So let's take another look at job placement

I picked three departments which provide good information on-line and which had fairly stable PGR ranks over the last dozen years or so.  One, NYU, I singled out, recently and correctly, for having an excellent placement record; NYU has also been ranked #1 in the PGR for over a decade now.  The second, at my university, has been solidly top 20, though not top 15, during this period.  The third, Boston University, has had a PhD program for a long time and has been in the top 50 of the PGR (but not the top 40) for over a decade as well.  Let's look at graduates from 2005-2010:  this will get out of the mix those who haven't yet been on the academic market, or who have only been on once or twice and so might still be in temporary positions and may yet secure TT positions.  In short, this will give us an idea of how many graduates of these programs are getting tenure-track jobs and what kind of tenure-track jobs.  (In a few cases, the information on-line turned out to be out-of-date, so I updated it for purposes of the below.)

Let's start with NYU.  During this time period we have 23 graduates.  20 of 23 have tenure-track jobs:  87%.  14 have tenure-track jobs at ranked PhD-granting programs (61%).   11 of 23 have tenure-track job at top 20 PhD programs (48%).   19 have tenure-track jobs at research universities (some in fields outside philosophy), and one is at a selective liberal arts college (83%).  Of the three graduates not currently in tenure-track jobs, one went back to medical school (so may yet end up in academia), one took a non-academic job in the region where her spouse (also an NYU philosophy PhD) had a tenure-track job, and one graduate clearly had other events going on in her life, about which she has written.  83% placement at research universities and selective liberal arts colleges is remarkable. 

Now let's look at the University of Chicago, another strong program but not as strong as NYU.  Here we have 30 graduates, of which 23 have tenure-track jobs (77%).  5 of 30 have tenure-track jobs at ranked PhD-granting programs (17%).   2 of 30 have jobs at top 20 PhD programs (7%).  13 of 30 have jobs at research universities or selective liberal arts colleges (43%).  Of the graduates not currently in tenure-track jobs, some have taken jobs outside academia, some are in adjunct positions or post-docs, and some are unaccounted for altogether.

And now Boston University.  During this time period, 2005-2010, we have 35 graduates.  22 secured tenure-track positions (63%).  1 of 35 has a tenure-track job at a ranked PhD program (3%).  None of have tenure-track jobs at top 20 PhD programs.  7 of 35 have tenure-track jobs at research universities or selective liberal arts colleges (20%).  Of the graduates not currently in tenure-track jobs, some are in adjunct or non-tenure-stream positions, and some are unaccounted for altogether.

Here's a table summarizing the findings for graduates 2005-2010 from programs whose PGR rank has been fairly stable over the last dozen years:

School	2011 PGR Rank	% in TT jobs	% in TT jobs at ranked PhD   programs	% in TT jobs at top 20   programs	% in TT jobs at research   universities and SLACs
New York University	1	87%	61%	48%	83%
University of Chicago	20	77%	17%	7%	43%
Boston University	44	63%	3%	0%	20%

This little exercise took about one hour to compile.  I have no doubt that anyone could replicate this data for more departments, if their intention was to provide helpful information to prospective students.  I am sure someone will.