number of applications per opening?

[hopeful]

This is my first time on the job market. I have heard a wild variation in how many applications various openings get, from 100 to 500. Does anyone have any reasonable guesses or first-hand knowledge?

I am interested in:
1) top 10 opening
2) good liberal arts college in or near cool place (like New York city)
3) good liberal arts college in middle of nowhere (like Grinnell)

I'm not trying to calculate my odds or anything. I'm just curious. I have no idea how many applications are out there.

Thanks!!

[numbahs]

Just a few examples from the previous couple of years when the number of applicants were made public:

U Wisc. Whitewater (2 years ago): 60+
CSU San Bernadino (last year): 100+
UBC (2 years ago): 300+
Barnard (either last year or the year before): 200+
Bowdoin (2 years ago): 200+

As for your specific questions, I would guess all 3 types would get over 100 applications easy. Just how many would be dependent on the specifics of the job opening. Open specialties or "methods" positions would likely get the greatest number of applications, while stuff like demography and so on probably a lot less.

[Gtown]

According to the thread below, last year's open search at Georgetown drew 324 applicants:
socjob2010.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=rumors&thread=528&page=3#6373

[yep]

Remember: these numbers don't accurately tell you about the odds. I just spent a few minutes trying to find a great thread about that on the CHE, but couldn't.

However, the gist was, depending on the school, a good portion of that raw number might be quite unsuitable - e.g. no PhD, retired business dude, no way related other discipline. etc. Apparently this is higher for larger cities in attractive locations.

If someone else can find the thread, that would be great.

[yep]

...which is not to say the job market is a cake walk, just that raw numbers are not the same as actual competitive candidates.

[ccs]

I know of a community college in a major city drawing ~150 applications.

[acu]

Austin College, a SLAC in the middle of nowhere Texas recieved over 200 applications last year.

[anomie]

And the University of Memphis had about 180 last year.

[finalist]

Three of the SLACs in the Northeast I interviewed at last year had 200+ applicants. One of the small public universities in the Northeast I made the longlist for had "nearly 200", and another small public university in the Midwest had about 180.

[finalist]

By the way, nearly all of the 180 applicants for the Midwest position had reasonable applications. A few were in related fields (e.g., Anthropology [the ad specified a "PhD in Sociology" as a requirement but you'll always get a few that will try anyways]) but even those were somewhat reasonable. Fact is...it's a tough market. Don't feel bad if you don't get any bites. Just focus improving your candidacy. If you get a job offer, it will likely help you work towards tenure. If you don't get an offer, you'll be in a better position next year.

[guido]

The new ASA Job Bank report says that last year there were 1.2 jobs per applicant. But, I think the number of applicants is basically the number of candidates registered with the Job Bank. That would likely be an undercount of the number of people looking for a sociology position. Also, some positions don't get filled.

[polsoc]

Obviously, some jobs will get more applicants than others. Those that get more jobs would be the 'open specialization' positions.

I imagine that 'hot' fields these days also get more applicants for the reason that there are more graduates who specialized on those fields. But it could also be that the hot fields nowadays have less applicants because there's a lag between finished dissertations and current hot fields. Meaning, by the time we finish our diss, sometimes, our fields are no longer as hot. Happened to poor me. So i imagine that less 'hot' specializations also get a good number of applicants. For example... I wonder how many applied to University of Oregon's political sociology opening. If I am not mistaken, it is the only opening for political sociology, besides being in a nice area. I imagine a lot of people applied to that one. That includes me.

[Islander]

About 230 people applied to the small public liberal arts school where I applied and was interviewed. The school happened to be in a sunny destination, with wonderful weather, so that might have had something to do with the strong numbers. The committee seemed surprised, and more than a bit overwhelmed, by the response.

[hopeful]

Thanks for the replies! This is helpful.

yep, I have heard the same thing as you from my department, that about half of the applications are not appropriate.

[unclekarl]

My feeling is that this year seems to be better than in the past. I am at least feeling a lot better about things than in 2009.

I would also be careful with the numbers in 2009. That was probably the worst labor market in a couple of decades. Places with 3/3 or even 4/4 loads were getting 100+ applicants, when in the past they had roughly half that number. A lot of people who I think would have gotten jobs in 2007/2008 did not even make short lists.

One also must consider that a lot of candidates apply to the same positions. For example, I am applying to at least 40 places, and a know a lot of people applying to 100 positions. If 150 people generally apply to 100 jobs, then 80-100 should get hired. Its terrible for anyone to not get a job, but I think most people will find something after universities scratch off those who take positions elsewhere.