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US News Rankings: We're No. 28! Yay......at $75K a year?

So...a first job...experience in the field...generally helpful.


Even if you are sort of a paying then paid apprentice of sorts.


Anyhow, best wishes to y’all PhD pursuing folks.
 
wakephan09 said:
Except you are paying to go to medical school and in a phd program you are generally paid (though not well).1) ew, no!

2) they're not doing any better.
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My department’s PhDs have been bucking trends. We’ve been steadily placing our graduates in tenure track jobs at small liberal arts and small regional public universities. Our program is big on teaching and qualitative methods which helps our grads stand out. A few years ago two of our grads were both finalists for the same job.

One of my students defended his dissertation proposal the same week he started a job as a LGBTQ+ center director at a large flagship university. They wanted a scholar-administrator. They’re letting him stay on my project and letting him do his fieldwork first his dissertation.

I’m dissappointed that we aren’t getting the faculty lines we were promised to replace retired faculty. It’s definitely a good time to be hiring. There’s so much talent out there. We made two assistant prof hires in the last three years and one will get tenure this year and the other will probably breeze through in three years.
 
Rafi said:
I think you’re misunderstanding my argument, which is probably my fault. Yes, training matters and residencies vary. But look at it like this - only 40% of applicants to medical school get accepted somewhere (some schools accept fewer than 5% of applicants) whereas 95%+ of med students get a residency. Even in the most competitive specialties, 75%+ get a position. So statistically the biggest challenge is getting into med school, which is why the undergrad matters so much.
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Whew. Ok this makes a lot more sense. I think we're actually on the same page then
 
All rankings are dumb. That is my conclusion after being in the real world for 15 years.
 
ImTheCaptain said:
fortunately this isn't reddit or you'd get downvoted into oblivion on this board full of lawyers
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I'm a lawyer and I generally agree.

As I explained, the US News law school rankings are basically ranking law schools based in large part on the incoming class GPA and LSAT figures. They do this under the guise of "best law school." But how do you define the best law school? Probably based on quality of education, bar exam passage, employment of graduates, and success in the chosen field. Not the GPA of incoming students, especially when a 3.8 from UNC Pembroke results in a better US News ranking than a 3.5 from Harvard. The US News rankings are dumb.

ETA: they also take into account peer review data about schools, which is probably a better source to rank a program since the reputation it enjoys with people you want a job from matters.
 
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wakelaw13 said:
I'm a lawyer and I generally agree.

As I explained, the US News law school rankings are basically ranking law schools based in large part on the incoming class GPA and LSAT figures. They do this under the guise of "best law school." But how do you define the best law school? Probably based on quality of education, bar exam passage, employment of graduates, and success in the chosen field. Not the GPA of incoming students, especially when a 3.8 from UNC Pembroke results in a better US News ranking than a 3.5 from Harvard. The US News rankings are dumb.

ETA: they also take into account peer review data about schools, which is probably a better source to rank a program since the reputation it enjoys with people you want a job from matters.
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The Rule of Thumb used to be a school's reputation lagged (up or down) its actual quality by 5 years. Is that still accurate or conventional wisdom?
 
tagsfan said:
The Rule of Thumb used to be a school's reputation lagged (up or down) its actual quality by 5 years. Is that still accurate or conventional wisdom?
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makes sense as 2014 was the highest ever ranking in the school's history
 
BacktoBack said:
If this is meant for me, then yes. I did ECU for med school. And am now an otolaryngologist (ENT). Which is top 3-4 most competitive residencies. But my path to ECU and also to my residency was not a smooth one. Wake/Hugo Lane did less than nothing to help me get into med school.


Anyway I obviously work with other doctors all the time. As a surgeon there is no replacing the training and exposure that you get in residency. The things I did more of then I am extremely good at now. The things I did less of now require more thought and I may not even do them. The place where a person does residency (at least as a surgeon) absolutely matters and I can't really imagine someone who does what we/I do feeling otherwise.
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Ugh, that reference jarred loose some unpleasant memories. I wasn't a science major but I had Lane for a biology requirement way back in the day. Was very happy to get that experience in the rear-view mirror.
 
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