SummoningSquare

You're doing great by thinking about this so early! There are numerous different kinds of research programs in education that you can pursue. To get an idea for how wide the variety is, you can check out a representative PhD program page, like Virginia's or Columbia's. So one thing to do is try to narrow down what kind of program area you're interested in. As in a lot of disciplines, the "top" schools for education are some subset of the Ivies + Stanford. But that obscures more than it reveals, mainly for three reasons: (1) Regional concerns play a big role in your employment prospects. For instance, Vanderbilt's Peabody College of Education is highly regarded in the education field but has much more employment clout in the southeast than in the rest of the country. California is virtually a different country with regard to education policy, so if you intend to end up on the west coast working on education you don't want to do your PhD outside of California. (2) This is a field where your research production matters more than a school's ranking or reputation, at least up to a point. As long as you are producing a high volume of quality research at a school with , you'll end up fine (it's not like, say, the humanities, where a PhD from No Name State is going to functionally disqualify you from non-adjunct employment). (3) Which schools are the "top" ones depends greatly on your specific program focus and research interests. For example, Northwestern has one of the strongest Learning Sciences programs in the country but won't show up on anyone's ranking of the "top" education schools overall. So that's my recommendation to not worry about which schools are the top-ranked. As to your gap year, based on other prospective students I've met it seems quite common for people in the education field to spend some years teaching or working in an adjacent field, including through programs like Teach for America and AmeriCorps (there are even a few funding opportunities exclusively for people who have worked with those organizations). You are already doing the right thing by seeking research experience. Add to that some experience in an educational setting and you'll be a strong applicant. Personally I'd recommend you consider educational psychology and learning sciences programs. Those programs tend on balance to attract more grant funding and do more empirically rigorous work than some other subfields within education, and accordingly open up your post-graduation employment options a bit more than some other subfields.

Generally, an EdD is for professionals (administrators, principals, directors, etc.) who want a terminal credential but not a research career. A PhD is a research degree for people with research backgrounds who want a research career. A lot of people also get involved in ed policy through a masters degree like an MEd or MPP. My understanding is that it's a pretty competitive space, but most of the top schools have good networks that certainly help. It's also a bit of a strange academic space in that a significant portion of the most useful and innovative work is being done by people with degrees in economics, public policy, and the like, not education. (Fun exercise: compare the most recent work by people in the top 5 US News Ed Policy programs with the education stuff on NBER.)

Just declined my admission (to EPA). Hopefully one of you folks on the wait list gets my spot!

I know I'm not the only one wondering about this -- how exactly does Penn GSE imagine that people will be able to afford to attend? I received a merit scholarship, but if I understand the website correctly there are no assistantships available in my program (Ed Policy) and no other form of financial aid that I qualify for other than loans, leaving me with tens of thousands of dollars left to make up. Education isn't one of those fields with payscales that justify debt on that scale. Are others just in better shape on the scholarship front than I am, or do you have mega savings or what? I have other offers with good funding, but I'm still curious about this.

The EPA page looks the same as when I was putting together my application.

I did apply for LSAP, but have not heard anything yet. Good luck!

Best of luck to you as well! Did you apply for LSAP or another program within the School of Education?

Sorry for the alarm, Penelope -- I haven't received an official acceptance yet, just favorable interviews. All I know about the timeline is that the word "weeks" was used toward the end of last month.

I also made a typo (I wrote "instruction" where I meant "instructional"). It hasn't prevented me from getting into other programs, but if that's that for Harvard then I suppose I deserve it ?

Thanks for the feedback ? If I took the Master's, I would still want to end up in a research-based career. It seems that that's possible with an MPP, but it seems the best-paying and most exciting opportunities expect a PhD. I've received feedback from professors at three LS/ed psych programs that I am a promising applicant (promising enough to interview, at least) but that my lack of research experience and lack of stats/quant courses are significant issues. So I have reason to believe that going the Master's route first (particularly the Peabody MPP, with its 9+ credits of stats and and the possibility of a research practicum) would make me a much more competitive candidate later on. The only problem there is that I'm an old person I've spent years in the field already and so would be looking at finishing up a post-Master's PhD when I'm 40ish. I guess there's nothing wrong with being an elder statesman.

I have a background in humanities graduate study. In most humanities fields, the prestige of your school matters a great deal -- a Philosophy or English or History PhD at a regional or low-ranked school is a not a guarantee of joblessness, but it certainly makes the job market orders of magnitude more difficult. Does anyone have a sense of the extent to which program prestige matters in education fields? I've been accepted to two higher-ranked Master's programs in one field (Ed Policy at Vanderbilt and Penn), but also have been receiving a lot of interest from a Learning Sciences PhD program at a lower-ranked school (Pittsburgh). I want to end up in a research-based career (e.g. a think tank or a university-based research center). My sense is that the opportunity for more significant research experience through a PhD program, even if not at an "elite" school, is of more value than any Master's program. I'm also very enthusiastic about the specific research projects my PI at Pitt has, and was very impressed with my Pitt interviewers. But my instincts are still formed by all that time I spent in the humanities, when a PhD offer from a lower-ranked school was considered a bad career move. Obviously I don't want to let US News and World Report make my decision for me. But I am not sure how much weight I should give program prestige in my decision here. Does anyone have a sense of how much this sort of thing matters in the ed policy/research world? (Edited because I accidentally posted halfway through writing; good thing internet forum proficiency is not part of grad school applications.)

I think it's worth asking what the Student Affairs degree is going to accomplish for you. It is not uncommon for people to get jobs in Student Affairs without Student Affairs/Higher Ed Admin degrees, especially when they already have Master's degrees in an education field. On the other hand, a Student Affairs/Higher Ed Admin degree does not exactly open a lot of other doors. Have you looked into certificate programs? Just googling "certificate student affairs" leads me to several graduate certification programs in the field. These would cost less time and money than a full Master's. Since you already have a Master's in an education field, you already have the base credential Student Affairs jobs will want you to have, and a graduate certificate would fill in your missing higher ed background.

I'd love some help figuring out whether my application makes sense and whether I seem likely to be a competitive applicant. I am applying to doctoral Ed Psych and Learning Science programs focusing on the psychological foundations of instructional design, and because I want to move my career in the direction of instructional design leadership. I want to go into this field because this is something I've been fascinated by since my first teaching experiences, and because I . But my background seems pretty different from the sorts of people who typically go into this field, so I have no idea how my applications are going to be received. Any insight would be appreciated. Background info: I have a BA in philosophy from an R1 state school and MA in philosophy from a nationally prestigious private university. For the past four years I have worked in higher ed administration, though not in a particularly impressive position. I also teach Intro to Ethics every semester for the philosophy department at my school and taught during my MA, so I have quite a bit of teaching experience. PhD Programs applied to: Michigan St Ed Psych and Ed Tech; Northwestern Learning Sciences; UNC-Chapel Hill Learning Sciences; Vanderbilt Learning and Design; Pittsburgh Learning Sciences and Policy; Penn GSE Learning Sciences and Technologies Undergrad GPA: 4.0 GRE: 167 V, 153 Q, 6.0 AW LORs: Great, I think. The letters are from two professors I worked with closely in the past and the Asst VP who supervises my administrative division (whom I've gotten to know pretty well). I have already had an interview with Michigan St., and while this seems like a good sign, overall I do not feel that it went well (an interviewer asked me to describe a study I would like to run during my first couple of years in the program and I bombed the answer). That said, one of the interviewers did mention that my letters of recommendation were particularly impressive. So I have two specific worries: My GRE quant score is pretty bad (before studying for the GRE, it had been 15 years since my last math class). Is this typically a big deal in Education doctoral programs? Looking at recent cohorts at these schools, it seems as though I'm pretty different from the usual Ed Psych/Learning Sciences student, particularly in that I have no K-12 experience and have a humanities background. Any insight into whether I might be a competitive applicant to these programs?