@UWfromCA We have a more detailed post on US News rankings of the disciplines in major public universities.Lists social science (and other) departments ranked in the top 50 nationally, among both public and private univs. http://publicuniversityhonors.com/400-2/
I guess what I’m really asking is there schools anyone knows of schools that hit above their weight in the areas of Social Science (particularly Political Science, Economics, History), maybe schools that aren’t in the top tier overall but are known for their programs in this area.
St. Anselm is nationally known to insiders to have a top political science program. The school hosts the NH Institute of Politics on campus. Politicians have been visiting, debating and interacting with students since Eisenhower ran for President. The school hosts a few of the Presidential debates. In fact the final Republican debate will be held next week on campus. Political events are frequent even between Presidential elections.
In terms of American history, Gettysburg College comes to mind, but Gettysburg is considered a very good school overall so it isn’t really punching above it weight.I believe Gettysburg is the only college in the country to have a minor in the Civil War. It is located right next to the national monument.
Both schools have beautiful campuses. The edge to Gettysburg.
Remember that many of the social sciences have lots of subareas, and different schools may have different subarea strengths (and weaknesses). If that is of concern to you, you may want to look at course offerings and faculty research interests at each school’s relevant social science departments.
MIT’s history, political science, and economics departments are actually fairly large:
https://history.mit.edu/people
http://web.mit.edu/polisci/people/faculty/
http://economics.mit.edu/faculty
MIT also emphasizes a well-rounded curriculum with extensive general education requirements:
http://catalog.mit.edu/mit/undergraduate-education/general-institute-requirements/
However, some students may prefer fewer general education requirements in order to be able to take more courses in focused areas of interest.
Seconding @ucbalumnus re:MIT.
UC-Berkeley is strong in these disciplines and would be worth adding to prior suggestions.