<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>I want to pursue American History in college. I know "ranking" schools if often considered subjective and a waste of time, but I'm trying to get a better sense of my list. For example, I prefer Texas A&M over UT, but if UT's History program is far superior, then I would obviously pick it despite which campus vibe I prefer. </p>
<p>Could you please rank the follwing schools based on their Political Science undergraduate departments:</p>
<p>Vanderbilt
UVA
UNC
Rice
UGA
UT - Austin
Texas A&m
South Carolina</p>
<p>*You can include Honors programs if you'd like...</p>
<p>Thanks so much! Neither my college counselor nor the school websites can seem to offer much info on some of these schools that are traditionally engineering institutes.</p>
<p>Again, thanks.</p>
<p>History is one of those bread-and-butter subjects that most comprehensive universities will be at least decent at. For an undergraduate, I don’t think the differences would matter much and shouldn’t deter you from one of them.</p>
<p>Political science is another such subject.</p>
<p>If I had to guess I would say UVA, only because the school itself is full of history and is known as an academic powerhouse…but I am simply guessing. To get a better idea of what each department is like find their faculty bios, who is teaching this class? Are they noted historians? Perhaps they have authored some interesting books. </p>
<p>Secondly I would look and see what academic contributions each department has made, a university will usually display this information so I would scour around for it. Undergraduate Research opportunities are another dead giveaway that this is probably a good program, and above all else narrow your list and make some campus visits.</p>