Physics GRE Discussion Forums

University of Colorado at Boulder (MS/PhD - Physics)
http://www.colorado.edu/physics/Web/
Boulder, CO

http://graduate-school.phds.org/ranking ... _________U

Does anyone know why Colorado scores so low for student outcomes? (for both astro and physics)

because these rankings are worth 0.

places ive never heard about nor ever intend to hear about claim 50% of their students get academic jobs, while eg princeton has 16%? next unless im mistaken it looks like if a score is N/A for a school it counts as 100%.

ok i lied about the worth of these rankings. they are good for wiping your ass

I'm probably guessing it's the old "OMG, rankings are coming -quick, count postdocs as faculty" trick some schools usually employ.

There are any of a number of reasons that this could be the case. For example, students from lower ranked schools may either be getting their PhD with the intention of going into industry or may be more likely to abandon academia in favor of industry. In either case, going to industry typically results in higher student income and results in this income increase much faster than moving through multiple postdocs. These rankings also incorporate the amount of time it takes to get the degree and many schools push harder to make their PhD program a 4 or 5 year degree than a 6 or 7 year degree, which again results in more income for those few extra years.