ZeChocMoose

What is your reason behind getting a graduate certificate? Are you looking for a specific set of knowledge or a credential? If there is some knowledge that you are hoping to get that might make sense. In my experience, graduate certificates in higher ed are not that marketable esp when universities are seeking master's degree graduates for their entry level positions. You might be better off trying to find a part-time master's degree assuming you don't already have one.

People in your position will sometimes go to a temp agency and then get assigned office work. I am not sure whether it pays over minimum wage though but it is one avenue to look into...

Is this just for the PhD? Do you survey the students who are admitted, but chose not to come -or- that start an application, but do not submit it? You can get really helpful information from student surveys assuming that you design the survey carefully and you get a good response rate. Are there non-academic factors that you can emphasize? If your program is competing against some of the top programs and people tend to chose the top program over yours you might need to highlight other factors-- such as location (is there something special about it? do people want to live there?), strong ties to industry (assuming that a good proportion of students go into non-academic jobs when they graduate), family-friend atmosphere (if you attract students that are married or have children), stipend vs. cost of living ratio (assuming that it is high), etc. Instead of an email recruitment strategy-- you might want to think about inviting people to a webinar with current students and/or faculty or embedding a short recruitment video in an email. Those tend to be more interactive and interesting. Does your program have a subfield that is particularly strong? Sometimes programs will try to attract applicants that are interested in that subfield and emphasize through a number of academic metrics how strong that particular subfield is especially if your program is seen as not as strong academically as some of the top programs. You say you want to emphasize facilities, funding, and a strong publication record because those are you strengths. How do you know those are the characteristics that your applicant pool is looking for? I would want to make sure that I understood the pool before I start crafting my recruitment strategy.

I think it depends on how teaching or research focused your program of interest is. When I applied to master's programs, my personal statement was about my research interests and how they relate to my professional experience and my future plans in the field. However, the programs that I applied to emphasized research and practical experiences. Also--make sure you address why BC is a good fit for you. When I sat on the adcomm when I was a master's student, it was confusing when applicants didn't address how the program would help them meet their educational and professional goals. Good luck!

I would suggest to get involved on your campus. People with your interest tend to be orientation leaders in the summer, residential advisors, campus tour leaders, etc. I would look around to see where you can work on campus in the summer. Usually a lot of the formalized summer internships are geared towards master's students in higher ed/student affairs.

I don't think there is any harm in applying esp since you said that you rarely see similar jobs posted. Whether it will work out or not is an entirely different situation. I do think that taking a full-time job will delay you especially since you will be pouring a lot of time and energy into learning the new job in the first several months. How flexible is your program in dealing with part-time students? Are all the classes offered during the day? In terms of when you disclose that you need a flexible work schedule to pursue your studies, I think that really depends. Some people will tell you to do it during the interview stage and some people will tell you to do it after you receive an offer because they will be more willing to negotiate with you. I think it is up to you and what you feel comfortable with. Be prepared to answer how you will balance school and work during your interview though. In my office, that is a standard question we would ask when the candidate was applying while also in school.

I am curious how you did that sarakeet. That is about $890 per month if my math is right ([($10,000 * 6.8% interest)/12]) Is that because your salary is high compared to the cost-of-living in the country that you are working in? It definitely is creative though! Some alternative suggestions are to attend part-time and to work full-time at the university that you would like to attend to receive tuition remission. There are some units at an university where this would not be doable, but I would say there are a good number of them where this could work out. Although there are a bunch of trade-offs and it might be not ideal depending on your work and academic styles.

TheSquirrel, Why do you know each other's grades? Is that the norm in the department? Are they posted in a public place? If they are not posted, I would suggest not to disclose what you get to anyone. It is possible that you disclose it to someone else it could get back to him. If this person doesn't know how well you are doing relative to himself hopefully that will help alleviate some of the competition. In general though, I would just behave neutrally i.e. be polite, but don't engage. It is a better political move and really it is futile trying to reason with someone who is not being logical or to help someone who doesn't want to be helped especially after how he has been acting. The exception to this would be if you feel physically threatened or are verbally harassed then you should go speak to someone. It is hard to tell in your posts the seriousness of his behavior although damaging your property is really not a good sign. To be honest, since he is having academic struggles and you said the department is aware of his performance, I doubt he is going to be able to stick it out and complete the degree. I feel like classes are such a small part of being a successful doctoral student. My guess is that he is having trouble in other areas as well--i.e. research, teaching, relationship with professors, etc. Although the hope of him leaving is probably not that helpful to you in the short run. Edit: Yes, I have had experience with people like this. I wouldn't ignore the person-- it gives him too much power. I would just talk to him about neutral topics and not discuss your successes. If asked, just be vague. When asked, "how did you do?" reply: "I did okay" or "I did alright" and then I would change the subject. Do not ask him how he did because that would be engaging him in the discussion on grades.

What field are you interested in? I know in higher ed, there are a good amount of programs that will fully fund their master's students-- but I never really got the impression that the other subfields in education had this funding structure for their master's students. I would also try to collect good data on entry level salaries so you'll know realistically how much debt you can take on.

On average, only 50% of people who start a PhD complete one-- so you are definitely not alone. You seem overwhelmed and sorta lonely. I hope there is someone that you can talk to about this that can listen and understand. Transitions are hard and it can be even harder if you haven't had to move around a lot. Usually it takes me about a year or so to really feel comfortable in a new city/new job/etc. And I agree that people with a lot of information can still make decisions that don't work out. I thought I wanted to be a number of different occupations before I hit on the right one. But the good news is you still have the power of choice. You can decide to stay in for the first year and reevaluate your feelings in a year -or- you can decide to leave. Honestly, it is not about what anyone else says or really even thinks. You are the one that has to do the day-to-day of your life. As long as you are satisfied then I would call that a success.

I would suggest searching the education forum. People have posted on this in the past and have asked whether certain programs are worth that much debt. I haven't seen any external fellowships for M.Eds. I assume that private GSEs have some funding for their students. Although, the availability of that funding might be quite slim at the master's level. I would just call the program and ask because if only 10-15% of the master's cohort receives scholarships or grants that would be important to know before you apply. I expect that a majority of the people take out loans and hope that name recognition of the program will help them get a job. I agree with you that 80K in debt will be quite the burden in the education field. I would also look at public universities. They are some really strong public GSEs that might be more affordable if you cannot get funding through the program.

I am not in Educational Linguistics nor did I apply to Penn GSE. However, the acceptance rates for PhD programs in Education tend to vary widely from what I have seen. When I applied to programs last year, the acceptance rates for my programs hovered around 10-15%. Granted I only applied to programs that cover your tuition and provide you with a stipend and healthcare. I assume programs were you are fully funded are probably more competitive than programs were you pay out-of-pocket for your education. (Unless you are independently wealthy or your employer is paying your tuition, it is probably not the best financial strategy to do this.) I found the class profile of Penn GSE by just searching on the web. http://www.gse.upenn.edu/admissions_financial/classprofile If doesn't give you acceptance rates, but I assume you could just ask someone who works in admissions. Good luck!

What do you ultimately hope to do? If you want to pursue administration, I would recommend getting a job in higher ed and then working your way up. I don't think getting a second doctorate degree is going to improve your chances of landing a job unless you hope to be an educational psychology professor. In terms of applying to a doctorate program with a doctorate, I do think it puts you at a disadvantage unless it is very clear how the two will relate. When I sat on my admissions committee as a master's student, there were a couple candidates with doctorates that applied to the higher ed PhD program. They were not admitted-- mostly because they did not have a clear idea of how pursuing this new doctorate will help them with their educational and professional goals. Personally before pursuing another doctorate degree, I would make sure that I could not reach my goals with my first doctorate degree. Also side note for the EdD. Typically, the degree is a part-time program for working professionals. There are a few exceptions to this, but most EdD programs do not fund their students as they assume the students' employers will be helping out.

In my experience, it is more about how your research and professional goals "fit" the particular program. I would also look into whether all those schools fund their doctoral students and how many years they guarantee funding for because that will make a difference especially in the dynamics of the program. When I applied for Education PhD programs, I talked to faculty and current students before I submitted my applications. It was important because it helped trimmed some schools that I thought were a good fit on initial glance but after speaking with several people, I realized that they didn't have the necessary coursework I was interested in, the focus of the program was more on x than on y, or the funding situation left much to be desired. Since applying to one school tends to get expensive when you add in application fees and sending score reports and transcripts, I wanted to make sure I was selecting schools where I would have a great fit and I could see myself being productive because they had the resources I needed. Since my needs were very specific, my initial list of 20 or so schools was narrowed down to three by the time I submitted my applications.

In my experience, you'll have naysayers on both sides of the fence (i.e. people who say you'll never get an academic job or people who say industry is the sub par choice) so I would just smile and if they say something really inappropriate-- I would just say, "wow." Nothing more and nothing else. It tends to make people not elaborate and stop throwing in their two cents. I agree with you. I am not sure why people want to tell you that you haven't thought this out clearly when they may know nothing about you -or- even worse, just met you! It's rude, but I also find it funny because I have had it happen to me a couple times now. Sometimes their generalizations or statements of "fact" are so wacky that you have to laugh a bit or at least smile at their expense. I assume they are projecting their own negative experiences onto you. Don't let them. Honestly at the end of the day, you'll have to live the day-to-day in whatever path you choose, not them. I think it is smart to keep your options open and explore all possibilities. Generally, industry jobs tend to be more plentiful and have better compensation (at least in my field) which is an added bonus. Since you have thought about this extensively, you'll be better prepared for your career options than the other folks who just want to parrot the masses. Good luck.

I agree with t_ruth. In competitive education programs (accepting around 10-20% of the application pool), the majority of candidates have multiple years of experience in the field, great academic credentials, and stellar letters of recommendation. Therefore, it is important for your research interests to match the faculty in the school that you are applying. (This is also practical because you want to be at a place where the faculty are researching and teaching on your area of interest.) We can't tell from your post what your research interests are or how your research interests align with the faculty at the schools that you are interested in. Also-- 10 schools (IMHO) is a lot to apply to. To maximize your chances, you'll want to speak with faculty and current students at these schools (before you apply) and craft a personalized SOP for each school which can be very time consuming while also working a full-time job. Initially, I thought I would apply to six and ended up applying to three because of time constraints (I was working a very demanding job at the time). If you are interested in funding-- I would research whether the program funds all their students or not. In seems in the last application cycle, some education PhD applicants were getting in, but were being asked to pay out of pocket which can add up after 4 - 6 years.

I can offer what I know about this program. Granted my info is about 5+ years old so things may have changed. In my application cycle, they invited about 40 people to campus primarily to interview for assistantships and learn more about the program. The people who secured assistantships, then were admitted to the program. I can't remember how many people it was, but 18 people or so makes sense. The stipend of 20K seems a bit high esp since it is not an area that has a high cost of living. I think our assistantship stipends were around 15K or so but it might have been lower. I ended up not attending UConn because the program fit was not there, but it seemed like a decent program. They had also just revamped the program and I wasn't too keen on being a member of the first class under this new program. In general, I haven't met any graduates of the program working in higher ed. This could be for a lot of reasons though esp since it is a newish program with a small cohort size and I don't work in student affairs which seems to be the emphasis of the program. I would also say there are a fair amount of programs that fund their master's students. I don't know where you hope to get your first job, but you might want to take that into consideration as well.

Are you only selecting NJIT because you have been to SC twice? To me that wouldn't be a good enough reason to attend NJIT esp. for a terminal degree and one that is longer in length than your previous degrees. It seems like your PhD defines (in some way) or brands who you become as an academic at least in the beginning of your career. (What I mean by that is usually you know that x professor went to Z University for his PhD. People don't tend to mention where he earned his bachelor's or master's.) I would say it is too early to know right now. Apply and see where the chips fall. You might discover that SC offers you an amazing funding package or NJIT has more opportunities in x and you really want to learn more about x. I would lean towards which program has the better overall fit than anything else. I too had to decide whether to attend the PhD program at my alma mater (I received my master's there). There were a lot of reasons why I chose not to, but I won't be particularly concerned about being a double or triple alumnus . I think the concern about academic inbreeding is a bit exaggerated. There are many reasons why search committees don't like candidates. I would rather attend a program that is a better overall fit for me so I can do my best work than worry about how it will look to see the same university attached to all my degrees.

Is it possible in general? Yes, it's possible. Is it possible for your programs? (I'm assuming this is the question you really care about.) Since it is so program specific and you didn't name the programs or the specific area in education, I would just call/email them and ask.

Are you planning on pursuing a quantitative research agenda? If so, I agree with t_ruth. That score would really raise my eyebrows and I would be concerned that you would not be able to pass the required statistics classes. Have you taken any statistics courses? If so, how did you do? If you plan to pursue a qualitative research agenda and an EdD maybe it is not as concerning. Typically those degrees are not as research/stats intensive and the people who pursue them are interested in more administrative pursuits than research. If this is your plan, perhaps the adcomm would argue that your leadership and professional experience are more important and this should offset your low Q score. Pet peeve on mine but needs to be said. Math and writing skills are important for everyone regardless of what academic field they pursue. I am tired of people justifying lack of skill because they are not a "math-person" or not a "english-person" *especially* in people who pursue education as their field because they should know better and understand how valuable each field is. Blah.

I am sorry to hear that you weren't successful in this round of applications. Based on your school selection, you are applying to a broad range of programs. What do you want to learn about in your program? As higher ed and student affairs programs can be very different from each other, it is helpful to get a general sense of your overarching interests. Do you want to learn about: Student development and counseling? Administration and leadership? Education policy and research? How are you selecting the schools that you are interested in? I agree that you should look at cost and availability of assistantships, but you also need to evaluate programs by their fit. Some programs are very practitioner's focused, some are very research focused, and the rest are a blend of those two. Do you plan to pursue a PhD in the field? If you do, you might want to evaluate programs differently depending on whether this master's is a terminal degree for you or not. Looking at your school choices, you seem all over the map in terms of program fit. Once you know what type of program that you are interested in, you can draw up a list and start contacting current students and faculty. They can give you a better sense of what weights they put on the individual pieces of your application. When you said you did mediocre on your GREs, I am not quite sure what score that translates into. Some programs might have minimums for their GREs and undergraduate GPAs. You need to make sure that you meet those otherwise I would advise you to take the GRE again. This is good that you have experience. How are you talking about this in your SOP? How are you highlighting this on your resume (assuming the program requires one when you apply)? When you say "TONS," do you mean several years -or- are you talking about while as an undergraduate student? Which is fine (by the way), but you should know that you will be in an application pool with master's applicants that have 1 - 5 years of professional experience. These programs are all well known to pretty well known for the field of higher ed/student affairs. You might be in fierce competition again. How did you pick them? Are there professors you want to work with there? It seems like I may be a bringer of bad tidings- but I think the take away from my post would be to narrow your focus and decide what type of program that you would like to pursue. I also would talk to student affairs professionals on your undergraduate campus. They may have some great recommendations. One creative solution I have seen when the applicant didn't have stellar academic credentials is that person took several classes as a non-degree seeking student in the program and did well in the courses. He was able to get to know the faculty and establish himself as a known entity. This was very helpful when he applied and helped mitigate academic concerns. Of course this requires you to be in commuting distance of a program that you are interested in which might not be possible. I am sorry that I don't have any program recommendations. The programs that I know that are not competitive are not academically rigorous so I would not want to recommend them. (In the long run) the better advice would be to tell you to retool your SOP and resume and talk to the current students and faculty than to look for programs that are not competitive.

I think it is more field specific than United States vs. Canada. In science, there does seem to be a distinction between those who pursue a Master's vs. a PhD (as Eigen pointed out) because you generally don't pursue a Master's if you are interested in the PhD. In social science (however), it is more common for people to earn a Master's at one school and then pursue a PhD at another school. Sometimes you may take some time off in between Master's and PhD, but sometimes you don't. I can't speak to humanities though as I am not sure what the norms are for that field.

My dad passed away about 10 months ago. I was not in grad school though but instead in a full-time job. It can be really difficult managing your grief with all of your other responsibilities. Since you said your lost was unexpected, I am sure that is even more difficult since it came as a surprise. (My dad, on the other hand, had been sick for about a year or so before he passed away.) People have told me that the first year just sucks. I would agree. Do you have a good support system where you are at? I found it helped a lot to talk with friends and family. I also second the recommendation to seek out counseling especially counselors who specialize in dealing with loss. For this upcoming semester, could you take a reduced load course-wise? That might help you get back into the swing of things, but in a more manageable way. I also second the recommendation to speak with your advisor. He or she might have a lot of useful suggestions and recommendations that are university-specific. It does get better though even though it might not seem like it. Time and having a good support system really helped me to ease my feelings of loss. I don't think the feelings will ever go away, but now I can talk about the funny memories that I had with my dad. The other thing I realized is grief is so individualized. Don't feel like you have to jump right back into your daily life before your mom passed away. It might work better for you to do it incrementally and see how each step feels along the way. Also please feel free to PM me if there is anyway that I can help.

Sounds like the real problem is that you haven't found your niche and may be lonely. How are the other PhD students in your program? Do you get along? I recommend being cordial to everyone. It tends to make the program a better experience and you'll have more support from your fellow students as a result. If you feel like these individuals bring out the worst in you, then yes I would stop socializing with them as you don't find their company enjoyable. If you need to work with them either in class or on a research team, it is best not to engage them in the behavior that you feel is immature and childish. Keep on redirecting it back to the task on hand. This tends to work well for everyone you may encounter-- students, professors, staff, etc. I know it has been stated a couple times but unprofessionalism and immaturity don't magically disappear as you age. All groups of people have immature individuals. Your best bet is to learn how to cope with them effectively.

Wow, 5 classes! To me, that seems like a lot as 3 courses is our normal load. To be honest, your best bet would be to get in touch with current students. They can tell you whether this would be reasonable or not. Sometimes faculty don't always know what is reasonable. The current students' experiences are also fresher and they can remember more about the challenges of transitioning into the program along with the workload in the first semester.