Profession Notes

Many life science graduate students surveyed recently by the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS) expressed either dissatisfaction with, or a lack of knowledge of the career guidance and placement services provided by their institutions. Of the 7,400 life science graduate and doctoral students surveyed, 41-76 percent rated their institutions less than satisfactory on each of four measures of professional development listed in the National Doctorate Survey or reported they did not know anything about their institution's workforce preparation services. Overall, the life sciences received a grade of C for career guidance and placement services; only the physical sciences received a better grade--a C+--when broken down by discipline. By contacting graduate network associations and asking institutions to help publicize the survey, NAGPS generated report cards for more than 1,300 doctoral programs, including 302 life sciences programs. The majority of survey participants expressed contentment with their programs, but they also revealed...