<p>I have checked many rankings of PhD programs in English in the US, and one thing that I specially noticed was that Princeton generally ranked below my expectations, given the overall reputation of the university. For instance, although rankings of universities as a whole normally put Princeton above Johns Hopkins, the latter appears consistently above Princeton in rankings of PhD programs in English.</p>
<p>Do you think that might be owing to Princeton's traditional emphasis on undergraduation programs? And do you think its reputation for the PhD in English might improve in the future?</p>
<p>Uh, Princeton's English PhD program is ranked #4 according to the latest USNews. How much stronger do you want it to be? (Yes, it is ranked lower in the NRC, but the NRC is a quite old ranking now).</p>
<p>Please don't misunderstand me. I am not implying Princeton is not a great school. What I mean is that if you have two offers from two great schools, it matters if they are at some distance in a ranking. Of course, that is not the only thing that matters, but it is one of the factors weighing in your decision.</p>
<p>Doesn't P-ton focus more on its undergrads? More than the other Ivies, I think. That's what a lot of people say, anyway, so that could cause the lower rankings...</p>
<p>
[quote]
Do you have any link to that ranking, Sakky? Princeton ranks 13-15 in the rankings I have seen so far.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Unfortunately, you need access to the online subscription Premium edition to see it. But trust me, I know how to read, and it's ranked #4. </p>
<ol>
<li> Harvard University (MA) 4.9
University of California–Berkeley 4.9
Yale University (CT) 4.9
*4. Princeton University (NJ) 4.8 *
Stanford University (CA) 4.8</li>
<li> Cornell University (NY) 4.7
University of Chicago 4.7</li>
<li> Columbia University (NY) 4.6
Johns Hopkins University (MD) 4.6</li>
<li> University of California–Los Angeles 4.5
University of Pennsylvania 4.5</li>
</ol>
<p>If you still don't believe it, perhaps you can borrow the latest USNews grad ranking from your library and you can verify for yourself that the above ranking is correct.</p>
<p>You CANNOT look at a school's undergrad reputation as any sort of gauge for the graduate programs. Most schools have certain graduate programs that fall far short of the undergrad program. That same school could also have a graduate program that has a much better reputation than the undergrad.</p>
<p>"English," is a big subject. What exactly are you looking for? It could be that a program way outside the top ten is the best in the country for your particular interest.</p>
<p>Princeton would be a great choice for graduate school in English; as would Harvard, Yale, UC Berkeley. With a good fellowship, you could not go wrong with any of those choices. The rankings are not the only thing to look at -- check out the professors in your specialty and the placement rate for jobs and where those jobs are located. It is so hard to find jobs in English that you want to go to the best school you get into with a good fellowship (i.e., one that covers all the years of graduate school, that gives you tuition and a stipend and health insurance; some schools also have a subsidy for housing -- e.g. Columbia).</p>
<p>Talking of placement: I have noticed, from placement statistics posted on university websites, that most new PhDs who take up academic positions do so in the US. I can see many reasons for that, but I would like to know if one of them is that it is harder to find positions elsewhere (say, in Canada or Europe). What do you think?</p>
<p>I can only speculate. You don't see too much cross-national hiring here either; an occasional Canadian, rarely a Brit. A lot has to do, no doubt, with the kinds of connections professors have that can assist their students in getting interviews for jobs.<br>
Nowadays, though, some PhD's do post-docs, and there are several at Oxford and Cambridge (JRF's = junior research fellowships), and some go to Americans, though the competition is fierce.</p>
<p>It's been a few days, but I just ran across a website with information about Canadian hiring, from which I quote a few lines: </p>
<p>"Before a degree-granting educational institution can hire a foreign academic for a position in Canada, it must:</p>
<pre><code>* Advertise vacant positions in Canada;
* Make sure any vacant position advertised abroad is also advertised simultaneously in Canada;
* Advertise for a reasonable length of time (about a month) to allow broad exposure of the vacancy to Canadians and permanent residents..."
</code></pre>
<p>Maioli, From my experience as a grad student in English at one of the top programs listed in this thread, albeit several decades ago, I would suggest that you look into a few specifics in addition to general rankings: a) You might want to find out which professors listed as members of the department are actually there and actually teach courses. (My school listed a number of people with international reputations who hadn't darkened the door there for years, including all of the big names in my area of concentration. And they weren't emeritus.) b) You should try to get an idea of the general intellectual bent of the department. Skimming books and articles published by the professors in the last 5 or 10 years--especially by the professors who actually teach classes--would be one way to research this. c) You might want to consider the ethnic identity/gender/et al of the professors in the department, especially the newer hires, and see whether there appears to be a pattern of any sort. At my school, there was precisely ONE female professor--something that accurately reflected the bias of the department. (Coming from a very different environment, and blinded by the ranking and reputation of the department, somehow I failed to notice this in advance. :) ) d) Also check to see which of the courses listed in the catalog are actually taught on a reasonably frequent schedule. Sometimes there are courses listed that are unlikely to be taught at any time during the three years or so you would like to be doing coursework--courses that you might be counting on taking.</p>