Undergraduate Departmental Rankings

carolyn
Thu, 16 Feb 2006 13:45:29 +0000

I agree with Warbler: I like Rugg’s Recommendations as a starting point (although it is not always on target).

However, I think you really have to do your own research and due dilligence to evaluate most undergraduate programs, even those where rankings exist.

Some things I look for are:


department accreditation by a professional association related to the subject,
faculty size compared to the number of graduating majors in the department
where grads of the department go on to graduate school or employment
any recent or pending changes in funding for the department (search the school’s press releases, and the student newspaper archives),
special facilities or capabilities of the department (department library, research facilities, special equipment, etc.)
how many prof’s in the department are tenured, how many are full-time, how many are just visiting or are not tenured.
the philosophy or subject approach of the department. This can take some digging, and you may have to put some divergent pieces together to see if the department’s goals/philosophies are a fit with yours. Two equally sized departments at different schools can have very different approaches.
I also like to get a hold of the actual course schedules (not the catalog which merely lists courses that may or may not be offered on a regular basis) for a few semesters and see how many classes the department typically offers, how large or small they are, and whether they fill up quickly or are over-subscribed. A department is only good if you can get into classes without too much trouble. :)


Another piece of advice that I also find helpful came from the Philosophical Gourmet site, which ranks Philosophy graduate programs but also has a section discussing how to evaluate undergrad programs, is to (1) find the rankings for top graduate level programs (these are usually more readily available) and then (2) look at the faculty bio’s and see how many received their doctorates from the top grad programs. Of course, at large universities, you’ll also need to find out how many of those faculty actually teach undergraduates.

There are, of course, many other things to look at when comparing undergrad departments, and I’m sure others will add to these suggestions.

I’d rather do this kind of research on my own than rely solely on rankings, which usually only look at a few key elements, not the broad picture of what an undergraduate’s experience is actually likely to be.