ZeChocMoose

This is going to be an unsatisfying answer of it depends. This is confusing - I am assuming that you are going to leave your tenured job at a K-12 school to pursue a TT job in higher education. If that is the case then why would the automatic salary increase for getting a PhD matter since you would no longer be employed at your school? The problem would be if you don't get involved in research beyond your dissertation than you wouldn't be competitive enough for a TT job. We just had a TT opening in my department and we removed anyone that didn't have sufficient research productivity. I definitely think it is possible to get involved in research while you stay full-time in the classroom - but a lot of that depends on your program and how flexible your work/life responsibilities are. I don't see this path leading to better quality of life at least in terms of your time in your program as you will be juggling a lot. Also if most PhD students in your program are full-time students with research assistantships - I think it is going to be really difficult for a faculty member to take you on as a RA because you are not going to be able to dedicate enough time to their projects especially if they are expecting a 20-hrs-per-week RA. I have seen this work better in places where there is a mix of full- and part-time PhD students and the faculty are use to incorporating part-time PhD students into their research projects. It is a lot though - working full-time, taking classes, life/family responsibilities, and then adding RA duties? I also would think about why you want a TT job. Mostly likely you are going to have to be willing to move anywhere and you may have to do a postdoc for a couple of years. I know that is becoming increasing common in my subfield - higher ed. I am not sure about C&I. Since you mention finances being important to you, I would investigate the typical salary ranges for an assistant professor in C&I because my guess is they are a lot less than what you would make in your tenured job in your K-12 school system. That is really unusual. Are they employed at CCs? In my current university, you need a PhD before you can get hired into a TT role. At some places, you might be hired into the role if you are finishing up your PhD but usually you have 6-9 months to finish or you are terminated.

Would this be in addition to RA work? Designing your own course is *so* much work and I really wouldn't recommend it if it gets in the way of your research or your dissertation. I would recommend to teach a well established course first and then progress to designing your own course eventually especially if you have never taught as the instructor of record before. This also depends on how much teaching experience is expected in your field once you go on the job market. Some fields expect that you will have been the instructor of record for multiple classes and some are okay with you only having been a TA so it really depends.

Not to add to anyone's anxiety but tenured faculty can be laid off if the university declares a financial exigency. It is not very common though, but it does happen from time to time and the college/university usually gets rid of programs/majors with low enrollments and then lays off all those faculty - tenured or not. Sometimes universities try to have tenured faculty absorbed by another dept/program, but it is not always possible. Due to COVID-19 and the financial strain that some schools are under, my guess is we might see that happen to a small number of colleges/universities -or- the entire school will close and then everyone will get laid off. Just recently, St Cloud State has laid off 8 tenured faculty members at the start of Fall 2019 because of financial issues (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/09/19/tenured-faculty-laid-st-cloud-state). I am pretty sure that the faculty members who were laid off are trying to fight it or hope it doesn't come to this, but the decision was decided before the COVID-19 situation so an 11th hour save might not be possible. I do agree that contingent faculty will be harder hit by the COVID-19 situation in general though. This is going to be a really difficult year ahead for university hiring and budgets. They might be trying to buy some time to figure out what Fall enrollments look like and how long the COVID-19 situation will last. It is definitely a bummer though and I hope you find something soon.

Since education is a practical field - not having experience in the field, but an education policy PhD is going to be hard on the job market. My suggestion without knowing which PhD programs that you got into and which MA programs that you got it is to get the MA and get experience in the field and then go back for the PhD. Most successful candidates for top 10 PhD program in education policy typically have 2-5 years of experience and a relevant master's degree. The people who I have seen in your potential situation (PhD + no to little experience) end up with entry level research or policy analyst jobs after they graduate. Usually, you can get an entry-level research or policy analyst job with either a masters or a bachelor's degree and some research experience in college so having a PhD for an entry-level job is a bit overkill IMO. Although - I am not sure if I would suggest to do a one year education policy MA if you want a research position after you graduate. I would be concerned that you won't get enough stats or research methods courses/experience to really be that marketable for entry level research or policy analyst positions. I would really look at the courses that they want you to take (or can take) as most one-year education policy MAs are not research degrees. You might be better off to do a two-year MA program that allows you to take a lot of courses in stats, qualitative methods, and research designs. Some master's in education programs do that, but they are not usually one-year programs. I might consider doing the PhD if that program has a good placement rate for its graduates and they offer you full funding for at least 4-5 years. You also want to have a research assistantship as part of your package to help you gain research experience and to be able to work closely with one of your professors on their research. I would suggest to do at least one internship at an education policy organization over the summer to get more experience. It would be a risk though because the job market is going to be harder, but might be a better option depending on what the MA offers are.

I know that The Professor Is In is collecting which schools have announced a hiring freeze due to COVID-19 and compiled into this blog post: http://theprofessorisin.com/2020/03/24/schools-announcing-a-hiring-freeze/ There are also some people responding to her tweet with school names that are not included in the blog post. I know at my particular institution - we haven't announced a hiring freeze but are pausing any search that has not extended an offer yet. :/ Yea, so not the greatest of times to be job searching. My suggestion would be to think about doing a postdoc or a non-academic research position for a year or two if getting a TT job does not work out due to a (potentially) lower number of jobs for next year. How disruptive the coronavirus is going to be - is hard to tell right now. I think it is going to depend on how long it takes to contain the situation and what effect this may have on fall enrollments. A couple universities are also declaring financial exigency which allows them to lay off tenured faculty members... so I also would be prepared for some postsecondary schools to close.

I have moved around a lot and I have always converted my license, registration, and insurance over to the place that I was currently living so I would probably convert everything to IL. (I have registered the same car in four different states as I have moved around. It does add up.) Different states have different rules on whether you change the drivers' license first or the car registration first so I would check that. And FYI - you may also have to pay a tax on the value of your car when you register it. You definitely want car insurance in the place where your car is located. You don't want to get into a car accident and have your insurance not pay out because you have your car listed as being located in NC or TX or whatnot.

I would probably lean more towards the school that has the better academic fit with the PI that I clicked with (trust me, this is super important) than life factors - but that is me as I tend to value work/school conditions over location. Your concerns about School B don't seem that difficult to work around. You are concerned that the graduate students are older and married so that would make them what - less friendly? less able to get along with? less likely to hang out with you? It is not really clear to me why older and married would necessarily be bad. In grad school, I hung out with people 5 years younger and 15 years older than me and honestly didn't notice a difference when it came to our interactions. Some were married with kids, some married w/o kids, some partnered, some single, etc. You'll have the shared interest of the subject that you are studying to bond you and honestly, I find it more interesting to be friends with people who are less like me than more like me. As long as they are kind - that is a way more important trait than their age or relationship status. Even if you don't hit it off with the other grad students, you can find friends outside of your department or the school. I also found it healthier to have friends that were not so caught up in grad school as it helped me realize that grad school shouldn't be that serious. In terms of cold - I get it. I am also temperature sensitive, but there are ways to deal with extreme cold. A super warm jacket, boots, winter clothing, etc. can go a long way. And usually when the temperature is that extreme - you don't go outside much in the winter and you really live for the summers. I live in extreme heat now (really not my favorite) and you make adjustments. I don't go outside much in the summer, stay in the AC for most of the day, and plan exercise for the wee hours of the morning (not a morning person so this is also rough). I really live for the winters/early spring here though because it is my idea of a great temperature.

This is more complicated than that. In student affairs/higher ed programs, the campus visit day(s) are a series of interviews with assistantship sites as well as sometimes with the program/department. If you don't attend the day - it is more difficult to secure an assistantship which ultimately pays for your degree with a tuition waiver, stipend, and benefits. People don't usually attend the program if they can't secure an assistantship. Also if you can't get an assistantship, it makes finding a job post graduation way more difficult. Are you leaning towards one over the other? Granted it was well over 10 years ago - but I interviewed at both schools and they struck me as very different programs with different focuses. I would be happy to talk more about my thoughts if you PM me.

I agree with everything that @juilletmercredi said. I also will add if you can't find a theorist that you want to work with at your institution see if you can cultivate a relationship with a faculty member from outside of your university. They can sit on your committee and provide guidance on your dissertation that can be really helpful. Usually you leverage the network of your current faculty to find these individuals but I have also seen people in my cohort do this themselves and cold email different faculty members especially if they are working in a niche area.

I was the only postdoc in my unit - so even if you are the only one - I suggest to workshop your writing with either assistant professors in your general area or advance level PhD students. I think both can be helpful for different reasons. When I was a post doc, I also tried to reach out to post docs outside of my area, but didn't find it that helpful as most of the other post docs at my university were STEM focused and I am not in a STEM field. Do you know about the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (https://www.facultydiversity.org/)? If your university is a member - you can get access to their resources for free. They have workshops about how to build a publishing pipeline, how to write a winning proposal, how to identify and get over writing blocks, etc. that you might find helpful.

I mean you never know so I would apply. They might not end up with the pool of candidates that they were expecting and will have to be flexible on some of their requirements. Before my PhD, I applied to a couple of PhD required research positions, but I was not successful. I was close to being done with my PhD though (i.e. within a year of finishing) so I would just mention my expected date to finish in my cover letter. Since it sounds like you are not in a PhD program - I personally wouldn't mention it in your cover letter that you don't have a PhD, I would just focus on your strengths and why you think you would be the best person for the job. If it is a non-negotiable requirement, you might get autorejected from the application system, but I would still apply if they are only asking for a cover letter and a resume. If they are asking for beyond that, I would think about it some more. Some things that I would think about or weigh would be how much I like the position versus how much time it will take to create the additional materials that they are seeking - especially if they don't end up seeing my application because I got autorejected or filtered out of the application pool since I don't meet the minimum requirements.

As someone who did a post doc, they are really only helpful if you intend to stay in academia or want to pursue a research position outside of academia. And even if you want a research position outside of academia - I would just recommend you seek out and apply for those type of positions. At least in my field, post docs don't tend to pay as well as a PhD-level research positions outside of academia. I would definitely try to do an internship as this would get you familiar with the organizational norms as well as hopefully you can secure good references. You also will get to work on projects that you can talk about in your future interviews.

I have never heard the phrase "continuing track" - usually non-TT appointments where I have worked in the U.S. would be labeled as either "clinical" professor, "lecturer," or professor "of practice." This assumes that appointment is full-time. If it is part-time, usually you are labeled as an adjunct. In my experience, there is a huge difference between non-TT and TT positions in terms of work load, pay, benefits, professional development, status, etc. Does the person who told you there is no difference have a vested interest in you accepting this non-TT position? It just seems like a weird statement to make given that there are stark differences between the two types of positions. Usually, non-TT positions have shorter contracts, higher teaching loads, less pay, limited benefits, and are ineligible for certain internal grants or other professional development opportunities. Of course, there always can be exceptions to this depending on the university but usually TT positions are the better option than non-TT positions.

I have a PhD in higher ed policy. If that is close enough to what you are looking for - feel free to DM me.

I mean no one can force you to attend their school. Are they giving you any funding? Sometimes accepting the funding and then declining it has consequences for the department as they can't transfer the funding to another person. My advice is if you are going to accept - you should accept in good faith. Only accept if you actually think you will attend come the fall. If you are still really unsure once the deadline approaches - new or original, I would probably decline. It is a lot of time, energy, and money to put into a program that you are only so-so about. You can always apply again next year if you don't like any of the offers that you receive. Honestly, grad school is always going to be there.