juilletmercredi

I had to take both a theory and a methods comprehensive exam, so both kinds of classes were helpful. I think you should take a balance of both, but as long as you get what you need I think the choice is up to you. I'm a methods person myself so I would much prefer to take a stats/methods course if I had a choice. I find them more interesting and I also find them useful for jobs. I disagree with the spirit of this post, even though I'm a methodologist at heart. Of course you need methodology skills for research, but you also need a strong theoretical basis for your research. Sure, you can read the readings for a theory class, but the discussion in a seminar with the professor(s) and the other classmates enriches the experience - it's really not comparable to simply reading all the readings on your own. Taking theory classes also teaches you how to read theory at a higher level, in a way that you may not have learned in your bachelor's or even your MA program. Theory classes aren't useless at all. Every grant you'll ever write will require a background section and specific aims and hypotheses. A strong grounding in the theory of your field is necessary to orient your work within the larger conversation of scholars. Methods are just tools to do that. Every paper you'll write will require an introduction to situate your work within the scholarly conversation as well. Nobody is saying anything about forgoing methods training; the idea is that what makes a PhD most useful is a mix of both theory courses (and a strong theoretical foundation for your research). Trust me - before my PhD I would've wanted to take all stats and methods courses, too, but having completed all but my defense, I've realized how very very important theoretical considerations are. Besides, MA programs are also a mix of methods and theory classes. I'm not sure where the notion came from that an MA is all theory and a PhD is all methods. It's not.

I'll be starting there as a postdoc in August!

Honestly, it sounds like you need a new advisor. I would say keep email records of what she says and show her, but you said even when you provide evidence she blames you. And ridiculous work expectations won't really change. I would discuss with your Director of Graduate Studies, or the university ombuds for advice how to proceed. The DGS might be the best person to talk to, though, because if you need to switch advisors she is the one who will help you. IMO, it's better to work on something slightly different than what you want with an advisor who has realistic expectations and is interested in supporting your career.

Why would you want to consolidate before school? You can choose to make payments on deferred loans while doing your PhD even if you don't consolidate - just pick one and hack away at that one. You can also borrow loans while in grad school and then consolidate them all together when you graduate. I don't think it'd be more doable or smarter to combine them all ahead of time.

@black7ack: Maybe. It could mean you're on the waiting list or it could mean that they're still looking. We didn't get our housing assignment until late August, though. It does have something to do with the program - PhD/doctoral students get preference in housing. I don't think there's a school preference, though. It also has to do with the kind of unit you applied for and the amount of rent you're willing to pay. @cedricyu803: No, I don't think so. You can arrange for SuperShuttle to drop you of at your hostel - I took SuperShuttle from Newark Airport to 119th St and it only cost me like $25. The Airporter is like $16 by itself, so you'll pay nearly the same amount for the SuperShuttle. I don't think you have to worry about heavy traffic at 1 pm on a Saturday - it's not really rush hour or anything. And I don't think it'll be difficult to hail a cab in that area unless it's raining. I can get a cab really easy around Penn Station unless it's raining. @vellocet: UAH doesn't check your guests, and since you have a studio you don't have roommates to contend with. Your fiance can stay with you as long as you want. It is really, truly like living in a regular apartment unit.

Er, what? I fail to see how this makes sense...an MA thesis can prepare you for the work of a dissertation, and can demonstrate to an admissions commitee that you are willing and able to undertake a large, long-term research project. Besides, a thesis can be turned into a publication, and publications always look good. With that said, though, you don't need to do a thesis to get into a PhD program. You can use the paper as a writing sample if you need one, or talk about the process as a research project.

Do you know what your interests are now? You say that you want to do a sort of STS PhD program, of which there are many, and which I think are really interesting. But what is your research area of interest? Do you have at least a hazy-ish idea of a potential dissertation topic? It may, of course, change, but being able to formulate a topic of appropriate size for a dissertation I think is a skill that is good to have beginning a doctoral program. It can help you finish faster, especially if you settle on an area in your first or second year. Most PhD applicants do not have publications already. No, an admissions committee would not evaluate you the same way they would a fresh undergrad. Although you will be compared to undergrads in some sense, I think most faculty expect a different kind of experience and knowledge coming from someone 7 years out of undergrad. Your experience could be an asset or a detriment. It all depends on how you discuss it in your personal statement. Personally, I assumed from your sequential statements (BS in chemistry, MA in sociology, interest in STS) that you start off in the natural sciences, grew a hankering for understanding how people work together, and that sometime during or after your MA program you began to use your sociology and chemistry training to wonder how people interact with the natural world. Chemistry isn't that far afield from environmental science, and it doesn't look like you've meandered - it actually looks quite logical. You just need to present it that way. Make it look like it was all part of some grand plan. Or, at the very least, sit and think about the ways in which your bachelor's and master's training fit together. I also don't see anything unconnected about lab biology, forestry, and environmental chem research. You don't have to discuss the admin stuff - everyone needs to pay the bills. But environmental chemistry, forestry, and biology are pretty clearly related, and at some point every position we have contributes to our overall knowledge and interests - even if it's simply "I hate this job."

My advisor frequently thinks things will take far longer than they do, primarily because he takes a very long time to do things that I could do rather quickly. (I typically finish things more quickly than people expect, though). I think the best idea is to write up that timeline and show it to him, then discuss in a brief meeting. A face-to-face meeting in which you respectfully ask and address his concerns may have a big impact. But are you saying that you think you can go through the IRB process in one week and do data collection in one week? Or are you saying that you think you can make the edits to the section of the proposal that concern those things? If it's the latter - then that's likely true depending on how extensive the edits are. But if you think you can get through IRB in one week...I do think that's quite unrealistic. I also think it's unrealistic to expect data collection in a week, although that also depends on your project.

In my experience, spending a little extra on the laptop saves you money in the long run. When I did cheap laptops they were dying within two years, maybe three on the long end. I have a MacBook Pro now, it's a bit over 2 years old and still running strong (only issue I ever had is one of my USB ports has failed). I know people who have had Macs and top-line PCs for 4-5 years with few issues. I run SPSS and Stata on my MacBook with no problems. I agree with the ThinkPad laptops - I had one in college and gave it to my aunt, and it ran for 6 years. Lenovo is the brand that bought out IBM's computer business; I have heard that Lenovo's ThinkPads are still good but not on par with the original IBM laptops, but that their home/student designed laptops - IdeaPads - don't have the same longevity. Still, I've heard decent things about the quality of Lenovo IdeaPads. I would also recommend Toshibas; they're built like tanks. My husband had a Toshiba that lasted him 5 years. I have also heard good things about Asus computers. I would stay away from Dell (except their business line) and Sony. Most current laptops have enough processing power to analyze the average social scientists or even epidemiologist's stuff in SPSS. But 30 million cases? Are you sure you'll ever be working with a data set that large? I work in health sciences with some pretty big data sets and even some of the largest we work with are in the tens, maybe low hundreds of thousands. Nowhere near a million, much less 10 percent of the U.S. population. I think you'd need a supercomputer to process that kind of information.

Well, the bolded part is true to a certain extent. I have a mother-in-law who I love dearly and is one of the sweetest people on the planet, but can also be very perfectionist and controlling. She's mellowed out a lot in the last 10-ish years that I've known her. One of the things I have learned is that you cannot change her personality - that is very true. To a certain extent, you have to deal with her the way she is; don't ever expect her to change. What you can change is the way that you respond to her - both individually and as a unit. A lot of the onus is going to be on your fiance - it is, after all, his mom - so some of the standing up is going to have to come from him. He should be the one telling her that you are adults and that she needs to ask for our opinions. My husband has been doing this with his mom and I think it is partially responsible for the change in her (she used to bug us when we visited and now they largely leave us alone, so our visits are much more pleasant - and she definitely asks for our input now. She wouldn't before). He usually says it pretty calmly and off-handedly, as if it weren't a big deal. "Mom, our household works differently from yours." "Mom, I'm not a kid anymore." On your end, though, I think you can just very politely and calmly - but firmly - turn down her demands. It sounds like you don't live with her, so she can't really make you do anything. If she calls you up and tells you what you are all doing for the weekend, just say "Sorry Mom, we have plans this weekend." I mean, don't make trouble just to make trouble - if you guys want to do what she's suggesting and don't have a problem with it, it's okay to give in every now and then. (One of the skills I have learned a lot in the last couple years is patience and letting things roll off your back.) But if you have plans or genuinely don't want to do something, just say so, gently. If she gets angry, that's on her - it's not like you did anything to make her angry. Stick to your guns. I have to say living far away does help. We live 900 miles away. We kind of want to move back home but have mixed feelings. We love our hometown and I really want my children to grow up close to their aunts, uncle, and grandparents (we're from the same hometown; our parents live down the street from each other). But on the other hand, parental pressure can be annoying

PsyD students do do some research, and they usually have to write a dissertation. Besides, statistics with SPSS is just a useful skill to have anyway. I recommend the SPSS Survival Manual and Discovering Statistics Using SPSS. Getting What You Came For is a really great book. A lot won't be applicable to a PsyD student, but some will be.

THE ETERNAL QUESTION The answer: Because death panels and we have the best healthcare in the world do you want to mess that up?! ...no, really, it's because rich Americans believe people should die in the streets before they fork over a couple of extra dollars to cover cheap preventive care. Okay, I'm bitter. My suggestion was going to be to use the new health exchanges set up by NYS as well. You may want to purchase just one semester of NYU's coverage (or purchase a "catastrophic insurance" coverage plan for the first few months, which is terrible coverage at low prices - although many of those plans are going by the wayside due to our new health care laws). To add to TakeruK's comments 1. In order to find out whether new physicians take my insurance, I usually check online. Most doctors have websites these days that state it; you can also use ZocDoc. In addition, every insurer I've ever had (three as an adult) has an online directory through which you can search for doctors that are covered by your exact plan. Theoretically you should check every time you make an appointment, but in my experience the doctor's office staff always informs me if my insurance is no longer covered because they want to get paid. 2. One of the very distasteful things about U.S. healthcare is that you pay when you walk through the door. Many doctor's offices are now collecting payment before the doctor even sees you. I had to get surgery and my specialist cost me $40 a pop, and they always charged me before he showed his face. The ER was $50, and I've been on plans where ER visits were $100 a copay. You also pay a set copay for medicine you pick up at the pharmacy; it's set in tiers. My old plan's tiers were $10/$25/$40, so the cheap generics were $10 and the expensive brand-name medications were $40. I have no idea what my new plan's tiers are and I hope to not find out. Another thing to note is that most health insurance plans DO NOT automatically cover dental care and vision care - you usually have to purchase them separately. They are pretty cheap compared to medical care - my school-sponsored dental plan was $250 for the year and covered 2 cleanings and some percentage of some emergency dental care. Crack a tooth, you can probably get it repaired for a discounted price; lose a tooth completely and need dental prosthetics, and you have to pony up. Same with vision. I actually don't have vision coverage right now because my medical plan only covers eye emergencies - like if I physically injure my eye with something sharp, but my university also does not have add-on vision coverage. If your husband wears eyeglasses, that may mean paying out of pocket for glasses - which is what I have to do. I actually need new glasses now but I'm trying to wait until August when I start my postdoc and thus my new vision plan. I've been with three different health insurance companies - Cigna, Aetna, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Aetna is the best, IMO. Of course, it depends on what plan you get, but I find their customer service reps reasonable and friendly and helpful, and their coverage was good. I hated Cigna. They were the ones with the $100 ER copays. BCBS is *shrug* in the middle. Decent coverage, no complaints.

My main faculty advisor from undergrad I keep in touch with occasionally - I even had lunch with her the other day (I went to college in my hometown, and I'm home visiting). I send her email when I get something big, like my NSF or my postdoc. Part of the reason is because she was the assistant director of a research training program I did in college, and so I want them to have information on us, but the other part is because she had a big impact on me professionally and I want to let her know about my successes - which are, in a way, her successes too. She's always sent me back something personal, but short. Yes, these professors move on, but I think they usually appreciate a thank you note or an update from former students. On the flip side, as a TA and hall director I've gotten emails from former students about their progress through life and I'm always happy to get it

Unless this guy is seriously unhinged, I think the chances of him taking the time to write to your program and rescind his letter are very very slim. Why don't you approach your supervisor calmly and have a conversation with him about why his attitude towards you has changed? You could also submit your question to askamanager.org and see what Alison has to say.

It depends on how much debt. Social workers average $45,000 a year, so you can't afford to repay six-figure debt. If you borrow only federal loans you can get Pay As You Earn (which limits your monthly payment to 10% of your income) and public loan service forgivenness (which limits your repayment to 10 years; after that, the government forgives the loans). However, there are two caveats: one is that you have to pay the taxes on any forgiven amount as if it were income; and two, Congress is currently debating a measure that would cap loan forgiveness at a certain amount (last I saw it was around $57,000). You can find out the tuition and fees for MSWs at Cal States by going to the website and checking the tuition and fees pages. I find them by Googling "tuition and fees Cal State Fullerton" or "cost of attendance Cal State Fullerton".

I don't go to either of them but I am in psychology. The New School has an excellent reputation in psychology, but it is very expensive. I would imagine that a 25% tuition waiver will still leave you with around $55K (including living expenses) to pay. Seton Hall is a good school as well, and likely to be much cheaper with a 50% discount. From a purely academic standpoint, The New School sounds better - you share interests with more professors, there's a PhD program you could potentially continue on with should you choose, and you already have contact with a professor who will put you in a lab. The New School's reputation in the field is also better (no, it's not traditional, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. They're generally known for good, if progressive, research). However, you don't need to go to a top-ranked MA program in psych to get into a good PhD program in psych, and I would be thinking about costs. Assuming that you take about 18-24 credits a year (9-12 a semester) that's $20-$26K in tuition, which is already pretty cheap. Cut that in half and that's about $10-13K. So over two years you'd go in debt about $20-26K + ~$40K in living expenses, so about $60K. Compare that to - I think NSSR's tuition is about $40K, so that's $60K over two years + $50K in living expenses (because NYC is more expensive) = $110K in debt. I definitely don't think NSSR is work more than $50K in debt over two years.

Practitioner-based in what? Your sidebar says higher education and student affairs; is that the field you plan to enter? Also, currently you have 7 programs. Is there any particular reason that you are narrowing it down to 4-5?

^I agree with everything Fuzzy said. To what they said, I also want to add that if you do apply to another PhD program from your current one, most new advisors are going to want a letter from your current PhD program - ideally your advisor - explaining why you want to move and assuring them that you aren't a terrible student who is trying to move laterally because you caused issues in the program or whatnot. I think that hypothetical questions are often...spurred by something. So why is it that you ask this hypothetical question? Are you just trying to prepare for all options or are you having second thoughts about your program?

I think you need to also consider whether rankings really matter here. U.S. News ranks programs to sell magazines. Their rankings are based nearly entirely on social work academic program administrators' evaluations of their peer institutions - not on employers' views of the schools. Furthermore, although this is not my field, I'm not sure that prestige or ranking is actually a factor in hiring social workers. I think it's your skills and experience that's going to get you hired. Sometimes prestigious schools of social work can have "better" fieldwork assignments, but not always. The difference between $23K and $33K honestly isn't that huge. Over a 10-year repayment period assuming an interest rate of 6.8%, $10K is about an extra $115/month. With income-based repayment plans, it may not even be that much. But there are other compelling reasons for you to attend Salem State, it seems like - it's continuously part-time throughout the program, which seems to be what you are seeking, and it'll be easier for you to keep your job. Your job isn't just an 'every little bit counts' situation - it's how you feed yourself and house yourself. How will you do that if you aren't working? You will have to borrow more money, and the gulf between the two schools will be presumably larger. So personally I would be leaning towards Salem State, but do some investigating. Where do Simmons grads end up, and where do Salem State grads go? Are there large differences in the unemployment rates between the two schools?

This also probably depends largely on the rules of the school and the department. Formally, for a dissertation committee for example, your committee chair probably has to be a professor within your home department. But informally, many students have been able to work this out depending on the university. My own department has several students primarily or jointly working in a lab outside the department but nominally overseen/advised by a departmental professor. So I'd ask some graduate students at the school whether this is something that happens, and then ask the PI whether it's feasible.

Actually, I think that a degree in epidemiology would prepare you very well for the latter. Epidemiologists often conduct research on and develop health interventions - especially if they are county or state wide - and often go on to administer them. A health services research degree may work better for the former, but you could that with an MPH in epi, too. I think epi has the broader set of opportunities.

People's opinions of the department are going to vary, but FWIW I'm getting my PhD in SMS at Columbia and I wholeheartedly disagree. All of the professors I have interacted with care about their students, many a great deal. Our DGS is great, too. I think if you want to transfer you have to apply to transfer, and the MPHs are not interchangeable - the core classes you have to take are different for epi and SMS, so you might have to spend an extra semester in school (if not longer) to take the classes you need to take in order to satisfy the requirements. Also - I realize that this is old, but This is what I do (in SMS) but this is ALSO what epidemiologists do. Many epidemiologists do social epidemiology, which is the application of the principles of behavioral science to epidemiology. And the epidemiology MPH is actually a bit more marketable than the one in SMS.

It depends on the job. Technically, grad school doesn't count as work experience - it's not the same. However, some jobs will allow you to substitute education for experience. I would say that unless the job says otherwise, graduate school doesn't actually count as years of experience. However, many people work during graduate school. I don't count grad school as experience, but I DO count my research assistantship as experience.

I'm a sixth year, about to graduate, and I still sometimes occasionally wonder whether my grad program admitted me in error. It's really common for people to wonder whether they got accepted by accident. 1) 9 to 1 you actually didn't - you got accepted purposefully. Remind yourself that you're awesome and move on. 2) in the infinitesimal chance that you did get accepted by accident - just take your incredible luck and enjoy it!

I think you should trust your gut. I agree with Fuzzy: Sometimes, the people are the most important thing. Your research interests will often change/evolve/grow over time - mine have shifted considerably (they are in the same universe, even the same galaxy, but still different - actually more closely aligned to what my advisor does). But at the end of the day these are the people you have to work with for 5-6 (or more) years. The "vibe" you get is really, really important! Feeling comfortable in your department means you'll speak up in class, you'll go to colloquia and brown bags, you'll get along with professors and advisors - and that can lead to better networking and a better perception of you in the department. I also think you have buyer's remorse. When you have lots of choices, it is really, really common for people to think soon after they chose that they made a horrible mistake and should've chosen differently. Just keep reminding yourself that there was a reason you went the way you did.