A philosopher at a selective liberal arts college writes:
I am a tenure-track faculty member in a relatively small philosophy department (4-6 tenure lines) at a highly selective college on the East Coast. Given that our department is so small, in the past 4 years I have had the pleasure of serving on 3 searches for tenure-track positions in philosophy. Over the course of these searches, I have increasingly become aware of the fact that many applicants from a number of top institutions in the profession do not even submit applications for the positions we advertise, even when those positions are directly in the areas of specialization for which we are searching.
Here’s my question: is this simply a function of preference on the part of the applicants themselves or are some programs actively discouraging their most promising graduate students from applying to non-research institutions? If it’s the former case, I would argue that these applicants are perhaps not acting in their best interest, but I would accept in such a case that that would not be an issue of concern for the profession as a whole. If, however, as I suspect, it is the latter case, then I would suggest that those programs who are dissuading their best students from applying to high quality jobs at non-research institutions reconsider their practices.
The actions of professors and placement advisers at graduate programs steering their best students away from even applying to jobs at high quality liberal arts colleges might be in the interest of the "brand" of their graduate program — even a casual student of the sociology of philosophy would have to recognize that placing students at research institutions is often considered the pinnacle of placement success for graduate programs. However, those practices might not be in the best interests of their students; teaching loads, salaries, leaves and other sources of research support, and student quality at highly selective liberal arts colleges — whether those colleges have teaching loads of 2/2 or even 3/2 — are often highly competitive with conditions at all but the top 20 or 30 graduate programs. Indeed, the quality of life of professors at such colleges would compare very favorably with that of their peers at most institutions.
Of course, I’m not suggesting that graduate students with job offers from top-30 programs ought to choose instead to teach at liberal arts colleges. I am suggesting, however, that the choice to apply to jobs such as those at high quality liberal arts colleges should be the candidates’ and should be based on considerations of what would be in the best interests of the candidate, rather than what would be best for the reputation of the graduate program from which the candidate receives his/her degree.
My sense that some programs are not always considering the best interests of their graduate students was exacerbated by a visit this summer from one of our college alumni. This recent graduate is now an ABD at a top-10 graduate philosophy program, highly regarded by his/her professors there. S/he was so pleased with his/her experience at our college that s/he would in fact prefer to teach at a highly selective liberal arts college. However, when s/he expressed this preference to his/her professors, s/he was actively steered toward applying only to research schools and strongly discouraged from planning on applying to jobs even at the most selective liberal arts colleges, so much so that s/he reports that s/he now keeps her job preference a secret in her discussions with professors at her grad program. Since his/her program only writes one departmental recommendation per job, s/he is concerned that s/he will not even be taken seriously by liberal arts colleges should s/he apply to them, in addition to being concerned about the ramifications for him/her within his/her department should s/he insist upon applying to those schools.
This anecdotal case might be an isolated incident; certainly, I hope that it is. Writing as someone who deliberately and actively pursued a job at a highly selective liberal arts college over jobs at lower-ranked M.A. and Ph.D. programs, I can suggest that the profession is very vibrant and the opportunities very rewarding outside of the rarefied settings in which graduate programs often encourage their students to search for jobs. And writing as someone who will be serving on searches for tenure-track hires at my college in the coming years, I can assure you that no candidate who demonstrates a genuine interest in a career at our college would be considered overqualified; indeed, an active and strong research program is now a requirement for tenure at schools like mine. Certainly, it is in my interest — and that of my departmental colleagues and institution — to help to hire the most interesting and stimulating colleagues that we can find.
Comments are open, for others to share their experiences on these scores and/or their opinions about the underlying issues. I wuold prefer that comments be signed, but as long as there is a genuine e-mail, which identifies the writer, which also corresponds to the IP address’s location, I’ll permit anonymous postings. (When you post your comment, you will need to supply the e-mail address, but it will not appear when you post.) Post only once, and be patient!
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