Blog CLXXXI (181): The Raw Numbers

One thing leads to another.

After the posting of the raw number of Ph.D.s produced was made available, the question quickly became, how many Ph.D.s has every school produced, and how do they rank by sheer numbers.  I was attempting to avoid going through all the data that way, but in the end, I surrendered.  Below is a new set of rankings according simply to numbers of Ph.D.s placed in jobs.  With these raw numbers, no effort is made to assess the prestige of various schools.  I will provide some analysis at the end of these rankings. The number in bold is the history department's ranking using the raw numbers. The number in parenthesis is the ranking according Clauset, Arbesman, and Larremore.  The number on the right is the number of Ph.D.s that department has placed at other departments that award the history Ph.D.  I will provide some short analysis at the end.  The raw numbers are:

1	(1)	Harvard University	324
2	(2)	Yale University	307
3	(7)	Columbia University	253
4	(3)	University of California, Berkeley	246
5	(6)	University of Chicago	240
6	(4)	Princeton University	184
7	(11)	University of Wisconsin	180
8	(12)	University of Michigan	173
9	(5)	Stanford University	172
10	(13)	University of California, Los Angeles	162
11	(10)	University of Pennsylvania	128
12	(9)	The Johns Hopkins University	108
13	(15)	Cornell University	74
14	(25)	University of Virginia	69
15	(24)	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	66
16	(14)	Northwestern University	62
	(19)	New York University	62
18	(23)	Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey	61
	(29)	University of Texas	61
20	(16)	Brown University	58
21	(31)	Indiana University	55
22	(22)	University of Minnesota	52
23	(21)	Duke University	49
24	(8)	Brandeis University	43
	(33)	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	43
26	(57)	The Ohio State University	41
27	(20)	University of California, San Diego	35
28	(30)	Emory University	30
29	(38)	University of California, Santa Barbara	29
30	(36)	Michigan State University	26
31	(17)	University of California, Davis	25
	(27)	University of Washington	25
33	(48)	University of Notre Dame	21
34	(18)	University of Rochester	20
	(41)	University of Arizona	20
36	(40)	Georgetown University	18
	(42)	University of Maryland	18
	(59)	University of Iowa	18
39	(46)	University of Pittsburgh	17
40	(35)	University of California, Riverside	15
	(37)	University of California, Irvine	15
42	(32)	Stony Brook University-State University of New York	14
43	(44)	University of Florida	13
	(52)	Boston University	13
	(56)	University of New Mexico	13
	(58)	University of Georgia	13
	(68)	University of Kansas	13
	(110)	Jewish Theological Seminary of America	13
49	(78)	University of Connecticut	12
	(63)	Boston College	12
	(64)	University of Illinois at Chicago	12
	(75)	Pennsylvania State University	12
53	(34)	Washington University in St. Louis	11
	(49)	Rice University	11
	(134)	Southern Baptist Theological Seminary	11
56	(26)	University of Southern California	10
	(28)	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	10
	(53)	Vanderbilt University	10
	(54)	George Washington University	10
	(90)	University of Missouri	10
	(99)	Kent State University	10
62	(39)	Binghamton University-State University of New York	9
	(60)	University of Massachusetts	9
	(71)	Tulane University	9
65	(47)	Tufts University	8
	(65)	Temple University	8
	(70)	Case Western Reserve University	8
	(83)	University of Delaware	8
	(94)	City University of New York Graduate Center	8
	(96)	University of Houston	8
71	(61)	Northern Illinois University	7
	(67)	Louisiana State University	7
	(69)	University of Hawaii	7
	(77)	College of William and Mary	7
75	(73)	Florida State University	6
	(78)	University of Cincinnati	6
	(86)	University of Toledo	6
	(91)	University of Utah	6
	(106)	University of Oklahoma	6
	(109)	University of Nebraska	6
	(113)	Texas Christian University	6
82	(45)	Carnegie Mellon University	5
	(50)	University at Buffalo-State University of New York	5
	(84)	University of Oregon	5
	(85)	University of Kentucky	5
	(89)	Arizona State University	5
87	(51)	University of California, Santa Cruz	4
	(62)	University of Miami	4
	(81)	University of Colorado	4
	(87)	American University	4
	(97)	Syracuse University	4
	(107)	Howard University	4
93	(76)	Princeton Theological Seminary	3
	(80)	University of Tennessee	3
	(82)	Ohio University	3
	(100)	Bowling Green State University	3
	(105)	Kansas State University	3
	(116)	Graduate Theological Union	3
	(118)	Purdue University	3
	(119)	University of South Carolina	3
	(122)	Texas A&M University	3
	(125)	West Virginia University	3
103	(43)	Catholic University	2
	(66)	Claremont McKenna College	2
	(72)	Wayne State University	2
	(79)	Florida International University	2
	(88)	Georgia State University	2
	(92)	University of New Hampshire	2
	(93)	University at Albany-State University of New York	2
	(98)	Marquette University	2
	(101)	University of Maine	2
	(102)	University of Mississippi	2
	(103)	Washington State University	2
	(104)	Miami University	2
	(114)	Auburn University	2
	(121)	Loyola University Chicago	2
	(124)	University of Northern Arizona	2
	(127)	University of Alabama	2
	(128)	University of Southern Mississippi	2
	(132)	Illinois State University	2
	(136)	Saint Louis University	2
122	(74)	Drew University	1
	(95)	Clark University	1
	(111)	Saint John's University	1
	(112)	Northeastern University	1
	(115)	Iowa State University	1
	(117)	Lehigh University	1
	(120)	University of North Texas	1
	(123)	University of Arkansas	1
	(126)	Fordham University	1
	(133)	Southern Illinois University Carbondale	1
	(140)	University of Memphis	1
	(143)	Oklahoma State University	1
134	(108)	University of Missouri—Kansas City	0
	(129)	University of Akron	0
	(130)	University of Texas at Dallas	0
	(131)	University of Nevada	0
	(135)	Western Michigan University	0
	(137)	University of Texas at Arlington	0
	(138)	University of Idaho	0
	(139)	Texas Tech University	0
	(141)	Mississippi State University	0
	(142)	George Mason University	0
	(144)	Middle Tennessee State University	0

Configuring the data according to simply the number of Ph.D.s that a department has produced and placed basically confirms the findings of Clauset, Arbesman, and Larremore.  Many schools change position, but much of it was only one or two spots.  There are only a few dramatic changes: the Jewish Theological Seminary of America being the biggest example, but Ohio State and Texas made some significant movement upward.

There was also some movement at the very top levels of the rankings.  The members of the "Magic Eight" are a bit different.  The biggest difference is that Braendis dropped out of the top 20 altogether.  All in all, though, these changes strike me as quibbling.

The raw data shows that there is a steep hierarchy at work in the history business.  Even within the top eight it is clear that certain schools have far significant advantage over others.  There is a significant break between the second and third ranked schools of over 50 placements.  There is an even bigger gap between school number six and number seven.  There are two more big drops.  One is between schools 10 and 11 and the next is between number 12 and 13.

Even finishing in the top ten hides some major differences.  The number one school (Harvard in both configurations) has placed 324 of its graduates.  The number 10 school according to the raw numbers is UCLA, which has half the number of Harvard.  This step decline continues into the second ten.  At number 20, Brown has 58 placed alumni, which is only a third of the 162 UCLA Bruin Bears that have found employment.  This step decline continues in the third ten.  Michigan State has less than half of Brown's figures. 

As Clauset, Arbesman, and Larremore argued and this examination of the raw numbers confirms, there is a significant gap between the elite history department—whoever they may be—and the rest.