The Preparing Future Faculty programs organized within the American Political Science Association are best understood as part of a larger effort to attempt to enhance doctoral professional training. Other initiatives include, but are by no means limited to, “Rostering” in APSA, the “Re-envisioning the Ph.D.” project funded by Pew; the “Responsive Ph.D.” initiative of the Woodrow Wilson Association; the “Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate;” and complementary “Preparing Future Faculty” programs at Emory, Syracuse and elsewhere. These efforts are based on a number of often implicit propositions which I shall briefly identify.