Dr. Shellie

Dear Professor Shellie,

Thank you for your time and effort during the application process. I received offers from your university and Highest-Ranked Super-Famous University. It was a very hard decision as these are both excellent universities. At Highest-Ranked Super-Famous University, I was offered a project with Extremely Famous Tenured Full Professor to study Hottest Topic Ever. After giving it careful thought, I have decided to go to Highest-Ranked Super-Famous University.

Best wishes,
Formerly-Prospective Student

Dear Formerly-Prospective Student,

I am shocked, absolutely shocked that you chose a position with Extremely Famous Tenured Full Professor at Highest-Ranked Super-Famous University over the RA position I offered you in my group! Where is your sense of vision?! Just wait until my lab takes over the world.

Best wishes,
Prof. Shellie

I thought this was an obvious point. But maybe it is not: A tenure rate of less than 50% is not attractive.

Suppose you are 30-something years old, and have moved all over the country and/or world for your career already, having done undergrad, masters, PhD, and postdoc in different locations. Would you rather go to a university where your colleagues expect you to get tenure and will support you in getting there, and the assumption is that unless something goes pretty wrong, you’ll be able to stick around after the first 5-6 years? Where you could maybe buy a house and expect to keep it for a while? Or would you rather go to a university where on average, only 50% of professors get tenure? That’s a one in two chance of getting kicked out.

Some people will always go for the more prestigious university, even if the tenure rate is low. Those universities can offer concrete (if potentially temporary) advantages. But I think that many (in particular, women and two-career couples) who would rather not be subjected to yet another high-stakes "testing" process at this stage of their lives, with the possible downside being  another job search, period of uncertainty, and possible cross-country move five years later.

People want things from me. Constantly.

In the last few weeks, I was asked to write an article giving advice to postdocs for my university postdoc newsletter, write an abstract for a conference, chair a session at an upcoming conference, give a talk for the student chapter of my professional society at two different universities, write to admitted students at my future university, put slides on the web from a mentoring talk I gave last month, write a syllabus for the class I am teaching in the fall, write a perspective piece on women in science for a different newsletter, review one grant and two journal articles, and look at a group grant my colleagues are putting together to see how I could contribute as a co-PI.

Not complaining. This is fun. Besides, I said no to some of those requests.

Just saying: it’s quite the contrast. For the last N years of my life I basically went around quietly doing my research without anyone asking me for anything at all. Now that my name is on a web page with the words "Assistant Professor, starting Fall 2008" next to it, everything has changed.

I’m writing up a lab report. For a class. No, it’s not for "credit." Postdocs can’t get credit anyway, and why would I need credit when I already have a faculty job? It’s just a subject I want to learn.

I feel like an undergraduate again.

But not.

I am older, wiser, more confident. Confident enough to learn something new without being afraid of looking silly. I love it that academia lets you learn new things over and over again.

Dear Sir,

Greetings from (Country). I have a BS in (Subject), and strongly desire to continue my studies in a PhD program in the US. I have seen your research interests on your web page, and am very interested in studying in these areas. Do you have an open position in your group?

Sincerely,

Prospective Student