<p>I am currently a junior, and I am making a list of colleges that have good programs in the 5 areas I am interested in and could see myself majoring in. </p>
<p>I was a little surprised to see that Brown is often ranked really low in polysci if it is even ranked. In the U.S. News graduate ranking, (yes, I know it’s graduate but it should be the same professors right?) Brown is ranked 46, even below “lower-tier” schools like FSU (ranked 39). In the Gourman Report’s undergrad ranking, Brown isn’t even ranked at all in the top 50 while schools like Tulane, BU, and UVA are (I’m not saying these schools are bad, just that I thought Brown was considered to provide a better education than they do). In the National Research Council’s ranking, Brown is once again unranked **in the top 96<a href=“which%20is%20all%20they%20go%20up%20to”>/b</a> while schools like Tulane, BU, and UF are and a school like FSU is ranked 38. </p>
<p>What is going on? Obviously there is more to all of this than pure rankings, but if Brown’s polysci is really good, it’s a bit strange that in 3 different rankings they were either ranked very low or completely unranked.</p>
<p>the goals and therefore the ranking weights are very different between a graduate program and undergraduate program. Quite frankly, Brown’s graduate programs really aren’t that great.</p>
<p>Word I have from some students is that, except for a few (unfortunately often short term) visiting profs, poly sci profs are rather “dull”. Most of the students interested in poli sci at Brown are often concentrators in Int Relations or Urban Studies or something like that. So yes, lots of interested in poly sci undergrads, just not in that dept. Also as you point out rankings are driven by papers of grad depts etc, and that is just not Brown’s thing. (and why you can get a great “poli sci” education of your own design.) If you can, visit or look up some of the “political” blogs on the BDH etc and talk to the students.</p>
<p>Gourman has not been updated since 1997. The methodology is entirely unknown. So why is Brown ranked where it is? Who knows? No one knows why Gourman ranked schools the way he did or how. No one knows what the rationale is.</p>
<p>John Tomasi is very famous amongst left-libertarians and often praised for teaching. Morone is an expert in the politics of healthcare reform, a topic that has been hot lately, and teaches City Politics, the most popular class at Brown by far.</p>
<p>What does that mean? I don’t know. Poli sci is fairly popular and I didn’t hear that many complaints personally, although most folks I know tended to lean toward public policy, urban studies, or IR if they were interested in studying these things.</p>
<p>On the contrary, I every single class I have taken in the POLS dept. have been excellent. I almost considered majoring in Poly Sci. We have great professors like Mark Blyth, Varshney, Rose Mc.Dermott etc. From personal experience, I can say that none of the professors have been “dull”.</p>