Ph.D. Placements
Graduates of Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies Ph.D. program currently hold positions at the nation’s most prestigious research universities, including Yale, Cornell, NYU, Rutgers, UCLA, UCSD, and Berkeley; others have pursued careers at tribal colleges and liberal arts colleges. Some graduates have chosen paths other than academia, and work in areas such as public policy and museum administration. For a glimpse of what our graduates have accomplished, see the alumni directory.
Over the past ten years, Ethnic Studies graduates have consistently experienced higher placement in research university tenure-track positions than Berkeley’s Social Sciences division as a whole. From 1999-2003 to 2004-08, Ethnic Studies graduates reported an increase from 50% to 61.9% in placement of this type compared to the division’s 37.5% and 41.5%. And while both the department and the division saw a drop in employment for UCB graduate placement in research university-doctoral granting institutions, since 1999, ES graduates showed higher rates of employment in these compared to their divisional peers (61.9% in 04-08 in ES; 56.4% SS). Ethnic Studies graduates also took the lead on employment in 4-year colleges (28.6% ES to 10.9% SS), with percentages below 10 with respect to 5-year and community college employment.
Post-doctoral awards for Ethnic Studies graduates dropped from 36.7% in 1999-2003 to 14.3% in 2004-08. This drop reflects a 7% rise in employment during this time (from 68.2 to 75%), and shifts from the negligible to 4.8% in research positions, and from 10% to 19% in non-tenure track jobs. The average rates of employment during this time for the division were consistently at about 75%.