Causes and Correlations of Master’s Degree Statistics
DOI: 10.1063/1.1712485
The article in the June 2003 issue of Physics Today (page 32) on master’s degree recipients in physics states:
People who added a master’s to their resume rated their undergraduate education as more useful preparation than those who stopped after the bachelor’s. This rating shows the important role of physics departments, says report coauthor Rachel Ivie. “People who had a better undergraduate environment—better advising, better relationships with professors and other students—are more likely to complete graduate degrees.”
Those statements are an example of the well-known fallacy of confusing correlation with causality. An equally plausible explanation, one of many possibilities, for why master’s degree recipients gave a high rating of their undergraduate education is that students skilled in physics tend to enjoy their undergraduate education and also tend to obtain higher degrees. The study’s authors are not necessarily wrong, but they certainly do not have the data to prove their point.
It is disappointing, but all too common, to see scientists abandon their logical skills in discussions of policy and other nonscientific matters.
More about the Authors
Laurette Tuckerman. (laurette@limsi.fr) LIMSI-CNRS, Orsay, France .
