t_ruth

I think the PI has given you the answer. You could still apply, but it would be unlikely they would change their mind if your email spelled out the same kind of thing you would write in your statement of purpose.

All your experiences seem like good ones, but acceptance is going to come down largely to research fit. You will want to apply somewhere with one or more faculty members studying something you are interested in and make a compelling case in your statement as to how you hope to extend/complement their research and how your prior experiences will benefit you in doing this.

Ed is one of the fields that has an easier time getting a job outside of academia. Ed programs often have strong quant training, which opens up options there too. I definitely have former students and colleagues working in school districts, government agencies, think tanks, non-profits, curriculum developers, etc...

Sure. Though this process is likely to be highly variable across institutions. For us, we have a target number for our entering class for the fall and we accept students based on historical yield (this can range from 20% to 100%, depending on school). Once we have enough rejections that we think we might not make this yield, we can accept off the waitlist. Individual faculty are also considered. Some faculty attract more competitive students and so they might have a few standby applicants that they can go to more quickly if their first (or even second) choice declines. We are also trying to balance across programs/focus areas, so if one program accepted four and three declined, we might have them accept off the waitlist, whereas we wouldn't for another program if they still had a few potential students who hadn't yet made their decisions. So you can see it isn't a science at all. It involves so many decision points that we hope are well informed by past data but often just come down to a guess. ETA: After 4/15 there is less guesswork and we can accept off the waitlist to get up to our target class number.

It sounds like an EdD might be better for your goals. You are right, a PhD is a *research* degree, and if you aren't interested in research, not a good fit. With an EdD (or even a Masters and experience) you can find adjunct faculty gigs, but unless your EdD is a research-focused EdD (there are some places that do these), you are unlikely to be able to obtain a full-time faculty job at a reputable university. As you look at programs, see where their graduates are working now. If they don't have this highlighted on their website, it's definitely ok to ask.

If the specific professor wrote you and is asking, Yes! write them back and let them know you submitted. You can also check in with the staff person coordinating admissions to make sure you did everything correctly. If the PI is interested in you, they will make sure that your application gets looked at.

The academic market in the Education world is just as competitive as it is in English (more so, maybe, as I know plenty of people who teach undergrads at the college level w/a Masters in creative writing). However, it is true that there are other options re: curriculum development, working for a think-tank, etc. That said, prospective advisors will want to see a *research* focus. Honestly, hearing the reason for the degree as "I want to teach at the college level" is almost the kiss of death, as teaching is just a small(er) part of our jobs.

Congrats to those who have heard back positively! These schools are early! So exciting to see folx who are starting in Ed Psych/Learning Sciences. (my area ?) I posted a thread in Waiting it Out about the process from a grad director's perspective that you all might find useful/interesting. Hang in there to those of you still waiting!

Those names don't really matter at all. Faculty researching the exact same things will be in an Ed PhD at one place and a Curriculum and Instruction PhD at another. Sometimes, Curriculum and Instruction is a sub-category under the Education PhD and even though the program is C&I, the degree is actually still just a PhD in Education. What do you foresee yourself teaching in the future? It sounds like maybe you want to teach English courses in college and then neither Ed PhD will be useful to you. You would want a PhD in Literacy or Language in an English department instead. Ed (and C&I) PhDs do research on the teaching of English (they aren't trained to teach English themselves). Can you provide some more clarity on your career goals?

Honestly, we don't ask for writing samples, but people often submit them anyway. Unless I'm already really interested in a student, I don't read them. I can learn what I need to know about the applicant's writing by how the personal statement is written. If I'm really interested, I might read a writing sample to have more to talk about with the student, and at that point it is because I have turned to recruitment mode. I will say that, because we don't ask for them, we don't have a spot in the application for them, and it does get a bit annoying when people slot them BEFORE the personal statement.

I'm curious why you are going for a PhD if research isn't your favorite? Did you only apply to the one place? If you happen to not get in and want to make another go of it, I'd be happy to read your statement and give you some general feedback re: direction.

Some PIs will value applied experience more than others. Nothing in what you said above reads to me as if you are addressing research. Faculty will want to know you understand what research is, the process, what it takes, etc. You don't have to know everything yet (that's what research method courses are for), but you should know the basics (and be able to communicate them) about asking research questions and going about studying these questions. Have you read papers by your prospective PIs? Did you discuss how you were interested in extending or complementing their current research agendas? That said, it is early days still, so I wouldn't let your confidence decline too much!

This is very PI-specific. For me, the important thing is the candidate is able to discuss how their masters and work history is directly relevant to the research they want to do with me. Someone right out of undergrad who published/presented might have a leg up on someone who worked in a non-research job (unless that person makes a very good argument).

I agree! I wish we didn't lose the funding either. I believe in prior years, the grad college had let us go to the person next on the list for the award, but that practice stopped recently.

Hi all. I remember how tough on the nerves January and February can be, so I thought it might help to lay out a detailed timeline as to what happens after you hit submit with an illustration from my program. I know there have been other similar posts like this, but probably doesn't hurt to add another one. Not every program does it the same way, but this might shed some light on one way it is done and how long it takes. The dates are not the same every year, so I just chose dates *around* when we do this. Context: My program is a mid-ranked R1 in our field with some top-ranked faculty. I'm in Education, but we have a lot of faculty who come from other social sciences: psychology, sociology, economics... Dec. 15 Deadline for our apps (like many places) Dec. 16 As grad director, I check all the applications, download them for the faculty who can't (or won't) access the online system, organize them into specializations, and create spreadsheets for faculty to review the applicants. This is when I also have to note who has missing materials or a missing fee. Some people enter a fee code that isn't valid and think they are done (not sure why the system allows that and shows us fee is missing), others have entered a valid fee code, but slightly wrong, and these have to be hand-processed by the grad college. Similarly, some applicants who should get TOEFL waivers didn't exactly follow instructions, so these also have to be hand-processed. Others are missing reference letters... So, I advise my faculty to review any of the applicants in these categories anyway while we work on getting things worked out, but not everybody does this. New (now complete) applicants trickle in for a few weeks. Dec. 17-Jan. 16 Faculty are supposed to review applications in their small specialization groups. Some groups do this asynchronously, some set a meeting in January. Either before or after this meeting, faculty are supposed to informally interview (or at least have a conversation) with anyone they want to admit. Some groups leave it completely up to individual faculty to say yes or no on an applicant, other groups have more formal rating systems and rank and then try to match the top candidates with faculty. In all this, faculty are supposed to keep in mind our target cohort size (12-15), our typical rate of return on acceptances, and what funding we have (faculty with grants often get priority). Keep in mind that this is happening during the holidays, so this month-long period really only is a couple weeks that people are working. Jan. 17 Specialization coordinators meet to check their lists and discuss potential funding, etc. Final ranked lists of students for each specialization are due at this point. Jan. 18 Admissions committee meets to make final decisions re: admits, ranking, and who will be submitted for university awards. The university award decision may consider things like how likely the student is to actually accept their offer (because we can only submit a few students and if one gets the award and doesn't come, we lose that money). Jan. 19 Final decisions are sent to the College admin and also to the grad college for processing. Soon after this, faculty will be able to informally tell the students they are admitting that they have been "recommended for admission." These recommendations still need to be processed by the grad college and that can take a few weeks (at this stage, the grad college can also flag applicants that they don't want to admit, but this is rare). Meanwhile, the grad team is making sure that all students (current and new) have funding for the following year. This is a BIG puzzle! Sometime in Feb Letters go out offering admission and funding packages (but may not have specific funding assignment) Feb-July Specific funding assignments are still being sorted (faculty are still finding out about grants this late, etc.). Individual students will receive letters with their specific assignments. For some, this will be after they have to decide on admission (but everyone is guaranteed funding regardless of their specific assignment). Hope this helps to demystify the process a bit. Happy to take questions