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[warblersrule]

@intparent

That is in good measure due to the fact that universities graduate more undergrads to begin with

Interestingly, several types of institutions produce exactly as many PhDs as you’d expect given their enrollments - high research activity universities, doctoral universities, and baccalaureate colleges. When it comes to very high research activity universities and master’s universities, however, the former overperforms and the latter underperforms.

Enrollment by institution type
[ul][]26.2% Very high research activity
[]12.9% High research activity
[]10.7% Doctoral university
[]33.6% Master’s university
[li]16.6% Baccalaureate college[/ul][/li]Source: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_317.40.asp (I excluded “special focus” colleges and CCs.)

Production of PhDs by undergrad institution type
[ul][]48.0% Very high research activity
[]14.2% High research activity
[]4.43% Doctoral university
[]18.0% Master’s university
[li]15.25% Baccalaureate college[/ul][/li]Source: WebCASPAR

The NSF noted precisely the same phenomenon in its 2013 study of PhD production.

Although U.S. research universities are few in number (108 universities are classified as research universities with very high research activity, according to the 2010 Carnegie basic classification), collectively they award a large proportion of U.S. bachelor’s degrees each year. In contrast, the several hundred baccalaureate colleges in the United States, as a group, award a smaller proportion of the total number of U.S. bachelor’s degrees. Because the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded per institution—and, thus, the pool of potential doctorate recipients—is smaller for baccalaureate colleges than for research universities with very high research activity, rankings of baccalaureate-origin institutions based on the absolute numbers of S&E doctorate recipients understate the contributions of the baccalaureate colleges in the training of U.S. S&E doctorate recipients. To account for this disparity, a second measure of institutional contribution is used to establish rankings. The “institutional-yield ratio” for a baccalaureate-origin institution for a given year is expressed as the number of S&E doctorate recipients per 100 bachelor’s degrees awarded in all fields 9 years earlier.

Research universities with very high research activity had the highest institutional-yield ratio each year from 2002 to 2011, followed by baccalaureate colleges, other doctorate-granting universities, and master’s colleges and universities.