Every graduate student has to start off somewhere. Usually the choice on where attend college for an undergraduate degree is made by someone one in the teens or early twenties. Those students often do not have a goal in mind about continuing their education after earning their bachelor's degrees. What if those students learned that where they earned their Bachelor's degree could be the biggest factor in where or even whether or not they attend graduate school? Would that change their minds about what school they went to?
A study done in 2005, found that fifty-five percent of PhD candidates in top programs came from the same 100 schools, presumably most of which are very prestigous institutions. But why is that? Students who attended those 100 schools had top high school grades, and test scores. Meaning that these students were studious and understand how to achieve top grades as teenagers. Top graduate programs are looking for students who with academic excellence and self motivation to learn. Presumably students who recieved top high school grades and attended prestigous undergraduate institutions fit this criteria.
But what about the rest of us? A lot of development occurs during early adulthood, and students often do not have the same study habits, motivations or even goals at age 23 as they did at 18. How can top graduate programs obtain the students who may not have had excellent high school criteria, but became motivated learners while they attended a less prestigous undergraduate institution. Or what about the student who was never exposed to the idea of attending an institution other than the a local or state school? Many of these students make excellent graduate students, and would provide diversity in the graduate classroom, providing a better educational experience for everyone in the class. How can elite graduate programs balance their desire for students who have proven academic excellence from childhood, and those who have recently found their ability for academic excellence?
Thanks Kim for your post. I would be curious to see if the findings for this study would change if done today.
ReplyDeleteSince 2005, I feel like the shift from graduate school being an option, to graduate school almost being required has really effected who is going to graduate school, where they went to college and where are they going to graduate school. I definitely would not have fit into these findings so I would hope that some future research could be done to look at changing trends and numbers.
Good point Amy. Now that graduate school is becoming more and more of a requirement for certain fields, how does that change the statistics, or would it, from the study discussed above. I also like Kim's last sentence "How can elite graduate programs balance their desire for students who have proven academic excellence from childhood, and those who have recently found their ability for academic excellence?"
ReplyDeleteI appreciate this sentence because historically I have been a very poor student. It was not academically successful until my Master's program. I finally began to earn better grades and become involved with advocacy and as a leader. I will always advocate for those average or below average students to get a chance for development.
I would have to say that this is not really that big of a surprise, and actually the statistics are not really that one sided.
ReplyDeleteIf a student attends Harvard as an undergraduate student, it makes sense that they would have a leg up in getting accepted to Harvard Law. After all, it seems as though prestigious universities respect other prestigious universities, even if a similar education can be obtained at a state school or community college. Also, I imagine a big part of it is the networking opportunities students are exposed to at these prestigious universities. It is likely they know someone, or know someone that knows someone, that is making the decisions on acceptance at these prestigious grad schools. It has always been about who you know, not what you know.
My last thought is related to the actual numbers. The original post states that 55% come from t he same 100 schools. This is not really lopsided data. After all, there are still the other 45% that come from other schools. I really do not have a problem with these numbers at all.
Thanks Kim for this post. As mentioned by Lisa and Amy I wonder how these statistics would look today. I find the fact that 55% of top PhD candidates come from the same 100 schools to be alarming. It reminds me of the transition from middle school to high school where middle schools are identified as "feeder" schools for different high schools.
ReplyDeleteKim you pose a great question about those that attend state institutions. It seems that if one of the "100 schools" doesn't fall within a students region their chances of being a quality PhD candidate are reduced.
I wasn't aware of how important the decision on where to attend grad school was until after I made my decision. I trust that this information would be beneficial to students, as early as high school, to help them map out their pursuit of education.
My first reaction is a sad truth--it is oftentimes not what you know but who you know. When I was reading about the top 100 schools, I was thinking, "Well sure, those graduate programs are only ACCEPTING students for other prestigious schools." I'm sure plenty of successful students from other institutions applied, but did not gain acceptance into those graduate programs. Let's face it, when looking at identical applications where one person comes from a top 100 school and the other does not, who are probably all of us going to pick? Where you come from does matter.
ReplyDeleteWhen thinking about top schools vs. "the rest," I would have to disagree with an assumption that only top high school students got into the top schools and the "slackers" got into the others. The biggest thing that pops into my head is cost and location. I was a successful three-sport athlete, graduated high school with a 3.96 GPA, had excellent letters of rec, but I didn't even apply to what I would call an "elite" school. I applied to schools within driving distance from my home,and that my parents could afford to pay for.
I agree with one thing for sure that you had stated--would my graduate journey have changed? Yeah, probably! I didn't go to my first class as a freshman and know I was destined for a PhD. I would have thought you were crazy! However, if I did attend an "elite" program, I'm positive these conversations would have entered my awareness and interests much earlier. Additionally, I would have had the "big name" to back me up as I entered into the application process!