Woke up to a remarkable number of bad takes on the “problem” of too many PhDs in political science.

As someone with a 2nd tier PhD working in a 3rd tier program, I spend a LOT of time thinking about this issue. It would be unethical for me to not worry about it.

But here’s the thing... our students are doing very, very well for themselves! Some are tenured / tenure track at R1s (for those naysayers), others at great regional colleges, and others doing AMAZING work outside of academia. But most of all, they have jobs they wanted. (2/7)

Their success is probably 90% them and only 10% us. But that 10% is critical. We have to be committed to constantly updating our knowledge about the market, communicating that information to our students, and helping them make informed choices. (3/7)

And we have to be honest with ourselves at every point in the process, too. We can’t always admit the student we want to work with, because sometimes their interests are in area where we can train/mentor them, but the market won’t value that profile. We can’t control that. (4/7)

And if we get to a point where we can no longer admit students whose aspirations can become reality, I hope we would have the sense to close up shop. But we’re not there. (5/7)

Our students continue to land amazing jobs in academia and outside of academia, and although there are a few who are still working to find their path (post-graduation), the overwhelming majority landed quickly and in jobs they wanted. (6/7)

So I don’t think we have too many PhD programs or too many doctoral students, but I worry that we have too many of us (faculty) who fall into the trap of advising students based on what the market was or what we want it to be. (7/7)

Oh, and to the doc students who might be reading, this pandemic is a curveball for sure, and I don’t know how it will shake out in the end. But neither does anyone else!

Proceed with caution, of course, but don’t believe all of the doomsday predictions for higher ed.