PhD Rates in Life Sciences
Gary Glen Price
This posting concerns the approximate rates with which U.S. schools'
bachelor degree recipients went on subsequently to earn a PhD in the
LIFE SCIENCES during the ten-year period of 1986-1995. This category of
LIFE SCIENCES includes the following disciplines: Agricultural
Sciences, Biological Sciences, Medical Sciences, and a miscellaneous
category which the National Science Foundation calls "Other Life
Sciences." To be included in my calculation of this rate, an
institution needed to have satisfied the following conditions: (1) It
must have awarded at least 100 bachelor degrees during the 10-year
period of 1981-1990; and (2) at least three of its bachelor degree
recipients must have earned a PhD in LIFE SCIENCES during the 10-year
period of 1986-1995. Data used for these calculations were obtained
from the National Science Foundation CASPAR database.
Two lists are given below, both involving the rate with which bachelor
degree recipients went on to earn a PhD in LIFE SCIENCES during the
ten-year period of 1986-1995. The first list gives the top 15 bachelor
degree granting institutions in the U.S. on this rate, regardless of
their Carnegie classification. The second list is limited to public
universities in the "Research 1" Carnegie classification; it gives the
top 15 public "Research 1" (R1) universities on this rate. The Carnegie
classification scheme is explained at the following website:
<http://webserv.educom.edu/members/CarnegieCls.html>.
Following each school's name are three columns. The first is a
two-letter abbreviation for the state in which the school is located.
The second column is the total number of PhDs earned in LIFE SCIENCES
during the period of 1986-1995 by bachelor degree graduates of that
institution. The third column is an approximate rate (%) based on the
number given in the second column and on the number of bachelor degrees
awarded by the school during the period of 1981-1990. (The five-year
lag between 1981-1990 and 1986-1995 is intentional.)
U.S. Bachelor Degree-Granting Institutions with the Highest PhD Rates
for Bachelor Degree Recipients, LIFE SCIENCES, 1986-1995
State PhDs %
Reed College OR 114 5.17
California Institute of Technology CA 79 4.05
Marlboro College VT 13 3.55
University of Chicago IL 231 3.42
Swarthmore College PA 110 3.22
Johns Hopkins University MD 229 3.22
Carleton College MN 139 3.22
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science PA 69 3.13
Kalamazoo College MI 78 3.08
Earlham College IN 62 2.82
Cornell University NY 848 2.67
SUNY College of Environmental Sci & Forestry NY 84 2.58
Pomona College CA 85 2.49
Massachusetts Institute of Technology MA 285 2.48
Harvard University MA 421 2.43
U.S. Public "Research 1" (R1) Universities with the Highest PhD Rates
for Bachelor Degree Recipients, LIFE SCIENCES, 1986-1995
State PhDs %
University of California-Davis CA 708 2.38
University of California-San Diego CA 346 1.83
University of California-Berkeley CA 825 1.59
University of California-San Francisco CA 21 1.25 **
University of Wisconsin-Madison WI 683 1.21
Colorado State University CO 344 1.19
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor MI 610 1.18
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign IL 716 1.18
University of California-Irvine CA 205 1.05
Rutgers the State Univ of NJ New Brunswick NJ 501 1.01
Iowa State University IA 402 1.00
SUNY at Stony Brook NY 201 0.98
University of California-Santa Barbara CA 291 0.93
Pennsylvania State U PA 661 0.88
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities MN 492 0.87
University of California-Los Angeles CA 395 0.85
** UC-San Francisco is primarily a graduate institution with some
special programs leading to a bachelor's degree. Because its inclusion
in this list is arguable, the next public R1 university in line (UCLA)
has been added.
Gary Glen Price
Department of Curriculum & Instruction
University of Wisconsin-Madison
http://www.soemadison.wisc.edu
Josh LaGrange
Gary Glen Price wrote:
>
> This posting concerns the approximate rates with which U.S. schools'
> bachelor degree recipients went on subsequently to earn a PhD in the
> LIFE SCIENCES during the ten-year period of 1986-1995.
Is there any value in showing the public Doctoral Universities I? Is
there some reason they're not there?
Is the National Science Foundation CASPAR database open to the public?
Thanks.
--
Josh LaGrange
Columbia Law School
http://www.columbia.edu/~jcl51
Gary Glen Price
> Josh LaGrange <jc...@columbia.edu> wrote:
> Is there any value in showing the public Doctoral Universities I? Is
> there some reason they're not there?
For the record, one public "Doctoral 1" university had a PhD rate in
Life Sciences higher than 0.85 (the rate of the last listed public
"Research 1" university in my posting). It is shown below.
State PhDs %
College of William and Mary VA 132 1.16