admissionprof wrote:I said a few notches, not that many. Of course it isn't wrong, and makes complete sense. Would you rather have the better student spending years away from his/her partner, being unhappy, and commuting many weekends, or have the better student (and his/her very good partner) happy, living nearby and stable for several years?
Hmmm. I've read that Richard Feynman liked to attend bars where women were paid to dance naked. I suppose if he met someone he liked there it would make sense to hire her, if it would contribute to keeping him "happy, living nearby and stable".
The word for hiring someone because of their relatives is "nepotism":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepotism
This sort of thing is frowned on in private industry, though it is said to be common in other parts of the world. For example, see wasta:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasta
The fact that it's not uncommon in academia is something that fascinates me. Maybe it has something to do with other academic privileges such as "tenure", which allows academics to retain (well paid) positions without continuing to contribute to science. It's not uncommon for elite groups in a society to grant themselves advantages that are not available to the common people.
A similar example is the insistence that a spouse be hired when the (presumably more desirable) partner is hired. See "dual career":
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/ ... areer.html
It's more common than most people would suspect that a student is married to, or has a sexual relationship with, their graduate adviser (or another faculty member who can provide them with assistance of one sort or another). In the real world this is called "sleeping your way to the top."
Each of these imply that it is, in fact, possible to sleep your way to an academic position. (It is also possible to buy your way to an academic position and with methods that are similar.) That is, it is possible, by choosing an appropriate sexual partner, to obtain an academic position that otherwise would be beyond your reach.
Before I forget, I should add a link to the big academic sex scandal at UNM, which has to do with, well, I'll let you read it:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=un ... l+academic