There is a lot of buzz about the stimulus funding and what it's going to mean for grant organizations like NSF and NIH. I can't tell you the number of eager scientists I've seen drooling over this rainfall after a recent, painful drought. One of the positive ramifications of increased scientific investment by the federal government is that universities will be able to once again open their doors and begin hiring (thank God! and Congress?). It's also a nice "change of pace" for orgs like NIH who haven't seen a budget increase since 2002 (AACR Cancer Policy Monitor - March 2009).
What I want to focus on is the buzz about tripling the number of prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships granted. This is huge. Having a big fellowship opens a lot of doors. You can essentially work for whoever and on whatever project you want (assuming you also have an ounce of drive and another ounce of smooth-talking to go with your fellowship). Lovely stuff free labor is. So. More cheap graduate students means the potential for a department to accept more students in the first place. Which means more PhDs potentially graduating in ~5+ years. Which means more PhDs on the labor market.
Hmmm.... where will all the PhDs go? Academic jobs are getting increasingly competitive and hard to come by. As faculty at top tier places retire (and are replaced by overzealous, freakily energetic assistant professors), more and more of the talent is getting pushed into the lower ranked universities. Somewhere along the line all the top tier grads will fill these positions too, funding will be easier to come by as a result of the even distribution of talent, and we'll all equalize so that the same 5 universities aren't the only ones who play musical chairs for the top ranked spots. (My high school english teacher just rolled over in her grave because of that sentence.) Okay, this is all waaaay down the line. Regardless, outside of academia, industry isn't hiring PhDs at the same rate they were a couple decades ago. R&D is too big of an investment and everyone is cutting back (the relationship is inversely proportional to the change in America's average waistline... someone should investigate. NIH Challenge Grant anyone?). So again I'm left to wonder... where will all the PhDs gooooo? (cue Paula Cole music)
What I want to focus on is the buzz about tripling the number of prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships granted. This is huge. Having a big fellowship opens a lot of doors. You can essentially work for whoever and on whatever project you want (assuming you also have an ounce of drive and another ounce of smooth-talking to go with your fellowship). Lovely stuff free labor is. So. More cheap graduate students means the potential for a department to accept more students in the first place. Which means more PhDs potentially graduating in ~5+ years. Which means more PhDs on the labor market.
Hmmm.... where will all the PhDs go? Academic jobs are getting increasingly competitive and hard to come by. As faculty at top tier places retire (and are replaced by overzealous, freakily energetic assistant professors), more and more of the talent is getting pushed into the lower ranked universities. Somewhere along the line all the top tier grads will fill these positions too, funding will be easier to come by as a result of the even distribution of talent, and we'll all equalize so that the same 5 universities aren't the only ones who play musical chairs for the top ranked spots. (My high school english teacher just rolled over in her grave because of that sentence.) Okay, this is all waaaay down the line. Regardless, outside of academia, industry isn't hiring PhDs at the same rate they were a couple decades ago. R&D is too big of an investment and everyone is cutting back (the relationship is inversely proportional to the change in America's average waistline... someone should investigate. NIH Challenge Grant anyone?). So again I'm left to wonder... where will all the PhDs gooooo? (cue Paula Cole music)
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