istanbulnotconstantinople

Trouble seeker

Hi All, I know I am mostly just trying to pass time during this long wait, but I am genuinely curious about the backgrounds of all the people on gradcafe who have applied to PhD programmes in education. Unlike in the UK (where I come from) in the USA it does seem that people can genuinely be accepted straight onto PhD programmes from undergrad (this is very rare in the UK). However, most people I have spoken to on here seem to have an MA, but the results pages are full of people who were deferred to the masters pools (suggesting they did not already have one or were willing to take a second). This has led me to believe that perhaps in our field many people do apply without an MA but that universities mostly defer these applicants. Thus, I thought I would conduct a little survey.

Congratulations!

I am increasingly grateful to be on the wrong side of the world, so that each morning when I wake and see no emails I know that I can just relax until the evening because it's nighttime in the US so nothing will be arriving in my inbox. Although it is saddening to realise today is not the day I will hear anything, knowing that helps me to get on with my day.

That seems impressively early give n that the deadline was December 31st :-)

Yeah, when I looked at the whole faculty I was amazed. Although obviously I didn't match interests with many of the supervisors in terms of what I would complete a PhD on I was extremely interested by the work being done across the department. It's one of the reasons I'm so excited by the programme at Northwestern. I'm getting very nervous though as I'm waiting as I don't really know their timeline and the deadline was later than most programmes, so I presume i'm in for a long wait until I hear anything.

Thankyou so much, this is all really great info! I enjoy improv too and I forget that it's bigger in the US than in England where we do much more stand up. Sounds like there's a lot to keep you occupied in Chicago.

The application allowed you to name 4 POIS, so I put the Dr James Spillane, Dr James Rosenbaum, Dr Lindsay Chase-Lansdale and Dr Dan Lewis in that order. Do you know any of them?

Hiya, I read the admissions statistics and it seems you're right about the 7-10 people http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/academics/phd-program-statistics.html I find the whole GRE scores thing confusing as an international student. In the UK universities are pretty clear about a standard you must meet to be admitted, but the GRE score requirements seem cloak and dagger rather than being posted on university websites. As an international student it never occurred to me to ask the admissions office because I assumed that they didn't give out this information if it wasn't on their website. I hope I don't have to apply a second time around, but if I do I will be more proactive in asking such questions.

Thankyou, that's really kind of you to offer. I am an international student but I spent a couple of days in Chicago this summer and enjoyed it - is there a lot going on in the city that you found exiting as a student? I love stand up comedy but am really missing being able to access it as I currently live abroad and there isn't much of a comedy scene where I live. I am sure that during my PhD there will be some tough times and a little bit of laughter is likely to help with this, so I have been wondering how much of a comedy scene there is on the campus/in the city?

Hiya, what exactly do you mean by above the 70th percentile, do you mean the average of the two verbal and quant or that they both have to be 70 or above? Also, how do you know this? I didn't find this information anywhere on their website.

Hi All, Having checked out the previous years' blogs there isn't a lot of information or grad-cafe people who have indicated they applied for this programme. I have applied this year and so would love to kick-start a thread with whoever else has. I get the impression that due to its interdisciplinary nature this programme is applied to by people across several different disciplines so I figured it would be better to post here than under the subject threads. My background: Undergraduate degree in English and a MA in Comparative Education (both degrees are from universities at the top of UK and global rankings). 7 years of teaching in the UK and internationally. GRE: V165, Q158, AW 5.5. I am applying for PhD's in the field of education policy and the ability to expand beyond this at Northwestern into wider social policy (particularly housing and welfare policy) is extremely appealing to me. I would love to hear from anyone else who is applying or who is already studying at Northwestern.

I didn't see any. The only mention I saw was regarding a PhD in comparative education, but even then the school in question said that many students do speak more than one language but that it was only really a necessity to speak the languages in the regions you wanted to look at. So if, for instance you were looking at the UK and US it wouldn't matter if you only spoke English.

These are all fantastic suggestions - my reading list is getting longer with every post!

In line with the 2017 Read Harder challenge I have also begun reading a rather funny book entitled 'What I did while you were breeding' - certainly providing me with some light relief and reassuring me that it's ok for me to pursue a phd in a foreign country rather than focussing on marriage and babies (though I am sure many people do both). https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/12/22/doing-2017-read-harder-challenge-try-these-books?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral

Yep I have done that, but I don't think most schools actually change the status so it's probably a futile activity. It reassures me that I have completed my application fully at least.

Hi All, This is a thread partly to pass the time while we are waiting but hopefully it will also be informative. I saw on another forum a general reading list of what people are currently reading and I thought it might be a good to give some ideas for fun/academic reads specific to the field of education. Now, to kick start this thread. I am currently reading: Education related: 1) Death at An Early Age, by John Kozol 2) Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, by Daron Acemoğlu Non-education specific: Swing Time by Zadie Smith (thus far so good and certainly interesting to me for its discussions of class, race and education). How about you?

Great idea - this wait is extremely nerve racking. I haven't had a break from work for Christmas which has probably helped a little, but I have a two week break at the end of January instead and I think I will go totally crazy if I have heard nothing at all by then.

No fee waivers for me unfortunately and a few extra charges as an international student too. In total I spent around 1200 dollars to apply to 6 PhD programmes (I took the GRE twice though). I think the thing that got me the most was UPenn who stipulated that I had to get my UK degree grades converted and the whole process of paying my universities to post transcripts plus the service was more than 200dollars extra. Other schools just charged me an extra 30 dollars to do this themselves and now that I have sent the application I doubt I will even be accepted to UPenn and that I will have spent a lot of money on them for nothing. I am not sure why they don't have the same system as other schools.

Hi All, Thankyou for this thread it has been very enlightening. I am applying for a PhD in education policy having been a teacher for 7 years now (both in the UK and in Turkey). I have always wanted to work in education policy but was also of the opinion that real experience of education mattered (it is also part of why I moved to work abroad to experience a different systems of education and broaden my viewpoint). In applying for education policy I have been struck by how few PhD candidates I can find on grad school faculty websites who have been teachers (and even those that are are mostly mathematics teachers). At times - I'll be honest - it has demoralised me and made me think that statisticians are all grad schools really want. Don't get me wrong, I am very interested by all of the statistical research and comparisons in education and can see the validity (just like in the charter school case discussed), but I know that this is something which other people are far more qualified to do than me. Furthermore, a large part of my desire to work in education policy stems from having worked in environments where it is clear that professionals have so little say in policy decisions and therefore that the policies being implemented are actively harmful. I am not by any means accusing statisticians of causing this, but it does seem to me that if people are not involved in policy who have real experience then this situation is far more likely to occur. The excellent examples given by econteacher have been part of my reality throughout my teaching career and I want to work in policy in order to reduce the inclusion of impossible policies and those than in their enactment are far more harmful than useful. Therefore, points raised in this forum about different areas of expertise and combining different ones are pertinent. I personally would be more than happy to learn more statistics during my phd, but my focus is on comparisons in policy enactment. This makes more sense for someone from my background both educationally and professionally, but it is definitely necessary for me to work with people who have other perspectives and expertise. Finally, however, I would like to add that I do actually have huge concerns about the inclusion of people in management programmes who have never taught in schools. Primarily because such people seem to have the most unrealistic expectations of their workforce and what can actually be done within classrooms. The marketisation of education and use of business models of management has been incredibly detrimental to learning in many instances. I think that education requires models of management that are specific to it and therefore that if people are entering the field of education with outside knowledge but willing to be flexible and adapt their ideas based on the specifics of the education environment then that is great. Unfortunately, I think a lot of education management systems (in the UK at least) are mimicking models from business settings that are largely ineffective within school environments and thus it is clear that the voices of people within the system need to be heard much more clearly than they currently are.

Hiya, I also got the same email and I assumed it was sent to all applicants. Like you said it is a very nice thought though and reassuring to have some idea of dates. It doesn't really help out the international applicants much though since I assume they won't invite us to the preview weekend regardless - unless it means they would also conduct phone interviews with us then too.

I was wondering the same thing. Logically I figured that they must interview by phone or Skype since they couldn't expect us to fly half-way across the world for the interview days. I have a feeling I read on a previous years thread that someone had a phone interview at Penn, but maybe some interviews are conducted via Skype too.

Thankyou for your answer. It makes a lot of sense and I certainly have done this many times in my years as a teacher, though I hadn't really considered it counted as research to a university as I thought of it more as professional practice. I have certainly investigated methods of teaching/behaviour management, discussed and collaborated with others to address issues and experimented with the implementation of ideas then observed the effects of them and reflected. In my current school we also film lessons and review them as a means of understanding our practice and reflecting on it. It's good to know that all of these count as forms of research experience.

Hi All, I know that all our applications are now in, but I have a question that is nagging me regarding research experience. I am from the UK, which is obviously very different at the undergraduate and graduate level to the US. As such, I don't know a single person who did anything other than a science undergrad who has done research in the way that people on the forums seem to be discussing (e.g working for a supervisor). I have completed a Thesis during my masters degree (as well as several extended essays at undergraduate and a small project as part of my teacher training), but I have been rather at a loss as to how - as a teacher of 7 years - I could possibly have any more "research" experience than this, unless I left teaching. US universities clearly do accept some applicants who have careers as teachers and I am wondering if this is because it is normal for undergrads in the US to do research, so even those who then went into teaching would have done some? Essentially I just keep looking at profiles of current PhD students and seeing that they did internships for the government, work for professors as researchers etc. prior to doing the PhD. But as these things aren't done in the UK (you would have to join the civil service through their graduate scheme and as I said you can't just work for professors as a research assistant) and I couldn't possible move to the US without having a place on a programme already, I don't really see what I could have done without leaving teaching altogether and finding some kind of alternative career that involves research - which seems really rather absurd given that I am applying for PhDs in education, so I am sure I must be wrong in having drawn this conclusion. In a sense I think I am just fretting now and I always like to have a backup plan, so if I don't get into any programmes it would be good to know what I need to spend time doing in order to reapply at a later date. I am sorry if this is rather confused, since this is a matter I am confused by. Any answers/discussion would be much appreciated, especially if you went into a PhD directly from the classroom or are an international student.

Hi, I am really sorry to hear that such a terrible thing has happened and I am very impressed by how strong you are being. You are absolutely right not to let this derail your career. When you say that your supervisor may threaten you with not giving you a reference you seem to be suggesting that you are still having to see him. I hope for your sake that this is not the case. In all of these instances I would advise that you see if you can speak confidentially to a counsellor (if your current school has them). If you do not want to speak to someone on campus I know that there are other helplines and it is likely that they will have knowledge of similar situations and how to handle them. As a foreign student you may also find that there are resources/helplines specific to your country that you can speak with - there is an American one called http://www.866uswomen.org for Americans overseas and they may be able to direct you to an equivalent for your country, or I would suggest you could call https://www.rainn.org/international-sexual-assault-resources. It is unclear from what you wrote whether or not you will ask for an alternate reference from your current school or from someone outside of it. On many of the forms I filled in you could request more references than needed, so If it is someone external (who won't be communicating with your professor) who you would ask for reference then you could simply put that into action and not tell your current professor that you have found an alternate. This way you may receive 4 references and can ask for his to be discounted. I have read on many forums here that schools accept late letters of recommendation if the rest of the form is complete and submitted by the deadline, it is possible that this may apply to your programmes too. So perhaps you could checking by contacting the universities - you do not have to explain all of your reasons at this stage but ask what their policy is on late recommendations. I hope that this advice is any way helpful.