GradSchoolGrad

@MPP2024

I just had lunch with my former colleague who finished his PhD in Sociology with a focus on education (non-quant) and what he told me was astounding and made me think of you. Background for context: - He is from a top 5 PhD institution and went to top 10 undergrad. Essentially with near perfect GPA in both. - He is on his 6th post-doc (ya he was saying what used to be rare is becoming more common) - Between his post-docs and PhD, he has had advisors that are academic leaders of their niche/area - including some well known people that even I heard of Basic Story from him - Sociology is crazy over saturated. He applied to a smaller regional R2 school out in the mid-west, and that there were at least 100 other sociology w/ ed focus PhDs applying that exceeded the requirements. - Among his friend group (sociology focused on education), none of them have managed tenure track positions - though a few have managed non-tenure instructor positions - At 40+, he is still living in a friend's garage and has done so for past 5 years (he kindly asked me to cover his lunch and asked to share some of my streaming accounts).

3 episode drop: a. Mental Health b. Research Institutes c. Trends and Indicators of Stud and Dud Alumni

Two new episodes out - a. Policy School's Digital Media and b. Dual Degreeing. My last episode for this season will be about Mental Health In Policy school... then I'm going to start Season 2, which will be all about preparing for Policy/IR Grad school

Apologies, you are absolutely right. I should have clarified when I was talking about Northern Ireland and when I was talking about the Republic of Ireland - in all cases I was speaking about Northern Ireland. I'll go add that on the details portion of the podcast now ( should correct in an hour or so).

UK Policy Grad School + Consulting Career Considerations

A topic no one ever talks about in policy school, but a key driver of student culture, especially in policy schools that don't have a cohort system.

Question: How do you feel about policy grad schools expanding the # & proportion of straight from undergrad and lower work experienced students into their student body? Context: As a higher ed watcher focusing on grad schools, I have been noticing that there has been a lot more action and talk among Policy Grad schools (including the top ones) to expand their student enrollment potential by going after strategies that essentially elicit a younger/less work experienced student. Examples of such are: a: Installing 4+1 (so getting your MPP/MPA with 1 year of grad school after taking the necessary classes as an undergrad) b. 2+1/2 programs (apply in undergrad to schedule going to grad school after 1 or 2 years of work experience) c. Targeting those straight from undergrad as a viable student community - as seen with marketing investment and pitches. There is a business reason behind this (grad students make Universities money while undergrads don't). In the UK going to policy grad school straight from undergrad or with only 1 year of work experience is actually rather normal (but they have numerous other cultural and programatic differences(. Just wondering if everyone else feels this is a good or bad direction in general or to their own situation.

Everyone who listens to my podcast, favor to ask. 1. Please share with your friends interested in policy or ir grad school school 2. Let me know what other topics you want me to cover Going forward, I have some more episodes about social dynamics in policy school. Season 2, which I expect to start in late May or so, will be about what to do to prepare for policy or IR grad school after getting accepted.

It I were to speculate, it is because HKS stop caring about ranking (since they can living off the Harvard brand) and is not investing in the PR and comms campaign necessary for raising rankings (there is a lot of policy community marketing that needs to be done to maintain or raise rankings). This is partly due to how COVID really struck HKS' budget (remember, on paper they are rich, but a lot of their funding goes to dedicated programs, so they have rather limited discretionary funding at the end of the day. Harvard Business School (HBS) has also been dropping in the MBA rankings as well. That is because they are taking more risk - as in admitting a more diverse group of students that don't look as a perfect on paper. However, keep in mind, student quality matters for MBA rankings. Policy school rankings is pure beauty contest among those in the policy community.

Broadly speaking, there may be fellowship or scholarship opportunities an applicant becomes eligible for that do require an interview, but not necessarily a straight application.

Networking Mistakes & Professor Relationships @MPP2024

I hope you improve upon your I am more holly than other people mindset after some time in grad school.

@MPP2024

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Ultimately, the devil is in the details. 1. As to PhD in social policy vs. PhD that combines SP and Sociology - I would argue is a moot point. Apologizes, if I only insinuated that and didn't spell it out from the get go. It is more important to make sure you have the support that you care about and cares about you in whatever program you are applying for. So basically, its smarter to choose faculty in high places willing to support you and can competently give you guidance than overall program description. The question is if you can find faculty to fit that role. And if you can, you have to balance that with if the institution lends you enough credibility (and I mean this in multiple ways) to support you with getting a tenure track role. 2. I'm not trying to disrespect your accomplishments. I can tell you got a solid head on your shoulders. The thing is that inputs, however strong, even if they land you in a program of your choice, may not lead to the desired outputs (lets just say Tenure Track at an R20). So based on what you provided right now, I would categorize them as either - devil in the details and market headwinds that work against you. Market Headwinds - You are in non-quant theory land in an academic space is getting more quant focused with a bottoms up approach - You are in a space that is oversaturated and getting more crowded while undergrad demand is shrinking Devil in the Details - Its great you got research done. On paper that does put you in a more advanced stage for applying for PhDs. However, as for getting the desired outcome, it is based upon if your research has academic and popular market appeal. I also don't know where you got published. In perfect world, you have a combo of being co-author in top journals plus some popular press going on. A podcast or featured on a documentary would help too. - GPA - its great you have a 3.8 GPA, but the most rigorous programs are Quant Heavy (even if you do want to do Theory - although I guess you can get away with Political Theory), so at a certain point is about how you navigate the Quant expectations and match it to the grounding of your GPA - Relationship with the incoming ASA - yes that can help if you focus on sociology to kick things in gear - but then at the end of the day it depends on who wants to support you with $$$ and positions. Part of this depends on how academically popular your stuff is. Part of it depends on which angle your research/future research is most popular with. Bottom line is that I'm just highlighting things to watch out for in a world where the odds are stacked against you. If you want to be like Tom Brady vs. the 50 fallen off the tracks, its about knowing your weaknesses and making the right moves (although I personally couldn't go vegan). However - then there is the question of if the juice is worth the squeeze. I'll leave it to you. Every PhD candidate that I have met, those more and less qualified than you have the mentality that they will get what they want (tenure track) and beat the odds. If you are truly rock star and you are in demand by 3rd parties already (different than doing well academically and knowing people), then you might be the next Tom Brady and with the right adjustments you are on track. Otherwise - there is nothing wrong with pivoting to something that will make you happier and make bigger impact in the long run. PhD isn't the only game in town. Also, when I talk about the market being bad, is not bad, its utterly awful at even the top PhD (yes its English dept not your neck of the woods, but the story repeats itself): https://www.chronicle.com/article/columbia-had-little-success-placing-english-ph-d-s-on-the-tenure-track-alarm-followed-and-the-university-responded/

This is like star NFL quarterbacks telling freshman redshirt quarterbacks that they don't need to get their degree because they have a shot to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. Sure, a few will get it, but there will be lots of disappointment of casualties on the path to it. For every Tom Brady there is 50 or so that fell of the tracks. I don't want to stop anyone from being the next Tom Brady, but Tom Brady at least was coming from a solid place to the NFL - quarterback at Michigan. @zh_awkis leaning more from Black Swan territory trying to be a Top 20 R-1 from his current position (unless his research area is as ground breaking as he think it is - which I doubt).

Even if you go to MBB consulting and make $175K a year plus bonus, that debt will hurt for at least half a decade or so.

Also by popular demand @MPP2024

For you - HKS without a doubt. This is because you said that you are interested in private sector consulting. HKS will give you pathways to it. JHU SAIS - won't (at least not the bigger companies).

This has been requested. So I thought I would put out what I have seen.

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