Grad School Fool

Sword_Saint, Don't feel bad about the number of folks. I was in a different seminar at the same time and there were 4 of us in attendance (including the wife of one presenter). The moderator didn't even show up ;> It was Orlando and it was the last day of the meeting...I'm surprised anybody showed up for anything!

No research experience at all. My BA was in Government (pol sci) at UT Austin. I don't understand the hate for for-profit schools when compared to some of the degrees that the "respectable" schools are putting out in Whiny-American Studies in which the realistic employment options are working at Starbucks. Some of those kids rack up $100,000 and more in debt and I see nothing but "for-profit" there. South is regionally accredited; the taxpayer funded schools and other "respectable" schools accept that publicly and formally, and then, as you say, wad up the work done at the school and throw it away behind closed doors. That makes the "respectables" just as culpable as the diploma mills. Still, the situation is as it is, and I am still looking for a relevant program, but apparently with my crappy undergraduate work instead of my crappy graduate school for an "in" ;>

Thanks for the feedback, folks. Yes, I was not going to be accepted to upper tier schools because my undergraduate GPA was horrific ( I was a graduating senior for 4 semesters!), even if it was 20 years past. I won't argue against "the way things are"; if PhD programs won't accept South as my Master's, then I'll have to start over once I get into a program. This is my "second career" and I'm not in dire financial straits. I was hoping to use the work at South as a stepping stone into a mid or higher tier program. Having said that, I have found the time spent at South rewarding. I have learned and I have been pushed. I have compared some of my courses against the syllabi of other graduate courses and found them to be equitable. Of course, the key point would be grading...if South just hands out grades for payment, then of course the degree is worthless. I have felt in a couple of cases I did get a higher grade than I deserved for some of my coursework. The counter to this is that if I have read these (and other) boards correctly, this is common through the soft sciences in graduate work. Again, I am not arguing that South SHOULD be accepted; simply sharing my experience there. So, returning to the original question: I have had some feedback though other sources (LinkedIn, etc), and it seems that my area of interest lies in the intersection of the criminal justice, political science, and public policy fields. I have started looking at published papers to see if there is work being done in my interest, and I will research those doctors and those programs. If anyone has a recommendation along those lines, I'd be glad to hear it! If it helps, my thesis is exploring the possible differences in FBI COINTELPRO operations against the Klan and against the New Left which may have been caused by politics.

http://www.findaphd.com/advice/finding/choosing-phd-supervisor.aspx some not so bad advice here

I am a 45 year old student currently in a Masters Program at South University (most of my courses are online, but there is a brick and mortar facility in my town); I am halfway through with a 4.0 average; 3 quarters to go. What I'm looking for are some ideas on HOW to find out which PhD programs would be a good fit for me. There are also some areas in which I'm not even sure which questions I should be asking. Should I start by compiling a list of all programs, and just start emailing questions... Does the the theoretical bent of the faculty matter ( I consider myself closest to being a right realist), and something to look for... My own interest is in the politics that influences security policy (both domestic security and criminal enforcement);should I identify programs whose faculty interests are similar... I am either getting general application advice or irrelevant results from the google/bing searches I am using, so I am hoping to get some hints here. Thanks!