<p>modestmelody, your point is not in total disagreement with the prof in the article I linked, but by emphasis it seems not to be in complete accord. Evidently in his his field it seems to be a matter of probabilities:</p>
<p>“But also, even from schools about which there is general consensus that they’re at the middle of the pack, people do occasionally land jobs at ranked Ph.D.-granting departments or at prestigious liberal arts schools.”</p>
<p>“My point is not that such things are impossible – or that it’s impossible to get into Princeton’s Ph.D. program from Cal State San Bernardino – but that such events are relatively rare.”</p>
<p>Implicit is that the people in the great subareas you mention tend often to be found in a top-rated grad program. And that’s why that department is top ranked. This will not cover everybody, true, but the point is not to be encyclopedic, the point is to get an idea of the extent that undergrad schools have specific representation over a decent number of top-rated programs in a field, rather than just any old programs in a field. Even if some top sub-areas are omitted from such survey because they are not housed in an overall top-rated program,and it is therefore not completely comprehensive, I believe a survey of some of the the top programs, overall, in a field might still be interesting for that limited purpose.</p>
<p>Personally I would rather not want to attend a PhD program where getting a tenure track postition afterwards was, in his words, “relatively rare”. This guys’ spin on this issue reads a little different than yours. Based on his spin on it, in his field at least, the distinction I am making seems relevant, though obviously not perfect.</p>