Steinn links to a post by the “Incoherent Ponderer” that was pretty much guaranteed to raise my blood pressure. It’s an analysis of “Ph.D. Pedigree”, spinning off earlier arguments at Cosmic Variance and elsewhere in which the Ponderer argued that there’s a hiring bias in favor of “big name” Ph.D. programs.
The analysis in this case consists of tallying up the Ph.D. institutions of the faculty at the Top 50 research universities, and coming to the shocking conclusion that:
Top 10 universities contribute 59% of US PhD hires, those ranked 11-20 provide another 18%, the next ten ranked 21-30 provide 10%, and ALL of the remaining US universities contribute remaining 12% or so.
Actually, that’s not terribly shocking. Nor would it be all that annoying, were it not for a few missing words: Top 10 universities contribute 59% of US Ph.D. hires at Top 50 research universities. This is the thing that drives me absolutely nuts about the Ponderer and his ilk: the constant promotion of the pernicious myth that the only job worth having is a tenure-track job at a Top 50 research university.
There are 764 colleges and universities listed as granting degrees in physics in the most recent AIP data. The Top 50 universities constitute a whopping 6.5% of the total number of educational institutions. Acting as if those are the only jobs that matter is actively insulting to those of us who have chosen to work at the other 93.5% of the academic institutions in the nation.
I’m tempted to rant about this at length, but it’s really not worth it. I’ve been around and around with the Ponderer about this, and really, it would be more productive to hit myself in the head with a brick. I’m leaving for a conference tomorrow afternoon, and I have packing to do, papers to grade, and lint to pick off my sweaters. Let’s just note that having the top 1.3% of the colleges and universities supply three-fifths of the faculty for the top 6.5% of the colleges and universities in the nation does not strike me as irrefutable evidence that academia is all a giant con job, and leave it at that.