Professors Trained At Elite Universities

One in eight tenure-track professors at US institutions got their PhDs from just five elite 

US universities, according to a study.Credit: Paul Marotta/Getty

US universities hire most of their tenure-track faculty members from the same handful of elite institutions, according to a study1. The finding suggests that prestige is overvalued in hiring decisions and that academic researchers have little opportunity to obtain jobs at institutions considered more elite than the ones at which they were trained.

Specifically, the study, published in Nature on 21 September, shows that just 20% of PhD-granting institutions in the United States supplied 80% of tenure-track faculty members to institutions across the country between 2011 and 2020 (see ‘Hiring bias’). 

No historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) or Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) were among that 20%, says Hunter Wapman, a computer scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) and a co-author of the paper. One in eight US-trained tenure-track faculty members got their PhDs from just five elite universities: the University of California, Berkeley; Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; Stanford University in California; and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

“It’s not surprising, but it is jarring” to see these data, says Leslie Gonzales, a social scientist who studies higher education at Michigan State University in East Lansing. 

“There’s so much brilliant work and training of brilliant scholars that’s happening outside of this tiny sliver” of institutions, including at HBCUs and HSIs — and it’s being overlooked, she says.  READ MORE...

Going to College

After graduating from high school in Cairo, Egypt and traveling around Europe for 6 weeks, I returned to the USA to work road construction before arriving at my college of choice to live in the dorms while attending classes.  My first semester, I was without a roommate, and my second semester I lived off-campus in a trailer.  I attended college for 5 semesters before dropping out.

For my first 5 semesters, I took a variety of Freshman and Sophomore classes that back in 1966 had been specifically designed to FLUNK NON SERIOUS STUDENTS OUT OF COLLEGE.  I don't think that happens anymore...  as colleges and universities liked generating revenues from student tuitions.  Nowadays, the first two years are designed to help keep you IN COLLEGE.

Not only were many of my first two year classes block classes (as they called them) but the final exams were FOUR HOURS LONG...  nowadays, you'd be lucky to take an exam that was 50 minutes in length.

Cafeteria food was OK if I were to be kind...  and, when I enlisted into the NAVY discovered that meals aboard ship were just as good as any nice restaurant MOST OF THE TIME, especially if we were out-to-sea...  but, in port, they were like college cafeteria food, simply OK.

Some of my Freshman classes had 150-200 students and took place in the auditorium with the professor standing behind a podium on the stage...  and, it was very easy to get bored and stop paying attention.  These were typically art and music appreciation courses and were composed of dull lectures and slides.

Breakfast in the cafeteria was not well attended but lunch and dinner had waiting lines during the 3 hour time period range that students could attend.  I tried going at the beginning, the middle time, and at the end and there were always lines....  with the wait time of 30-45 minutes...  and, then almost impossible to find a seat...  because students would hang around and talk after eating.   The administration had counted on people eating and leaving...  not staying.

Teachers HAD NO RESPECT for students until they reached their JUNIOR/SENIOR years...  and then, they were pushed towards graduate school for some reason...  other than more education for the sake of more education...  and, not necessarily to get a PhD so one could teach.  I did not understand the logic in that philosophy until I retired.

College for me was boring.  Not much more different than high school, memorizing meaningless facts that would never be used after one graduated.  NO PROFESSORS made learning enjoyable or interesting or challenging...  teaching as if they did not really want to be there...  but, had no other choice.

I wasted two years in college...

I wasted two years in the military...