MOVING TO FRONT (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 13, 2016)
Back in the old days (from 1989 through the late 1990s), the PGR consisted in my assessement of professional opinion about the quality of graduate programs in the form of an annual guide to prospective PhD students in philosophy in the Anglophone world. This was my assessment of professional opinion, not my own opinion about quality. I was sufficiently good at that that the PGR became hugely influential throughout the profession, so much so that faculty at departments not doing so well began protesting back in 2001. I gradually shifted to more systematic measurements--elaborate on-line surveys of senior and junior faculty--which just amplified the influence of the PGR. The results were not very dissimilar from when I was doing it from the armchair, but the evaluations of particular areas of specialization were clearly improved.
Brit Brogaard's plan is try to undertake new PGR surveys in fall 2017, but that doesn't obviate the need for some updated guidance. What follows is my best judgment as to how the faculty changes in the interim should lead prospective PhD students to think about the relevant hierarchy of PhD programs in the U.S. and elsewhere compared to the 2014 survey results. Rather than offer a guestimate about an ordinal rank, I put the PhD programs into "clusters" of what I think should reasonably be considered "peer" programs among which students should choose based on considerations other than "overall prestige." But I generally think it's reasonable to choose between programs in adjacent peer groups based on other considerations (financial aid, location, particular faculty, specialty strength etc.). I'll try to update the "specialty rankings" in the coming weeks.
An * indicates a program that arguably belongs in the next highest peer grouping.
Group 1 (1) Anglophone Programs outside the U.S.
New York University
Group 2 (2-8)
Princeton University *Oxford University
*Rutgers University, New Brunswick
University of California, Berkeley
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of Pittsburgh
University of Southern California
Yale University
Group 3 (9-15)
Columbia University University of Toronto
Harvard University
Massachussetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
University of Arizona
University of California, Los Angeles
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Group 4 (16-22)
Brown University Cambridge University
City University of New York Graduate Center Australian National University
University of California, San Diego
University of Chicago
University of Notre Dame
University of Texas, Austin
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Group 5 (23-27)
*Cornell University University of St. Andrews/University of Stirling Joint Program
Duke University University of Edinburgh
Indiana University, Bloomington King's College, London
University of California, Irvine University College London
Washington University, St. Louis University of Sydney
Group 6 (28-36)
Northwestern University London School of Economics
Ohio State University
University of California, Riverside
*University of Colorado, Boulder
*University of Maryland, College Park
*University of Massachussetts, Amherst
University of Miami
*University of Pennsylvania
University of Virginia
Group 7 (37-48)
Carnegie-Mellon University *University of Leeds
Florida State University University of Birmingham
Georgetown University University of Bristol
Johns Hopkins University University of Sheffield
Rice University Birkbeck College, University of London
Syracuse University University of Reading
University of California, Davis University of York
University of California, Santa Barbara University of British Columbia
University of Connecticut, Storrs *University of Western Ontario
University of Illinois, Chicago McGill University
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul Monash University
University of Rochester University of Melbourne
University of Auckland
Group 8 (49-60)
Arizona State University University of Glasgow
Boston University University of Manchester
Purdue University University of Durham
Saint Louis University University of Southampton
State University of New York, Buffalo University of Alberta
Texas A&M University Queen's University, Kingston
University of Cincinnati University of Waterloo
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign McMaster University
University of Missouri, Columbia York University, Toronto
University of Nebraska, Lincoln University of Calgary
University of Utah University of Otago
University of Washington, Seattle Victoria University, Wellington
National University of Singapore
Again, just to be clear, this is not my opinion about the quality of PhD program faculties, this is my best guesstimate as to professional opinion given what has transpired since the 2014 surveys. My "personal" ranking is quite different, since I think an excellent program has to be strong in the main areas of contemporary Anglophone philosophy, and strong in the post-Kantian Continental traditions. So my "personal" "top five" (I exclude my own institution from consideration) would include NYU, Columbia, Stanford, UC San Diego, and UC Riverside in the US. But I would not urge students to choose on this basis unless their interests were the same as mine!
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