Timeline for How would a small liberal arts college view a PhD from Germany or the UK? Factors other than teaching ops?
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| Oct 6, 2014 at 10:26 | comment | added | user10636 | @PaulRichards No doubt there is some xenophobia in academia, just like there are sexism and racism. But note than in the policies I've described, there may be no xenophobia at play, at least in the intentions or expectations of the members of search committees because it need not be the case that anybody is trying to discriminated against non-US applicants. You could say there's a kind of institutional xenophobia, however, insofar as the metrics used to judge quality are oriented toward a pool of largely US applicants. | |
| Oct 6, 2014 at 10:19 | comment | added | Paul Richards | Maybe the study of Xenophobia in academia would make a good PhD project ;) | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 12:29 | comment | added | user10636 | @PeteL.Clark makes a good point about the field/nationality being important here. For the record, I am in Philosophy in the USA. Also, in philosophy (and history and english) it is very common to do a two-stage interview process. The first interviews are 45mins-1hr and happen at the big annual disciplinary meeting over Xmas. Usually they'll interview 15-20ish people at that first round. Of those, typically three or four will be invited for a second, two-day long interview on campus in the spring. | |
| Feb 27, 2014 at 23:27 | comment | added | socialsciencedoc | Department prestige not being on par with competitors' or measurable from an American standpoint will definitely be a problem, but also importantly think about the references and connections that you will have at the end of your PhD in Europe. Those people will probably hardly have connections to the hiring US liberal arts schools and might not really (know how to) help you go through the pipeline. | |
| Feb 27, 2014 at 15:24 | comment | added | Pete L. Clark | (Finally, I don't want to flood with too many comments, but it seems of some importance: 20 interviews? That sounds almost impossibly high, so I think by "interview" you must mean something else than what I do: not 20 on-campus interviews, surely?) | |
| Feb 27, 2014 at 15:22 | comment | added | Pete L. Clark | I also want to say that in recent years, my department (mathematics, UGA) offered one job to a non-domestic PhD and came extremely close to doing so (I think I am not at liberty to be more specific about this) multiple other times. Notice though that we are a big research university. The OP asked about liberal arts colleges, and I think that would be a different story. Ideally the answers would address that more explicitly. | |
| Feb 27, 2014 at 15:19 | comment | added | Pete L. Clark | In this case what you say doesn't sound as fully on-point in (e.g.) mathematics, where the research scene is truly international. An applicant who gets their PhD from a second-rate program or advisor is less likely for these to ring a bell than a domestic applicant, yes; but this difference approaches zero as the program/advisor gets more eminent. | |
| Feb 27, 2014 at 15:17 | comment | added | Pete L. Clark | I think that when answering these kinds of broad questions, it's helpful to indicate your own field of expertise (and nationality/region if it's unclear). Maybe what you're saying is true across different values of these variables, maybe it isn't: either way it helps to know the values. | |
| Feb 25, 2014 at 20:00 | comment | added | neuroexpat | They don't rank some fields (mine included). What I do is look at the ranking of other science fields, especially those related to mine. If it is in the top 50 in one of two related fields, it seems ok. Then I look at other factors. They don't rank philosophy, but for history (a department I imagine a philosophy person might collaborate with) Rutgers is 20. | |
| Feb 25, 2014 at 19:48 | comment | added | user10636 | USNWR isn't that great, outside of say the top 5 or 10 schools, because which school has an amazing department really just varies depending on discipline. In philosophy, for instance, Rutgers is absolutely one of the best departments in the world. It's not that great of a college in overall USNWR rankings, but you'd still have an easy time getting a philosophy job from there. So, you have to ask around in the field. Also, reputable departments will have recent grad placement info. Look at that carefully. Where do grads get placed? Research jobs, or small teaching schools? | |
| Feb 25, 2014 at 19:38 | comment | added | neuroexpat | Followup Question for Science Faculty: Would NIH Graduate Partner Programs be seen as equivalent to US schools? | |
| Feb 25, 2014 at 19:31 | comment | added | neuroexpat | Thank you for the concise response! Followup questions: What is a bad program? Can I use rankings as a rough guide? I had not thought to apply to anything below 50, in my field, but I noticed many of the Professors at my alma mater, which is well ranked, have PhDs from institutions that aren't in the USNWR top 50. However, they all did post docs at "name schools". Does institution reputation matter more for the PhD or the post doc (required in my field)? | |
| Feb 25, 2014 at 18:51 | history | answered | user10636 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |