<p>Wharton is clearly a phenomenal place to be, and may be the best business school in the world. We know that. But I'm wondering about the quality of undergrad liberal arts at UPenn. All I'm looking to do as an undergrad is to absorb as much as I can, and I certainly have no business aspirations. I'm sure the CAS is good, but is it really on the level of Yale, Columbia, Williams, etc.? Do CAS people feel like second-class citizens there? I just want to get an idea of how right this place would be for me. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>While not a direct measure of undergrad liberal arts, the National Research Council ranking of Ph.D. programs is one of the most highly respected rankings of its kind. Unfortunately, it was last released in 1995, although the next edition is due to be released later this year. For what it's worth, however, here are the rankings from 1995:</p>
<p>NRC</a> Rankings in Each of 41 Areas</p>
<p>As you'll note, many of Penn's liberal arts departments ranked in the top 10, and many others ranked in the top 20. Penn has devoted substantial resources to enhancing its liberal arts programs and departments since 1995 (it's been a major target of its billion-dollar capital campaigns and faculty recruiting), so I suspect that when the new NRC rankings are released later this year, Penn will do as well or better.</p>
<p>In addition, two professors wrote a research report and later book title "the Rise of the American Research University". That book used NRC data, factored out reputational rankings (which the authors viewed as being lagging indicators of academic quality, but which are included in the last NRC survey) and adjusted the analysis for a school's size (trying to eliminated a bias for large research oriented universities). </p>
<p>The result was a new comprehensive ranking for universities. The list below is their comprehensive ranking for social sciences, natural sciences and fine arts.</p>
<p>1 Stanford
2 Princeton
3 Chicago (tie)
3 Harvard (tie)
3 Yale (tie)
6 Columbia
7 Duke (tie)
8 Penn (tie)
9 Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>Public schools such as Berkeley and Michigan were in a separate ranking. Other schools such as Cornell, Brown, Emory, etc were not in the top 12.</p>
<p>r&b, if Duke and Penn are tied, shouldn't Penn's ranking also be 7?</p>
<p>I think saying "Liberal Arts" is too general. We need to talk fields here.</p>
<p>Penn's best Liberal Arts programs, I'd say, are English, History, Anthropology, Psychology, Linguistics and Philosophy. Sociology and Political Science are strong, too. I've heard good things about our Classics department but am not familiar at all.</p>
<p>What I think that stands out about Penn liberal arts is languages. I don't know of any other institution teaches as many languages as Penn does. That's not to say either that French or Spanish is diluted here; those departments are very strong, too. But if you're interested in anything from Pashtu to Twi to Telugu (the Italian of India!), we probably got it. </p>
<p>Penn language center is also very accomodating about trying to find you language study in something you want. Though we still don't have Finnish, which a friend of mine wanted, Sicilian, which another friend wanted, or Indonesian (which I am actually interested in but haven't asked about).</p>
<p>
I'd add Economics, Art History, Religion, and Music (e.g., musicology) to that list.</p>
<p>45, thanks for the correction. Penn and Duke are tied in the study at #7.</p>
<p>Re Penn's top departments, I would add the following:</p>
<p>History, especially American history
English, especially African American Literature and Creative Writing
Religious Studies
Music
Economics, where Penn has been ranked in the top 6-8 for decades
Anthropology, perhaps only tied with UChicago</p>
<p>I do think Penn is relatively weak in PoliSci and in Philosophy. Leaders there are Yale, Princeton and Columbia among the Ivies.</p>
<p>I would also offer up great strengths at Penn in Area Studies, particularly South Asian Studies, African Studies and East Asia (this includes history, languages, and economics in these respective geographies)</p>
<p>In the same vein as Area Studies, Penn has long been a pioneer--and continues to be one of the very best--in interdisciplinary majors in general, such as Biological Basis of Behavior, Cognitive Science, History and Sociology of Science, Visual Studies, etc.</p>
<p>Penn is Ivy League and all Ivy League schools have very strong liberal arts departments. Individual department strengths may vary between schools, but in general you can't go wrong with any of the 8.</p>
<p>And SAS students do not feel second class to Wharton unless they want to feel that way. People who entered SAS with the sole intention of transferring probably feel like second rate students, but I'd say the majority of us are very happy with where we are.</p>
<p>Liberal Arts are the bomb at Penn, as are social sciences. Languages, English, Economics, and History from my personal experience are all quite amazing. There are others but that's what I know from personal experience.</p>