In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, an anxious grad student asks:
In my PhD program many of the students believe that the faculty rank the grad students in their once-a-semester meeting to discuss grad student progress. The faculty deny this, but I think these rumors contribute to the somewhat competitive environment in our program. Whom should we the grad students believe? Is ranking students (still) a common practice in PhD programs? Do universities even allow it?
Good questions. I seem to recall some rumors in my grad department about this too, but I don't know if anyone ever asked about it and if someone ever did, I would think that the grad faculty should be honest about it. Two other readers submitted follow up comments:
Certainly when I was a graduate student, faculty did rank the students, and they were compelled to when it came to supporting applications for competitive graduate grants (provincial and national in Canada). And I had heard that at Columbia they openly posted the ranking of grad students in the 1980s. In fact, you are going to be ranked all the time in this profession. And it does create a rather destructive competitive atmosphere. But to think you won't be ranked is naive. – by 'ambivalent'
[W]hile I am not sure about ranking culture in general, I do know that departments (or, the DGS or chair in charge) would often rank students in order to make recommendations for, say, university-wide competitive funding opportunities. What may end up happening is that the same student(s) would both get those internal findings and a job offer, so the internal money just goes back to the grad school, instead of going to the second person in line. – by 'To anxious grad'
Do any other readers have any helpful insights?
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