PhD Educ. Quant. Policy Analysis, Research Methods?? Help!

[andony]

Hi everyone,

First of all - thanks so much for this great forum. I have read a lot of great posts and I'd be super happy if you could help me as well.

I'm interested in a Phd in Education, with a focus on measurement, research methodology, impact analysis, economics of education, development and / or quant. policy analysis. Yet, I'm sure I do not want to study in an Econ. Department.

I have two questions:

1) What would be great programs on either the East Coast or the West Coast that may fall in this category? Here is my homework; I've come across

• SHIPS - Economics
  
• Harvard - Quant. Policy Analysis in Education
  
• NYU Steinhardt - Int. Education, Int. Development Education
  
• TC - Economics and Education
  
• UC Berkeley - Quant. methods and evaluation
  
• Penn - Policy Research Evaluation and Measurement
  
• MIT Urban Studies and Planning - Int.Development Group
  

What programs would you add? How do these programs compare? Is there anyone with experience out there?

2) My "am I competitive"-bleg. Please, please do comment. What is a minimum quant. GRE score for these programs? I know the scores for education programs and don't find them too crazy. However, does this change for these more econ-y / maths-oriented programs? Most econ departments from these schools ask for some ~166, and more on the ibt. What would be a min. score for the above programs?

Thanks a lot!!

[ismeress]

West coast: UCLA's Advanced Quantitative Methods in Education (AQM) program is another you may want to look into.

[hitomimay]

You can also consider looking up the hot faculty in the field of Economics and Finance of Education. Check who's articles are often gospel in this field and taught in courses, those prominent in literature. For example, USC's Rossier School of Education has Dominic Brewer and Lawrence Picus. I also really liked USC's program and financial package, and wanted to pursue quantitative methods, so this worked out nicely.

As for GREs and background, I'd say everyone who's "quant" in my program has minimum 750 on their Quantitative Math score, most with perfect 800s from what I have deducted. A high Quant score is a must if you wish to enter any program as a quantitative methods researcher.

We as quant people all also have a strong background in quant, so we come from math, econ or science backgrounds. Obviously, this is not a requirement, but a strong quant background is a good indicator of how well you'll do in these types of methods.

[Graham17]

feel free to pm me if you have questions!!

[Quant_Liz_Lemon]

You might also want to consider quantitative methods degrees from psychology programs.

[andony]

Thanks to everyone - this is very helpful. The programs look good and by looking at Lawrence Picus' CV, I furthermore came across RAND's PhD program. As to the GRE, I'm thinking about posting the question in the GRE forum, but I'll probably retake it.

Thanks again!