tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068615175426357203.post3945387209536897499..comments2024-03-19T00:11:46.679-07:00Comments on The Prodigal Academic: Procrastinating with the NRC grad school dataprodigal academichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433167641213112052noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068615175426357203.post-34697387450017588512010-10-26T19:40:43.884-07:002010-10-26T19:40:43.884-07:00Thanks for the information GWW--I didn't reali...Thanks for the information GWW--I didn't realize the problem was so bad. The 50% completion rate is in accordance with my experience and lots of statistics published by others analyzing the field. I was a little surprised it was so uniform throughout the rankings.<br /><br />The ~20% staying in academia for postdocs seemed a little low, but within the range of reasonable in my experience (given the higher payscales and more permanence available in industry for my field). I didn't really think this data looked so bad, but I have no strong basis to judge. This is consistent with my PhD cohort, though.<br /><br />It is a shame we can't trust the data, though. No one else seems to have it for so many fields...prodigal academichttp://theprodigalacademic.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068615175426357203.post-17049903357708839532010-10-26T14:43:30.207-07:002010-10-26T14:43:30.207-07:00Nice post, but I wouldn't trust the NRC number...Nice post, but I wouldn't trust the NRC numbers too much. I wrote a couple posts after these came out pointing out that the data -- *particularly* the academic job data -- don't pass the smell test. In fact, ever piece of data that I could look up was clearly wrong (see <a href="http://gameswithwords.fieldofscience.com/2010/10/best-graduate-programs-in-psychology.html" rel="nofollow">here</a> and <a href="http://gameswithwords.fieldofscience.com/2010/10/new-grad-school-rankings-dont-pass.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>). <br /><br />I'm also <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Research_Council_rankings" rel="nofollow">not the only person</a> who has noticed these issues, and I wouldn't be surprised if these rankings are eventually retracted.GamesWithWordshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15107067137612954306noreply@blogger.com