Linkages among Top-Ranked Graduate Programs in Three Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Abstract

The top-ranked doctoral programs in the geosciences, chemistry, physics and mathematics, based on a national survey of ratings, were substantially linked to each other by hiring each other's graduates. It is suggested that these linkages help these departments to maintain and enhance their prestige. Rankings of the most highly regarded doctoral programs in the geosciences, chemistry, physics, and mathematics were presented in Changing Times (1983). These rankings were based on a study published by the National Academy of Sciences (Jones et al., 1982). For the rankings reported by Changing Times two key measures of reputation from the National Academy study were combined: the first, faculty quality, assessed how professors around the country rated their peers in the same discipline; the second, quality, assessed how well the thought each program educated research scholars and scientists. Changing Times combined these two measures and derived rankings of the top 10% of the programs in the geosciences, chemistry, physics and mathematics. If one accepts the assumptions of the Changing Times article, the schools with the highest combined scores represented the academic elite, the best programs in the country. Given the subjective nature of the evaluation process which produced the National Academy of Sciences ratings, this study examined the degree to which top-ranked programs may tend to maintain and enhance their reputations by hiring their own and each other's graduates. Bair and Thompson (1985) reported that the top-ranked doctoral programs in sociology were substantially linked to each other in this manner, and Bair, Thompson, and Hickey (1986) reported that this linkage also occurred for doctoral programs in anthropology. Likewise, Gross (1970) determined that the most prestigious sociology departments hired large numbers of their own graduates. This study investigated the possibility that the top-ranked or elite programs in the geosciences, chemistry, physics and mathematics also tend to