Employment
Postdoctoral positions in academic institutions are the most common employment option for our recent graduates. However, our PhD alumni are found across all branches of academia, non-academic research, and private industry, where they can be found employed as consultants, engineers, or data scientists. See specific career paths on the Graduate Program Alumni page. The first jobs after graduation can be grouped into three categories:
- Postdoc — postdoctoral positions at academic institutions with primary focus on research
- Other Academic — other academic positions, such as teaching and faculty positions, supervision of undergraduate labs, and research positions at government labs
- Private — a wide range of non-academic positions in private industry, including data science, consulting, engineering, finance, etc.
The employment statistics in these three categories are:
| Graduation Year | Postdoc | Other Academic | Private |
|---|---|---|---|
| Students who graduated between September 2015 and August 2016 | 50% | 0% | 50% |
| Students who graduated between September 2014 and August 2015 | 44% | 31% | 25% |
| Students who graduated between September 2013 and August 2014 | 78% | 6% | 17% |
| Students who graduated between September 2012 and August 2013 | 70% | 20% | 10% |
Time to Graduation
In the last 10 years, our department has been streamlining the graduate program, with increased emphasis on early research, publication of the results in scientific literature, and reduced time to graduation. The time to receive a PhD (from the beginning of the first semester at JHU to filing of the thesis to JHU library after the defense) has been steadily declining.
In 2012, we again modified the graduate program, replacing half of the course requirements and all qualifying exams with research-based exams and presentations. We expect a further reduction in the average time it takes a student to earn a PhD.
Time to Graduation by Year of Graduation
| Graduation Year | # of PhDs | Median | Mean | Standard Deviation | # of Terminal Master's Degrees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Students who graduated between September 2015 and August 2016 | 13 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 0.9 | 1 |
| Students who graduated between September 2014 and August 2015 | 17 | 5.9 | 5.7 | 1.2 | 3 |
| Students who graduated between September 2013 and August 2014 | 21 | 6.2 | 6.3 | 1.1 | 0 |
Time to Graduation by Year of Admittance
| Admittance Year | Median |
|---|---|
| September 2010 | 5.9 |
| September 2009 | 6.0 |
| September 2008 | 6.3 |
See a graph of the median time to earn a PhD by year of admittance.
