Using restricted-access "Survey of Earned Doctorates" data, we investigate which attributes of a doctoral institution predict the share of its undergraduate BAs that will earn a PhD. We use truncation-correction to account for PhD receipt post-sample. Across the fields of humanities, physical, natural, and social sciences, PhD production…

Despite the worldwide prestige of America's doctoral programs in the humanities, all is not well in this area of higher education and hasn't been for some time. The content of graduate programs has undergone major changes, while high rates of student attrition, long times to degree, and financial burdens prevail. In response, the Andrew W. Mellon…

Doctoral programs in the humanities and related social sciences are characterized by high attrition and long times to degree. In 1991 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation launched the Graduate Education Initiative (GEI) to improve the quality of graduate programs and in turn reduce attrition and shorten time-to-degree. Over a 10-year period, the…

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's Graduate Education Initiative (GEI) provided funding to 54 departments in the humanities and related social sciences during the 1990s to improve their PhD programs. This article estimates the aspects of PhD programs the GEI influenced and how these aspects influenced attrition and graduation probabilities. It uses…

Used 20 years' of data from colleges of arts and sciences at a set of selective private research universities to examine whether the proportion of faculty positions and salaries going to science increased. Contrary to expectations, found that it did not. (EV)