Political Science Supply and Demand Statistics

[gapa]

I was wonderig whether someone has a clear idea how are the annual numbers for

Total PolSci applicants / Total admitted / Admitted to top10 programs / Completing degree / R1 tenure track openings ?

[PeaceDoc]

I was wonderig whether someone has a clear idea how are the annual numbers for

Total PolSci applicants / Total admitted / Admitted to top10 programs / Completing degree / R1 tenure track openings ?

I think the question is interesting, and worthy of discussion, but is largely unaddressable as there are no definitive statistics on admission, etc.

Over the last few decades, enrollment in college has increased dramatically. A college degree is worth something less than it was in earlier times and a high school diploma is bupkis, thus students tend to reach for more schooling. Concurrently, enrollment and competition for admittance into grad schools has increased. Now, regardless of what any prospective adviser or faculty member tells you, the increase in undergrad enrollment increases the need for grad students to assist with departmental affairs, more so that does the demand for PhDs on the market. Thus students are admitted not with the expectation that they have something to contribute, but that they can serve some purpose logistically. Personally, I feel that over time the number of individuals competing for jobs increases more quickly than does the number of jobs.

From my personal experience, you have a tremendous weeding out process going on here. Given the length of the track you have laid out; from school applications to tt job, there are extremely few which ultimately make it. My current dept admits 10-12 per year, and probably gets ~120 applications (please note the difference between 'accepts' and 'admits' before arguing this percentage is overly stringent). The next step, time and attrition in grad school, does not get addressed often enough. Again I'll use my dept as an example, which consistently has had something in the area of 60% washout per cohort. By washout I mean the following; 1) they cannot handle the workload, 2) they leave because their outside life moves on, 3) they fail field exams, 4) they cannot finish their dissertation, 5) they switch to a masters only program. So, of those who originally start, we're talking about 3-4 completing their phd, and this is probably a high estimate.

Mind you, I'm in a fairly well regarded dept. The dept places these 3-4 students well, but not all in tt. Many go to research positions or lac's. Competition for tt jobs is pretty fierce, and as you all may have noticed in applying to grad school, it can be something of a crap-shoot. Unfortunately a paper file cannot encapsulate a person's contribution, and many qualified applicants are trashed while others are given consideration.

Anyway... this is a long, convoluted, and wholly unsatisfactory way of saying that there is a not an ideal job for everyone, everywhere. If you have the statistics I'm sure there is an opening for some education journal pubs. However, those who manage to survive their programs can do alright in some capacity. You cant simply expect that a phd will open a door for you at your personal "Harvard on the Hill."

Edited March 7, 2010 by PeaceDoc

[gapa]

Here is an interesting table with MBA admission and yield statistics. It would be useful for future applicants if such thing existested for PolySci. But apparently schools are reluctant to post such data on their web. Perhaps it could be inferred from admission/rejection e-mails? Any takers?

http://adam-markus.blogspot.com/2008/06/top-20-mba-programs-ranked-by.html