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<p>Haven’t we debated the relevance of the PhD production ad nauseam on this board? Before this latest recompilation of the data, College Confidential has been blessed with Interestddad unending efforts to show the very same metric. </p>
<p>While most everyone does --or should-- recognize that the metric is valuable to measure the success of a particular school in preparing its students for one of the careers that require a PhD, it is also … just that. And that “just that” is NOT a measure of excellence that should be used to COMPARE or rank schools. One of the main reasons that the yardstick is a poor or incomplete one is that the annual PhD production represents a rather meaningless percentage of all US graduates. In addition, as CollegeHelp recognized many fields do not consider a PhD the most appropriate terminal degree. Medicine, law, business are just a few fields that come to mind. </p>
<p>Lastly, if we were to accept the rankings of UG schools and their subsequent production of PhD, should we not also extend the “scope” of the polled schools and include the … foreign schools that send “quite a few” students to our universities to pursue a master’s or a PhD degree --and enjoy years the years of indentured servitude that comes with the privilege.</p>