Where Do Faculty Receive Their PhDs? (Article)

Where Do Faculty Receive Their PhDs?

http://www.aaup.org/publications/Academe/2005/05ja/05jawu.htm

 

Will definitely have to read this article. Thanks.

 

Yup. Exactly the same phenomenon occurs with law school faculty. And it is a bad thing for the academy, IMHO.

Bottom line: If you want to be a professor, all doctorates are not created equal; go to the most prestigious program you can get into.

 

True, but tragic.

 

Please note that the author of this article looked mostly at the top research based institutions. If you want to place in a top R1 institution, teaching is an afterthought, research is king. So it's logical that these institutions hire only those from other top R1 schools. Some in the industry refer to it as inbreeding.

For those of us in non-traditional Doctorate programs, R1 placements aren't very likely, nor in my case desired.

 

Hi, Steve, thanks for the welcome!

I'm working on a Doctor of Business Administration at Argosy Twin Cities. After graduation I hope to pursue a tenure track position somewhere.

 

I believe you are right and are doing the right thing. Since I like business, if I had any desire to teach full-time at a major university I would do whatever it took to get into the highest ranked (notice I didn't say best ) US B&M AACSB school I could.

For some of us the Phd Project is the way to go: http://www.phdproject.com/

Fort Hays is only a bargain if it helps you achieve your goal. If it doesn't, then it was way too expensive. GWU may cost more now, but future value of the degree may mean it is cheaper in the long run.

The reason I posted this topic is to give food for thought to our wanabe doctoral students.

When you graduate from the University of Maryland with your doctorate you will be glad you did.

Good luck!

Just my opinion

 

Interesting article and certainly not surprising. There is a tremendous amount of "inbreeding," especially among the Ivy League schools. They do tend to hire their own.

For those who may be considering a career in academia, please note that the sample of schools considered in the article represents just slightly over 1% of the total colleges and universities in the U.S. (there are over 4,000). If you go beyond the "top 25" as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, you find quite a diversity in the institutions where faculty have earned their highest degrees.

If your goal is to teach at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, etc., then yes, a degree from one of the most prestigious schools may be your only ticket in. For other colleges and universities, a prestigious doctorate can give you a "leg up", but is certainly not a prerequisite. Some of the most successful and popular of my faculty colleagues have degrees from non-Ivy League schools.

 

Great recommendation! An eye-opening article. Will have to save this one for future reference.

 

It's interesting the good sense displayed on this thread.

"Best" is relative to ones overall purposes and goals. Steve should indeed aim high - if he has the time and patience and range (and financing, it goes without saying). For Ken, it sounds like the headaches of departmental politics hold no fascination and career upward mobility is no object. Good for him! Better to love what one does than to be a slave.

However, I do know of a prof in Harvard's psych department who's PhD hales from (what I assume to be) a middling state university - Wayne State in Detroit. So - you never know exactly where you'll end up!

-Orson

 

Comment on "concentration"...

Much is made of concentration in the article. That is, such high percentages of doctorates come from those top ten or twenty PhD programs.

This is in a sense a illusion of program size. For example, take history. UCLA, Columbia, Wisconsin and a couple more programs have several hundred students. Other top programs, only a fraction of that.

If one were to drop down to second tier, none would have those super-sized programs, and many of the large programs would have masters and part-time programs.

Thus, concentration may be more an artifact of success or previous reputation or simply "market dominance."

However, a "second tier" program like Washington University at St. Louis still funds their admissions 100% and finds jobs for their grads.