The Rise of PhD Students in the United States

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

There are still the same number of people engaged in social science within universities and then in addition to that, there are more people with training in social sciences who have careers in industry or government. But from the point of view of PhD students or people considering going into it, it does seem like it's increasingly grim. I've often found them to really be depressed and feel like they're in a bad situation. It is very disappointing to go into a field, have training primarily designed to get you ready to take a very specific type of position in that field.

Read the full transcript here.

What makes studying humans harder than studying other parts of the universe? Is social science currently improving its rigor, relevance, and self-reflection? Is it improving its predictive power over time? Why have sample sizes historically been so small in social science studies? Is social science actually able to accumulate knowledge? Have social scientists been able to move the "needle" on real-world problems like vaccine adoption? Is social science becoming more diverse? Specifically, does social science have a political bias? Are universities in crisis? Do the incentive structures in universities make them difficult or even impossible to reform?

Matt Grossmann is Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University. He is also Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center and a Contributor at FiveThirtyEight. He has published analysis in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Politico, and hosts the Science of Politics podcast. He is the author or co-author of How Social Science Got Better, Asymmetric Politics, Red State Blues, The Not-So-Special Interests, Artists of the Possible, and Campaigns & Elections, as well as dozens of journal articles. You can find more about him on his website.

Staff