ccarmona

Hi, I would rather be optimistic about finding a job once you complete your masters. Just because you have some fears about debt vs. career doesn't necessarily mean they will come true. The facts are still the same about educational attainment. Yes it is on the rise, but people still seem to forget that in the US we spend about $405.3 Billion in Research and Development. China is still behind at $153.7 Billion and we are still years ahead of the curve.

Moreover, account for your undergrad and you walk among 40% of people over the age of 25. Masters, its 7.95%, and Doctoral its only 3%. Do the math the probability of landing a solid job is likely. Not depressing at all. In terms of  "astronomical"  debt (I do have to agree with Ennue) we have no clue what that means. Your capped @ $138.5K here in the US. If you add the extra expenses and take the long term route you should be fine. Good luck.

Considering I had a massive amount of spare time in the months leading up to the test I probably should have prepared more, but easier said than done right?

One thing I noticed for me was that there was really no point in studying extensively for the verbal part, even if I had tripled the amount of preparing I did for the verbal section I doubt my score would have been a whole lot better.  (I got 86% percentile if it matters)  How much can you really improve your vocabulary and reading comprehension in a few months?  I bought a book that had 800 "commonly seen" GRE vocabulary words and I don't think I explicitly learned the meaning of very many words at all.

I only got 69% in the quantitative part and I definitely should have prepared more for this section.  I was rehashing some basic math principles at the very last second and I do remember seeing a problem or 2 that made me go "wtf is this??" and a few others that took me entirely to long to figure out.

I scored a 4.5 on the writing, a score I may or may not have been able to improve with preparation.  My biggest issue with this part was having only 30 minutes to write each response.  I feel I am a strong writer when given enough time (which for me may be longer than average, but that's just how I write I guess).  Sitting down and practicing these responses in a timed manner was so unbelievably frustrating for me, it took me at least 15 tries to actually finish a timed response successfully.  I would get a prompt, brainstorm, start writing and 10 minutes later only have 4 sentences typed and give up.  Since I was not very prepared in a timed setting, I ran out of time during both of my responses so the end of my conclusions looked something like:

"The author of this article provides evidence based on flawed assumptions and [*omfg 10 seconds left!*] whisch , its implications are they improvement needed more "

So that probably didn't help... haha.

Anyways, I wish I did more practice tests in a structured manner, but I also feel like people over estimate how much they can improve their GRE scores through studying, especially in areas they are already strong in.

Gosh, I never really thought about it the way you explained. My thinking is improving in these areas (V + A) to up my chances. Even if its +1 or +15 I am not sure how much graduate programs are paying attention to scores anymore. It seems more like a requisite than anything else? But I am stuck cause my strength is math, not V or A. The probability of me scoring higher than the 75th percentile is pretty low. And like you said, "How much can you really improve your vocabulary and reading comprehension in a few months?" I think that's so sad but also very true!

PhD in Education. I was accepted to 3 out of 4 programs that I applied to--all with top researchers in my field. I already had an MS with thesis from a local state university with a 4.0 grad GPA. My undergrad GPA was 3.14 (science at a top private university that did not inflate grades). My summer was "off" because I'm a high school teacher. But, I have two young children, so my summer was not exactly paradise.

Inspiring, thanks for the input. I had my child early on. When I was a junior in college. It wasn't planned and it was difficult. I had a 3.0 before my junior year, but I ended my program with a 2.2 (degree conferred). I am finishing my masters in business here soon with a 3.18-3.29 (depends on if I get a B or A). My cumulative GPA is a 2.68 (Fresh-Senior). My greatest fear is not even getting looked at for a PhD at a research school. Every-way I look at my situation it gets more and more frustrating considering my U-GPA + G-GPA is not enough for most cutoffs at 3.0. As far as career I am going from the corporate world to the education field. A teacher in business secondary education is my goal as I lost interest climbing the corporate ladder some time ago. I feel it will be much more fulfilling. So as I transition from business degree's to an education degree I was hoping my last degree was a PhD in Education, if not this one maybe an EdD. My first goal was to complete a PhD in Business but since its so competitive in this area I am coming to terms with not pursuing it. It doesn't make any sense if I am switching careers.

This summer I will also be teaching at a community college and I start my secondary education certification classes next month. There is an internship here in Arizona that allows me to teach in my field (business) and also get certified at the same time. Not sure what state you live in or what level you teach but any input would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

86/94% for V/Q. The math section is pretty straightforward so it only required some getting used to of the question structure.

Phenom Job! Congrats! Thanks for your input..

That's terrible!

I came across another post where he feels all they really looked at was his G-GPA or the last 60 hours. Not sure what program or what school but when he applied (accepted) he didn't put in his U-GPA all he put was his G-GPA. But do I really want to take this strategy? If the overall opinion is they will weigh the U+G GPA it is what it is. I know on some program pages I am considering applying to they say "last 60 hours".

Going into my U-junior year I had a "B" average. All was fine and dandy as I was actually looking forward to my second semester junior year (and senior year classes). Then I found out I was having a child. Everything flipped upside down for me. My G-Admission team was extremely understanding of the entire situation and looked at my file as a whole. But I am not sure that is the way it is at the doctoral level? Everyone here seems incredibly focused and it seems very very competitive.

Hey everyone,

Just looking for some chip shots here. No long elaborate answers needed, just data! If your taking (or took) GRE: Verbal, Quant, and Ant! No scores just time.

Example: 2 weeks or 6 months

Thanks in advance!

No problem, if another dept. ends up saying they received it post it! That would be a good laugh! Let us know if they try to cover their butts too! I doubt they will considering its a $100 bucks, but you never know. Which by the way the fee is a little outrageous.

I agree with mirandaw; its just part of the process. Your verbal acceptance should be enough to calm some nerves. But when you play the communication game with admissions and professors even they themselves are not the best communicators. Given the amount of emails, work, and patience these people have your probably shooting messages that will end up unanswered. Don't wreck your admission by growing frustrated with them; I hope you don't get the urge to give em a piece of your mind out of frustration. Give it time, and good luck!

Just to let you know, "just getting a PhD" probably won't be enough to set you up for teaching or research. Positions in these areas are quite competitive.

And an EdD won't do that nearly at all, unless you're at one of the top programs. Most EdD programs are designed for professional educators/higher education administration.

As to the GPA: All of those are pretty bad for graduate admissions, and depending on where you're looking to go, might get your application tossed without further review if there are GPA cutoffs. Taking the usual weightings into account, your 3.3 in an MBA program is better than your 2.2 undergrad GPA, but not by as much as you might think. And a lot of schools have GPA cutoffs around the 3.0 range.

That's not to say you have no shot, but you need to really have everything else in order if you're going to make it in- great past research experience, letters of recommendation, etc.

As to USNWR vs other ranking systems: While US News uses a survey model, their methodology is quite decent, since they're surveying people in the field and hiring graduates from the field about their relative ranking of universities. While this isn't the most objective model, it's quite useful when you're trying to determine the reuputation of the university and the program you're attending. While it's not the whole picture, reputation of the program is quite important when it comes to getting a job coming out of the program, so it's something you should definitely keep in mind.

And even though you didn't want any advice on anything outside of your GPA question, I'll mention that you should also remember that the most important facet of a PhD is the fit of your research interests (and by extension, past experience) with an advisor at the institution you're interested in. Hence, one of the best ways to find schools to apply to is to keep up with the current puplications in the field, and find out who is writing papers that interest you.

I'll also note that just comparing stats vs. admission criteria rarely gives very good estimates on chances of admission. It's not how you stack up against the requirements, which are often set quite low, but rather how you stack up against the other applicants in a given year- and right now, admissions to most programs are the most competitive they've been in a long time.

Hi,

Thanks for the heads up! I am coming to terms with what plenty of people are telling me, more specifically about getting set up to research and teach at a University. Realizing that just getting the PhD is not enough (going off of competitiveness and how schools select their candidate) its almost certain your competing with students who themselves want to teach at a U.

Also what makes sense is your take about an EdD to research and teach; going off school admission pages, that is not what this degree is designed to do. Certainly true, many schools still hire EdD for this function, again, depending on ones resume, credentials, where they want to teach, etc. I think it would be cool to entertain this idea further down the road, like years from now after I build my credentials. I will start teaching lower level transfer business courses in the summer (2012) to build on this side of my resume. For my age and resources it will take years to make up the Undergrad GPA requirements and be a stronger candidate; which I am not opposed to I just prefer to not have any gaps in schooling and employment. In other words quoting from SPDFG13579, "Your GPA might be too low to get into a decent school right now, but you can take some post-graduate classes in leadership, education, or related field to boost up your GPA .". I think it will take approximately 1-2 years to accomplish this task. I am already enrolled in a Post Graduate certification course in Education, but I am not sure how much weight it will carry in terms of my overall GPA.

You said, "Taking the usual weightings into account, your 3.3 in an MBA program is better than your 2.2 undergrad GPA, but not by as much as you might think. And a lot of schools have GPA cutoffs around the 3.0 range". How do "most" schools calculate the GPA? Is it the last 60 units or do they also factor in undergraduate GPA? I mean when your at the doctoral level.

Hi,

Sounds pretty weird to me and I am sure it doesn't happen that often (your situation specifically). I would contact them again and ask to speak to someone who actually makes decisions around there. Possibly an administrator or someone higher than the person you spoke with. If they tell you again that there is no record, politely explain your situation and concerns. If it comes to the point where the deadline actually passes (should be listed on the application site) just go ahead and ask for a full refund. On the grounds that you paid for a "yes or no" response from the college. You didn't pay them to lose your materials. It may be someone internally from the college lost it and responsible but just doesn't want to be held accountable for the loss. After all, they are processed manually and humans make mistakes.

Give it a try and wait it out. You may receive an email out of no where saying you were accepted or denied from a completely different department (maybe it would up at a different department). In either case I would wait for the deadline to pass, then contact them.

Good luck!

I don't really know the difference between profit models vs non-profit models. There are plenty of PhD programs are accredited but not ranked, because schools does not disclose enough of information to be ranked. A school's ranking is only important if you plan on teaching at a top-tier university, otherwise it doesn't really matter .

I don't look at U.S. News' ranking because their ranking is based on "survey", and not real data. http://sites.nationa...sdoc/PGA_044475 is the website I use to check the schools' ranking in my field. They look at the average citations per publication, awards per allocated faculty member, percent with academic plans, and the percent of first year student with full financial support.

Thanks for the info I didn't know this ranking even existed! I can see your point about the US News ranking. Maybe they are more of a publicity stunt or "marketing" than they are about actual real information. They do provide some good information about costs, student body, and admission selectivity. Although if its based on "surveyed" information I am not sure how relavant it is. Before I got into my MBA program I was already researching where I would apply for a doctoral. For the most part it was information from US News and Gradschools.com that I found were most useful. Looks like I have to take sometime with this spreadsheet I just downloaded from nationalacademics.org; its pretty long!

Thanks again

Ok, so I have three degrees. First is an AA in Business, GPA was 2.9. Second, is a BBA in Business and upper division GPA was 2.2. Lastly, my MBA in Business is 3.3. I know its a weird mix and I wont attempt to externalize the circumstances here, I just want to know how a decent (not online for profit schools) will look at this? I am preparing for the GRE and I know I can score average if not slightly above average. Any chance of actually getting into a decent national research institution as a PhD student in Business? I know some programs just take into account last 60 credits of school work; and possible omit undergrad GPA.

If not a PhD in Business I have to lower my standard. An EdD in Leadership or a PhD in Education as examples. I need to be a doctor in something. Its the GPA stuff I am worried about; everything else is pretty strong.

Thanks in advance!