kadee

Is there an agreed upon ranking for PhD programs in the field of public administration? I see this one for MPP and MPA programs and the school I have been accepted to is in the top 5 on that list, but I'm not sure how they rank overall on the PhD level. Where should I look for this information? And how important are these rankings exactly? I have been looking at placements and it seems like they've been doing well in that area. I really want to do this program, but I have a decent job now and am anxious about giving it up.

Thanks all!

Do most programs require transcripts from study abroad, and if so official or unofficial?

Thanks @Quickmick I was low on passive voice and a bit over 40 on the F-K score. I wonder how much this varies by discipline. I am hoping as long as the writing I submit isn't on a very low grade level and is succinct that will be good enough.

I realize this is a bit old, but I'm wondering if you have any sense of what readers are looking for in terms of grade level/other metrics of your writing. I ran my writing sample through the test here and got an average of 12.5 grade level (all tests averaged) and my personal statement clocked in at 13.1. I'm curious to hear what you or others think you should be aiming for in your sample and SOP, personal statement, etc.

This is my second time applying to a PhD program in education policy. I got an interview the first time around, but must have messed it up since I didn't get in. I was planning to use the same writing sample I did for the first round of applications, which was a paper I wrote for a Human Rights class in undergrad (I was a philosophy major). It was good enough to get me an interview so I figured it was good enough to use again. I'm having second thoughts now though and thinking I should submit something about educational policy. I just don't have very much written about this since I didn't study it directly in undergrad or grad school (I have a master's in library science). I do have a short paper from grad school (5 pages) about how Race to the Top impacted school library programs. It's not a bad paper, but it's less polished and is only 5 pages. How much better do you think it would be to develop and submit that paper? The school is asking for a 15-25 page writing sample. I don't have too much time either, just about a week. I worked on it all morning and it's still only 8 pages, so I'm worried I won't have time to polish it up and meet the length requirements.