<p>Which has a better political science department, Vassar or Bates? I know Vassar is ranked higher but how do the two schools’ gov/econ programs compare?</p>
<p>I am politics major myself and it is a very good department. Bates has a very very good econ department, one of the top ones for liberal arts schools. The intro classes for econ are very hard in order to weed out the non econ majors. I was thinking about econ but decided not to because it was more math focused than i had thought. As a word of caution i wouldn’t rely too much on rankings for departments. They typically are based on how many times other researchers cite that colleges faculty. I would look at the course catalogues for Vassar and Bates which would give you an idea of what kind of classes you would like to take. Also look on ratemyprofessors.com and research the quality of the faculty of both campuses. The latter matters the most.</p>