For all the angst about the rise of the predoc and increasing time to complete the econ Ph.D., data from
@NSF
show the average time from BA to PhD for 2019 recipients in econ (8.5 years) is tied for lowest in the social sciences AND lower than the comparable stat (9.7) for 1994!
4
5
43
Replies
Note: these figures are medians. In the shorter run there has been a modest uptick: BA to Ph.D. time in economics reached a local minimum for 2014 grads at 8.3 years.
1
0
4
@JakeVigdor
@NSF
Is this actual time in the PhD program, or does it include years doing other things between BA/PhD - like work? Has to. Most PhD programs won't let you take 8 years.
1
0
3
@RonCFisher
@NSF
It's time elapsed from BA to Ph.D., whether that time was spent enrolled in a doctoral program or doing something else. Median years to completion in economics doctoral programs was 5.8 in 2019, lowest among the social sciences, up from 5.7 in 2014.
0
0
2
@JakeVigdor
@NSF
Thx for this! Very interesting. But I think it's possible for our timeline/training process to be both less bad than in anthropology & sub-optimal.
0
0
9
@JakeVigdor
@NSF
all of these seem too long to me. but what do I know? Be nice to know the median.
0
0
0