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| Posted 10.01.05 |
Chances Are, the Future of History Comes from Wesleyan
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The September, 2005 issue of Perspectives,
the monthly publication of the American Historical Association, included a
study of history Ph.D.s earned between 1989 and 2002 and showed that the
leader in the field was in fact Wesleyan University - even though Wesleyan
doesn’t have a Ph.D. program in history.
Though the results may sound incongruous at first, the data is actually
quite solid. The study’s author, Robert Townsend, found that a higher
percentage of Wesleyan students who earned bachelor’s degrees during the
surveyed period went on to earn Ph.D.s in history than undergraduates from any other
institution in the United States.
Townsend’s data showed that Wesleyan students earned 607 B.A.s in history
from 1987-2002. This aggregate number ranked 13th overall nationwide.
However, Wesleyan students went on to earn 100 history Ph.D.s from 1989 to
2002, giving the university a rate of 16 history Ph.D.s earned for every 100
history B.A.s earned within the survey period. This rate was the highest
measured and tied Wesleyan with the University of Chicago for best overall
ratio. The ratio also exceeded the ratios of all other liberal arts
institutions in the country, as well as those of Yale, Harvard, Brown, U.C.
Berkeley and Stanford.
It should be noted that though most history Ph.D.s are earned by people who
received history B.A.s, this is not always the case, a point that, when
considered within the context of the study, further highlights the quality
of Wesleyan’s bachelor program in general. |
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| By
David Pesci, director of Media Relations |
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