birdy-bear

This is probably too late to be useful for you, but if you haven't found a place yet, I recommend getting in contact with FrontDoor! They were our landlords for the last two years... They tick every checkbox on your list (although there's a pretty decent jump in housing quality if you can push your budget from $1000 to $1100), they have a bunch of dog-friendly properties around town, and they're genuinely the best property managers my husband and I have ever had. Plus, they rent most of their properties in the Grove, and there's nowhere else I'd rather live in STL. Let me know if you have any questions, and best of luck!

I agree with @t_ruth and @ZeChocMoose: finding academics whose research you're interested in and working backwards to the universities is a good way to get started! You might try reading abstracts in the Journal of Early Intervention, Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, and Early Childhood Education Journal. If you find something you like and want to read more, researchers will sometimes make their articles available on ResearchGate or provide full copies upon request. If you're interested in a SPED focus, you might try looking at publications coming out of Vanderbilt, Kansas, UT Austin, UO, and UGA. These are just a few institutions who have faculty doing interesting work... Or interesting to me, at least! I also agree with @t_ruth that you might be unlikely to find many folks researching infants in ECE. Most ECE programs bill themselves as covering ages 0-6 or 0-8, but in my experience, these programs tend to focus on ages 2-6. I attended Harvard about a decade ago, and at that time, HGSE wasn't known for ECE. I see they've introduced an early childhood initiative since then, so it may be different now, but the "big name" schools aren't necessarily where you'll find the strongest ECE programs!

I am a BCBA who will be attending Vanderbilt's SPED/ABA doctoral program in the Fall! There are a few ABA applicants, mostly floating around the Psychology and Education sub-forums, but it seems we are few and far between.

P.S. If you feel comfortable doing so, please talk to your supervising BCBA about your history of domestic abuse and getting reassigned to younger, smaller clients that don't make you feel scared on a regular basis! I've only had one bigger client with severe/dangerous challenging behavior at my current agency, but I checked in frequently with his technicians to make sure they felt comfortable and safe; they were well aware that they could remove themselves from his case at any time. No compassionate BCBA would require you to stay with clients that make you feel unsafe, especially considering you're working 1:1 in the home without backup and you're smaller than your clients!

@Lindsc237 already hit all the major points out of the park, so I second everything they said and only have a few points to add. As mentioned above, ABA is a science, and your ABA agency has trained you in one application. It sounds like you might be more interested in more naturalistic ABA applications--check out Early Start Denver Model, Pivotal Response Training (similar to: Natural Environment Teaching, Enhanced Milieu Teaching), and Positive Behavior Supports. I think you'll find these applications to be more naturalistic and person-centered and less robotic than the application you describe. I'd also recommend shadowing BCBAs in other settings if you can. I work as a BCBA in an ABA preschool, and most of your concerns don't apply in my setting. We are (almost) entirely clinic-based, so I very rarely go into family homes. The majority of my clients are 3-6, so crisis behaviors are typically not as dangerous to the client or myself as they are with older clients. I collaborate with an SLP and another BCBA, and get to be in constant contact with our technicians (since we're all on-site), so I think everyone feels a lot more supported and connected than in-home technicians and clinicians tend to. And finally, the majority of instruction in our preschool is embedded naturalistically into typical preschool routines (science, art, circle time), so it doesn't have the "robot instruction vibes" that get conflated with ABA. As far as looking into programs, I'd recommend finding professors doing research on those naturalistic ABA applications listed above, and working your way back to programs from there. If you do end up staying in Hawaii, check out Dr. Jennifer Ninci! She does research with little ones and her work might be up your alley. If you are looking into programs on the mainland, a school psych/ABA or social work/ABA program sounds like it could be your speed. Alternatively, I did a SPED/ABA program and was really pleased with the person-centered focus of my education. University of Oregon (Dr. Laura Lee McIntyre in School Psych) and Saint Louis University (MSW with an ABA focus) might be good programs to look into as you start your research!

I think the other key piece you're missing here is that you can turn down any program, including an Ivy league program, but if you applied to this program believing it was a great fit, you owe it to yourself to make sure that your conjectures about the program are actually true. It seems like you have a lot of preconceived notions about what an Ivy league school is like, but not enough interaction with the actual people and program to base them on. As someone mentioned above, even within a single school, the culture can vary widely from program to program. Visit the program, try to check your biases at the door, and you might surprise yourself with what you find.

My understanding is that in order to receive accommodations, you will disclose your diagnosis to the disability office, but the disability office will ONLY disclose your accommodations (not your diagnosis) to the faculty members in your program. I don't know if this is a legal requirement or if it's true for every school, so I would check with your school's disability office. If this is true for your program, at least you can consider your legal rights separately from the social piece. As for the social piece, this is deeply personal decision that would and should vary from person to person, but I can give you my perspective! I generally prefer to disclose my diagnosis (and learn about someone's else diagnosis) after I've gotten to know someone fairly well, for both reasons you stated: Waiting provides them the opportunity to get to know me before my diagnosis (or vice versa), and theoretically lessen/challenge biases and preconceived notions... and... Eventually disclosing gives the person empathy for the challenges I'm facing and context for why I am the way that I am (or vice versa). It's the best of both worlds. I do also think it helps to have already built a relationship where we have an actual, meaningful conversation about my diagnosis (or theirs). That can be tough ground to break meaningfully in a first conversation. However, with your work in autistic rights advocacy and the fact that autism came up in both your interviews and writing sample, it leads me to think that autism is an important part of your identity, and I think that would factor into your decision to disclose as well. You know yourself best, but if it's an important part of who you are, I wonder if you'll feel like you're hiding your true self if you choose not to disclose. You ask if you'll constantly need to to explain/justify yourself if you disclose that you're autistic---there will be people who will judge your clinical skills based on actual performance regardless of disclosure, people who may initially default to biases that will lessen as they get to know you, and people who will always see you and your clinical skills through their prejudice-colored glasses. If you want to disclose early, I think your current approach--talking about related topics and gauging your faculty and colleagues' responses--is a smart way to get a feel for potential biases or pitfalls ahead of disclosing.

I credit the Hello PhD podcast, along with the Grad Cafe Forums, for helping maintain my sanity during the application and waiting process. The hosts discuss bi-weekly topics from the perspective of scientists, but the discussions transcend any particular field and are useful (I think) for anyone currently in or considering a grad program. This week's topic--choosing the right grad program--seemed especially apropos: http://hellophd.com/2018/02/087-how-do-i-choose-a-phd-program/ What other podcasts--related to your particular field, being a grad student, or otherwise--have you been using to occupy your mind during the waiting period? What are your other strategies for filling the void?

The Hello PhD podcast had two back-to-back episodes on Imposter Syndrome! I highly recommend this podcast, even if you're not in the hard sciences--I credit Hello PhD and the Grad Cafe Forums for being my two sources of sanity through the application and waiting process. http://hellophd.com/2017/04/070-imposter-syndrome/ http://hellophd.com/2017/04/071-practical-advice-overcoming-imposter-syndrome-dr-maureen-gannon/

The first time I was bit really hard by a client as a Masters student (I work with kids with autism, so I've been bit many, many times since!), I made it through one professor's class on the brink of tears without breaking down, and then totally lost it once I made it to my advisor's class. My advisor saw my breakdown, but she never addressed it, and I thought at the time that it had negatively impacted our professional relationship. I just received word last week that I've been admitted into her lab as a PhD student, which I'm sure she wouldn't have advocated for if she thought I were somehow incompetent or overemotional. To be honest, I think most of my cohort-mates cried in front of a professor at some point during our grad program. Like @pinoysoc said, we're all human. Crying happens to everyone, especially when you factor in the added stressors of grad school. If you can make it through a grad program without breaking down at SOME point, you're either a robot or a very stoic human!

This is incredible--thank you so much for taking the time to make this and share it with us. Would you be willing to do one for Education or Special Education? Best of luck with your application process--hope you'll be hearing some good news soon!

I think that a position as a Behavior Technician or Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) could be a great fit. I'm a BCBA who provides co-treatment with an SLP in an ABA agency, and we take on as many qualified SLP students as we can hire--we think training future SLPs in the fundamentals of ABA benefits both our fields and the kiddos we serve! To get credentialed as an RBT, you'll (a) complete a 40-hour training (typically paid for after you're hired, typically completed on-line), (b) take a competency assessment with your BCBA supervisor, and (c) take an exam that your training should adequately prepare you for. Not all insurance companies require credentialing, so some agencies have lower-key training. Because RBTs are often college students with odd college schedules, ABA agencies tend to have flexible scheduling.

Thank you!! I'm over the moon. Have you received news from any of the programs you applied to? Congratulations!! Do you think you'll attend, or are you still waiting to hear back from other programs?

@singapore_sling, I received an acceptance letter (via e-mail) for the SPED Ph.D. program on Monday, and it looks like another person received an acceptance letter for the CRA program on Monday. I received an invitation for the recruitment weekend (also via e-mail) a few hours before the official letter came through.

Hi @ARemi4! I've worked the past couple years as a BCBA in a clinic setting, and I'm about to start a PhD in Special Education under a BCBA-D. I can offer you my perspective, but I think the answers to your questions will depend on what you're looking for in a program and what you want to do after you graduate. Take my advice with that large grain of salt! 1. Your intended profession: If you intend to stay in academia as a researcher, doctoral student, or professor, I'd recommend choosing a strong program in your intended field, one that would provide you with research experience and that has professors whose interests align with yours. If you want to work as a school-based BCBA, I'd recommend considering Education programs that include teacher certifications; it's difficult to get a job as a school-based BCBA without classroom experience, and teachers will take you more seriously if you've spent time teaching (even if it's just student teaching). If you want to work as a BCBA in any setting (e.g., schools, clinic, home), I would strongly recommend considering non-ABA programs with an ABA track (e.g., Education or Psychology programs with coursework in child development). The coursework in most ABA programs does an excellent job teaching how to teach, but not necessarily what to teach. In my Master's program, the education-specific coursework (e.g., speech and language, curriculum development), in conjunction with the ABA coursework, trained me to be a much better provider than I would have been with the ABA coursework alone. 2. Pass rates: The BCBA pass rates for every program are posted on-line here. High pass rates are a pretty good indicator of a high quality program, and vice versa. 3. On-campus vs. on-line programs: On-line programs are becoming increasingly popular, but if you can swing it, there are definite benefits to an on-campus program. Brick-and-mortar programs tend to: (a) have a higher pass rate for the BCBA exam than on-line programs, (b) provide clinical experiences across a variety of settings and/or populations, (c) offer opportunities for research experience (which I found to be invaluable in day-to-day work as a BCBA), and (d) have more/better funding. Plus, if you think you'll eventually want to pursue a Ph.D., your experiences and contacts in an on-campus program are likely going to give you an advantage over on-line programs. 4. Practicum/field experiences: For each of these programs, find out how you'll complete your 750-1500 hours of field experiences. Will the program provide you assigned fieldwork placements, or will you have to seek out your own placements? Will they assign you to one setting/population or a variety of settings/populations? Will you be completing supervised independent fieldwork (1500 hours), practicum (1000 hours), or intensive practicum (750 hours)? Will you have to pay for supervision, is supervision included in tuition, or will you get paid for your fieldwork experience? Do students tend to complete their hours in conjunction with the program, or begin accruing them after they graduate? Will you have opportunities in your placements to train on all components of a case, from intake to discharge? Depending on what you want to do after you graduate, the answers to these questions will help guide you to a good fit. As long as your program has a verified course sequence through the BACB (i.e., can be found on this list here), you should be good to go. I honestly don't know what the ABAI accreditation is used for, but my Master's program is not on that list, and it's never been a problem. Hope this helps!

They didn't do interviews when I applied a few years ago, so that's either something new the department is doing, or there's something else going on. I over-prepared for what I thought was a phone interview with the Child Studies department, and it turned out to be a recruitment phone call! While I don't have any insights into what you might expect, I can tell you that every faculty member in the SPED department is warm and welcoming, and I think no matter who you interview with, they'll immediately put you at ease. What's your program area? If you have any questions too personal for this public forum, feel free to DM me. For anyone who missed it, @K2018 posted this useful info in the "Waiting It Out" forum. I'm so happy that the interview weekend is now a recruitment weekend--the wait may be over much sooner than expected!

Folks applying to doctoral programs with a background in research likely already have a good sense of the researchers in the field with related interests--between attending national conferences, citing a recurring list of researchers in manuscripts, and talking with knowledgeable people in one's field, it shouldn't take too much effort to consolidate a "match list." Even without a research background, with tools like Google Scholar and ResearchGate available and abstracts free for all to read, I don't think it would be terribly difficult to DIY a list of researchers with similar interests. If you're willing to take your project in a different direction, your brainstorming might be best aided by combing these threads to find out what applicants aren't able to do on their own. The question I've seen the most across threads of every discipline has been, "What are my chances of getting in?" While there's no straightforward way to answer that (and no way to objectively measure fit, which is usually the most important factor), it would be easier to get a rough sense if applicants could easily pull up a grad program's admission statistics (and maybe even compare multiple programs side-by-side, a la Amazon?). For most programs I was considering, I was able to find some basic information like GPA and GRE cut-offs, but despite searching high and low, had difficulty finding average/range of GRE scores of admitted students, average/range of GPA of admitted students, percentage of students admitted with a Bachelor's vs. Master's degree, number of students applying vs. admitted vs. enrolled, percentage of students who graduated (and in what time frame), placements for graduates (and in what time frame), average/range of stipends/financial packages, etc. An app that consolidated that kind of information would be ?.

@Waiting&Hoping2018, this is @Birdy-Bird! I just realized I still remembered my password from 4 years ago. Apparently I haven't really branched out in username selection. ? Yes, I hope to continue in ECSE with the same advisor! I did a LOT of research on other schools and talked with many other potential POIs, but no other program came close for me.

There have been threads for a few other schools this year, but no thread yet for Vanderbilt. Let's get this party started! ? What program did you apply to at Vanderbilt, and what other schools did you apply to? Where have you heard back from so far? I applied to Vanderbilt's Ph.D. in Special Education (Early Childhood), and it's the only program I applied to this year. This has historically been the week that interview invites have gone out for SPED students, so I've been anxiously checking the portal ten times a day for official news. ? I receieved my M.Ed. a few years ago in Vandy's SPED program (and loved it so much that it's my top and only choice)--if you have any questions about that program, Peabody, or Nashville in general, I'm happy to share what I know!

This has been my impression exactly. An HGSE student once told me that Master's students only exist at Harvard to fund the Ph.D. students. I don't know how true this is (don't research grants typically fund Ph.D. students?), but the whole high cost/short time thing is definitely something worth considering.

chigirl2014, I fell in love with Vanderbilt this weekend as well! If networking was your biggest concern, I'm guessing this weekend put your mind at ease. For any lurkers who weren't able to attend, there was a 30-minute segment on Peabody Career Services in which a man named Jeff, reminiscent of a motivational speaker, sung the praises of Vandy's networking and career launching abilities. Essentially, Vandy has tentacles in every nook and cranny of the U.S. (and possibly, it seems, the world) and is dedicated to hooking you up with alumni in your areas of interest. Maybe I can offer a unique perspective as a Harvard alumni attending Vanderbilt this year. If HGSE offered a Masters degree in my field, I'd still opt for Vanderbilt. Don't get me wrong--HGSE is an excellent institution--but it's not without drawbacks. I had several close friends completing Masters degrees at HGSE; my overall impression was that they were squeezing 2-3 year programs down into 1 year, primarily because the funding for Masters students stinks and HGSE doesn't think people will pay the big bucks with zero-to-limited funding for two whole years. It's a smart option if finances are a big concern, as HGSEstudent pointed out, but it does a terrible disservice to its students. My friends were stressed to the max, working their butts off, and were still unable to keep up with the workload. Additionally, invaluable classes were left off or squished together in their syllabi in the interest of time. I'm interested in an M.Ed. more for the pursuit of education than the promise of a paycheck, so I can't begin to imagine what learning you'll miss out on condensing two years down to one. It seemed clear in your first post that you feel a better fit with Vanderbilt's program but are stuck in the name recognition Harvard has. Remember that in the field of education, Vandy has at least as much (if not more) clout with researchers and working professionals. And besides that, it's not the name recognition that will ultimately open doors... It may catch an employer's eye, but the door-opener will be the experiences you gain and connections you make participating in a program you're sincerely passionate about.

To thecrab and anyone else who missed the Masters Visit Days: the weekend was jam-packed and a great way to gauge individual fit with the school/program, but don't worry... We didn't really learn anything that will put us a step above anyone who wasn't able to go! Here's the briefest of brief overviews, most of which will surely be covered in student orientation this fall. Feel free to PM me with any specific questions: Student Organizations: There are five different student organizations on campus, all summarized on the graduate student groups website, except for a new organization called Common Grounds. Common Grounds aims to unite students within Peabody across programs, interests, and disciplines... facilitating dialogue, organizing events, etc. (Common Grounds is ALSO the name of the coffee shop in the student center, which I thought was funny.) Most of the student organizations have leadership roles you can run for in your first semester, and they are eager to get first-years involved. If you want to start a new organization, Dean Camilla Benbow is the person to talk to. Peabody Career Services: 95% of students who utilize PCS find jobs within 90 days of graduating. They're there to help with resumes, set up mock interviews, connect you in with the Vanderbilt network, etc. Current Student Panel: Students seemed to agree on the following: (1) Nashville is fantastic: great music scene, top-notch food, minutes to an hour away from outdoor activities (hiking, biking, climbing, rafting) people say hello to you, etc. (2) The programs are really, really, really hard, but you can make a conscious effort to have a life beyond school. (3) The high cost of Peabody was worth the investment: for the pursuit of top-notch learning with the best folks in the field, and for being trained to become teacher-leaders and teacher-innovators. One potential student asked about the drawbacks to Peabody. Responses included: feeling isolated from other departments (an island unto one's own department), the high cost of education, one student felt that the HDC program wasn't holistic (didn't tie in race or spirituality, specifically), and one department was tweaking a new program (an ESL specialization, I think?) that made one student feel like a guinea pig. Financial Aid: 400 on-campus jobs are given to Peabody students each year, 80 of which are research assistantships (RAs). About half the people that apply to RAs get one. RAs work 20 hours per week, and receive a grant which pays for 70% of the RAs' tuition for 9 credit hours and a monthly stipend of $800. RAs need four free mornings (8-12) and four free afternoons (12-3:30) in their schedule since the research typically takes place in schools. It seems like most RAs implement intervention techniques in schools and are trained on-the-job (previous experience with kids not a prerequisite). Interested applicants should contact the e-mail address listed on the handout (which I can send you... PM me your e-mail address) and their own department heads in April (but NOT before) in order to be guided through the application process. The other 320 jobs are on-campus positions ranging from $9-14/hour. To learn more about those, we can check out vanderbilt.edu/studentemployment. For students starting in the summer, you need to fill out 2013-2014 AND 2014-2015 FAFSAs. For students starting in the fall, you only need to fill out the 2014-2015 FAFSA. Nashville & Housing Options: An entertaining overview of Nashville's neighborhoods and price ranges. I signed up to receive the powerpoint, which goes into as much detail as the presenter did. When we receive this, I can forward this on to anyone as well. Resources for finding housing included: Craigslist, Facebook Groups, these Vanderbilt classifieds, and this Off-Campus Referral Service. There was also a current faculty/alumni session which I didn't attend, as well as program and department overviews (which obviously differed by department)! I also have handouts for the Applied Behavior Analysis Training Program and Master's Interdisciplinary Specialization in Poverty and Intervention, which I'm also happy to forward on if these are of interest to anyone. Maybe some other folks in attendance have useful details to add? Hope this helps!

I just got unexpected approval to take three extra days off work AND tickets were impossibly cheap. All the ducks got in a row. I'll see you there!

I called the admissions office today. The woman I spoke to was so friendly; she was happy to look up my application status and answer every question I had. She told me the Special Education department was running behind the deadline given by the Dean's Office, and that they were processing applications in the order in which they were received. The first round of acceptances went out, but mostly to people who had applied well before the deadline, and the rest of us were in a queue still waiting to be reviewed. She also said we may be in a holding pattern until the Masters Visit Weekend is over, as they're now taking the next few weeks to plan the event. I applied the day before the deadline, so it was a huge relief to hear this! It might be different for your departments, lastminutegal and StheBD, but I wouldn't hesitate to call to confirm--I didn't feel like a bother or crazy prospective student at all. She specifically said, "Call back with any questions--that's what we're here for!"

lastminutegal, I see that folks were admitted to the Special Education M.Ed. program, and there's still no change to my application status either. It's driving me crazy, waiting without knowing what's going on! My partner keeps telling me not to overthink it, but that ship sailed a long time ago... I've dreamed up a dozen hypothetical scenarios, ranging from nightmare-ish to very hopeful. It's my top choice program. To answer your question about what to look for, for the Child Studies program, I received an e-mail from apply@vanderbilt.edu with the subject line "Application Update." It directed me to the application page, which included a "Status Update" right above the "Verify Address" section. MTU08, the acceptance letter also included scholarship information, but there could be other ways people are learning about funding that I don't know about! And lastminutegal, there was only a brief mention of the Masters Visit weekend: "Please mark your calendar for Master’s Student Visit Days, February 21-22, and New Student Orientation, August 18. Master’s Student Visit Days are entirely optional. The event is designed for your convenience simply as an opportunity for a first-hand look at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. More information will be sent via email about both of these events as the dates get closer." Are any folks planning on going? I've used up my vacation days and transcontinental travel budget on weddings (your mid-20s are a terrible time budget-wise to live 3,000 miles away from everyone getting hitched), so I probably won't be able to swing it. If anyone is going, I would love to hear what you learn!