph.d program, so it would not likely be included amongst the best departments anyway.</p>
<p>Paco de Lucia,</p>
<p>Well, I think that schools do care about the quality of programs overall. However, I'd say that I'd put LACs ahead of most research universities for ability to get students into top PhD programs.</p>
<p><a href="which%20could%20be%20argued%20has%20the%20best%20poli%20sci%20department%20outside%20of%20Harvard">quote</a>
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Meh. They're number crunchers over there. :p</p>
<p>Depends what you mean by "best" (since there is no such thing). One way to look at it would be the schools that produce the most future Poli Sci PhDs per graduate. Both the relative size and strength of the department could contribute to high numbers on this measure:</p>
<p>Number of PhDs per 1000 graduates</p>
<p>Academic field:Political Science and Government</p>
<p>PhDs and Doctoral Degrees: ten years (1994 to 2003) from NSF database
Number of Undergraduates: ten years (1989 to 1998) from IPEDS database </p>
<p>
1 Swarthmore College 10
2 Haverford College 8
3 Princeton University 8
4 Pomona College 7
5 Harvard University 7
6 University of Chicago 7
7 Oberlin College 7
8 Williams College 7
9 Reed College 7
10 Wesleyan University 6
11 Bryn Mawr College 6
12 University of the South 5
13 Whitman College 5
14 Amherst College 5
15 Yale University 5
16 College of Wooster 5
17 Stanford University 5
18 Georgetown University 5
19 Claremont McKenna College 5
20 Carleton College 5
21 Smith College 4
22 Middlebury College 4
23 Franklin and Marshall College 4
24 Tougaloo College 4
25 Wellesley College 4
26 Occidental College 4
27 Brown University 4
28 Lawrence University 4
29 Harvey Mudd College 4
30 United States Coast Guard Academy 4
31 Earlham College 4
32 Kenyon College 4
33 Knox College 4
34 Brandeis University 4
</p>
<p>how is penn not in the mix?</p>
<p>interesteddad, can you give a link to the site you found that stats on?</p>
<p>LACs for Political Science from Rugg's</p>
<p>Amherst
Brandeis
Centre
Claremont McKenna
Colby
Colgate
Colorado Coll
Connecticut Coll
Dartmouth
Dickinson
Drew
Franklin and Marshall
Grinnell
Hamilton
Kenyon
Macalester
Middlebury
Mount Holyoke
Occidental
Pomona
Rhodes
U Richmond
Smith
U of the South
Swarthmore
Trinity (TX)
Union
Ursinus
Wabash
Washington and Lee
Wellesley
Wesleyan
Whitman
Willamette
Williams</p>