Ohio Wesleyan University PhD productivity

Ohio Wesleyan University emphasizes faculty teaching and independent undergraduate research in its curriculum. Ohio Wesleyan’s record of producing graduates who earn a PhD degree place it among the top 30 schools among all baccalaureate colleges between 1920-1995. The roots of this record march back to as early as the late 1890s when the college's curriculum underwent significant changes. The Survey of Earned Doctorates, an annual study co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation reveals not only the percent of Ohio Wesleyan bachelor degree holders who later earn a doctoral degree but also fields that have been strong and weak feeders for PhD programs in the history of the college.
The mission of the liberal arts college

That graduates of small, independent liberal arts institutions earn PhD’s in social sciences, science and mathematics at over twice the national average was established in 1991. Several studies have investigated this trend and looked for its origins. The paradox is that the primary mission of liberal arts colleges is not to prepare their students for admission and success in PhD programs; historically, liberal arts is a tradition that began in New England over three hundred years ago that emphasizes a holistic approach to liberal learning and the social philosophy of Plato mandating responsible citizenship.

The effects of specialization: 1920-1924

During 1891-1895, OWU established departments for physics, zoology, geology, speech, history, French, English, and economics. The new ideal of specialization brought an emphasis on professional preparation for the Doctor of Philosophy degree and on travel and study in Europe. Two professional schools — Law and Medicine — were formed in 1896.

The speciliazation of the curriculum, a process that started during the Bashford presidency, influenced a lot of undergraduate students to take on further graduate study at other universities. Two Rhodes Scholars from Ohio Wesleyan were appointed during the first ten years of the 1910s: E.R.Loyd (1905) and E.E. Lincoln (1909). In 1907, the United Societies of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest undergraduate honors organization in the United States installed its first chapter on campus.

It was decided during the Welch presidency years that despite the expansion and the institution's name, Ohio Wesleyan University was to remain a college, not an university. In the interest of wider degree legitimacy, the Bachelor of Science degree was dropped and only the Bachelor of Arts was offered. The mantle of the old classical degree would be used to invoke a wide variety of fields, not just classical studies. Academic requirement for the bachelor's degree were cut and the emphasis on Latin and mathematics came to an end during the 1920s.

Following the curriculum change under the Welch presidency that introduced academic specialization, the school stood 36th among the top producers of PhDs in the United States, not only among liberal arts colleges between 1920-1924.

Historical rank: 1920-1995

In a research paper "Baccalaureate Origins of Doctorate recipients" researchers from the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDSC) in conjunction with Franklin and Marshall College (F&M) compiled data obtained from the Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel of the National Research Council (NRC). The report includes private institutions included in the 1994 publication "A Classification of Institutions of Higher Education". This classification of institutions is commonly referred to as the "Carnegie Classifications" in which Bachelor's Degrees account for at least ten percent of the degrees awarded by the institution. The HEDSC report includes people who received doctoral degrees between the years 1920 and 1995, and between 1986 and 1995.

Between 1920-1995, Ohio Wesleyan holds the 27th spot in all disciplines.

The professional geographer
A study titled "A Place for Geography in the Liberal Arts College?" by Mark Bjelland explores the study of geography among liberal arts college. The results of this study reveal that geography thrives at a select group of liberal arts colleges, and that "these colleges are disproportionately important as the undergraduate origin for doctorate recipients in geography."

Ohio Wesleyan was one of fourteen liberal arts colleges to offer a geography degree. Bjelland claimed that despite their rarity, liberal arts geography departments are of disproportionate importance to the discipline in their role as the baccalaureate origin for future doctorate recipients. In his study, Bjelland claimed that the ratio of geography PhDs earned by alumni to geography BA degrees awarded is four to twelve times as high for Ohio Wesleyan as it is for research universities, doctoral universities, or master’s universities.

Education & Human Development
The HEDSC study considers education majors that upon graduation earn doctoral degrees in human development and education. HEDSC ranked Ohio Wesleyan ranked third among all schools as a baccalareate source for doctoral recipients of a degree in education between 1920-1995. Ohio Wesleyan has been offering "Education" as an academic discipline for more than 100 years. The program collaborates with the Department of Psychology. The department of Education operates an Early Childhood Center with several experimental labs.

Business & Economics
Ohio Wesleyan University stood ninth among all schools, according to a study conducted by Kasper Hirschel in 1991, as a baccalaurate origin of economics doctorate recipients between 1920-1984 shows . Hirschel examined the nature of, and possible reasons for, the changes in the academic transition from undergraduate to graduate study of economics. The researcher was concerned by the sharp decline in the number of the best liberal arts graduates who apply to, and enroll in, PhD programs. With data taken from a National Research Council report, Hirschel focused on private institutions.

Among all American academic institutions between 1997-2003, Ohio Wesleyan ranked 20th in its productivity rate, among economics program-size normalized top American sources of eventual Economics Ph.D.s between 1997-2003. In their research study, John Siegfried and Wendy Stock normalize the eventual economics Ph.D.s generated by each institution by the number of bachelor’s degrees it awards in economics.

The last decade
The importance of research funding per student can not be underestimitated as an explanation of the percent of graduates who pursure further graduate study. Between 1996-2001 fiscal years, Ohio Wesleyan increased its expenditures per student by 23%, while the average increase over the same period for top tier liberal arts colleges was 17%. Economist Robert Lenke argued that this increase in spending per student contributed to an increase in the school's PhD creation rate, a rate that captures the number of students that obtained baccalaureates at Ohio Wesleyan and eventually earned a doctorate at another institution. During the same time period, the PhD creation rate for Ohio Wesleyan graduates increased from 3.8% to 5.3% of a graduating class. Biological and social science graduates of the college receive doctorates at much higher rates than graduates in other fields.
Notable examples

F. Sherwood Rowland is an 1947 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University. Sherwood's father had studied for his PhD and his entire family took it for granted that he, too, would obtain one. "Furthermore, both his parents had firm convictions that the University of Chicago, which each had attended, was not just the best choice for graduate work, but the only choice." Rowland did not prove them wrong: he obtained his PhD in physics at the University of Chicago. Although his thesis was on the chemical state of cyclotron-produced radioactive bromine atoms, his best-known work is the discovery that chlorofluorocarbons contribute to ozone depletion, for which Rowland received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Ezra Vogel graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1950. He received his doctorate in sociology in 1958 from Harvard University. He is a scholar on China and Japan and has published numerous books on both countries. His "Japan as Number One" is the all-time bestseller held by Western authors in Japan.

Dr. Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli, a 1961 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, was named, by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to the post of Senior Advisor on Women's Empowerment, working with the Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Prior to her appointment by Rice, Tahir-Kheli was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations at the National Security Council. Tahir-Kheli received her PhD degree in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972. She is instrumental in advising the Bush Administration on its South Asia policy.

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