Self-Awarded Ph.D.'s

I'm confident that the various study groups cited by Jesse H. Ausubel in the article "Malthus And Graduate Students: Checks On Burgeoning Ranks Of Ph.D.'s" [ The Scientist, Feb. 5, 1996, page 11] provide detailed data and exhaustive investigation to determine that an excessive number of Ph.D.'s are being graduated from distinguished educational institutions. While the author's opinion as to the reasons for this proliferation sounds reasonable and well- considered, I feel compelled to add one more cause for too many Ph.D.'s flooding the marketplace and intensifying the competitive nature of peer recognition.

My comment on this article is more of a plea rather than augmenting the excellent statement by Ausubel, who, as director of the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University and program officer for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, would be in an advantageous position for responding to my plea. To all the legitimate...