<p>The Philosophical Gourmet philosophy ranking, based on a survey of philosophy faculty, places NYU #1 and Michigan #5. Emory doesn’t make the top 50. Emory’s defenders might say that’s because Emory’s strength is in Continental philosophy, not analytical philosophy (as at NYU and Michigan). But even in Continental philosophy Emory doesn’t make a particularly strong shoring. It’s in “group 4” (ranked #19-31) for 19th Century Continental philosophy, and it doesn’t make the top 31 in 20th Century Continental philosophy. I’d say you’ll get a much stronger education in analytical philosophy at NYU or Michigan than you would in Continental philosophy at Emory. In Poli Sci it’s not even close; Michigan has one of the top departments in the country.</p>
<p>I’d choose on the basis of where you’ll get the best education. This business about choosing on the basis of where you’ll have the best chance of law school admission is pretty much nonsense. Law school admissions has become almost entirely numbers-driven, largely under the pernicious influence of the US News law school rankings. So from that perspective, it truly doesn’t matter which one of these schools you attend; law school admissions committees will look at your GPA and LSAT, and that’s about it. Whether you got that GPA at Michigan, NYU, or Emory just won’t be a factor. One important qualification to that, however: if you’re concerned you may not get a top LSAT score, there’s a definite advantage to attending Michigan as an undergrad because the Michigan Law School is now test-optional for Michigan undergrads only. And even if you expect to do well on the LSAT, attending Michigan as an undergrad could be a valuable hedging strategy given your goal of attending a top 14 law school.</p>