Is this a bad sign?

[wildviolet]

I'm considering a university that hires many of its own graduates as post-docs. Is this a bad sign? Does this mean that those PhD grads were not able to get hired right away? Or, is it just the poor job market right now? Or, is it actually a good sign that the program can afford to hire so many of them as post-docs? This is a top program, too.

[Guest]

Sounds fine to me except you may have the problem of "inbreeding." Check and see how well graduates do in getting jobs, which should probably be a separate thing altogether from hiring post-docs.

[wildviolet]

Sounds fine to me except you may have the problem of "inbreeding." Check and see how well graduates do in getting jobs, which should probably be a separate thing altogether from hiring post-docs.

That's the thing... a few have secured TT jobs at other universities, but the majority of their PhD grads are still there employed as post-docs.

[wannabeaphd]

I think that this is more common right now. No one wants to admit that PhDs are having a hard time getting TT jobs, so they keep them as post-docs so they can do research and apply again. Honestly, I think it's a decent deal because at least they don't throw grads to the wolves at graduation. I think it's more about the economic times than the state of the school/program.