LAC department size versus selectivity: PhD productivity

collegehelp
Thu, 21 Sep 2006 07:57:17 +0000

Catfish-
I suspect the correlation betwenn relative size and PhD production would hold true at larger universities. But, it would be more difficult to get the relevant numbers of total bachelors for large universities. Universities have professional schools (e.g. music, business, communications, agriculture, engineering, and so on) from which very few would be seeking PhDs in chemistry (or psychology, history, physics…). So I would have to determine the number of total bachelors graduates in the arts, humanities, social sciences, sciences excluding the professional schools.

It would take more time, but it is do-able. And, you are right, we need more evidence. Maybe chem was a fluke, as DRab said.

Perhaps I can check some other major, maybe using the more up-to-date data that interresteddad mentioned.

I’ll do this when I have a chance.

By the way, you are right, there is a correlation between proportion of chem grads and number of chem grads - about .8 as I recall.