As a Dartmouth alum, this is a step in the right direction. I appreciate that the school doesn’t chase growth for growth’s sake. And PhD graduates are being minted at too high of a rate according to many people.. so you’re damned if you do (“why aren’t schools preparing their students for jobs?”) and damned if you don’t (“look at them cutting positions!”).

The reality is that a PhD means just about nothing these days. Speaking as someone with a PhD (very thankful I graduated before LLMs ruined academic publishing completely), I’d like to see a bit more meaning to the degree.

Moreover, basically no one wants to stay in academia anymore because the pay is laughable and the prestige isn’t what it once was thanks to the last political decade. Salaries need to increase.

> I’d like to see a bit more meaning to the degree.

Does scarcity convey meaning?

I’m asking earnestly as I know nothing about PhD programs, holding a worthless bachelor’s degree from a tiny liberal arts college myself (still changed my life for the better and wouldn’t do any differently again but I digress.)