Showing posts with label scramble. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scramble. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Update on economics job market scramble

Registration on the 2010 Economics Job Market Scramble for new Ph.D.s is now closed, and those who have registered will be able to view the site for another week.

67 employers registered 71 positions this year (with 24 of those employers choosing to remain invisible to viewers). There's no obvious difference between the visibles and the invisibles (e.g. the visibles include 14 universities with graduate programs, the invisibles include 11).

374 job candidates registered, in line with previous years (there were 361 and 395 in 2008 and 2009).

All this is from the revised version of our paper on the job market:
Peter Coles, John Cawley, Phillip B. Levine, Muriel Niederle, Alvin E. Roth, and John J. Siegfried , " The Job Market for New Economists: A Market Design Perspective," revised April 6, 2010, forthcoming in Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2010.The current version of that paper can be found here .

Good luck to all those still on the market.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Time to scramble, if still on the economics job market

If you are still on the market for new economics Ph.D.s, now is the time to register for the 2010 Job Market Scramble

Registration is open now, and remains open only until March 30, this coming Tuesday. Don't wait until the last day to do it; not only does that make it more likely that you will forget, but I'm not sure when on Tuesday the signup might go away. If you aren't currently holding an offer you might accept this weekend, or expecting one imminently, and if you are still looking for a job this year, I would recommend signing up now.

The scramble site will be open for viewing (candidates can view jobs, and employers can view candidates) from April 1-12.

The Scramble is discussed on pages 13-15 of our recently revised paper
Peter Coles, John Cawley, Phillip B. Levine, Muriel Niederle, Alvin E. Roth, and John J. Siegfried , " The Job Market for New Economists: A Market Design Perspective," revised March 19, 2010, forthcoming in Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2010.
The current version of that paper can be found here (and I'll update this link when the final version becomes available, which should have some ex-post description of this year's scramble numbers).

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Match Day!

This year's schedule for announcing the results of the resident match ends today, when most graduating medical students will learn where they have been matched.

Over the last few days, those who were not matched in the main match learned of this, so that they could "scramble" to match by the time that their colleagues would learn of their matches.

Here's this year's schedule:

March 15, 2010--Applicant matched and unmatched information posted to the Web site at 12:00 noon eastern time.
March 16, 2010--Filled and unfilled results for individual programs posted to the Web site at 11:30 a.m. eastern time.
Locations of all unfilled positions are released at 12:00 noon eastern time. Unmatched applicants may begin contacting unfilled programs at 12:00 noon eastern time.
March 18, 2010--Match Day! Match results for applicants are posted to Web site at 1:00 pm eastern time.

Next year this will all play out differently, since the NRMP has decided to organize a "managed scramble":

"The NRMP Board of Directors has voted to proceed with implementation of a "managed" Scramble for the 2012 Main Residency Match. Under the plan, unfilled positions must be offered and accepted through the NRMP R3 System during Match Week. Offers will be made every three hours Wednesday - Friday of Match Week, and applicants will be able to receive multiple simultaneous offers. Match Day will be moved from Thursday to Friday. Questions should be directed to nrmp@aamc.org."

Right now there is pressure on the number of residencies that can be funded, so there may not be as much problem with congestion as would otherwise be a concern. We'll have to wait until next year to find out. (I wasn't involved in this latest design discussion.)

Monday, March 1, 2010

Economics job market scramble

If you are a new economics Ph.D. and the market is going slowly, hang in there. Similarly if you are a department or other employer who is still trying to fill a position. There's still lots of action left in the market.

If you are still on the market near the end of March, you should think about registering for the 2010 Job Market Scramble

Important Dates:
March 23: Registration will Open
March 30: Registration will Close
April 1-12: Scramble Website will open for viewing by registered participants only
April 12: Scramble Viewing will Close

See the Scramble Guide for more detailed information.

Brief Description:
Occasionally prospective employers of new Ph.D. economists exhaust their candidates before hiring someone during the winter/spring "job market" period. Similarly, new economics Ph.D.s seeking a job sometimes find that all of the prospective employers with whom they have interviewed have hired someone else before they have secured an appointment.
To address these problems, the AEA has established a "Job Market Scramble" web site to facilitate communication between employers and job seekers in late spring. In March, employers that continue to have an open position previously listed in Job Openings for Economists (JOE) may post a short notice of its availability (with a link to the JOE listing). Similarly, new or recent economics Ph.D. job seekers still looking for a position may post a short announcement of their continued availability, with a link to their application materials (C.V., papers, references). The web site will open for viewing to those who have listed a position or availability soon after listings close. There is no charge for the "Job Market Scramble."

In each of the last four years between 67 and 100 employers have participated in the scramble, and (despite low response rates to the post scramble survey of participants) the AEA's Ad Hoc Committee on the Job Market (which I chair) has been able to confirm that more than 10% of the jobs offered through the scramble have been filled through contacts initiated via the scramble.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

College admissions in the UK, update

The Times offers British students a Good University Guide, with some advice on navigating the various parts of the British college admissions process, including the scramble known as "clearing," and the difficulties of taking advantage of re-graded exams.

Act fast to snap up a place
Competition to make it to university through clearing will be more intense this year as applicants chase fewer places

Guide to Clearing: essential information on universities in the clearing system
John O’Leary outlines some of the pros and cons of 40 UK universities likely to be offering the most places through clearing this year


A-level system will not help students 'trade up'
Pupils who do better than expected in exams will miss out on places at leading universities because courses are already full.
"Those who are unfairly marked down in A-level exams could lose their place, even if they successfully appeal and later get a higher grade. Some courses are closed to British applicants even though they still have places for foreign students. This is because for financial reasons the Government restricts the number of British students that universities can recruit. Overseas students pay higher fees and do not receive the grants or subsidised loans available to home students. "


There's also a guide to the mysteries of college admissions on this side of the pond: How to get into an American university
Students are increasingly looking across the Atlantic for university – but the application system can seem daunting.

"One of the main differences between the US and here is that there is no central body that handles the admissions, as Ucas does in the UK. "


Here are my earlier posts on British college admissions:

University admissions in the UK, and University admissions in the UK: admissions formulae

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

NRMP to implement "managed scramble"

After the medical match, some applicants and positions remain unmatched. Right now, that is handled through a fairly decentralized "scramble." (Fairly decentralized, but with some centralized distribution of the information about who is matched and unmatched. It is more centralized than the economics job market scramble, since the NRMP knows immediately who all the unmatched applicants and participants are). Giving the medical scramble some more structure is now under active consideration.

"The NRMP Board of Directors, meeting in Washington, DC on May 4, 2009, voted to proceed with implementation of a "managed" Scramble for the Main Residency Match. A joint NRMP-AAMC work group will continue to refine the plan, which will require programs to offer and applicants to accept unfilled positions through the NRMP R3 System during Match Week. A "managed" Scramble would be implemented no earlier than the 2011 Match, according to NRMP Executive Director Mona M. Signer. " (http://www.nrmp.org/ on 9/13/09)

Monday, April 13, 2009

Update on the Economics Job Market "Scramble"

The Economics Job Market “Scramble” for New Ph.D.s opened for registration on March 24, became visible to participants the next week, and was scheduled to go dark on April 11. Its purpose was to give applicants and employers a low cost way to see who was still on the market.

It's too early to know how many interviews were conducted with the help of the scramble, or how many of those will eventually result in hires. (In fact, the market is so decentralized that there is no reliable way to gather data on that, beyond surveys that the AEA sends out to participants). But there is information on how many applicants and employers registered for the scramble.

There were 395 applicants registered, of whom 362 made further information about themselves available at a URL.
223 of these show up when sorted as 2009 PhD candidates, 47 as 2008 Ph.D.s, and 125 before 2008. (These numbers aren't quite right, since they account for all the candidates, and I noticed at least one without a Ph.D.)

There were 78 employers, advertising 87 positions. 17 of the 87 positions were not made visible (even) to registered applicants; these employers preferred to be able to contact applicants but not to be contacted by them.

The visible employers consisted of
20 universities with graduate programs
18 four year colleges
10 consulting or research
7 Federal government
4 Banking or finance
2 other

The registered employers who chose to remain invisible consisted of:
8 Universities with grad programs
3 four year collegs
3 Federal government
2 consulting or research
1 banking or finance

Good luck to all those still seeking a match.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Economics Job Market “Scramble” for New Ph.D.s

To candidates on the economics job market (and to graduate placement directors): the scramble opens for registration tomorrow (March 24), and is open one week only (registration closes on March 30). There's no special benefit to registering on the very first day, but if you haven't registered by the last day you can't participate, so, if you're planning to register, don't wait til the last day (behavioral economist's advice).

The back story on this is that new Ph.D.s in economics have been busy since the first days of the year interviewing for jobs. The first stage of the interviewing process was at the annual professional meetings in early January. For jobs at universities, the latter stage of the interviewing process involves "flyouts," campus visits at which the candidate meets the faculty, and gives a research seminar or teaching demonstration, or sometimes both. While many jobs have been filled by now, there are both candidates and jobs still available. Many of the still unmatched candidates and still unfilled jobs are already engaged with each other in the courtship process, and are slowly working towards offers and acceptances. However there are also people and jobs still available who failed to connect with each other in the earlier parts of the market.

To make it easier for people and jobs to connect at this late stage of the market, the American Economic Association's Ad Hoc Committee on the Job Market* started a simple "scramble" in the 2005-06 academic year. It is a pair of web pages on which candidates and jobs can list their continued availability. See the Scramble Guide for details. This year's scramble opens tomorrow, March 24, and stays open for registration for a week. After that it becomes visible to registered participants on both sides of the market.

It doesn't attempt to do any more than make the two sides of the market more visible to each other, and after two weeks it closes. Once registration closes on March 30, the site is passive, it isn't updated. It is up to candidates and jobs to contact each other.

There is one new feature this year, which I'm slightly ambivalent about. Some departments that entered the scramble last year complained that they were overwhelmed by the large number of new applications they received. Faced with the threat of employers declining to participate in the scramble, the Committee decided to allow employers to register but withhold their information from job candidates. So this year there will be some "invisible" employers registered for the scramble, who will be able to see the candidates and contact those they wish, but whose own contact information will not be available.

So far, the scramble hasn't been a giant part of the market; most jobs have (fortunately) been arranged earlier, through the regular process. Last year, in the 2008 scramble (following the 2007-08 job market) 100 employers and 361 applicants registered. We conducted a followup survey of employers and received 30 replies. Of those employers who responded, 22 contacted people in the scramble, 19 interviewed someone from the scramble, and 10 hired someone from the scramble (one hired two people from the scramble) . 17 of the 22 respondents who contacted applicants in the scramble were academic economics departments, as were 8 of the 10 respondents who reported hiring through the scramble.

Every economist is important. Good luck to those still on the job market.

To summarize. 2009 Job Market Scramble Important Dates:
March 24: Registration Opens
March 30: Registration Closes
April 1 : Scramble Website will open for viewing by registered participants only
April 11: Scramble Viewing will close

*American Economic Association Ad Hoc Committee on the Job Market
Alvin E. Roth (chair), John Cawley, Peter Coles, Phillip Levine, Muriel Niederle, John Siegfried

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Match Day for new doctors

Today is the third Thursday in March, Match Day for young doctors seeking their first job through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP).

Here is the NRMP press release. Almost 30,000 applicants (11,000 from foreign medical schools) sought the 22,427 first year positions available in this year's match. About 95% of the available positions were filled through the match, the rest are filled in a post-match "scramble." (The organization of the scramble is under discussion, and here's the WSJ's account of it.)

The NY Times covers match day with a story and a picture: A Medical Student’s Rite of Passage . As in many discussions of labor markets, the author finds that many medical students wish they had more control over where they are going. Some of them attribute this loss of control to the match process, while others know something about how the medical market worked before the match. (Among the online comments on the story is this one:
"I wish they did something like this for law students. The job experiences and training available to new lawyers are extremely uneven. Plus it is on the law student to secure that first job on the open market, with no real guarantees of getting hired."

There's a new book by Brian Eule, Match Day: One Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of Three New Doctors, that follows three women through the match, one of them now his wife. I haven't seen the book yet, but I talked to him a number of times while he was writing it, and he once gamely sat through a lecture in my Market Design class.

788 couples went through the match this year as couples (some others may go through without identifying themselves that way, and the NY Times story remarks that some were disappointed not to have gotten jobs together). For the technically inclined, here's an account of how the new couples algorithm works to allow couples to express their preferences over pairs of jobs (and of the design process that led to the new match algorithm that's been in use since 1998):
Roth, A. E. and Elliott Peranson, "The Redesign of the Matching Market for American Physicians: Some Engineering Aspects of Economic Design," American Economic Review, 89, 4, September, 1999, 748-780.