As I said in my title, the rankings for NYU’s Poly Sci (Ranked #15), is considerably higher than Georgetown’s (Ranked #40). Is this accurate? Would graduates of NYU’s program find it easier to get a job in politics? How is NYU’s better? Your advice and experience would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!!
It looks like you are looking at the rankings for 1) graduate programs and 2) through U.S. News.
- Rankings for graduate programs do not nicely map onto rankings for undergraduate majors/programs. The reason is because graduate programs are ranked for things that are important to graduate students - usually doctoral students - like research output, doctoral course quality, doctoral placement, etc. Some of those things may matter indirectly to undergraduates, and undergrads can definitely benefit from having a highly-ranked doctoral program in their department (better TAs, sometimes more money, sometimes better research environments, usually better professors).
But there are other things about the department that are MORE important to undergrads - like course offerings, quality of undergraduate teaching, research opportunities specific to undergrads, internship and co-curricular options - that are not included in rankings of graduate programs. And that’s not to mention the other things about the university that also matter. Doctoral students spend the vast majority of their time in the department, interacting with other students and professors there. By contrast, undergrads only take about 1/3 of their classes in their major department. So you should also be concerned with the quality of the rest of your experience and education.
- U.S. News’ rankings of graduate departments isn’t bad, per se, but they don’t use the most rigorous methodology. They basically ask professors and deans to rank other departments on a 1-5 scale.
The NRC rankings are better indictors of graduate programs. The NRC rankings, though, also indicate that NYU is a top 5-10 program in political science, whereas Georgetown is somewhere in the 25-40 range.
That doesn’t mean that you, as an individual undergraduate student, will find it easier to get a job in political science from NYU than Georgetown. There are other factors at play besides simple rankings of the doctoral program.
For undergraduate studies, Georgetown is better - better choice of classes, better reputation, better alumni network in the field, better internship opportunities.
It is important not to confuse Political Science with International Relations. Political Science is largely a theoretical field, more akin to Philosophy, while International Relations is more hands on, applied, and tends to be more connected with diplomacy. When it comes to Political Science, there is no real advantage to being located in the capital. Political Scientists are more concerned with theories than anything else. The best Political Science departments in the nation are Cal, Columbia, Harvard, Michigan, Princeton, Stanford and Yale. The best IR programs in the nation are Georgetown, Tufts, Johns Hopkins (SAIS), GWU, AU and Princeton.
Thank y’all so much! Super helpful and absolutely clarified everything!