September 4, 2007
High marks for political science Ph.D. grads
Academic rankings can be a downer for small
universities like Rochester, which are often beaten out for the top spots
by bigger, more well-known schools.
But two studies in the July issue of the quarterly
journal PS: Political Science and Politics used new methods to rank political science
departments, and the authors claim they’ve leveled the playing field.
In both studies Rochester’s political science department faired as
well, and in some cases better, than its most highly-regarded peers.
The department was ranked fourth nationally in both
studies. One measures the quality of political science graduate students
produced by the program based on their job placements, and the other does
the same based on how often their research is cited.
The studies were authored by scholars at Princeton,
Harvard, and Purdue universities and the University of California at
Irvine.
Gerald Gamm, chair of the political science
department, notes that Harvard and Rochester were the only two universities
ranked in the top five in both the study on job placements and in the study
that ranked departments by the percentage of Ph.D.s they produced who are
among the most cited in the country.
“Rochester’s political science department
has been placing Ph.D.s in the top departments since the 1970s,” Gamm
says. “The news here is the persistence of Rochester political
science in training the best Ph.D. students in the country.”
The authors of both studies note that their ranking
systems are different than most because they are based on more than
reputation.
The authors of the job placement study wrote:
“Like most measures based on real-world data, this method is not
subject to individual biases or sampling and response-rate problems.”
Gamm credits the unique culture at Rochester for its
success in producing high-quality Ph.D.s. The department places an emphasis
on the development of formal theory and the analysis of quantitative
evidence, which requires students to use math skills, and as a result
creates a more skilled political scientist. Nearly all of the
faculty––including some of the foremost authorities in the
country––teach and advise undergraduates.
And the department’s small size is considered a
benefit, not a detriment.
“Being small means we are always
together,” says Gamm. “Being small gives us synergies that are
not possible in a larger department.”
Kate Perry is the social science publicist in the
University Communications Office.
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