Thursday, March 24, 2011

Ranking Philosophy Programs: Google Rankings Vs. Philosophical Gourmet Vs. Academic Analytics

 The top ten Google  rankings for university philosophy departments compared to Academic Analytics and The Philosophical Gourmet Report. Although their algorithm for page ranking is more complicated then I can explain, it's basically a index of popularity/relevance/influence on the internet. 
****Every one of the top ten Phd programs ranked by google was ranked 26th OR ABOVE by the Gourmet.  Any thoughts about this correlation?


I wouldn't take Google's rankings very seriously as a way to chose a school (it's just methodologically problematic) but when compared to the other two giants there are some interesting overlaps. There are two established program ranking systems: Academic Analytics’ Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, and Brian Leiter’s Philosophical Gourmet ranking. This is a comparison between the these two accepted systems and Google's university rankings based on their algorithm for page ranking.





Notes:
1. The Philosophical Gourmet Report Ranks the top 50 programs. Next to Google's rankings is a comparison to the Gourmet's. Sited like this: "[Gourmet ranking: 22]"




Where they agree on Top Ten:


Google, Analytics and Gourmet


Rutgers
Princeton


Google and Gourmet


MIT
Stanford
Columbia

Rutgers
Princeton
UC, Berkeley [Almost made it, Gourmet ranking: 11]



Google and Analytics


Rutgers
Princeton

Analytics and Gourmet

Rutgers
Princeton





Google rankings from: 

http://www.google.com/Top/Society/Philosophy/Academic_Departments/North_America/United_States/



1.Stanford University - http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/
Department of Philosophy - Stanford, California - BA, MA, PhD
[Gourmet ranking: 9]


2.  Earlham College - http://www.earlham.edu/~phil/
Department of Philosophy - Richmond, Indiana - BA
 [Gourmet ranking: BA only, not ranked]


3.  Brown University - http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/
Department of Philosophy - Providence, Rhode Island - BA, PhD
  [Gourmet ranking: 17]


4.  Columbia University - http://www.columbia.edu/cu/philosophy/
Department of Philosophy - New York, New York - BA, MA, MA (Physics and Philosophy), PhD [Gourmet ranking: 15]


5.  University of California, Berkeley - http://philosophy.berkeley.edu/
Department of Philosophy - Berkeley, California - BA, PhD
[Gourmet ranking: 11]


6.  Rutgers University - http://philosophy.rutgers.edu/
Department of Philosophy - New Brunswick, New Jersey - BA, PhD
[Gourmet ranking: 2]


7.  Princeton University - http://web.princeton.edu/sites/philosph/
Department of Philosophy - Princeton, New Jersey - BA, PhD
[Gourmet ranking: 3]

8.  Tufts University - http://ase.tufts.edu/philosophy/
Department of Philosophy - Medford, Massachusetts - BA, MA
[Gourmet ranking: MA's not "ranked" but suggested in the top 13]


8.  University of Texas, Austin - http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/philosophy/
Department of Philosophy - Austin, Texas - BA, MA, PhD
 [Gourmet ranking: 20]


9.  Duke University - http://philosophy.duke.edu/
Department of Philosophy - Durham, North Carolina - BA, AM, MA/JD, PhD 
[Gourmet ranking: 26]



10. Massachusetts Institute of Technology - http://web.mit.edu/philos/www/
Department of Linguistics and Philosophy - Cambridge, Massachusetts - BA, PhD
[Gourmet ranking: 7]
Note: The Philosophical Gourmet Report only "ranks" Phd programs. Google includes BA and MA only institutions in their rankings and one of the top ten is a BA only (#2 Earlham College ) and one a MA only(#8 Tufts University). A fair comparison would include two more on Google's Phd rankings.
11. University of Chicago [Gourmet ranking: 22].
12. University of California, Berkeley [Gourmet ranking: 11]






1. Michigan State University
2. CUNY Graduate School
2. Princeton University
4. University of Virginia
5. Rutgers
6. University of California – San Diego
7. Pennsylvania State University
8. The University of Texas at Austin
9. SUNY at Stony Brook
10. Rice University
Brian Leiter’s Philosophical Gourmet ranking
1. New York University
2. Rutgers
3. Princeton University
3. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
5. University of Pittsburgh
6. Stanford University
7. Harvard University
7. MIT
7. UCLA
10. Columbia University
10. Univ. of North Carolina –Chapel Hill

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