strongest department at colgate

college13ound · 04-24-2006, 03:33 PM

Which area of study is Colgate most well-known for?

warblersrule86 · 04-24-2006, 03:36 PM

http://www.collegeconfidential.com/c...ow.cgi?8/77935

gellino · 04-24-2006, 04:21 PM

Historically, philosophy has probably been considered Colgate's strongest department. When I was there, six out of the seven most 'famous' professors on campus were in the philosophy dept and I have also gotten anecdotal evidence from PhDs in philosophy who highly regarded Colgate more than other LACs that are otherwise "ranked" higher. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's among the highest % of what people major in, just probably the most highly esteemed. Geology and Economics are two other disciplines where Colgate ranks in the Top 10 among LACs in students pursuing PhDs.

http://server1.fandm.edu/departments...s/BacOrg98.pdf

college13ound · 04-25-2006, 11:22 AM

that list was pretty intense. do you think it's still relevant though because it seemed to stop in 1995?

gellino · 04-25-2006, 12:07 PM

I think it's still highly relevant. Reputations and school identities don't change on a dime, year to year, like USN&WR would like people to think so they can sell more magazines. I think you need a sufficient lag to do a study like that, so even though it measures through 1995, it was conducted more recently than that. Something else that should appease you is if you look at the figures from 1920-1995 & compare them to the 1986-1995 subsector they are fairly similar, so would especially think that the more recent subsector would be highly dependable to compare today.

ridethecliche · 04-25-2006, 03:11 PM

10 years is a lot for change. Look at the economy, you'll see a huge federal gov surplus and then a huge defecit in a period of ten years. If a 'stable' economy can change on a dime, so can a college.
10 years is not a short period of time.
University of Pittsburgh's philosophy department is also amazing, i think it has one of the best PHD programs (along with Rutgers, correct me if i'm wrong) in philsophy.

college13ound · 04-25-2006, 04:41 PM

ride,
so then what department of colgate do you think is most respected now?

ridethecliche · 04-25-2006, 04:44 PM

To be completely honest, I have no idea...
All of their programs are strong, though it seems that they put significant emphasis on their econ and sciences programs. I'm not sure how accurate of an observation that is though.

almostdone123 · 04-25-2006, 09:41 PM

Yes, does anybody know anything about Colgate's econ program? Is it competitive to major in?

gellino · 04-25-2006, 09:48 PM

Pitt does have a strong reputation in Philosophy. A student from there is where some of my anecdotal evidence comes from. I don't know anything about Rutgers' rep in that area. I don't think you can compare the economy to college concentrations. The changes in the economy were determined by politics and the desire to make changes within the short-term construct of government policies because of having to constantly work around pending elections, while colleges (through their system of tenure) are more apt and desire to maintain the status quo. That is way I point out how similar the 1920-1995 results are to the 1986-1995 results to demonstrate how little things changed in 66 years (1920-1986).

gellino · 04-25-2006, 10:11 PM

almostdone, don't know what you mean by "competitive to major in". I was a math econ major there and it served me well for investment banking and economic consulting interviews senior year as well as grad school admissions later on. There has been very little turnover in the dept over the last 15-20 years, although a couple new profs have been added from what I've seen; and I thought it was a high quality experience.

ridethecliche · 04-25-2006, 10:18 PM

Ah, Understood. I didn't know that the numbers stayed the same for such a long period of time. It's nice to know that some things appear as constants.

ticklemepink · 04-27-2006, 12:37 AM

HISTORY! Gotta advocate for my major

It's bound to be at the tops in the fall with all of the best professors on campus- none taking sabbaticals.

Econ is wonderful- my roommate and one of my close friends are econ major- they LOVE their professors... just annoyed by the workload but know that they're being very well with lots of support. You'll get plenty of support from other econ majors who are going through 5 same classes as you. The classes for the fall look amazing- if only I didn't suck in AP Econ!

gellino · 04-27-2006, 10:29 AM

I wonder if it has changed at all since I was there? I never felt there was any kind of unreasonable workload and I actually took course overloads 3/8 semesters. Most of the profs appear to be teaching the exact same classes as when I was there, so I can't imagine it's changed much. I guess workload is all in the eyes of the beholder.