<p>An 88% vs. 83% employment rate is a significant difference. I’ve made no claims indicating that Penn/Chicago are not peer schools, only that Chicago is significantly outperforming Penn in employment (in terms of the statistically significant sense, not in the substantial sense; perhaps not a good notation to be used around people not used to such notation, but appropriate nonetheless considering that my explanations are usually analytic). It’s a correct assertion in any case, mathematically and intuitively.</p>
<p>I react strongly and rationally against people making strong assertions, as david05 and goldenboy often do. This doesn’t mean that I’m a strong supporter of Chicago’s superiority - in another thread, for instance, I’ve indicated how Chicago is truly inferior to peer schools in providing financial aid. So I think any assumptions that I am unfairly promoting Chicago are unfounded, especially considering that I always provide a rigorous analysis to support my opinions.</p>
<p>But in any case, a strongly worded analysis was necessary here since the statistics Chicago and Penn have provided are so misleading that it’s easy to be drawn to false conclusions. I’ll state once again: Chicago needs to be smarter about providing data sets that make it easy to misinterpret Chicago’s potential. If I saw that sheet as a prospective student, I would incorrectly infer that nearly 40% of students were unemployed after graduation, and I would start to greatly question my interest in such a school. As such, a stark defense is necessary, and I make no retractions.</p>
<p>And yes, you’re completely right that Chicago should emulate Penn’s data sets. Penn’s data sets have much more information, and Chicago’s employment information sheets are pathetic in comparison.</p>
<p>Additionally: The reason Chicago published these statistics is because, via the link you provided to CAPS Employment Information, this is the best employment statistics Chicago has had over the past 5 years, with 7 percentage points higher in full-time employment. This likely indicates that Chicago’s full-time work statistics will be over 90% this year, probably the best in the nation (beating Harvard, MIT, and Stanford’s statistics as of last year). This is a data point that Chicago should be incredibly proud of, but it shouldn’t be publicized (until we get the post-grad stats) for fear that people will misunderstand these statistics.</p>