Most collegial departments

[Elliephant]

As I did my research in order to decide where to attend next year, I was struck by the unexpectedly high variance between different departments' atmospheres. We've all been taught to suspect that places like Penn or Chicago will be highly competitive, but I was surprised at the heterogeneity in "friendliness" of departments across the board.

 

Some places have students from across different programmes (e.g. econ and finance) studying together and have faculty with near-100% open-door policies; at others, students stay within their small groups of friends and have to wait three weeks before their advisors will see them. I think such things can dramatically impact one's experience in grad school. So, it would be nice if people could share their impressions of different departments all within one thread. (There are various discussions of individual schools floating around, but I couldn't find an aggregated list.)

 

I'll start:

Wharton health econ is phenomenally good. Students interact across years and across departments, and it's not uncommon for them to knock on a prof's door without an appointment to ask a quick question. I've heard the same thing about Wharton AE.

Kellogg is also good, though not quite the outlier Wharton health is. It's bigger and there is more heterogeneity in faculty accessibility, but overall students feel that they have sufficient access to and support from their profs. To Kellogg's credit, even the very senior profs are willing to sit down with first-years to talk about their research and career plans, and many students start getting involved in research very early.

[kipfilet]

Good thread, it would be great if current students could contribute. This is probably the most important non-transparent factor when making decisions...

[Zomb1]

This is a very cool idea. I'll start visiting departments soon, but I'm not sure how to judge friendliness of a department. How did you do that? Just ask current students? Or..

[hzzhangyu]

I second that this is a good idea.

 

Concerning Stanford and Princeton, sources from Stanford suggests that in Stanford econ, there is generally no walls between students and faculty, while in Princeton, well, things are somewhat different. (This piece of information might be biased, so take it with a grain of salt)

[thesparky]

From my understanding, Queen's is perhaps the friendliest Canadian department and provides the most support, though I have never visited. Caltech definitely is the friendliest econ department I've seen; given its tiny class sizes, you will know most of the students in the entire program (and could know every one of them if you wished), and for the same reason the profs are very open and invested.

[Gecko]

I'll second Kellogg. I emailed a senior professor in my 1st quarter, who took the time out to talk to me. :)

[wind up bird]

As a current student there, I agree thesparky about Caltech. The faculty are extremely open and responsive and the attitude among students is collegial and non-competitive.

 

After visiting, I had very positive impressions of, and continue to hear good things about, the departments at Boston College and UCSD.

[Canuckonomist]

From my understanding, Queen's is perhaps the friendliest Canadian department and provides the most support, though I have never visited. Caltech definitely is the friendliest econ department I've seen; given its tiny class sizes, you will know most of the students in the entire program (and could know every one of them if you wished), and for the same reason the profs are very open and invested.

 

Having spent 5 years at Queen's, I'll agree that it's probably the most collegial Canadian department in the top 4. Outside the top 4, well, I think they have a tendency to be more collegial because the programs are smaller, and the names are also smaller. For professors with "big names" (in terms of Canadian programs) I'd say Queen's has been more collegial than Toronto. That said, there are a number of great, friendly, big name profs at Toronto. For example, Diego Restuccia takes all the 1st year Ph.Ds out for lunch after the first term is done, but before exams. Martin Osborne is also really responsive to students. A couple years ago, he started voluntarily holding a 2-hour tutorial every week to go over his insane amount of problem sets (he gives 2 each week). He started these because students asked him to in his performance review. This may seem like something he should do anyway, but it's not common that tenured big-name profs actually care about what people write in the course evals, much less give up another 2 hours of his time each week because of them. I should also mention he is the DGS, so his time is limited even more so than the average prof.

[WorkingHard]

Rand Pardee is also excellent in that they treat all students as research colleagues. This is evident in that each student has a lot of research commitments to fill in conjunction with classes. Students have their own offices, and are treated like professors. This is my knowledge from a trusted peer in the program.

[dreck]

I have heard polar opposite things about Princeton. Some say it's very supportive, others say it's hard to get noticed.

 

Also, playing beer pong with a tenured faculty member-->Michigan is pretty collegial. (They have all the important stuff about accessible advisors too.)

[JRav]

I have heard polar opposite things about Princeton. Some say it's very supportive, others say it's hard to get noticed.

Do you by any chance know if this is in general, or just specific faculty?

[dreck]

No idea, all my information is second-hand.

[TomRod]

I nominate Texas for consideration as a collegial, congenial school. The only issues students have developing relationships with faculty appear personal, not departmental.

[The MAN]

I vaguely remember someone saying that lower-ranked schools tend to be collegial, but I guess this is all just hearsay.

[bassmantin]

I just got back from Purdue, and they were extremely collegial. Lots of interaction among students and faculty. The third-year students I talked to said they met with their advisers about once a week. Lots of faculty co-authoring with students. Lots of collaboration among first-year student and sharing of research ideas among later-year students.

 

My only other experience is Indiana, which scores lower on all of these dimensions. Less student collaboration (although perhaps not in the first year), less access to faculty, and less (although still some) co-authoring. Still, it didn't seem like a terribly un-collegial environment.

[SASsy]

I vaguely remember someone saying that lower-ranked schools tend to be collegial, but I guess this is all just hearsay.

 

I have limited first hand experience with two low-ranked econ departments. They are, in fact, collegial. The younger professors are always more likely to go out for beers with the students, and the older professors (who are tenured) are more likely to chat with you at length in their offices. This could be more of a self-selection process for people who ultimately take job offers at lower-ranked schools.

 

Another impression I have gotten, which goes along with the friendliness at Purdue, is that schools with closer ties to ag econ and ARE programs tend to have friendlier faculty. It's just an observation, but I wonder if anyone else has observed that too?

[AREStudentHopeful]

With a sample size of 1, I will say that in my experience, ARE departments are just "less formal." I wouldn't necessarily say that they're friendlier (as I have enjoyed multiple collegial straight econ departments) but they do have less of an air of formality surrounding both professional and personal interactions between students and faculty.

[Econbrah]

Can I bump this - anyone care to add any new insights to this?