Survey: GC grads pursuing Ph.D.s By Penn Miller GC has churned out more students who pursue Ph.D.s than most schools in its class in the last decade. According to a Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pa.) survey titled "Baccalaureate Origins of Doctoral Recipients," 137 GC graduates received doctorates between 1986 and 1995. GC ranked 75th out of 500 schools in its category during this time period. GC administrators are pleased with the results of the survey. "This survey says something about the quality of education provided here, because people who are less prepared for graduate study would not persist," said Academic Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs Paul Keim. Between 1920 and 1995, GC produced 539 doctoral recipients, giving it a ranking of 81st in the Baccalaureate I category, which includes schools that focus largely on baccalaureate programs. In the last nine years of the survey GC has improved its position among comparable colleges in Ph.D. production. The Mennonite cultural influence that pervades GC is a factor in the results of the survey, said Vice President for Multicultural Education Zenebe Abebe. Abebe graduated from GC in 1978 and received a doctorate in psychology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He said, "Graduate school takes hard work, persistence, resilience, and patience-these are things you learn at a Mennonite college." For both time periods measured, GC ranked first among schools in the Mennonite Council of Colleges. GC produced 76 more Ph.D. recipients than Eastern Mennonite University in the 1986-1995 time frame, according to the survey. Several qualifiers deserve mentioning. Professional degrees, such as law and medicine, were not included in the count. Also, GC was ranked only against other institutions that grant 40 percent of their degrees in liberal arts fields. Thus, GC was not ranked against very large schools like Notre Dame and Valparaiso. Keim said the numbers reflect a surge of support for education by Mennonites in the last century. GC has been at the forefront of this surge, establishing itself as "the place where the church comes to think," he said. Keim, himself a 1978 GC graduate who went on to earn a doctorate in near eastern languages and civilizations from Harvard in 1992, said strong support from GC professors helped him achieve his goal. Rekishu Yamazaki, a 1996 GC graduate who is pursuing a Ph.D. in physics at Purdue University, said he believes GC is a good starting point for those seeking doctorates. Yamazaki said his broad liberal arts education at GC inspired him to achieve higher academic degrees. "People say we can't study in depth [at small colleges], but studying a broad range of courses helps us learn how to appreciate things from different points of view." Keim said that in addition to receiving the benefits of a large graduate school, he appreciated the stress on "personal faith development, a sense of self and giftedness, and a practice of ethics in a community setting," that his experience at GC provided. Provost John Yordy echoed Keim's sentiment. "GC has demonstrated it is possible to provide academic excellence in an affordable Christian environment," he said. Keim stated that while the administration has no particular goal of producing doctorates, it would continue to try to attract good students. |