Monday, February 23, 2015

Flava from Slate

I knew specific unis had a lot of sway, but I didn't realize they had THIS much sway.
"The data revealed that just a quarter of all universities account for 71 to 86 percent of all tenure-track faculty in the U.S. and Canada in these three fields. Just 18 elite universities produce half of all computer science professors, 16 schools produce half of all business professors, and eight schools account for half of all history professors."
Linking to another article just to enrage Hiram. (just kidding!)

The rest here.

6 comments:

  1. Let's stop picking on Hiram, even if he doesn't like linked articles. I like what Hiram writes, most of the time.

    Regarding the article, reason 91 of "100 Reasons NOT to Go to Graduate School" is "Downward Mobility is the norm."

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  2. I got my Ph.D. at Dartmouth. That's considered a top school here at Fresno State. Considering what Fresno State students do for fun, this speaks volumes, doesn't it?

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  3. This situation could have consequences as spending in higher education becomes more scarce. If I were a member of the state legislature, I might ask why our mid-level school is offering History PhDs to students who can't get faculty jobs. (Allso tying in the adjunct problem.)

    Providing PhDs to students who won't get faculty positions might be a good use of taxpayer dollars (especially if those grades can find other employment) but it might not be the best use of state money. That's an impporttant consideration when deealing with a limitted resource. The same could be said of sciientific researcch. I suspect there is a similar loppssideed distribuution of papers published, pappers cited and grants funded

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    1. coming from a strapped state school (that is nevertheless highly ranked), I would argue that the graduate program is more a cost-cutting measure for the state than it is a program to train future professors. But perhaps I am cynical, since my state school is among the 16 schools that produce so many professors.

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  4. I'm sorry this came off as picking on Hiram, whom I adore.

    (If I didn't, I wouldn't have included him by name)

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