The pyramid scheme for PhDs is a badly kept secret, are Docs next?

[Untraditional]

---

Members don't see this ad.

http://www.miller-mccune.com/science/the-real-science-gap-16191/

This article is one of the most complete explorations of the enormous pyramid scheme we call academia that I've come across. I encourage all of you, especially those considering a PhD or MSTP, to read this article in its entirety. I'm highlighting here some of the more salient points that illustrate the absurdity of our training model, but the history lesson that describes how we got here is equally important so click on through!

...three times as many Americans earn degrees in science and engineering each year as can find work in those fields, Science & Engineering Indicators 2008, a publication of the National Science Board, reports. The number of science and engineering Ph.D.s awarded annually in the U.S. rose by nearly 60 percent in the last two decades, from about 19,000 to 30,000, the report says. The number of people under 35 in the U.S. holding doctorates in biomedical sciences, Indicators notes, rose by 59.4 percent — from about 12,000 to about 19,000 — between 1993 and 2001, but the number of under-35s holding the tenure-track positions rose by just 6.7 percent, remaining under 2,000.

... Although some people argue that advanced education assures good career prospects, "the supply-demand textbook model is correct after all," Borjas says. It turns out to work as powerfully on molecular biologists and computer programmers as on gardeners and baby sitters.


The director of postdoctoral affairs at one stellar university, who requested anonymity to avoid career repercussions, puts it more acidly. The main difference between postdocs and migrant agricultural laborers, he jokes, is that the Ph.D.s don't pick fruit.


According to a recent post on the blog of a well-informed physicist, eight people have already accepted postdoc positions at Princeton in the field of particle physics for the coming year. That is one particle physicist shy of the total number in that field hired nationally as faculty members this year.

This article goes into graphic detail about the "publish or perish" mentality among tenured research scientists as well as the incessant pursuit of research grants that fuel their salaries.

A fellowship is on the critical path for those of us seeking to reach the upper echelons of medicine. In many ways the fellowship could be considered comparable to the postdoc year(s). In my own clinical experience in my former career, it was often the fellows who ran the hospital at night or assisted with the complex surgical cases and though I admit that fewer MD/DO's out of fellowship seem to be stuck looking for work as attendings than their PhD counterparts seeking tenure, there have been alarming trends in certain specialties when it comes to finding a job. CT Surgeons, for example, are openly debating the future course of training because of an apparent shortage of top applicants, yet fellows currently in training are known to lament doing a "superfellowship" year because of their inability to find positions that suit their advanced training.

Advanced specialist pediatricians (cardiologists, intensivists, etc.) seem to be facing similar obstacles. Are there enough tier-3 pediatric hospitals available to support the new group of fellows from various specialties that graduate each year?

Does anyone have an I idea where I can get hard data on the number of fellowship graduates vs. the number of attending positions available? My suspicion is that there is an unsustainable rate of growth in most of the desirable specialties that require fellowships. Will we eventually reach the carrying capacity for certain specialties as we have with many large PhD programs and face a job shortage for the most highly trained doctors? And if so, can we expect that young medical students and residents will have realistic counseling with respect to the job market following a fellowship before they sign up?

Like the research professor who needs to keep his lab churning out grant applications, the hospital needs someone around at night. I don't believe that the number of fellowship spots will decrease based on the needs of the field. I predict the opposite, in fact, and I can't help but wonder if we will see dilution of the educational experience as more programs come to offer fellowships and positions that today might target graduating residents increase their requirements as more and more excessively qualified trainees enter the job market.