PhDPathways — Find graduate programs that match your actual career goals
A discovery platform that matches prospective STEM PhD students to programs based on where they actually want their career to go — academia, industry R&D, government labs — with transparent data on alumni outcomes and industry partnerships.
Prospective STEM PhD students choosing between programs and weighing academia versus industry careers
- Filter PhD programs by career outcome (academia vs. industry vs. government) using alumni placement data
- Match scores showing how well each program aligns with your stated goals
- Industry-partner program highlights (e.g., "this program has co-op rotations at Genentech, MIT Lincoln Lab")
- Faculty preview with research interests, recent publications, and lab culture signals
NSF just announced a $47M pilot for industry-integrated PhDs starting Fall 2026; prospective students need new tools to evaluate programs on industry outcomes, not just prestige.
Taulbee 2025 shows international STEM PhD applications surged +87.9% (15,469→29,071) since 2022, but AAU reports US domestic doctoral acceptances fell 15% for fall 2026 (second year of decline) — a mixed pipeline that nets to roughly average.Taulbee Survey 2025: Annual Report ↗New PhD Admissions Data Show Threat to U.S. STEM Workforce ↗
No direct consumer-facing competitor exists; Steppingblocks and CGS PhD Career Pathways both sell outcomes data to institutions/admins, not to prospective students. GradCafe/Reddit are forums, not matching tools.Steppingblocks | Graduate Outcomes ↗PhD Career Pathways - CGS ↗
Prospective PhD students are famously price-sensitive, already incurring debt, and this is a one-time life decision — willingness-to-pay is weak; realistic monetization likely B2B to universities for recruitment funnel, capping revenue potential.NSF partners with universities and industry on pilot initiative for four-year Ph.D. programs ↗
NSF $47M I-PhD pilot is confirmed for Fall 2026 (250 students, 5-year runway) and signals a durable shift toward industry-integrated doctoral training, but adoption is slow and tied to a small initial cohort.UIDP Launches U.S. Pilot to Integrate Industry Research Into Doctoral Training ↗NSF testing new Ph.D. model giving trainees academic and industry experience ↗
Outcome data is fragmented across programs with no standardized reporting; collecting/maintaining reliable alumni career trajectories per program is the hard bottleneck, even though the matching UI is straightforward.