LAC department size versus selectivity: PhD productivity

collegehelp
Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:51:19 +0000

Evidently, at LACs, department size is more important than overall selectivity in producing PhDs. For example, the higher the PROPORTION of chemistry graduates the greater the chem PhD production. And, the higher the NUMBER of chemistry graduates the higher the chem PhD production. On the other hand, US News ranking and SAT 75th percentile matter little.

I started with the top 25 chemistry PhD producers 1986-1995 among LACs (excluding women’s colleges because of their different nature). I recorded their US News rankings in that time span (1993, 1994 mostly) and their 1993 SAT 75th percentile. I also recorded the number of chemistry bachelors grads in 1993 and the proportion of chem grads out of the total graduating class.

The correlation between the proportion of chem grads and PhD production was very high (.7). The correlation between the number of chem grads and chem PhD production was also very high (.62).

In contrast, US News ranking and SAT 75th percentile had lower correlations with chem PhD production (.47 and -.40, respectively).

The inverse relationship between SAT and chem PhD production suggests the possibility that more students enter professions (medicine?) rather than PhD programs at the elite schools.

To put it another way, over half of the explanation for PhD production in chemistry is the relative size and the absolute size of the chemistry department at LACs.

Departmental size increases when the program is excellent and decreases when the program is inferior (relative to the overall size of the school). One way to tell which schools have great programs in a particular major is the relative size of the department. Not foolproof, but it is a valuable clue.