It's the time of year when I get lots of e-mails from prospective students of the variety, "How do you think department X will fare in next year's PGR?" or "Do you think department Y is on an upward or downward trajectory?" and so forth.
Here's my advice--this is *my* opinion only--to prospectives at this time of the year. I'll assume that prospectives have picked an appropriate array of programs to apply to.
(1) The most important thing you can do now is talk to current students at any program you're considering. Find out how they're treated and what their experience is like. Some of the "big name" appointments this year, for example, are of faculty who have mixed reputations for mentoring students. So be sure to talk to students with experience before you invest your career and hopes in a particular faculty member, or faculty members.
(2) My impression is that, in terms of faculty quality, various clusters are emerging--something like the old "Groups" that the Advisory Board voted to eliminate. Taking in to account moves since the fall 2002 edition of the PGR (see here for a listing), it seems to me that at the very top in the US are six programs: NYU, Princeton, Rutgers, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Stanford; Columbia may now be on the cusp of this group.
A notch below those seven is another cluster including Arizona, Berkeley, Cornell, Harvard, MIT, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Texas, and UCLA. On the cusp of this third group are Chicago, CUNY, UC Irvine, Brown, and UC San Diego. With the possible exception of the top 6, I'd recommend choosing based on your actual interests (and, of course, for all of them, do take in to account your impressions based on visiting or talking to prospective students); and even with respect to the top 6, do, of course, weigh your actual interests (if, e.g., you're really primarily interested in German Idealism, do choose Chicago or Notre Dame over NYU--but not Stanford, of course).
A fourth grouping, another notch below, would have to include Ohio State, UC Davis, Wisconsin, Yale, Duke, Maryland, Southern California now, probably Penn, probably UC Riverside, probably Indiana, maybe Syracuse, maybe Colorado (in addition to their other recent losses, George Bealer now has offers from other departments). But I wouldn't assign much weight to "overall stature" of the department--as distinct from strength in what matters to you--to this group as against U Mass/Amherst, Minnesota, Johns Hopkins, Washington, UC Santa Barbara, Illinois/Chicago, Virginia, Georgetown, Minnesota, Carnegie-Mellon, Northwestern, Rice, Rochester, probably Miami, probably Connecticut (Millikan is now emeritus, though still teaching graduate students), probably Wash U/St. Louis, probably Illinois/Urbana, probably Arizona State, and maybe also BU, Tulane, Florida State, Florida, Missouri, Iowa, and South Carolina.
In the UK, the relative strength of programs is not much changed: Oxford is well ahead of everyone else, and then a cluster of programs--Cambridge, UCL, St. Andrews, Birkbeck, LSE (for philosophy of science), King's, Sheffield, Reading, Edinburgh (esp. now with the addition of Andy Clark)--are all quite strong. Nottingham, having hired Harold Noonan away from Birmingham, is surely on the cusp of this group as well, and perhaps so too are Leeds, York, Durham, Stirling and Glasgow. Several other UK programs continue to have specialty niches: e.g., Warwick (Continental), Southampton (Continental, aesthetics), Exeter (philosophy of science, social science, and biology), Bristol (political), among others.
In Australasia, the ANU has taken some hits, but still probably has the strongest faculty, but with Melbourne, Monash, Auckland, and Sydney all having much to offer--and Macquarie, Canterbury, and Queensland are on the cusp of this group.
In Canada, Toronto continues to compare favorably with the Arizona, Berkeley et al. cluster in the US, noted above. Western Ontario and British Columbia strike me as the next best, followed by some mix of McGill, York, Alberta, and Queen's--though in all these cases, weigh your particular interests and how well the department meets them with care.
Best of luck to all prospectives with your decisions!
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