Thursday, March 31, 2005

take that, berkelosers!

The new US News & World Report rankings are out:



In a fit of truly irrational exuberance, I paid the $15 for the complete rankings. Wisconsin is ranked 1st in Sociology of Population and 1st in Social Stratification. We are also ranked 3rd (tied with Cornell) in Economic Sociology, 3rd in Sex and Gender, and 5th (tied with Arizona) in Social Psychology.

Presumably, in the days ahead, there will be much speculation among the sociological cognoscenti about how Madison managed, despite some serious faculty losses, to move from a tie with Berkeley in the previous rankings to now being top-ranked outright. Whatever else you want to say in comparing the two departments, Madison Sociology's massive blogging edge should not go unnoticed--the sconnies press ahead where other blogs have faltered. I'm sure that must be it.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't buy it.

Anonymous said...

Hooooah!! On Wisconsin!! I forget the words to the fight song that the Badgers have always gone forward with but all Soc. faculty should be proud to stand outside the Admin building singing it. Perhaps someone would be gracious enough to post the words for this fight song. On Wisconsin, on Wisconsin............. I'm sure that is the opening stanza.

Anonymous said...

Everyone knows that US News rankings are biased and meaningless unless Berkeley is on top.

Anonymous said...

The McMadisonization of graduate sociology is complete. You are the best factory, with the best production line. Congratulations! I'm not bitter, really.

Tom Bozzo said...

Oy, you academics and your precious rankings.

P.S., On Wisconsin.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Tom. I was just too damn lazy to look it up. Ahhh! The sound of victory! I'm sure all the Grads are rushing up and down the halls shouting #1! #1! #1! HOOOOAH!!

Anonymous said...

US News actually used to publish the entire rankings for free, but then probably realized they had a cash cow on their hands, and started charging fifteen bucks for it two or three years ago. Perhaps altruistically posting the entire rankings might be a way of 1) sticking it to the man and 2) generating a ton of traffic for your site.

I'm just going to peek at the paper edition in the local convenience store, so it's not like people can't get the info for free anyways...