Early Returns on the Fact-Finding Survey

We wanted to share some early results from our (entirely nonscientific) survey about issues related to Ph.D. placement. More than 1,000 people responded in the first day, offering some insight into their experiences.

• About a third said their department doesn’t provide data on placement of Ph.D.'s. Another third said they don’t know if it does.

• More than a third of respondents said their department doesn’t publish a list of Ph.D.'s awarded each year. Another third said they don’t know.

• At least a third reported that they didn’t see any placement information when they applied to their Ph.D. program.

• One in five reported that their department was of no help at all in their first job search.

About half of the 1,000 got their Ph.D. in the last four years—and more than half of the respondents came from humanities and social-sciences fields (with English and history topping the list).

People offered a ton of interesting ideas about how to gather more information. We’ll get into more of that in another post soon.