ZeChocMoose

This is because institutions received a limited amount of money from the federal government for Perkins loans. The institutions then decide how they want to split this money i.e. the school might value undergraduates over graduates for this money or EFCs of 0 vs. low EFCs, etc. You also want to submit your FAFSA early if you think that you are eligible for a Perkins loan as timing usually plays a factor into whether you receive a Perkins loan or how much you are awarded.

Entry-level admissions/enrollment management positions are reasonable to secure with only a bachelor's degree. I imagine it would be more difficult to get an entry-level student life position as they tend to be more popular and sometimes require master's degrees. That being said - you really need to get some relevant experience in one of these areas. Are you a full-time student? It's a bit late in the game to be doing this with the semester starting, but I would look to see if you could get a part-time student position or even an unpaid internship in one of these areas at your current institution or a nearby institution. Even if it is only 10 hrs/wk, you'll be able to gain experience which is key in this field to eventually secure a paid full-time position. Not to be discouraging - but I would be really surprised if you are going to be able to secure a position teaching political science at a CC with only a master's degree and no teaching experience. It's just too much of a gamble for the department head and as hesadork has mentioned you are going to be in a very competitive pool with candidates that have higher degrees and years of relevant teaching experience. Unless of course, you have some professional connections at a CC in political science, but I imagine you would have mentioned that. And also if your goal is go the CC administration route, teaching as an adjunct really doesn't make much sense. Adjuncts generally just teach their class(es) and leave. They are not involved in the daily life of the university in the sense that they would be working with administration or even faculty within their own department! It's a pretty hard life as universities only pay a couple thousand dollars per class which forces adjuncts to teach several classes per semester (sometimes at different institutions) just to make ends meet. They generally don't receive benefits either. Have you had a conversation with your advisor about job outcomes? I would recommend doing this soon! At this point (assuming that you have a year left on your master's), it probably makes sense to just finish and use this year to gain some relevant experience in student affairs or admissions/enrollment.

Generally, people start in entry-level positions in student life or admissions/enrollment and work themselves up to the dean or VP level (if it ever happens). This usually requires more than a decade of working in the field (perhaps two decades or so in competitive locations) and moving around to different institutions to gain middle management experience. That being said, have you ever worked in this areas? I would probably try to secure an entry-level position in one of these areas before deciding upon this is the career path for you. Teaching experience (as hesadork mentions) would not be a factor for these type of positions. Most Ed.D. programs are not competitive in the sense that they accept more than 50% of the applicants that they receive. Usually the model is that they are part-time programs for working professionals in the field of higher ed. They typically do not fund their students so people either take out loans and/or receive tuition assistance from the college or university that they are working at. There is also some debate on whether they are worthwhile programs as some people in the field believe that the degrees lack rigor. Have you researched what type of degrees do CC VPs/Deans of admission/enrollment or student life have? I would also look at recent job postings for these positions to see what credentials or experience CCs are looking for. Usually the job postings on the Chronicle, HigherEdJobs, AIR, etc would have some of these positions listed. I would also try to talk to admins in CCs to get their perspectives. I have only worked at 4-year HEIs and I know that how things work can be different between 2-year and 4-year schools.

Since it's a doctoral program that you are interested in, I always recommend talking to either the program director or the professor that you are interested in working with before you apply. I found this helpful in my process because it helped me getting a better sense of the program and whether it was a good fit for my needs. (I had a fairly specific list of what I was looking for in a program that is hard to find in most places.) This also allowed me to narrow down my choices of programs from six to three which was extremely fortunate because putting together an application packet takes time and you want to write a tailored SOP at the doctoral level. As for your question about ass't or assoc professor -- that doesn't matter as much as I would say having fairly similar research interests to several people in the program. You don't want to get into a situation where you want to do X for your dissertation but there is no one to sit on your committee because it is outside of everyone's expertise/interest.

I got my master's degree fully funded for higher ed. That is actually one of the best things about the field is there are a lot of master's degree programs that offer tuition remission, a stipend, and healthcare. The fully funded programs tend to be at public universities. I am not sure if I know of any private universities that fully fund all of their incoming students. Private universities tend to offer partial funding or a limited number of full scholarships for higher ed master's degrees. If you look at previous posts, generally you can get a sense of what these programs are or sometimes it is just easier to contact the programs that you are interested in to see what options that are for scholarships/assistantships.

Based on your level of full-time experience in the field (less than a year) and lack of master's degree, I would say your chances of getting into a competitive higher ed PhD program are going to be extremely difficult and honestly maybe impossible. Instead, I would recommend what ADLNYC has also suggested to seek out a master's degree in higher education. This will also help narrow your research interests and write a more convincing SOP. You also don't indicate why you want a PhD in higher ed. Are you hoping to secure a faculty position? policy? administration? Different higher ed programs have different focuses for their PhD graduates. You want to be in a program where you are going to receive the right type of training and mentoring for your career goals. For your GRE scores, I would focus more on raising your quantitative score as opposed to the writing score especially if you are seeking to do a quantitative dissertation.

Living alone is a luxury that at your current income, you just can't afford. So if you want to keep on living alone, you need to shoulder the financial burden - not have your parents lifting that load for you especially since they have their own debts that they are not paying off to help you out. So if living alone is a high priority to you, you need to find a way to increase your income either by getting a second job (if allowed by your department) or taking out loans. Personally, I would just take the smaller room in the shared house and see how that works out. It is certainly more affordable and it is unlikely that you'll spend a lot of time at home given the responsibilities that you'll have on campus. The other concern I would have is the rent on the one bedroom will increase over the length of your PhD causing you to borrow more and more money from your parents to cover the increased rent -or- it will force you to move out because the rent will just become too high. That just doesn't seem sustainable in the long run.

That is super bizarre, Goobah. I have worked in transfer admissions and I had to deal with transfering of credit all the time. Usually what happens is the university makes a determination whether the credit will transfer not the grade! I actually never heard of a school that uses the grades of the transfered credit in calculation with the home GPA for graduation purposes. I would also reach out to the Dean of your school if you have one or the VP of Academic Affairs and explain your story. The other factor which I would think is relevant is these courses are from 1992 I think you could argue that including 10 year old classes in the calculation of your GPA is a disservice to non-traditional students. I am assuming that you need these transfered courses to graduate? The other thing that I would think you could do is refuse transfer credit for them if you don't need these credits to graduate.

I am not sure if I would call it "wining-and-dining" as that makes me think of super fancy, Executive MBA programs - but I think preview weekends are a good opportunity to learn more about the program and talk with faculty and current students. There is definitely some recruitment element to the weekend as programs need students to continue functioning, but I was always impressed by how honest everyone was about the strengths and weaknesses of the programs. Added bonus of the preview weekend is that you get to meet your potential classmates. You are honestly going to hope for a. if you get accepted to multiple programs because you are going to need to find some way to narrow the list. b. definitely happens but it is unclear how frequently. Most people will elect not to come if they can't secure an assistantship because of: (1) the high cost of these programs to completely self fund in a low paying field and (2) not building the necessary experience in the field to secure a job once you graduate. I won't worry about b. so much. I think what tends to happen is people don't get their top choice of assistantships rather than them not securing any position at all. You can debate which one is more important (program fit v. assistantship fit) when deciding where to go, but it is really hard to say. Personally, I had better program fit than assistantship fit in the school that I selected for my master's degree. It worked out for me as I was able to secure a job after graduation in a higher ed area different from the one that I did my assistantship in (thankfully!). Typically they ask it in the application and faculty, current students, and even your fellow preview goers may ask you during the weekend because people are curious -and/or- they may be trying to gauge your interest in their school. I would share what you feel comfortable with. It's expected that prospective students are looking at other programs. Even if you don't disclose, there are various services now that can track where admitted students went that declined their offers so it's not a big secret. Schools know who they are competing with thanks to advancements in enrollment management. I would say it varies. Some programs only accept the number of students that they have spots to fund. (This is sorta atypical on the master's level. Instead, this is more typical at the PhD level because generally you are guaranteeing support for multiple number of years which can get fairly expensive and students are working directly with faculty members.) I think what is more typical and you can go through back posts on this forum to see how this plays out is that the program admits a certain number of students based on how many people have accepted in the past and the program provides help for students to secure assistantships by streamlining the interviewing process but ultimately who gets offered positions is up to the hiring manager in the office with the assistantship. Thus, the admission decision and the assistantship decision typically come from different people on campus so it's possible to get admitted but not be offered an assistantship. But, like I said before, I won't worry too much about this possibility.

I'll PM you with the schools that I applied to for my master's program. Although that was almost a decade ago (yikes!) so admission policies and procedures may have changed. When I was applying, once you accepted the assistantship offer, you have de facto accepted the admissions offer. The schools were fairly clear on this- that is why it is important to get extensions from programs if you can't make a decision concerning assistantship offers which tend to have shorter time tables than the standard April 15 deadline for admission offers. Most people (that I knew anyways) waited until they attended all their preview events and saw their assistantship offers to make a decision. The only people I know that accepted w/o knowing their financial support from the program were people who only applied to one program or were self funding their degree.

My experience was those terms were used interchangeably. Although when I applied to master's program, usually you were not yet admitted when you were invited to visit campus. (For my doctoral admission cycle, it was the exact opposite where I was admitted first and then invited to campus.) Typically you do a series of interviews (~8 - 10) over a couple of days to secure an assistantship and convince the faculty that you would be a good addition to the program. Be prepared to be gone multiple weekends in a row from late February - early April. It can be kinda exhausting! Do you mean being asked to accept on the spot? I haven't heard of that happening. What is more typical is your assistantship offer from the earlier schools that you visited may only be good for x amount of weeks, but will expire before you have a chance to visit some of your top choices. Then you either have to make a difficult decision or see if the school can extend the timeline. This can get a bit stressful unfortunately.

Name doesn't matter that much in higher ed unless you are hoping to go into academia and maybe policy. It's an experience based field so you'll want your assistantship to be in the area that you hope to get a job in after you graduate. If you can't secure a civic engagement assistantship - I would then look for a student life position - campus activities or something similar would be your best bet. Since community engagement/service-learning is fairly specific, I would only apply to schools that offer internships or assistantships in those areas. Off the top of my head, I would recommend: Ohio State University (they have a Service-Learning strand in their higher ed program), University of Vermont (they tend to have at least one assistantship in civic engagement and in general the school is focused on social justice, civic engagement issues), U-Mass Amherst (they have a Higher Ed program and a Social Justice program so it is highly likely that you can take electives in Social Justice but should research further), University of Maryland (they tend to have several assistantships in this area and use to have some classes on this but I can't find them at the moment on their website), University of Michigan (they have the Ginsberg Center for Community Service Learning that is pretty well known and they also have a concentration in Diversity and Social Justice within their higher ed program), University of Connecticut (they tend to have at least one assistantship in this area), and University of Iowa (they have at least one faculty member studying this but I am not sure about assistantship offerings). I am sure there are more programs focused on civic engagement/service learning, but these are the programs that I think of when I think of strong civic engagement opportunities in higher ed. Essentially I would recommend picking programs based on the assistantships that you get offered, cost of the program, courses that you need to take, and then location. You might decide on a different order of preferences though. Good luck!

I agree with ADLNYC. It is going to be extremely difficult to get into a PhD program in higher ed without a master's degree. The only people that I have know who have done it (3 people) had substantial research and/or professional experience. Since you mention that you only have 1.5 years of experience (which is at the low end of experience in higher ed PhD programs in general), you are going to be at a real disadvantage without a master's AND having limited experience especially if you are applying to competitive programs. The other problem that I see if you don't pursue the academic route, it is going to be difficult to find a job with your limited experience. You'll be in this strange place where you have the PhD but you won't have the usual years of professional experience that the other job candidates will have. This could be fine if you are willing to start back at entry level positions again - but usually people tend to look for more senior level positions when they graduate. Another good point about completing a master's degree is it is a good and short(!) way to figure out if the field is right for you. You don't mention whether you are working in higher ed currently-- but you may find out that you are not the right fit for the field. Or you may find that you don't need a PhD in higher ed because either your interests change, it is not a necessary degree in your specific subsection of higher ed, or you don't plan to pursue research/policy jobs. There are also a decent amount of quality higher ed master's programs that are fully funded. Please don't feel like you have to go into debt or take out a huge chunk of your savings. That is honestly one of the benefits of the field - getting your master's degree paid for - which is not the norm in other fields.

I am not sure why it makes a difference whether K-12 and higher ed are in the same program or in different departments. Are you interested in the transition between K - 12 and higher ed? It is really not going to make that much difference whether they are in the same program or in different departments unless the K- 12 program makes it difficult for higher ed students to register for their classes-- which honestly is really unlikely. Instead of location/weather concerns (esp since these are short programs), I would focus on the research interests of the faculty and whether that matches what you want to study. It is hard to say whether the POLS project is going to make a difference on your PhD apps. What it would do (hopefully) is expose you to research which can be helpful in determining whether a PhD is the right direction that you should pursue. That can be a value in itself - but more important on your PhD apps will be the work you do after your master's. Personally, I would end up selecting the school that has the best course selection close to my interests because master's degrees are extremely course heavy and gives me sufficient work experience in higher ed.

In one year, it is going to be really tough to try to prepare simultaneously for a policy job and a student affairs job. For a policy job, you are going to want to have a solid quantitative background and policy analysis experience which might be a little tricky to gain if the programs does not allow you to take many electives. Have you visited each program yet? Visiting and talking to current students/faculty really helped me when I was deciding between a couple programs for my master's. You can also ask them in what areas graduates typically end up. What are your internship offers from each school? If you have limited experience in the field, it is going to be more helpful to have an internship offer in an area you hope to go into after you graduate. That is not to say that you can't switch areas if you discover you are better suited elsewhere, but generally hiring managers like to see that you have experience in X if you are applying for X. Have you looked at the core classes? I looked up the core classes for UCLA and Penn and they are fairly different. Which set are you drawn to more? I also think that the cost of the degree should play a role too. How much you value it is up to you but the salary for entry level student affairs jobs is about 35 - 45 K. Depending on whether you have student loan debt from your undergrad, I would not suggest taking on more than 45 K combined in student loans. Oh and wouldn't let the brand of the Ivy League sway you. Instead, you want to focus on whether they have the courses you want to take, whether the practical experience you gain in the program is going to be helpful for future employment, and whether the costs of the program is reasonable given your financial situation. Good luck!

I am actually pretty curious on what type of organization that you were or maybe still are working in, Sunshinegrl. The salaries of your coworker seem high in my experience especially multiple people earning 100K. Is this education research/policy work? I worked in education research (in an university) right after my master's degree and 50K was about average for an entry-level research position. However, this was in a city with a high cost of living. I also interviewed for similar type jobs where the salary was around 40K, but the cost of living was much, much lower. 100K was really unusual for my workplace -- unless you ended up as the director, but you would usually need more education than a master's degree and there is only one slot. The most you could hope for at my previous place of employment was around 65 - 80K with a master's degree, but it would require you to take on a more administrative/supervisory role than strictly research and there were only two positions of this type. Talking with people in similar types of jobs in other universities, our salary structures/expectations seemed very similar to theirs especially in areas with high costs of living.

I think specialty rankings tend to be more useful than overall school rankings because people within a field tend to be more familiar with them. I would compare them over time to see how a program is fairing though. For the Penn State example, you'll see that they have been dropping in the ranking over the last couple of years which might be a signal to explore further. You'll discover that there has been a turnover in their faculty which might explain some of the drop in the rankings. That being said, I wouldn't interpret the program that is ranked #6 is "better" than the program that is ranked #10. That is how U.S. News wants you to interpret them but there is not enough evidence (I think) to do so. I do think the specialty rankings are generally accurate at least in higher ed of what are the decent programs in the field. U.S. News ranking methodologies tend to favor private schools over public ones so that is probably some of what is going on. There was a great article in the Chronicle about this although it did focus on the undergraduate level and not the graduate level.

I hope you will see a change in the classroom dynamics after your feedback on the midterm evaluation. I would like to think that people in education should be more cognizant of their classroom behavior but I doubt that is true. There are people who like to dominate discussions in every discipline. And Dal PhDer brings up a good point that some people need to talk with others to process their thoughts and you might have that going on in the classroom as well. So yes, you can sit there and not participate. Personally, I would find it boring not to speak in a 3 hour discussion but if this is how you make peace with the situation then so be it. I don't think this is a valid response (not engaging) to use if it keeps on happening though in different classrooms in different semesters though. It will make you seem disengaged to the faculty and to your fellow cohort mates and it would make me start to resent the people who won't let me talk. I like the suggestions (up thread) to be more proactive about how to solve the problem of classroom domination instead of watching it play out in front of me.

Yes, unfortunately completion rates are that low and there is some great research on why PhD students don't complete their degree-- usually academic ability isn't one of the major concerns. Most people enter thinking they are going to complete the degree and then life happens along the way. I would ask very specific questions to your program on what is the graduation rate for your program and what is the average time to degree (especially if you are walking into this knowing that you are going to have to pay for year 3 and beyond.) You also would want to know with the job market is like for PhDs in art education esp if you are going to be funding a portion of your schooling. Personally, I would just reapply next year.

Yes. Don't self-pay for your PhD. There are so many reasons why it is not worth it. Also assistantships besides giving you tuition remission and a stipend should be giving you the necessary skills and experience to get a job in your field once you graduate. Also the national graduation rates for PhD programs are only 50%. If you end up dropping out, you'll be stuck with debt and no degree which is not a good spot to be in. The question I would ask if you do receive the competitive assistantship, are you stuck with reapplying each year to see if you can win it? I talked to PhD students in programs where funding is contingent year to year. It definitely makes everyone more competitive with each other and anxious about money. PhD studies are hard enough w/o worrying about how you are going to pay your tuition and rent.

We are already getting compensated for our service of being TA/RAs by receiving stipends and getting tuition remission. I rather the money go to reestablishing subsidized Stafford loans especially for master's students who are not usually funded by their programs.

Yes, I agree with rising_star. When I said current students, I meant grad students in your program. I would ask at least five of them or so for their recommendations. Some grad students from my program said they went walking around in the neighborhoods that they wanted to live in and ended up stumbling on apt for rents signs. I never tried doing this mostly because I only had one weekend to secure a place- but they had good luck with this method. Are you trying to find a place within walking distance of the university? I know in my college town if you go further out, you reduce the probability that your neighbors with be undergraduates and increase the probability that your apartment will be cheaper and nicer. You do need to have a car or take the bus though to get to campus. In the worse case scenario, you could take a non-ideal place for a year that doesn't break the bank and then move next year when you have more time on your side and you have a better idea of where the good places are at.

I can sympathize. I had a miserable time trying to find a one bedroom in a college town when I was a new student. I ending up taking the best of the worst but unfortunately it didn't work out too well. I had a terrible management company and my neighbors were very loud and inconsiderate. It made for a rough transition. Have you asked current students where they live? I wish I did a better job with soliciting advice when I was an incoming student. Thankfully, I love my current apartment mostly because I asked people for recommendations and I got on the waitlist early and secured one of the better units. I definitely feel your pain though. Apartment hunting is tricky in the best of circumstances. Apartment hunting in college towns seems to be a whole other level of awfulness though.

I have lived in multiple different places in the US and it depends on whether you are living in a city or a college town. Cities have a continuous leasing process and generally people start looking 2-3 months before they move. You usually have multiple areas that you can live in so the supply seems much more plentiful. College towns (I have discovered) are a whole other animal. At least where I am at, you can start leasing 10 months in advance for the start of the next academic year. I personally think that is crazy and causes a lot of stress to figure out if you are staying/leaving only after you have lived there for 2 months, but the big leasing companies do tend to get away with it. There is also more fierce competition for units that are within walking distance to the university and are nice. So I suppose it depends on what are the renting norms for your area and whether the type of apartment that you are looking for is in high demand.

I agree with juilletmercredi. If you have no interest in academia, I would just attend a master's program and then take it from there especially since it seems like you are interested in going back to industry. Is a PhD necessary to advance in your organization? If it is and you have no desire to go tenure track, then I don't think the program's ranking makes that much of a difference as long as the lower ranked PhD program has sufficient ties to industry and you are not paying out of pocket for it.