Hi, I hope my belief that this will be of interest is not misplaced! The Chronicle of Higher Education has a set of forums in which academics, mostly liberal arts, discuss academic issues.
So, today I got on that forum and noticed this discussion about the number of applications people submitted and the number of phone, conference, campus interviews and offers they received. Link here: http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,193969.0.html It was pretty interesting to see the claims, and at first it was difficult to make much sense out of it. So, I sat down and put all the claims into a spreadsheet. I would think, despite most of the people be liberal arts people, that the general trend should be true for us ecology types. Its only 27 respondents, but check this out..... The averages superficially suggest it takes on average roughtly 8-9 applications to get one phone interview 11-12 applications to get one campus interview 32-33 applications to get one offer. This tells you that if you send out 1-2 applications, your probability of getting an interview or an offer is pretty low. Effect of No. of applications on No. of phone interviews: R-sq = 0.81 (phone interviews = -1.19 + 0.15*[no. of applications]) Effect of No. of phone interviews on campus interviews: R-sq = 0.033. Effect of No. of campus interviews on tenure track offers: R-sq = 0.294, slope = 0.26. Part of this probably relates to campus interviews w/o preliminary phone interviews as it was not always clear how frequently this happened. Regardless, I think one can see that the more applications you send, the more likely you will get a phone interview, and the more phone interviews you get should translate into ultimately more offers. However, just applying at random probably does little to increase your chances. These were the results based on each post.... (I only counted ones where they indicated the N of applications) Number of applications submitted (27 respondents) 51.7 = mean number of applications submitted. 26.5 = median number of applications submitted. 68.6 = SD for N of applications. 3-331 = range 10-40 = quartile range Number of Phone interviews from above applications submitted... 6.8 = mean phone interviews 0.5 = median phone interviews 11.7= SD 0-52 = range 0-9 = quartile range Number of campus interviews from above pool.... 3.8 = mean number of campus interviews 4.0 = median number of campus interviews 3.8 = SD 0-15 = range 3-6 = quartile range Number of non-tenure track offers from above pool.... 0.53 = mean number of non-tenure track offers 0.00 = median number of non-tenure track offers 1.80 = SD 0-8 = range 0-1 = quartile range Number of tenure track offers from above pool..... 1.58 = mean number of tenure track offers 1.00 = median number of tenure track offers 1.80 = SD 0-6 = range 0-3 = quartile range -- Malcolm L. McCallum, PHD, REP Link to online CV and portfolio : https://www.visualcv.com/malcolm-mc-callum?access=18A9RYkDGxO Google Scholar citation page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lOHMjvYAAAAJ&hl=en Academia.edu: https://ui-springfield.academia.edu/MalcolmMcCallum/Analytics#/activity/overview?_k=wknchj Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Malcolm_Mccallum/reputation?ev=prf_rep_tab <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Malcolm_Mccallum/reputation?ev=prf_rep_tab> Ratemyprofessor: http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=706874 *Confidentiality Notice:* This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. “*Nothing is more priceless and worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed. It is a many-faceted treasure, of value to scholars, scientists, and nature lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the heritage we all share as Americans.* ” *-President Richard Nixon upon signing the Endangered Species Act of 1973 into law.* "*Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive*" -* Allan Nation* *1880's: *"*There's lots of good fish in the sea*" W.S. Gilbert *1990's:* Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss,and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction *MAY* help restore populations. 2022: "Soylent Green is People!" Charleton Heston as Detective Thorn 2022: "People were always awful, but their was a world once, and it was beautiful.' Edward G. Robinson as Sol Roth. The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle
