1University of Maryland--College Park Score - 4.7
2University at Albany--SUNY Score - 4.4
3 University of Cincinnati Score - 4.1
4 University of Missouri--St. Louis Score - 3.8
5 Pennsylvania State University--University Park Score - 3.7
5 University of California--Irvine Score - 3.7
7 Florida State University Score - 3.5
7 Michigan State University Score - 3.5
7 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey--Newark Score - 3.5
10 CUNY--John Jay College Score - 3.3
The methodology behind the rankings is quite interesting. Here is some information . Interestingly, Criminology had the highest response rate of any social science at 90%.
Each school offering a doctoral program was sent two surveys (with the exception of criminology, where each school received four). The questionnaires asked respondents to rate the academic quality of the program at each institution on a 5-point scale: outstanding (5), strong (4), good (3), adequate (2), or marginal.
7 comments:
Realizing that the actual survey might have more detail versus what they post in their methods notes, am I the only one seeing a fundamental flaw here (ok, several, but I won't address the list of schools, who they sample, etc.)?
When you are asked to rate the academic quality, what does that mean? Are you assessing the quality of the PhD program curriculum, the quality of PhD graduates, the quality of the program faculty, etc.? If this is the actual wording, how can we be sure the measure is at all reliable?
I know these are more vanity ratings than anything else, but most people don't recognize that and even a lot of places that do will be quick to trump a #1 ranking if it is in their favor (despite knowing it is meaningless).
Then again, I'm cranky by nature and have been having a craptacular couple of weeks, so I'll just be quiet now.
Cranks (who is far too long-winded for twitter).
Like Cranky, I have never understood a survey approach to this. I suspect if you did better measures, the top 10 would largely stay the same with slight modifications. But more importantly, why even use a survey attitude approach about something like this. While reputation is not unimportant, is that really a defining aspect of our institutions. I still laugh that my former institution ranks as high as it does. Based on what? There is one tenured faculty member that produces anything at all - ok, maybe two. That right there tells you how invalid this approach is. But again, I don't think it would matter much as it relates to the top programs.
This whole ranking system has bothered me too ever since finding out about the methodology. No surveys of students. No surveys of alums. No assessment of publication (quantity or quality) of the faculty or graduates or graduate students. No consideration for dollars of grant monies received. Instead lets just go ahead and ASK the programs themselves which is the best - and give Crim programs double the surveys. This seems like a perfectly unbiased approach. Blech... What defines a good program? Seems to me their could have been a lot more thought put into this.
We may be (tied for) number 7 in this lame survey, but at least we're number 2 in basketball!
As part of our external review this year, we compiled a large number of of metrics, including many listed by Patch (above). Those metrics consistently placed us in the top three, and in some categories we were #1.
Having said that, it can be difficult to come up with a consistent rating system across disciplines. US News may choose to count (for example), number of peer reviewed publications per faculty member. However, that doesn't take quality into account. Are my two publications in Violence Against Women equivalent to two publications in Criminology?
Also, because we have a lot of interesting faculty appointments (thank you, Dr. HnK for the recognition of our Conservation Criminology program), the type of our publications differs significantly from other units--how does that affect our ability to compare ratings across universities?
In the end, I believe U.S. News will continue to use surveys. Let's face it--collecting the more meaningful data is more difficult and more expensive. I can't imagine they would put that kind of effort into their rating system.
I agree with the others—-the survey’s methodology is questionable. The appeal is primarily a marketing one as I imagine that if I searched the websites for those programs named in the Top 5, they already have or soon will have something posted to the extent of “Named One of the Best Five Criminology/Criminal Justice Programs in the US” displayed prominently.
Having recently experienced (suffered?) through the application process, I found that the Journal of Criminal Justice Education contains a gold mine of information for those wanting to evaluate criminal justice and criminology programs. That periodical contained helpful articles that compared program publication productivity, the number of times specific CJ authors were cited in the top journals, as well as insider information like acceptance and completion rates at the various institutions.
Also, the journal is great for a laugh or two as well including John Wright’s article poking fun at sociology’s domination of the discipline and describing it as a "miseducation."
I like that it is meaningless... Who knows? My school might be worse off with more objective measures. My colleagues appear a bit bothered, we dropped .3 points and, as such, lost our spot to you, Shock Prof.
Many theories abound (my favorite -- why didn't all our new hires make us rise?). I would bet it is as simple as 'a couple of dudes changed their rankings for a couple of schools == minus .3 points. If this turns into a trend, then I will worry.
I was also at WI Soc the year they went from #1 to tied for #1. You'd have thought somebody died, at least among the graduate students...
NewSocProf,
Your comment intrigued me, so I thought I would pop over to U.S. News and check out the rating for my alma maters (almae mater? Who can say?). UT Austin Sociology is tied for 14th--not too bad at all, but I think in years past they were higher (it doesn't look like USN includes prior ratings).
I'm also happy to see the University of Maryland in the top 20 Sociology programs. Even though I studied Crim & CJ there, I took a couple of Soc classes and got a lot out of them.
I agree that a couple of people can change their minds a bit, and that difference of .3 in the rankings can really rankle some people (ha ha--"rankings", "rankle", they sound the same).
SP
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