Selection bias isn’t the whole story. The median paper in almost every field is notably worse than it was in, say, 1985. Academia is less selective than it used to be—in the U.S., there are more PhDs per capita, and the average IQ/test scores/whatever metric has dropped for every level of educational attainment.
Grab a journal that’s been around for a long time, read a few old papers and a few new papers at random, and you’ll notice the difference.
To what degree is this true regarding elite-level Ph.D. programs that are likely to lead to publication in (i) mathematics and/or (ii) computer science?
Separately, we should remember that academic selection is a relative metric, i.e. graded on a curve. So, when it comes to Ph.D. programs, is the median 2024 Ph.D. graduate more capable (however you want to define it) than the corresponding graduate from 1985? This is complex, involving their intellectual foundations, depth of their specialized knowledge, various forms of raw intelligence, attention span, collaborative skills, communication ability (including writing skills), and computational tools?
I realize what I’m about to say next may not be representative of the median Ph.D. student, but it feels to me the 2024 graduates of, say, Berkeley or MIT (not to mention, say, Thomas Jefferson High School) are significantly more capable than the corresponding 1985 graduates. Does my sentiment resonate with others and/or correspond to some objective metrics?
Selection bias isn’t the whole story. The median paper in almost every field is notably worse than it was in, say, 1985. Academia is less selective than it used to be—in the U.S., there are more PhDs per capita, and the average IQ/test scores/whatever metric has dropped for every level of educational attainment.
Grab a journal that’s been around for a long time, read a few old papers and a few new papers at random, and you’ll notice the difference.
To what degree is this true regarding elite-level Ph.D. programs that are likely to lead to publication in (i) mathematics and/or (ii) computer science?
Separately, we should remember that academic selection is a relative metric, i.e. graded on a curve. So, when it comes to Ph.D. programs, is the median 2024 Ph.D. graduate more capable (however you want to define it) than the corresponding graduate from 1985? This is complex, involving their intellectual foundations, depth of their specialized knowledge, various forms of raw intelligence, attention span, collaborative skills, communication ability (including writing skills), and computational tools?
I realize what I’m about to say next may not be representative of the median Ph.D. student, but it feels to me the 2024 graduates of, say, Berkeley or MIT (not to mention, say, Thomas Jefferson High School) are significantly more capable than the corresponding 1985 graduates. Does my sentiment resonate with others and/or correspond to some objective metrics?