<p>I'm a student (rising senior) working out college options--and this is my first post. Here's my question:</p>
<p>Does anyone know a website where I can find lists of college rankings by major? For example: The colleges with the best international studies program, or the colleges with the best environmental science program. I'm specifically interested in international studies and I know there's another post about that, but I was wondering if there's a general site with rankings lists for other majors as well. It's easy to find rankings on schools overall, but it's probably not worth attending a really top-notch school if they don't have a good program for my chosen area of study. </p>
<p>It may be a long shot, but I thought I'd try. Thank you!</p>
<p>I don't personally know of any site that lists rankings by major, but I'd advise against using strength in a given area as a major criterion in your decision making. There's a very good chance that what you are interested in now will be very different than what interests you by the time you finish college. You're better off to look at schools with strong academics overall.</p>
<p>Take it from me-- there's a good chance you'll change your area of interest down the line. I'm doing it at 24. You're very likely to do it at 18.</p>
<p>Those rankings are incredibly inaccurate, almost to the point of disgust. Harvard, Chicago, and MIT all didn't even make it into the top 10 for mathematics... ridiculous.</p>
<p>For more accurate (and more widely-accepted) rankings, the NRC rankings are available here:</p>
<p>Those rankings are actually very accurate for what they measure-- productivity.</p>
<p>Now, whether or not the departments are the most prestigious or have the best placement of their grads is questionable. But don't sound the "inaccurate" trumpet just yet, as you have to put it in the right context.</p>
<p>I would offer if you graduated from one of the top few nationally recognized schools (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, et al) you may get some attention. Now if there are alumni from your school on the review team, you'll get a second look. However, if the review team is accountable for those they hire, schools don't matter - performance by any realistic measure will count and scrutiny will be tight. No one will want to be responsible for a weak hire, even one from Harvard.</p>
<p>Exception - the military academies are almost always impressive, especially if some serious duty followed the academic work. Marines, regardless of location of formal education, are almost always favorably viewed. I really do not see a down side to military service - unless you get less than an Honorable Discharge.</p>
<p>Trust me, having a prestigious school name is better than going to the school with the strongest major for most liberal arts major.</p>
<p>In business, school name is entirely more important than specific major rankings. Companies recruit at schools, not departments, after all (for undergrad).</p>
<p>Also, it is important to never use Gourman report - it ranks undergrads using stats such as number of TAs, computers, number of grad students, (and amount of funding) and doctoral research - all of these things reflect on graduate school size, not undergrad. He also doesn't publish any data. So yeah, never use Gourman report.</p>
<p>BUT at the same time, rankings might be useful for more obscure majors and for identifying safeties that fit well academically.</p>
<p>Don't touch Gourman or Rugg's for standard majors (econ, bio, English, poli sci), but if you're interested in religious studies or egyptology, you're going to be looking at fewer schools that have the resources for those programs. (Incidentally, both Chicago and Brown have excellent religious studies and egyptology programs). </p>
<p>What about urban planning? Penn is the only elite school I know to offer it as a major.</p>
<p>The other idea is to find lower ranked schools that might be "known" for a few things. For example, UCSD has an excellent sociology department, and one my friend turned down offers from "higher" schools to go to.</p>
<p>Gourman rankings for undergraduate International Relations:</p>
<p>Tufts
Princeton
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
U Penn
Harvard
Cornell
U Wisconsin Madison
MIT
Stanford
UVA
Notre Dame
US Air Force Acad
US Military Acad
Claremont McKenna</p>
<p>Notice that Claremont McKenna is an LAC and has no grad program. This shows how much thethoughtprocess knows about the Gourman Report...nearly nothing.</p>
<p>Gourman Report Undergrad environmental sciences
environmental sciences
Harvard
MIT
Cornell
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
U Michigan Ann Arbor
U Penn
UVA
SUNY Coll Env Sci Forestry
JHU
Purdue
U Minnesota</p>
<p>LACs for International Relations from Rugg's</p>
<p>Agnes Scott
Alma
Beaver
Beloit
Bentley (MA)
Bethune-Cookman (FL)
Bryn Mawr
BucknellButler (IN)
Caldwell (NJ)
Chatham (PA)
C of Charleston
Claremont McKenna
Colgate
Colorado C
Connecticut C
Cornell College (IA)
Dartmouth
Davidson
Dayton
Denison
DePaul
Dickinson
Dominican
Drake
Eckard (FL)
Elizabethtown
Elmira
Evansville
Goucher
Hamline
Hiram
Husson (ME)
Juniata
Kalamazoo
Kenyon
Knox
Lenoir-Rhyne (NC)
Lewis and Clark
Linfield
Macalester
Manhattanville
Marygrove
Middlebury
Moravian (PA)
Mt Holyoke
Mt St Mary's (MD)
Oglethorpe
Ohio Wesleyan
Pitzer
SUNY Plattsburgh
Pomona
Randolph-Macon Women's
Redlands
Regis (CO)
U Richmond
Rhodes
Santa Clara U
U Scranton
Scripps
Spring Hill (AL)
St Andrews (NC)
St Catherine (MN)
St Louis U
St Mary's (MN)
St Mary's (TX)
St Michael's (VT)
St Norbert (WI)
St Olaf
St Peter's (NJ)
Stetson
Sweet Briar
Trinity (DC)
US Air Force Acad
US Military Acad
Vassar
Virginia Wesleyan
Washington College (MD)
Wesleyan (GA)
Westminster (MO)
Westmont (CA)
Westminster (UT)
Wheaton (MA)
Whittier (CA)
William Jewell
Wilson (PA)
Wittenberg (OH)</p>