Our Methods: Does Size Matter?

PhD. granting Physics Departments in the U.S. vary from a few faculty to hundreds of faculty. The argument is generally made that the more the better, larger departments offer more choices to students and therefore a better experience.

From a social point of view this might be correct, there are certainly more social overlap groups within the school with similar interests for a student to interact with at a Maryland or a Penn State than at Bryn Mawr or Montana.

However, aside from the socialization aspect, we could find no definitive study, meta-study, or data to suggest that the larger programs did a better job preparing students, achieving desired career outcomes, or making students or faculty happy. As long as the University was able to effectively manage a few basic aspects of their program such as regularly offering core graduate courses, having an engaged graduate committee system, providing access to equipment or facilities, and providing access to conferences, then success percentages of smaller programs were about the same as the national norm which tends to be dominated by the larger programs.

Curiously, we did find that happiness with a given program of study was correlated with the student's perception of faculty committment to their program, perception of access to course work, and perception of the quality of their program. The more dedicated to the student's success the faculty were, the more prepared they felt through formal course training, and the more elite they saw themselves, the happier they were with the specific program they chose. Why si this important? The happier the student is, the more likely they are to stay in the field upon graduation leading to what we have labled success.

Unfortunately in our travels we did see one other trend. That is that high quality smaller departments do seem to have a bottom limit. At some point faculty resent being held to a research standard that others are not meeting. This resentment can be expressed in job performance and this can hurt smaller departments. So there does seem to be a smallest size beyond which closer examination is necessary.

But more on this later...