How to evaluate placement records?

[jjb919]

I agree, and I also wonder if it favors private, unfunded programs. I didn't go to one, so only someone that did could really evaluate this claim, but my guess is that if I had just spent 50,000, or whatever, pursuing an MA in philosophy, I might feel more obligated to continue down that path than if I hadn't invested so much in that career. Again, just armchair psychology. Perhaps I'm wrong. 

I took on about $50K in debt to complete my MA at a private institution. I do not feel like it obligates me to continue down that path. Personally, I feel more obligated to cut my losses and walk away. This being said I was in a program that required you to complete the MA before going on to the PhD, so there was less psychological baggage involved in stopping (completing the MAS and simply not applying to continue on vs having to drop out of the program with 'just an MA'). I am still applying to PhD programs next season, and a lot of that has to do with stubbornness and selfish desire on my part rather than smart practical reasoning. The smart move would be for me not to go for the PhD, and just work on getting a better paying job that will allow me to better handle my high but not yet unmanageable monthly payments, and maybe even pay them off in less than 30 years.

 

Even if I am accepted into a great program next year, it is not a given that I will go. Echoing something that alethicetic mentioned in a previous post, if I end up enrolling in a PhD program (and assuming that I am able to complete it in 5 years), the amount of interest that will accrue while my loans are in deferment that will then capitalize once I graduate and go into repayment will be close to $30K. Even if I don't borrow another penny while completing the PhD. That's a heavy burden and a real financial cost if I decide to continue.

[jailbreak]

The discussion has gone in an interesting direction, but I want to revive the original topic. Someone linked to these two ranking attempts: http://www.newappsblog.com/2014/07/job-placement-2011-2014-comparing-placement-rank-to-pgr-rank.html and https://phiplaces.wordpress.com/placements-2007-2014/. The data in these posts seems to conflict with each other -- perhaps because the second one looks at aggregate numbers of TT hires and not percentages, which privileges larger departments and cohorts over smaller ones. However, these two posts both seem to conflict with data I've seen elsewhere -- for instance http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2014/07/and-still-more-on-job-placement-2005-2010.html, and something else linked to on the boards recently (I think) about the same 5 schools accounting for ~48% of recent TT hires. There's some overlap, of course, in all of these, but it doesn't seem like someone can come to a conclusive response one way or the other as to which department is "best" at placement. Perhaps I haven't looked closely enough, but if I'm making obvious mistakes in trying to evaluate these, it would be best to have them pointed out. The "5 schools ~48%" statistic makes it seem really clear-cut, but then these other posts muddy the waters a little bit -- NYU is apparently one of the "top 5 schools," but according to the two other rankings, NYU is either 18th in placement, or only places 60% or more of its students, below almost 15 other schools.

Edited February 19, 2015 by jailbreak

[Infinite Zest]

The discussion has gone in an interesting direction, but I want to revive the original topic. Someone linked to these two ranking attempts: http://www.newappsblog.com/2014/07/job-placement-2011-2014-comparing-placement-rank-to-pgr-rank.htmland https://phiplaces.wordpress.com/placements-2007-2014/. The data in these posts seems to conflict with each other -- perhaps because the second one looks at aggregate numbers of TT hires and not percentages, which privileges larger departments and cohorts over smaller ones. However, these two posts both seem to conflict with data I've seen elsewhere -- for instance http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2014/07/and-still-more-on-job-placement-2005-2010.html, and something else linked to on the boards recently (I think) about the same 5 schools accounting for ~48% of recent TT hires. There's some overlap, of course, in all of these, but it doesn't seem like someone can come to a conclusive response one way or the other as to which department is "best" at placement. Perhaps I haven't looked closely enough, but if I'm making obvious mistakes in trying to evaluate these, it would be best to have them pointed out. The "5 schools ~48%" statistic makes it seem really clear-cut, but then these other posts muddy the waters a little bit -- NYU is apparently one of the "top 5 schools," but according to the two other rankings, NYU is either 18th in placement, or only places 60% or more of its students, below almost 15 other schools.

I'm not sure if the Leiter link tells us anything about the quality of placement, which in my opinion is represented by the ratio of TT hires to number of graduate students. The link does remind me that places like Princeton churn out PhDs in huge numbers.