bakalamba

I don't know the details about your situation, but if I had to choose between a fully funded PhD and a somewhat funded Masters, I would have made the same choice. The alternative is to get in debt studying for a Masters with no guarantee that you'll get into the PhD program (or get funded)? If you're in a Masters/PhD situation at the really good school, why not stick around and get the Masters, and see if you like it or have potential to do the research you want to do there - and if you don't, transfer or reapply elsewhere? I think you might just be experiencing post-decision anxiety, which is completely normal. In retrospect, I chose the best program (best funding, best faculty, great school), but it wasn't my top choice either - but looking at it, I made the right choice, but still it doesn't prevent me from thinking about "what if" scenarios. Sometimes, honestly, the school you didn't get into, or get fully funded, has an appealing factor because it's just barely unreachable, just undoable. I have a feeling whatever program you choose, there's always the feeling that doors are closing elsewhere - maybe a "grass is always greener on the other side" bias.

natxio, have you met with any of the SSCE faculty? That would be a good place to start. It's a really interdisciplinary program, so what would really strengthen your application is a good match with one of the faculty members (and this is true of any graduate program). I'm not sure how much weight they put on GPA or GRE. There were a few grads in my cohort that went directly from their UCLA Bachelors into the program. If you don't mind me asking, why are you interested in SSCE and not the Teacher Educaiton Program? Is your goal teaching, educational research, social work, or something else?

MA in Social Sciences and Comparative Education with a specialization in Comparative/International Studies. (41 characters without the specialization) Sometimes I shorten it to "Education". Then people ask: so you're a teacher?

Congratulations. I got my MA in SSCE, specializing in Cultural Studies, in 2011. I'd be happy to share my experiences, PM me.

This is an important distinction. Shared complaints - that's fundamentally social and may point to something in the program or University that's fundamentally flawed, particularly if everyone complains about it. People who are alone with their complaints, or constantly negative, I see how that's annoying. I think it's also annoying when there's a disconnect between complaints and action - are you just going to continue complaining about something, or actually do something about it? And sometimes the best thing to do is just to suck it up.

Wow, lots of responses to my comment. It's an interesting debate. I agree with randomness, there's a difference between being annoyed with someone in class not making much of a contribution and requiring students to be passionate or put in more effort than they already are. When you're in a grad seminar in the social sciences, and only a few people are doing the talking, it sucks - it's boring. Perhaps it's different in STEM fields, but in the field of Education there's a lot of outside information and experience students can bring into the program, whether their interest is academics or professional. I'm equally annoyed by those with ivory tower claustrophobia who are advocate overarching theory without a real understanding of what takes place in schools. Most people I meet are pretty great about bridging both. And in this field, passion is not necessarily required, but there is a big emphasis in it - would you really want someone running a school, a non-profit, or doing educational research who doesn't care? And really, these aren't top paying jobs, anyways. It's ironic that the grad who annoyed me the most with their lack of passion and critical thinking were the ones most interested in academics - I guess they were chasing the fabled ivory tower sinecure. Certainly everyone has their own reasons for pursuing graduate school, and I have great respect for those who get a degree to further their careers, as many that I've met have made great contributions to schools and organizations in the U.S. and abroad, but I don't see the point of getting a PhD (with minimal funding, as well) just to have the degree. I agree that balance is crucial: I certainly don't like going to happy hour with other grads and have conversations limited to the technical requirements of the program. I agree it certainly would be naive and elitist to require extra work or fake passion from students. However, it's equally naive to interpret a vent as a formal recipe for social policy, or how graduate schools should be organized. TakeruK, you have a valid argument, but it's not with me - I'm just complaining here. I couldn't care less about people's passions (passion about everything, not just the limited scope of their graduate field) - it just makes them poor drinking buddies and classmates.

I guess the distinction between whiny peers and those with valid shared complaints that one would agree with is a slight difference. However, I'm also tired of "don't care" grads: those who see the degree as a goal and magical door to employment, but don't like the field, don't read anything that's not assigned, and don't lend anything valuable in discussions (whether they're capable of interesting thoughts may be beside the point). And when their papers get the same grade, and they progress as quickly, or quicker, than other students, and graduate early with a haphazard dissertation and line up for decent jobs, that's annoying. I think that's my main reason for applying to other programs than where I got my Masters. Hopefully their bullshit detectors are more sensitive.

I've tutored on my own and through companies while studying and in between jobs. It's a good gig, particularly if you're in STEM fields and are decent at tutoring those subjects. I'm not, so I ended up tutoring college writing and test prep (GRE, SAT). You get more money if you tutor independently, but you'll have to put in some effort to find clients (posting flyers, referrals, selling yourself). A tutoring company, even online ones, will take a cut, but some are really good at delivering students to you and selling you as an "expert" or whatever. You just have to meet up with the student. Another benefit of working for a company is that they often source jobs or extra work from their tutors: I ended up writing blog entries, test database questions, and website content for one of the companies I worked for - it was easy money and they ended up paying more money for that than if I looked for writing work elsewhere. I also taught test prep for a major company. The pay is decent considering their curriculum is idiot-proof and you spend almost no time outside of class preparing or grading. With the company I was with, you taught a few big classes (very manageable when it's GRE, GMAT, or MCAT, but I hear less appealing when it's 25 high schoolers studying for the SAT), and moved up to tutoring, which payed more. I was making $20-25, and you make more with tutoring. The company delivers students, you just show up. You just have to deal with the ethical issue of increasing the income gap in higher ed by helping rich kids or rich adults get into college. But I guess nearly all tutoring has that conundrum. Other than that, I can't recommend online surveys, transcription, or Amazon Turk jobs. They pay so little for what you end up doing - in my experience, the price per job was enticing, but when you calculate how much you'll make in an hour, I could be making much more tutoring.

Bump. I taught briefly for a test prep company and got certified for online courses. I never taught one, but they have a lot of technical issues, from what I hear. Blackboard software sucks. When I taught live classes with online components, the online often had issues (it's their own system, which is buggy and has too many system requirements) but we could make up for it in class.

I don't think schools communicate now about their admitted students. While it's very late in the application process, it's still early in the enrollment, particularly if you're attending this Fall - so I think there's still flexibility. I think it's pretty unethical to hold on to two offers - you're basically sitting in someone else's seat at one or the other program, if you have any level of funding that can be offered to another student. I understand it's a sticky situation when you hear back from another school after the April 15th deadline, but you should move fast and make a concrete decision. If you're declining an already accepted offer with partial or little funding, you could send them an email saying the funding just doesn't work for you. It's awkward, sure, but less potentially awkward than sitting on two offers when programs may no longer be able to pass your funding down the waitlist if you decline.

No. If you paid a deposit, you probably won't get it back. It's not the ideal situation for them, but if it's a couple days after your acceptance, it shouldn't be too bad. Legally, there's no issue, I believe, you can drop out of any program at any time. The ethical/awkwardness value of declining after accepting isn't in the forefront since you already emailed CMU, and is discussed elsewhere on this forum.

Any future Education grad students? I'll be attending in the Fall for the OLPD PhD program. Looking forward to it.

Tried this? Maybe it's better than Craiglist. I went to UCI for undergrad, and grew up in Orange County, and those are good choices to live - although I'm not the biggest fan of Huntington Beach, rent should be cheaper there. Good luck.

I think it also differs by institution - some programs are more geared towards K-12 or Higher Ed depending on research projects, institutes, and faculty, while others may have a more private sector focus. My interest is in K-12 education outside of my native country (U.S.), so go figure. I've studied with wannabe teachers, policy makers domestic and international, ed philosophers, and a few people who came in with an interest but left with a completely different one. In my experience, sometimes - and this depends completely on the program and the faculty - there is a bias towards academic learning (whether it's K-12 or Higher Ed) above studying learning in professional settings.

Maybe you need to give some details for others to advise you - apparently it's possible, but not always the best etiquette, to renege a decision after April 15th. However, if you rejected an offer I'm not sure if it's possible to get it back, particularly if another applicant has been accepted into your spot. That being said, it's very common to feel depressed, anxious, or awkward after making a decision - a spectrum of options and possibilities suddenly turns into a certain fate. Again, if you share details you might get more specific advice - whether you officially rejected an offer, what deadlines there are, etc.

Want to set up a meeting with a POI at private school in a field connected with lucrative jobs? Don't be female, and be Caucasian. Or so, this study shows (here's the paper). Anyone have experiences with this kind of bias while looking for programs, or studying at a graduate level? When I got my Masters, there was one professor accused of a racial bias (which I'm still skeptical about - I think the faculty member was equally condescending to everyone) and another accused of unwanted advances towards female students (guilty, from what I heard).

Just call them. In these situations email is a secondary form of communication. It's possible they will resend the letter, but they might be able to tell you over the phone.

I would call. It's reasonable to ask for an update, and at the worst they can just tell you to wait more. I waited for a month to contact a school, and it turns out they sent the acceptance letter to my building without my apartment number. Should have asked sooner.

I felt this way too. It was a difficult choice, and there's always little things at each school or department that I declined which aren't at the University I'm going to. I'm confident, though, that I made the right choice overall. I think the issue of possibilities is that you can constantly imagine yourself at each one, or think about hybrids of programs, and when you actually commit, these fantasies are no longer possible. Take a deep breath, look for apartments, read a non-assigned book. I can relate with ICanHazPhdPreez?, the time between accepting an offer and hearing actual confirmation seemed like an eternity.

I had great conversations with graduate students over email, the phone, and during visits, and I sent a few of them quick emails thanking them for their time and explaining my decision. I kept them brief and casual. In some cases, I asked to stay in touch - I'm in a small field looking at education in a few countries abroad, so it's a pretty big deal to meet someone else in my area, and feel like it's an asset to keep in touch and meet up in conferences. Think of it like an extended cohort. I certainly would enjoy these emails if I was on the other end.

PhD GPA: pretty good Stats: better than many, not as good as some Background: Art and Computer teacher, MA in Comparative Education, 2 years as Peace Corps volunteer in Education, staff position in a Community College Applied: Stanford, University of Minnesota, Michigan State, Harvard, NYU, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin-Madison Accepted: U of M, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin-Madison Waitlisted: NYU Going: University of Minnesota

I found out recently that my icebreakers completely rely on living near a University with many international graduate students. "Are you from around here? You're not? You're from X? What's it like there? Do you like living here? What's different? I hear Y about country X, is that true?" Conversation started. It fails with the local crowd. "Are you from around here? Yes? Ok."

When I wrote my first SOP, I was really concerned about Admissions Committees running through a stack of SOPs, with half of them starting in the same way, or just blandly stating something obvious. So I went for the hook. Maybe it doomed me - I have great offers but wasn't accepted everywhere - or saved me - it boosted my application where I was accepted or helped with funding. Who knows? I brainstormed the most obvious introductions - "Ever since I was a child, I always wanted to study petroleum engineering" or "I have a passion for learning". When I applied for a Masters in Education, I considered most applicants were teachers, so I started with: "I never wanted to be a teacher." It opened up a short personal history, where I had good teachers and bad teachers, and tended to use the latter as examples of what not to be, and ended up teaching as an accident and loving it. In retrospect, I think it was kind of corny, and kind of an obvious choice in itself. For my PhD SOP (International Education), I wanted to relate something from my international experience. I thought about a local proverb, that those who seek the mushrooms will find it - that seeking and asking is important to find the rare elements, and that it could be used as a metaphor for scholastics. I decided against it, and opened with a short scene where some local kids found me chopping wood and wanted me to mercy kill a baby goat. In the end of the SOP, I concluded that I couldn't do it, and the child killed the goat himself, at the time also making an indelible cut on me, a memory I could never forget. I wanted to explore this cut - this experience - at the University. Maybe I went overboard. There was certainly a lot of specific and technical information in the SOP, and I had a very clear research topic chosen. Perhaps the goat story played the best with programs with more of an anthropological focus.

I chose the middle path - I had a general SOP written, and left a few paragraphs out to insert program-related content. Sometimes I would repeat phrases or language, but I generally wrote a unique part for each school. For one program, I had to change my interest slightly to fit better with the faculty. Admissions committees go through many SOPs, but I have a feeling they can detect cookie cutter statements - "I'd like to work with X because Y", or "X program is great because of Y". But generally I kept the first part, about my background and motivation for graduate research, essentially the same, since that was the aspect of the SOP that I took the most time to craft.

I've had great experiences from nearly all of my LOR writers over the years. However ... One faculty member, who I have a great relationship with, checks her email but never responds to it, and forgets appointments easily. The best method of contacting her is to stand outside her office door in between classes, or when you think she'll be on campus, and eventually she'll show up and pencil me in (another faculty member recommended that I "ambush" her). As per her request, I provided a rough draft of a recommendation letter, for her to fill in details - which involved me awkwardly staring at a document which started "I highly recommend [my name] because ..." - it's very hard to write your own recommendation. I sent her the draft, also with some talking points - which of her seminars I took, my academic/professional background - and sent her all the online recommendation forms. No response. As the deadline was nearing, I checked the online applications, and she hadn't submitted any. Sent a polite follow-up email ("you should have emails from these Universities ... let me know if you have any trouble accessing the forms ... etc."). Still no response. A few days before the first deadline,I meet with her again (waiting outside her office for an hour). She still had the rough draft, but hadn't made any changes. So we sit down together, and I make copies of the draft, tailor them for each school, and we submit every recommendation together, from the emails that were sitting, read, in her email inbox. I found out that this is her method with every student. I've had this situation before - where a faculty really wants to recommend you, but doesn't have the time, so they ask for a rough draft of the letter. But not to this extent. In my last round of applications (hopefully my last, at least for graduate school), I had to find another recommendation writer. I got a job and couldn't spend my free time sitting in front of someone's office trying to ambush them.