Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Rankings?
The newest National Research Council PhD program ranking are out. I'm not quite willing to dish out the $125 for my own personal copy. Anybody care to look to see if they ranked linguistics departments?
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The newest National Research Council PhD program ranking are out. I'm not quite willing to dish out the $125 for my own personal copy. Anybody care to look to see if they ranked linguistics departments?
From my understanding, they must have. Or at least have stats concerning them. Either way, I can't wait to see the numbers.
Yes, they did. Presented below without comment...
(Note: the figures below reflect the sum of the 90% confidence interval rankings for the four categories for which the NRC provided program quality rankings.)
Rank RankSum Institution Program
1 48 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY Cognitive Science
2 65 UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK Linguistics
3 75 UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Linguistics
4 88 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES Applied Linguistics
5 95 MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Linguistics
6 102 HARVARD UNIVERSITY Linguistics
7 103 SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY-UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO Language and Comm. Disorders
8 107 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY Linguistics
9 109 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Linguistics
10 114 STANFORD UNIVERSITY Linguistics
11 138 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Linguistics
12 146 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-ANN ARBOR Linguistics
13 147 OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY MAIN CAMPUS Linguistics
14 154 UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA Linguistics
15 155 PURDUE UNIVERSITY MAIN CAMPUS Linguistics
16 156 INDIANA UNIVERSITY AT BLOOMINGTON Linguistics
17 161 UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE Linguistics
18 170 UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Linguistics
19 174 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Linguistics
20 175 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES Linguistics
21 194 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Linguistics
22 195 CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY Modern Languages
22 195 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER Linguistics
24 200 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN Linguistics
25 205 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SAN DIEGO Linguistics
26 215 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SANTA CRUZ Linguistics
27 219 RUTGERS UNIVERSITY Linguistics
28 223 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Linguistics
29 226 CORNELL UNIVERSITY Linguistics
30 234 STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT STONY BROOK Linguistics
31 248 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN Linguistics
32 252 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Linguistics
33 257 UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT Linguistics
33 257 GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY Linguistics
35 263 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON Linguistics
36 271 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON Linguistics
37 275 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA Second Lang. Acq.
38 280 YALE UNIVERSITY Linguistics
39 282 BOSTON UNIVERSITY Applied Linguistics
39 282 UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON Linguistics
41 283 RICE UNIVERSITY Linguistics
42 284 UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO MAIN CAMPUS Linguistics
43 288 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SANTA BARBARA Linguistics
44 302 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA Linguistics
45 303 UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA Second Lang. Acq.
46 304 CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK GRAD. CENTER Linguistics
47 307 STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO Linguistics
47 307 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA-TWIN CITIES Linguistics
49 312 UNIVERSITY OF IOWA Second Lang. Acq.
50 348 UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA Linguistics
51 356 UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA Linguistics
52 363 INDIANA UNIVERSITY AT BLOOMINGTON Second Lang. Studies
I think Blogger just choked on my last comment, so I'll break it in two.
(Note: the figures below reflect the sum of the 90% confidence interval rankings for the four categories for which the NRC provided program quality rankings.)
Rank RankSum Institution Program
1 48 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY Cognitive Science
2 65 UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK Linguistics
3 75 UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Linguistics
4 88 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES Applied Linguistics
5 95 MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Linguistics
6 102 HARVARD UNIVERSITY Linguistics
7 103 SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY-UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO Language and Comm. Disorders
8 107 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY Linguistics
9 109 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Linguistics
10 114 STANFORD UNIVERSITY Linguistics
11 138 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Linguistics
12 146 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-ANN ARBOR Linguistics
13 147 OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY MAIN CAMPUS Linguistics
14 154 UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA Linguistics
15 155 PURDUE UNIVERSITY MAIN CAMPUS Linguistics
16 156 INDIANA UNIVERSITY AT BLOOMINGTON Linguistics
17 161 UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE Linguistics
18 170 UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Linguistics
19 174 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Linguistics
20 175 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES Linguistics
21 194 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Linguistics
22 195 CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY Modern Languages
22 195 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER Linguistics
24 200 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN Linguistics
25 205 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SAN DIEGO Linguistics
I don't know what's going on! Only my second comment went through. Anyway, top 25:
Rank RankSum Institution Program
1 48 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY Cognitive Science
2 65 UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK Linguistics
3 75 UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Linguistics
4 88 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES Applied Linguistics
5 95 MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Linguistics
6 102 HARVARD UNIVERSITY Linguistics
7 103 SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY-UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO Language and Comm. Disorders
8 107 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY Linguistics
9 109 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Linguistics
10 114 STANFORD UNIVERSITY Linguistics
11 138 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Linguistics
12 146 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-ANN ARBOR Linguistics
13 147 OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY MAIN CAMPUS Linguistics
14 154 UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA Linguistics
15 155 PURDUE UNIVERSITY MAIN CAMPUS Linguistics
16 156 INDIANA UNIVERSITY AT BLOOMINGTON Linguistics
17 161 UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE Linguistics
18 170 UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Linguistics
19 174 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Linguistics
20 175 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES Linguistics
21 194 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Linguistics
22 195 CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY Modern Languages
22 195 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER Linguistics
24 200 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN Linguistics
25 205 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SAN DIEGO Linguistics
26 215 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SANTA CRUZ Linguistics
27 219 RUTGERS UNIVERSITY Linguistics
28 223 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Linguistics
29 226 CORNELL UNIVERSITY Linguistics
30 234 STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT STONY BROOK Linguistics
31 248 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN Linguistics
32 252 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Linguistics
33 257 UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT Linguistics
33 257 GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY Linguistics
35 263 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON Linguistics
36 271 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON Linguistics
37 275 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA Second Lang. Acq.
38 280 YALE UNIVERSITY Linguistics
39 282 BOSTON UNIVERSITY Applied Linguistics
39 282 UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON Linguistics
41 283 RICE UNIVERSITY Linguistics
42 284 UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO MAIN CAMPUS Linguistics
43 288 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SANTA BARBARA Linguistics
44 302 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA Linguistics
45 303 UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA Second Lang. Acq.
46 304 CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK GRAD. CENTER Linguistics
47 307 STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO Linguistics
47 307 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA-TWIN CITIES Linguistics
49 312 UNIVERSITY OF IOWA Second Lang. Acq.
50 348 UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA Linguistics
51 356 UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA Linguistics
52 363 INDIANA UNIVERSITY AT BLOOMINGTON Second Lang. Studies
The NRC in its wisdom is offering many, many, many different rankings at once. Bridget Samuels' list appears to reflect the so-called "S-rankings", heavily weighted to grants and so-called "research volume". Notice that several outstanding departments that are justifiably highly regarded (UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, for example) come out implausibly low on this list.
Then there are the "R-rankings", compiled on the basis of exactly the same data, but weighted differently. The S-rankings reflect what people say they value in a department, while the R-rankings reflect how much a given department resembles others that people are willing to rank highly, in-between, or low. Same data, differeent prioritization of factors. In linguistics, that produces a *very* different-looking list.
Then there are all sorts of ways of combining the two rankings, or rolling your own. One place to roll your own is at this website:
http://graduate-school.phds.org
If you privilege the R-rankings, the top of the list looks quite different from what Samuels cites:
1-17 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Linguistics 1-17
1-14 University of Chicago Linguistics 1-14
2-16 Stanford University Linguistics 2-15
2-15 University of California-Los Angeles Linguistics 2-15
1-19 Johns Hopkins University Cognitive Science 1-19
2-18 The University of Texas at Austin Linguistics 2-17
2-18 University of Pennsylvania Linguistics 2-18
2-21 University of California-Berkeley Linguistics 2-20
3-24 Harvard University Linguistics 3-24
3-21 University of California-San Diego Linguistics 3-20
2-27 University of Maryland-College Park Linguistics 2-26
7-24 Cornell University Linguistics 7-23
4-29 New York University Linguistics 4-28
4-30 Rutgers University-New Brunswick Linguistics 4-29
5-26 Ohio State University-Main Campus Linguistics 5-25
7-35 University of California-Santa Cruz Linguistics 7-34
6-28 University of Massachusetts Amherst Linguistics 6-27
(see the site for the rest of the list)
I've also seen a mixed list that combines both S-ranking and R-ranking, in which Hopkins comes out first, followed by MIT.
The whole thing is quite a mess. Worse, in some fields, severe problems have been identified with the underlying data. One of the computer science associations has lodged an official protest about the data, and the NRC has actually conceded their point. Probably linguistics lacks the personpower to check the data for the field and the clout to gain a concession of error from the NRC. But if they couldn't get Computer Science right, I wonder what they did with linguistics.
A good critique of the whole fiasco (aimed at philosophers, but much more general than that) can be found at this website and at the links included there:
http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2010/09/a-quick-guide-to-the-new-national-research-council-rankings.html#more
Bridget and D, thanks for the effort! I was surprised to see the rankings that Bridget posted (especially Austin at 31, that just didn't look right), but D's posted made it more sensible. Rankings are never without controversy, of course. The Gorman Report used to do graduate programs but it seems they've focused on undergrad these days.
BTW, Bridget, I've had the same problem with Blogger where I post a comment and it fails to show. No clue why.
So it turns out you can download the rankings for free. But I'd be really careful with them, since it's not clear what they're measuring, or if they're measuring it correctly: see here and especially here.
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