For the first time since 2001, U.S. News surveyed senior faculty on graduate program quality in several major areas of the humanities and the social sciences (not philosophy, though for that purpose we, of course, have more reliable data).  This provides an opportunity to look at how a cluster of very loosely competitive research universities fared during this period.  For reasons of immediate interest, I chose to look at research universities competitive with Texas, though I’ve thrown in two schools clearly stronger than the others in the cluster (UCLA and Chicago) and one weaker than the others in the cluster (Virginia) as a check on the reliability of the results.

Note that some of the schools in this sample are even stronger in the hard sciences and mathematics than in the social sciences and humanities (for example, Illinois, Texas, Washington and UC San Diego), while others are quite a bit weaker in those fields than in the social sciences and humanities (for example, Brown, Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia)

Nonetheless, strength in the humanities and social sciences is likely the information most relevant to law students, who, as graduate students, can take courses in cognate fields at the university.  (I didn’t include here some schools with very good law schools–such as Georgetown, Southern California, and Vanderbilt–since their graduate departments in other fields simply aren’t even close to being competitive, except in unusual cases, with the universities studied here.)

We calculated three scores for each university:  the net gain or loss in rank across the seven disciplines evaluated (English, Economics, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology); the average rank of departments at each university in these seven fields; and the median rank.  In some cases where rankings did not extend beyond the top 25 or so, it was necessary to estimate a rank, and so the figure of 30th was used (in some cases that is an advantage for the school, in other cases a slight disadvantage).  In only one case, did we estimate a gain for a department for which the figure of 30th was assigned:  namely, Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, which has made a series of high profile appointments to boost the standing of the department, which ranked far lower than 30th in the last National Research Council study.

The research universities most improved during this four-year period are:  New York University (plus 12); University of California at San Diego (plus 8); and University of Texas at Austin (plus 9).  No real surprises there:  each of these schools is in economically vibrant areas, attractive places to live, and each of these schools has been aggressive in the market for established faculty talent.

The research universities that lost the most ground during this four-year period are:  Johns Hopkins University (minus 13); Northwestern University (minus 25); University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (minus 24); and University of Washington at Seattle (minus 19).  The only surprise on that list, for me at least, was Northwestern.  I suspect it is simply a fluke of the time period evaluated, or the particular programs in question.  Minnesota and Washington, on the other hand, have had well-publicized troubles, mostly financial, and so the results in those cases are less surprising.  Johns Hopkins, meanwhile, is fighting a problematic urban location.

Among the universities studied, the ten with the highest average rank for departments in the humanities and social sciences were University of California, Los Angeles (9th), University of Chicago (10th), University of Wisconsin at Madison (12th), Cornell University (13th), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (16th), University of Pennsylvania (17th), Duke University (18th), New York University (18th), University of Texas, Austin (18th), and University of California, San Diego (20th).  Those with the lowest average rank were Brown University and Johns Hopkins University (each 23rd), University of Virginia (26th), and University of Washington, Seattle (27th).

The ten with the highest median rank are University of Chicago (6th), University of California, Los Angeles (9th), University of Wisconsin, Madison (11th), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (13th), University of Pennsylvania (13th), Cornell University (14th), Duke University (15th), University of California, San Diego (17th), Northwestern University (19th), and University of Texas, Austin (19th).  Those with the lowest median rank were the Universities of Virginia and Washington, Seattle (both 30th).

Below is the detailed data, reflecting the change in rank from 2001 to 2005 for each discipline, and also reporting the overall net gain or loss, and the average and median rank.

Brown University:  minus 8; avg. rank:  23rd; median rank:  21st

Economics:  21st to 21st

English:  14th to 15th

History:  15th to 15th

Philosophy:  16th to 17th

Political Science:  not in top 25 to not in top 25 (est. 30)

Psychology:  30th to 36th

Sociology:  not in top 25 to not in top 25 (est. 30)

Cornell University:  minus 3; avg. rank:  13th; median rank:  14th

Economics:  17th to 17th

English:  6th to 6th

History:  10th to 11th

Philosophy:  9th to 12th

Political Science:  20th to 18th

Psychology:  15th to 16th

Sociology:  14th to 14th

Duke University:  plus 2; avg. rank:  18th; median rank:  15th

Economics:  21st to 21st

English:  15th to 12th

History:  15th to 15th

Philosophy:  30th to 29th

Political Science:  8th to 8th

Psychology:  24th to 28th

Sociology:  16th to 14th

Johns Hopkins University:  minus 13; avg. rank:  23rd; median rank:  22nd

Economics:  24th to 24th

English:  8th to 8th

History:  10th to 9th

Philosophy:  31st to 44th

Political Science:  not in the top 25 to not in the top 25 (est. 30th)

Psychology:  24th to 22nd

Sociology:  19th to 22nd

New York University:  plus 12; avg. rank:  18th; median rank:  22nd

Economics:  19th to 15th

English:  25th to 23rd

History:  24th to 22nd

Philosophy:  1st to 1st

Political Science:  not in top 25 (est. 28th) to 18th

Psychology:  30th to 36th

Sociology:  22nd to 22nd

Northwestern University:  minus 25; avg. rank:  21st; median rank:  19th

Economics:  8th to 8th

English:  18th to 19th

History:  15th to 17th

Philosophy:  37th to 51st

Political Science:  20th to 21st

Psychology:  17th to 22nd

Sociology:  9th to 11th

University of California, Los Angeles:  minus 2; avg. rank:  9th; median rank:  9th

Economics:  11th to 11th

English:   11th to 10th

History:  9th to 9th

Philosophy:  8th to 9th

Political Science:  8th to 10th

Psychology:  6th to 5th

Sociology:  7th to 8th

University of California, San Diego:  plus 8; avg. rank:  20th; median rank:  17th

Economics:  17th to 10th

English:  not in the top 25 to not in the top 25 (est. 30)

History:  not in the top 25 to not in the to 25 (est. 30)

Philosophy:  17th to 17th

Political Science:  7th to 7th

Psychology:  17th to 16th

Sociology:  not in the top 25 to not in the top 25 (est. 30)

University of Chicago:  plus 2; avg. rank:  10th; median rank:  6th

Economics:  2nd to 1st

English:  5th to 6th

History:  5th to 4th

Philosophy:  17th to 17th

Political Science:  8th to 8th

Psychology:  30th to 28th

Sociology:  3rd to 4th

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign:  minus 7; avg. rank:  22nd; median rank:  22nd

Economics:  not in the top 25 to not in the top 25 (est. 30)

English:  18th to 19th

History:  22nd to 22nd

Philosophy:  49th to 54th

Political Science:  23rd to 22nd

Psychology:  3rd to 5th

Sociology:  not in the top 25 to not in the top 25 (est. 30)

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities:  minus 24; avg. rank:  22nd; median rank:  22nd

Economics:  11th to 15th

English:  not in the top 25 to not in the top 25 (est. 30)

History:  19th to 22nd

Philosophy:  31st to 36th

Political Science:  15th to 18th

Psychology:  3rd to 12th

Sociology:  22nd to 22nd

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill:  minus 3; avg. rank:  16th; median rank:  13th

Economics:  not in the top 25 to not in the top 25 (est. 30)

English:  18th to 19th

History:  13th to 13th

Philosophy:  12th to 12th

Political Science:  15th to 13th

Psychology:  17th to 22nd

Sociology:  5th to 4th

University of Pennsylvania:  plus 5; avg. rank:  17th; median rank:  13th

Economics:  9th to 9th

English:  10th to 10th

History:  13th to 13th

Philosophy:  26th to 31st

Political Science:  not in top 25 to not in top 25 (est. up 10, est. 30)

Psychology:  15th to 16th

Sociology:  11th to 10th

University of Texas, Austin:  plus 9; avg. rank:  18th; median rank:  19th

Economics:  21st to 25th

English:  18th to 19th

History:  22nd to 19th

Philosophy:  17th to 11th

Political Science:  23rd to 25th

Psychology:  17th to 12th

Sociology:  16th to 14th

University of Virginia:  minus 4; avg. rank:  26th; median rank:  30th

Economics:  not in the top 25 to not in the top 25 (est. 30th)

English:  11th to 12th

History:  15th to 19th

Philosophy:  42nd to 34th

Political Science:  not in the top 25 to not in the top 25 (est. 30th)

Psychology:  17th to 28th

Sociology:  not in the top 25 to not in the top 25 (est. 30th)

University of Washington, Seattle:  minus 19; avg. rank:  27th; median rank:  30th

Economics:  not in the top 25 to not in the top 25 (est. 30th)

English:  23rd to not in the top 25 (est. 30th)

History:  not in the top 25 to not in the top 25 (est. 30th)

Philosophy:  31st to 36th

Political Science:  23rd to 25th

Psychology:  17th to 22nd

Sociology:  16th to 17th

University of Wisconsin, Madison:  minus 4; avg. rank:  12th; median rank:  11th

Economics:  10th to 11th

English:  17th to 16th

History:  10th to 11th

Philosophy:  24th to 22nd

Political Science:  11th to 16th

Psychology:  9th to 9th

Sociology:  1st to 1st