oster14

I realize that I am coming a little late to this party but I wanted to weigh in. My Other Self, I honestly think that you would be competitive at several universities with your current life journey and experiences. I believe that your online education and successfully completing a B.A. online will be an asset. As more colleges and universities are looking to break into the online sector of higher education, your experience as a student could be invaluable. As more students become online only, there is going to be an increased need for staff who can anticipate their needs and accurately advise them and help them through courses. For example, I have a colleague who is an academic advisor for several online programs at George Washington University. She communicates via email/skype/etc almost exclusively with her students. While this isn't to say that you want to go into online academic advising, I think you have a real opportunity to sell your educational experiences as professional experiences that would make you an ideal candidate as higher education continues to change. While I don't want to discount what others have said about professional experiences, I just want to reiterate that you should view your educational experience as extremely valuable in the current state of higher education.

I recommend reaching out to faculty members who have similar research interest. When applying, it helped to actually have a faculty member I could reference in my statements (since many require it). Once I reached out to the faculty members, they were encouraging and helpful with my application. I didn't apply to any of the schools that you are considering so it could be different for those particular schools. However, I think that if you can draw a specific connection between yourself and that particular faculty member (i.e. your research interests and experiences line up), they would appreciate hearing from you to at least know that you will be in the applicant pool.

PhD in Higher Education GPA: 3.9 (Master's) Stats: 157V/156Q/4.0W Background: undergrad from a small, liberal arts university, Master's from a moderately sized research university, 2 years work experience at a community college in institutional research, 3 publications, and several presentations Applied: University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Indiana University, Ohio State University Rejected: Ohio State Going: University of Michigan

I realize that this question wasn't directed to me but I attended the visit day so I thought I would provide my input. Yes, they indicated that the average is about 5 to 5.5 years to completion. But they also indicated that it is doable in 4 years (with even a student accomplishing it in 3 years but that is absolutely the exception they said). Through the discussion, I determined that several factors impact the time to completion such as the student's drive to get it done, the type of data collection, his/her ability to narrow down the question, if he/she takes on a full time job after reaching candidacy, etc. Additionally, once they indicated that it typically takes longer than the funded time, I became concerned about funding after year 4 but they made it very clear that there are ways through the faculty, school of education, and the graduate school to continue to have funding. I also plan to complete in 4 years so this was also a concern for me but I am no longer worried since it seems that the reason for the longer completion average is more a factor of students wanting to stay rather than the program being designed to take that long. I hope that helps! Good luck with your decision!

Has anyone heard from Ohio State regarding their higher ed PhD program?

I am in the same boat. Disappointed that I won't make it for preview weekend for MSU. Of those that attended, could you give your reactions? I have been admitted to the PhD program but interested to hear from all who attended. PS-What airline isn't giving you a refund? Delta was totally fine with giving me the refund instead of rescheduling my flight.

I will be there as well!

I also did my interview yesterday and had a similar experience. Anyone get an idea of when we would be notified of a decision?

I heard back this morning about an interview. The (brief) interview will be this week. I applied to the Higher Education PhD program, Research, Evaluation, and Assessment concentration. Since I was just notified this morning and someone else heard last week, it seems that invites for interviews are going out at different times. It is possible that they haven't made it to all the concentrations yet.

What degree are you seeking? I applied to the PhD program so just wondering if you are hearing about that program or the master's program. Thanks!

If you look at the results page, the one person who posted that was admitted last year indicates an interview in late January and a decision by early February. It seems that early February is when applicants are notified of their status. Also, I participated in a webinar and the faculty member mentioned a similar timeline. Best of luck!

That's exactly what I have heard.

I received an email today letting me know that I was admitted to the HALE PhD program. No funding but very excited to be accepted into this program.

I applied to the HALE PhD program. Best of luck to all!

I thought I would revive this post to see if there were others out there who applied to University of Michigan. I applied to the higher education Phd program for Fall 2014. With the December 1 deadline, I believe they will start reviewing applications in January, at least that is my understanding for the higher ed program. Good luck to others who applied this year!