academic job market for statistics & biostatistics

[applyin&prayin]

hi, does anyone have any papers or research summarizing the state of the academic job market in stats and biostats. As a potential phd student I'm very anxious about the possibility of actually getting a faculty position after graduation. It seems most students need to complete a post doc in order to be competitive for faculty positions.

 

I am wondering whether there's any reports for total number of faculty positions in stats/biostats for any recent years, compared to number of graduating phd students.

 

Thank you

[cyberwulf]

I think the academic job market in biostats is still relatively reasonable, and a post-doc is not required to land a faculty position at many top 10 departments. I would say that, in any given year, about half the top-10 departments advertise for tenure-track positions, and roughly half of those go to students straight out of their PhD. There are also many 'research-track' and affiliate positions available. Further, it's essentially unheard-of for students in biostat to do more than one post-doc, so at most you're looking at two (maybe three) additional years where you can get a jump start on your publication record before you begin your career as a professor.

[applyin&prayin]

thank you for the response cyberwulf, I was hoping to hear from a faculty member.

 

Can you speak to availability of tenure track jobs and teaching jobs in non highly ranked positions? how competitive would you say those positions are? I have strong preference for research and even teaching over industry so this is something I'm quite curious as well. 

[biostat_prof]

At my department (which is traditionally one of the top-ranked biostat departments in the country) every student that I have known who has wanted an academic position has gotten one. That's the good news. The bad news is that with a few exceptions, most of these jobs have been at lower-ranked research universities. And based on limited anecdotal evidence, the competition for jobs at even mid-tier research universities is absolutely brutal these days. At least one paper in JASA/Annals/Biometrika/JRSS-B (or perhaps AJHG for statistical geneticists) seems to be a de facto requirement to land a tenure-track job at most good departments these days, and I have heard of applicants in recent years with multiple publications in these top journals who still ended up taking jobs at mid-tier programs. I would not want to be on the academic job market these days with a thin publication record and a degree from a second-tier PhD program.

 

In any event, assuming that the market doesn't take a drastic turn for the worse in the next couple years, my guess is that most graduates of the top departments will find academic jobs, although they may have to work at lower-ranked schools than they wanted. If you can't get admitted to a top-ranked program, make sure you find a good adviser and get some good methodological publications on your CV before you go on the market. And even at the top-ranked programs, the school's brand name will only carry you so far. Probably 80-90% of academic hiring boils down to publications and recommendations, so even graduates of the best programs would be wise to find a productive adviser and try to get at least 1-2 publications in the top journals if they want to be competitive for the more desirable jobs.

[applyin&prayin]

for sake of clarity, when we say lower ranked schools do we mean like university of southern baptist alabama, like small regional schools in middle of nowhere? or still reputable research schools albeit lower in rankings?

 

I just want to set my expectations correctly. I would be content with even a job at a small regional school in middle of nowhere but don't know how realistic even that is. Sounds like the market truly is very difficult.

Edited March 27, 2013 by applyin&prayin

[biostat_prof]

When I say "lower-ranked research universities," I am talking about the types of schools in the "doctoral: high research activity" Carnegie classification:

 

http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/lookup_listings/srp.php?clq={%22basic2005_ids%22%3A%2216%22}&start_page=standard.php

 

These aren't terrible schools by any means, and they are definitely research universities. I'm not talking about some small parochial college with a 5/5 teaching load and virtually no research. But they also are not the elite, either. And my department is highly ranked with multiple faculty members regularly publishing in the top methodological journals. I don't know what the placement is like in academia at lower-ranked schools, but I'm sure it's even tougher. If you are considering attending graduate school outside of one of the traditional elite programs, I would ask a lot of questions about the placement of their recent graduates (and I would be very nervous if answers are not forthcoming).

[biostatdude]

When I say "lower-ranked research universities," I am talking about the types of schools in the "doctoral: high research activity" Carnegie classification:

 

http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/lookup_listings/srp.php?clq={%22basic2005_ids%22%3A%2216%22}&start_page=standard.php

 

These aren't terrible schools by any means, and they are definitely research universities. I'm not talking about some small parochial college with a 5/5 teaching load and virtually no research. But they also are not the elite, either. And my department is highly ranked with multiple faculty members regularly publishing in the top methodological journals. I don't know what the placement is like in academia at lower-ranked schools, but I'm sure it's even tougher. If you are considering attending graduate school outside of one of the traditional elite programs, I would ask a lot of questions about the placement of their recent graduates (and I would be very nervous if answers are not forthcoming).

 

For someone who advocates against rankings so much (for prospective PhD students at least) you sure do like to say that your department is highly ranked     

[biostat_prof]

For someone who advocates against rankings so much (for prospective PhD students at least) you sure do like to say that your department is highly ranked     

 

Fair point. I'm just trying to provide students/prospective students with as much information as possible, and I thought people might like to know that my point of reference is not a tier-three department with little or no methodological research but rather a top-ranked department with multiple faculty regularly publishing in the best methods journals.