MOVING TO FRONT FROM OCT. 13, 2011, SINCE TIMELY AGAIN
I get asked this at various intervals, and while it's been covered in some news stories over the years, I think I've never posted the explanation here, so I might as well to satisfy the curiosity of anyone who is curious.
I first produced a short version of the PGR in 1989, when I was a PhD student at Michigan. It was for undergrads at Michigan thinking about grad school in philosophy, and it was based on the research I had done on PhD programs in philosophy prior to coming to Michigan. In the 1980s, one of the best-known rankings was the "Gourman Report," by Jack Gourman, a Cal State poli sci professor, who ranked all fields (and assigned minute numerical differences: e.g., Princeton was 4.89 in philosophy, but Pitt was 4.82), but never disclosed the methodology. My suspicion was that Gourman simply adjusted his rankings every few years based on the most recent National Research Council ranking (this was when the NRC actually did useful reputational surveys)--so, in the 1980s, the last one was 1982. And it was already becoming out-of-date when I was a senior in college in 1983-84. Anyway, I called my type-written report on philosophy PhD programs in 1989 the "Anti-Gourman Report."
To my surprise, it was popular not just with the undergrads at Michigan, but with my fellow students, who asked if they could photocopy it and send it to friends at their undergrad schools. And so it began. I updated it each year, giving my 'gestalt' sense of programs, listing major faculty moves, and so on. As it grew more and more popular via the informal photocopy method of distribution, I decided I better change the name, lest Jack Gourman get cranky! Since Gourman was close to Gourmand, and since I wasn't catering to Gourmands, but Gourmets, I settled on....
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