JohnnyBlue

Greetings all, Current Social Welfare PhD student here. Joined the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice in Fall 2020, so I’m now in the very first semester of my doctoral studies. During last year’s app cycle, I remember all too vividly the constant anxiety of waiting for status updates, interview invitations, etc. I checked the gradcafe forum every. single. day, looking for any news to help me piece together realistic university response timeframes and better understand my chances for admission. If you are now going through the same kinds of things: You are definitely, absolutely not alone. Anyway, I’m coming back to this thread now, when I’m on the other side of the whole PhD app process, to (hopefully) provide some useful info for applicants currently in the mix, and for folks who might be considering the doctoral track but who haven’t yet applied. Some background: I applied to 4 doctoral programs (UPenn; VCU; U of Maryland; UNC Chapel Hill) for Fall 2020 admission. I was accepted w full funding to Penn and U of Maryland, and ultimately chose Penn, as I’ve mentioned. (For anyone interested: I had a 3.67 / 4.0 undergrad / graduate gpa; 154 quant, 170 verbal, 5.5 writing scores for the GRE; one “publication” [first-author poster presentation @ SSWR 2020 conference]; and several years of clinical & macro social work experience, mostly in child welfare. I applied to PhD programs shortly before I earned my MSW, so although I had plenty of work experience in general, I did not have the 2 years post-MSW experience some places want you to show.) In no particular order, here are a few things I wish I’d known about, or better understood, as I navigated the PhD application, interview, and selection processes. (a) Your faculty match matters above all else, usually - even more than your publications, grades, test scores, etc. As long as those other elements aren’t abysmally low, you’ll be fine... but the faculty match is key. When you reach out to prospective faculty mentors & express your interest in the university/program, you’re giving yourself a massive advantage. Having an advocate to support your application makes all the difference - especially given the low doctoral program admission rates most applicants face today. Gaining a faculty ally at any university can seem like a pretty daunting challenge, for sure. I’ve found, though, that many faculty members are delighted when a prospective PhD student cold-emails them out of the blue — IF the message is well-crafted, that is. Avoid sending boilerplate nondescript “express my interest in the program at [name] for the upcoming academic year” messages. Those are quickly forgotten and may even be somewhat detrimental for your application. Instead, just be sure to personalize your message even a little bit. This does not need to be overly lengthy or complex — in fact, brevity is usually very much appreciated. But tie in your research interests to those of the potential faculty mentor. Mention a specific journal article or project of theirs and briefly explain how you hope to learn from & engage in that kind of work. (B) Most, if not all, Social Work / Social Welfare doctoral programs will have a PhD Program Coordinator. This person is your lifeline if anything goes wrong with your app, if you need to check on the status of a certain letter of rec, etc. Establish contact with this person & schedule a brief consultation call, even though you (probably at this point) already know all the basic program details. This is well worth your time because you’ll be creating another point of familiarity within that program’s horizon. The more people who know your name the better. Also, and superimportantly, the PhD prog. coord. who knows your name, has exchanged emails w you & spoken to you over the phone, etc., is much more likely to help you w technical snags and cut you some slack if needed. (C) Regarding your chances of program admission: a lot of this depends not so much on your personal/academic achievements, your test scores, or your publications & research experience — but rather depends quite a lot on program-specific factors that are completely beyond your control. For example, you’ve identified and possibly already established relationships with potential faculty mentors at each school to which you’ve applied (or plan to apply). And that’s certainly a prerequisite for success—it shows that you’re serious about doctoral work, that you’re committed to the application process, & that you take initiative. But even if those faculty members actively support your application, you’ll still be at the mercy of academia’s internal clocks and scorecards. Your particular faculty match needs to have availability (& willingness, of course) to take on a new doctoral student, and it needs to be their “turn.” At most schools there is a rotating timetable for faculty-student mentoring assignments such that faculty members do not take on new PhD students in rapid succession (I.e., one after another, with a seamless transition from one student’s dissertation defense in May to a new student entering their first doctoral semester in August the same year. (D) If you’re wondering about app status timelines & interviews: I submitted most of my apps by 1/15/20, and I received replies by late March/early April. The two acceptances & two rejections I received were communicated directly: I didn’t ever receive any interview invitations. Each of my two offers included a stipend (25k vs 30.5k), health insurance, and a research assistantship. Anyway—my apologies for rambling. I hope this was at least somewhat useful for some of you guys. There’s a lot more to consider (personal statement, letters of rec, CV structure, etc) and there’s a lot more I’d like to say, but time runs short. If you want to connect individually, I’m happy to arrange that. (PhD students were very generous with their time when I was a prospective student, and I’d really like to pay that forward—so please feel free to ask / reply to this post.)