Most Popular Resources in "The Big Picture"
» Most popular resources on the site
» Most popular resources in "The Big Picture"
» Return to "The Big Picture"
» Most popular resources in "The Big Picture"
» Return to "The Big Picture"
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Doctors Without Orders: Highlights of the Sigma Xi Postdoc Survey
- Results of Sigma Xi's survey of 7600 postdocs at 46 US institutions. Very interesting discussion of salaries, training, and administrative oversight.
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The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings
- US Census, July, 2002. " This report illustrates the economic value of an education, that is, the added value of a high school diploma or college degree. It explores the relationship between educational attainment and earnings and demonstrates how the relationship has changed over the last 25 years. Additionally, it provides, by level of education, synthetic estimates of average total earnings adults are likely to accumulate over the course of their working lives. "
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The Real Science Crisis: Bleak Prospects for Young Researchers
- Chronicle of Higher Education , September 2007. "[F]or many of today's graduate students, the future could not look much bleaker. They see long periods of training, a shortage of academic jobs, and intense competition for research grants looming ahead of them. 'They get a sense that this is a really frustrating career path,' says Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. So although the operating assumption among many academic leaders is that the nation needs more scientists, some of brightest students in the country are demoralized and bypassing scientific careers."
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Salaries for new CalTech PhDs
- Salaries offered to and accepted by CalTech PhDs in academia and industry by discipline. Very interesting info.
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Out of Academia
- by Annalee Newitz, Salon Magazine, Nov 6, 1998. Why do we think that Ph.D.s are only good for making someone into a professor?
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Slaves to Science
- Salon Magazine , Feb. 28, 2000. An outsider's take on the working conditions of postdocs in science.
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How and Why Government, Universities, and Industry Create Domestic Labor Shortages of Scientists and High-Tech Workers
- by Eric Weinstein, Project on the Economics of Advanced Training, Harvard University / National Bureau for Economic Research. Working Draft.
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Sloan Foundation Grants for Research on the US Science and Engineering Workforce - Second
Round
- The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is pleased to announce the second round of its small grants program to support creative research on the U.S. workforce and labor markets in science and engineering (S ). The due date for submissions will be November 17, 2008.
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The Postdoc's Plight
- by Joanne P. Cavanaugh, Johns Hopkins Magazine , February 1999. " Underpaid, overworked and often underappreciated, today's postdocs find themselves locked in a limbo that can stretch on for years. " An excellent article describing the grim working conditions of postdocs in general and at Johns Hopkins in particular. [HTML version]
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Mathematicians and the Market
- The stats are all for mathematicians, but the trends and ideas apply to all the sciences. A comprehensive overview of the job market for mathematicians, plus ideas on steps toward a solution. From the November 1997 issue of the Notices of the AMS.
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NIH to NRSA postdocs: Revise and Resubmit!
- NIH cuts NRSA postdocs?
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Professor of Desperation
- " Bad pay, zero job security, no benefits, endless commutes. Is this any way to treat PhDs responsible for teaching a generation of college students? " Sunday Washington Post Magazine, July 21, 2002.
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The Science Education Myth
- BusinessWeek, October 26, 2007. "Forget the conventional wisdom. U.S. schools are turning out more capable science and engineering grads than the job market can support."
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Graduate Education Is Losing Its Moral Base
- By Cary Nelson and Michael Berube, The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 23, 1996. " What does it mean to face an academic future in which many graduate students will have none? What are the ethics of training students for jobs that few of them will ever have? Thanks to the dramatic collapse in the humanities job market, for example, many graduate students and newly minted Ph.D.'s teach more than 30 different courses at two or three institutions and publish articles in refereed journals, before they earn a tenure-track position (if they do so at all). It is time bluntly to name the consequence: Graduate education is losing its moral foundation. "
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Improving the Postdoctoral Experience: An Empirical Approach
- A detailed analysis of the findings of the Sigma Xi Postdoc Survey. Contains fascinating results on factors contributing to postdoc research productivity and satisfaction.
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Employment Outcomes of Doctorates in Science and Engineering
- Report of a 1998 CPST workshop
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Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook
- Projections for prospects in a wide variety of careers.
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What You Should Know: An Open Letter to New Ph.D.s.
- A joint statement from the Commonwealth Parternership, an organization of twenty Pennsylvania colleges and universities, on what is expected of from faculty members at these institutions. If your graduate program doesn't prepare you to do these things, say something about it.
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Catching Up in International Grad Students
- Inside Higher Ed, Aug 2007. "Graduate schools are reporting a continued rebound in applications from and admissions offers to those from outside the United States, but levels at most institutions still have not reached 2003 levels, according to a report being released today by the Council of Graduate Schools."
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International Mobility of Scientists and Engineers to the US. Brain Drain or Brain Circulation?
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in ImmigrationNSF Issue Brief 98-316. " This Issue Brief highlights the role of U.S. universities in acquiring, supporting and retaining foreign S & E talent, and the proportion of foreign doctoral recipients who remain in the United States for postdoctoral study as well as long-term employment. "
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Scientific Elites and Scientific Illiterates
- by David Goodstein, provost of CalTech. The best-written and most disturbing essay I have read on the future of academic science.
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What Scientist Shortage?
- Daniel S. Greenberg, Washington Post , May 19, 2004. " A scientist shortage? Again? The gloomy warnings are back. They're underpinned by declines in science studies by U.S. students and a post-Sept. 11 falloff in the enrollment of foreigners, who have traditionally filled as many as half the graduate slots in U.S. universities and have taken jobs here after graduation. A crisis is in the making, says a report by a pillar of the scientific establishment, the National Science Board, which warns that the 'trends threaten the economic welfare and security of our country.' "
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Changing Career Paths of Young Scholars in the United States: Example of the Life Sciences
- An interesting presentation by economist Paula Stephan showing a restructuring of careers for young life scientists.
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Are Graduate Admissions Fair?
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in ImmigrationAn analysis of admissions and GRE scores suggesting that universities are running an affirmative action program for US citizens with preferences for citizenship that are an order of magnitude larger than those for gender or ethnicity.
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Do we need more scientists?
- by Michael S. Teitelbaum, The Public Interest, Fall 2003. "Despite the recent economic downturn, prominent scientific associations, business leaders, and academics continue to predict 'looming shortfalls' in America's science and engineering professions. Countering the prevailing view, Michael S. Teitelbaum reveals that few, if any, shortages exist in these fields and shows why proposed solutions to this illusory problem are profoundly misguided."
