-
Posts
560 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
3
Everything posted by ZeChocMoose
-
No. I am assuming you mean that you want to use your J.D. to be a professor in one of those subjects? That is not how it works. You need a PhD in one of those fields or a closely related one to being able to secure a tenure track position. Even then - you would not be competitive unless you had teaching experience, publications, possibly grant-funded research, great references from well-known scholars, etc. It is very difficult to get a tenure-track position! The easiest thing at this point if you want to be a professor would be look into job postings for TT professors and instructors at a law school. You can see what qualifications that they are looking for to get a more realistic idea whether you can work towards that goal. My guess is that you will have need to practice law for x number of years, probably written articles for law journals to be competitive, and maybe also have a LLM.
-
Looking for Great Early Childhood Education PhD Programs
ZeChocMoose replied to DangerDave's topic in Education Forums
The common rule of thumb for PhD programs is to find faculty that you want to work with by searching for and reading their journal articles and then finding out where they are currently employed to see whether the program is a good fit for your interests. It doesn't really help to find the "best" program if there is no one there that you want to work with or has the necessary expertise to chair your dissertation. -
If you are applying to student affairs programs, I would include a diversity statement even though it is optional. The field really values diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and it will be a main topic of discussion in your coursework. The above posters are correct that writing about being left-handed in a right-handed world will not come across well. In student affairs/higher ed diversity statements, usually people will discuss their experiences with working with traditionally underrepresented or marginalized students in the academy, any insight that the experience has brought them especially if they do not identify as one of those groups, and how DEI relates to their research/professional interests in the field.
-
B.A. in English for Student Affairs Grad Programs?
ZeChocMoose replied to GoneWilde's topic in Education Forums
There is no undergraduate degree in student affairs/higher ed (yet) so people come in with a variety of academic backgrounds. In your gap year - I would get a full time job in a college/university so make sure that you like it. Usually, the go to areas for recent BA/BS grads are admission, residential life, student activities, and sometimes academic advising (some schools require a MA/MS for academic advising). I am not sure what you mean by quantitative inquiry, but I am going to assume you mean data analysis/stats/research design/evaluation. It is usually a common criticism of student affairs programs that they aren't good at this and it isn't emphasized in the curriculum. Ideally, you would have 1-2 statistics classes (up to multiple regression at least), 1 research design course, and 1 qualitative course. A lot of student affairs programs are not the comprehensive unfortunately. Mostly likely, you'll see a hybrid research inquiry class that combines quant and qual together and maybe another class on research design. Unless you go to one of the handful of master's programs that really focus on preparing students to do research, I wouldn't be too concerned. -
You have definitely nailed my number one concern especially since the search process for academic positions start earlier than non-academic positions and I may end up with an academic offer that's okay, but not great, but expires before I can go on the non-academic job market. Last year, I did get an offer for a TT position when I was ABD, but I didn't think it was the best fit for me personally. Some faculty from my PhD program suggested that I take it and work my way up to a more "preferred" dept once I got a couple more years of experience under my belt. I think I am too risk adverse for this advice though especially since I have seen people who have tried to do this and failed - and they now seem kinda miserable and stuck. I am crossing my fingers that I can stay strong and only accept an offer if I think it is a good fit. I'm a little concerned that my resolve will start to waiver if it is late in the spring semester/early summer next year and I am still job searching... (It is unlikely that I can extend another year in my postdoc.) Research makes me the most happy so I think it's a R1 for me or maybe a R2 that is well resourced. Some R2s (I have learned) have R1 expectations for the number of pubs that they expect each year and given their high teaching loads (3-2, 3-3, 4-3) that makes me really leery. Since higher ed is a graduate-only program, no SLACs for me. I have worked at a SLAC in higher ed admin though and I really liked the culture and small community vibe. I could see myself doing admin again at a SLAC if a non-academic research position doesn't materialize.
-
Second Bachelor's and PhD vs. Master's (Non-STEM to STEM)
ZeChocMoose replied to MalenkiiMalchik's question in Questions and Answers
I was interested in animal behavior when I was in undergraduate about 15 years ago and I was told there are basically no jobs. I can't imagine much has changed since then. My advice is your girlfriend should go do some informational interviews with people whose jobs that she wants and really understand what the job outlook looks like. I also would explore other options to work with mammals w/o getting a PhD in animal behavior. -
Your question is too vague to really answer. RA positions help you to learn how to do research, advance your data cleaning/collection/analysis skills, write up your research study, and (hopefully) lead to publications. TA positions help you to learn some classroom management techniques, how to grade assignments/tests, interact with students, teach/lead a class or two, etc. Depending on what type of position you want after you graduate or what experiences you want to have while you are there either one could be valued over the other. Also academia is not monolithic - different types of institutions will value teaching over research -or- research over teaching.
-
Thanks rising_star for your perspective. I'll probably post over in the Chronicle forum too about this as there are more people there who are post PhD. I just have to find/remember my log in credentials... I have read a bunch of leaving academia posts, but the ones I have read are either people couldn't find a TT job (and then feel forced to leave because they are tired of being unsuccessful on the market) or they leaving while in a TT job because of external reasons (toxic department, not liking the area, two-body problems, low pay). My question felt a little different from what I seen previously because it is more about the actual work/lifestyle of academic that I am unsure that I will enjoy long-term and since I am not currently in a TT position, it's hard to gauge from the outside how much I'll enjoy the job. I have talked to some faculty about this - starting in a non-academic position after your PhD and making the switch to academia later on - and I have received contradictory advice. My take on it is this is still common at non-R1s, but not as common anymore at R1s and some R2s because higher ed programs tend to be very different at R1s and non-R1s when it comes to norms, culture, curriculum, and faculty expectations. At non-R1s, higher ed tends to be treated like a professional program and at R1s and some R2s, higher ed is treated like a social science. This pathway doesn't make that much sense for me personally since I already have 5 years of professional experience in the field before my PhD, but I definitely can see why it works for some people and some programs actively recruit for faculty who have had higher level admin experience given their student demographics and what type of jobs their students will go on to pursue after they graduate.
-
I am hoping to get some perspective from people who recently chose to stay in academia and those that decided to leave. To make a long story short, I am still struggling with whether I want to stay in academia or not. I took this postdoc to help me sort out my feelings on the matter, but it hasn't brought me much clarity. There are things that I really enjoy about academia (independence, mentoring students, being able to set my own schedule, continuing to learn/read more about the field, and conduct research on topics that I am interested in), but there are other things that I am not wild about (isolation, heavy teaching loads, grading, and students who would rather be told what to do than to try to find a solution themselves). I realize that every job has stuff that you aren't as excited about, I just can't figure out if the things that I am not wild about should be deal breakers for me or not. I am going on the job market again this year which I will apply to both types of jobs - but I was hoping for more clarity in the direction that I wanted to wind up in so I can better direct my job search and make a more thoughtful decision when the time comes (assuming that I have a choice). For those who were struggling with this decision, what helped you figure it out? And is my chronic ambivalence an answer in itself? I have talked with ass't professors that I know about this - but all of them expressed a drive/passion for academia that overrides the minor annoyances that they face. I have also talked with people who are in non-academic jobs that love what they do, but they either never wanted to go the academic route or decided in grad school that academia was not for them. Unfortunately, I haven't yet met people who are ambivalent like I am and still haven't figured out what to do by the time that they are a postdoc. Any personal stories or suggestions on how to figure this out would be much appreciated.
-
Since you need to know by May 30th to inform your job, then yes I would call. If you can't reach your PI when your call, I would leave a voicemail. I would also call the department head and/or the department admin to see if you can reach someone. Although summer can be a rough period to make contact especially since that is the only time that faculty get a chance to take a break away from the daily activities of the department.
-
Teaching and Learning focused on Higher Ed.
ZeChocMoose replied to Josh J.'s topic in Education Forums
All of the higher ed programs that I am familiar with tend to research teaching and learning focused on the STEM disciplines. Depending on what definition of STEM that you are using that also includes social science fields such as sociology, political science, economics, and psychology. (FYI- higher ed programs are more than just higher ed leadership. There are at least 10-15 programs that focus on research about the field of higher education) It does sound like examining PhD programs in either higher ed, curriculum & instruction, or joint programs in education and a social science/humanities discipline would be a good bet. Although at the PhD level, it is more about the faculty that you want to work with than the program of study. I suggest finding faculty that you want to work with by reading journal articles that you find interesting and then see where the authors of those articles work and which program(s) they are affiliated with. -
No. I think both of your options aren't great given that you will be 90-110K in debt combining undergrad and grad. That is too much. I would also read this post if you haven't already:
-
Teaching and Learning focused on Higher Ed.
ZeChocMoose replied to Josh J.'s topic in Education Forums
I can't tell - do you want to do research on teaching & learning in higher ed or do you want to learn how to teach in higher ed? Depending on your answer, that would lead to different programs. -
HESA Advice? (Undergrad vs. Grad institution)
ZeChocMoose replied to HannahNS's topic in Education Forums
In my experience, it doesn't really matter that much. Your job prospects in student affairs/higher ed are more determined by which assistantships and internships that you hold in grad school and your full-time experience in the field before grad school. That being said - I always recommend for people to work in the field for a couple years before getting a master's degree. You'll get more out of the program since it's a practical degree and your starting salary will be higher. -
Writing a dissertation can feel like a rollercoaster as there are a lot of ups and downs depending on how things are going. There are going to be times when you need to reach out to your chair and get some guidance/advice when things aren't going well. Given what you written below, I personally would find it hard to reach out to this person if I suspected they didn't like me and/or they didn't think I should be in a grad school. I am going to be blunt here - if you would find that hard too, don't pick this person as your chair. You'll end up suffering in silence because you'll be afraid of how they will react. Your dissertation will suffer and it will take you longer to get done. I would pick adviser B as the chair and maybe put adviser A on the committee - but only if they are not going to be an obstructionist.
-
I was offered a GRA position -- But I've never even used SPSS....
ZeChocMoose replied to lorenzen's topic in Sociology Forum
In my experience, first-year RAs tended to do simpler tasks such as literature reviews, data collection, project management, etc. And usually your first year course work gets you up to speed on quantitative and qualitative analysis so by your second year - you can be contributing to the analysis part of your research project on your research team. Also the point of a RA is that it is a learning experience - so your PI should also be training you on how to do research and use particular tools such as SPSS. The good news about SPSS is it is one of the easier statistical software packages to learn and the UI is fairly straight forward. -
Being shy about talking about your accomplishments
ZeChocMoose replied to Adelaide9216's topic in The Lobby
I am not the biggest fan about talking about my accomplishments either. I don't necessary view it as bragging - I am just more interested in discussing other topics and hearing about what other people are up to. However, I have realized that if you want to stay in academia, you have to figure out how to promote yourself (for a lack of a better term), make people aware of what you are up to, and ensure that people think of you when they think about scholars with your research interests. (I also realize while I don't like talking about my accomplishments, it is part of my job and I need to do it even though I think it is kinda boring and silly.) For social media, I have seen academics using Twitter to talk about their professional interests/accomplishments and using Facebook to talk more about their personal lives. This is how I tend to use these platforms too. I rarely use LinkedIn - just to keep my CV up to date, but that is about it. In terms of what other people think when you post items - I feel fairly confident to say that you won't be able to please everyone so you need to figure out what you are comfortable with. The way that I have seen accomplished academics do this well is they post about their big accomplishments and perhaps offer some insights into the accomplishment, but they also mix it up by posting about their colleagues' accomplishments, post articles to lead to thoughtful discussions, etc. So I guess what I am saying is their social media presence is not just a highlight reel of themselves which may feel too much like they are a very pushy salesman for themselves (!), but they mix it up and talk about other cool work going on in the field which is nice and refreshing. -
Depressed/lonely after coursework/ comprehensive exams
ZeChocMoose replied to a topic in Officially Grads
This is not uncommon. I know I felt a bit lonely/loss/burnt out once I was done with my coursework and my comprehensive exam because the imposed structure was gone and I was not necessarily running into my cohort mates randomly anymore w/o setting up lunch dates/study dates. If you can afford to go home for a bit - I would suggest that. I know just taking a break and being around people who love and support you unconditionally can be very rejuvenating. This also might help with your loneliness and homesickness. I also suggest finding an outlet other than school. Is there anything you want to learn that is non-academic or any hobby that you can pick up? I volunteered in my community and I picked up a hobby that was very helpful to gain a social circle outside of school stuff. It also gave my perspective on the stress of finishing up and finding a job. The best advice I can give you on the school front is to impose an accountability structure on yourself so you can feel like you are moving forward and making progress on your dissertation. Some suggests are meeting with your dissertation chair regularly, form an writing or accountability group with people in your program, or hiring a writing coach. I did all of these things (not usually at the same time (!) except meeting regularly with my chair), but they all helped to make sure that I was moving forward with my goals and are the reasons why I finished. The biggest issue that I have witnessed is that people tend to drift a lot once they are ABD and maybe erroneously think that a structure will be imposed upon them to help them finish. Usually, this does not happen. You need to come up with your own accountability structure, loop in your chair/committee, and make sure that you are meeting your goals each semester. It takes practice to figure this out - but it will be invaluable to learn this if you decide you want an academic career. -
Yea that is excessive. I had three years of coursework for my PhD and I already had a MA in the field. Four years seems really terrible...
-
Is declining my only option crazy?
ZeChocMoose replied to nwslp's topic in Speech-Language Pathology Forum
You are looking at $95,000 in debt at minimum (combining undergrad and grad). No, don't go - that is way too much. Stay for another year in your current place, work, and volunteer. I also would apply to SLP programs at state schools in the state that you are a resident. Tuition and living expenses will be much lower than trying to go to grad school in NYC unfunded. -
There is grant aid available for graduate students through federal agencies like the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, etc. It's not need-based though - it's based on merit, competitive, and has a separate application process. If you want a loan in your first year, then yes it is smart to fill out the FAFSA. I know people in my PhD program would take out small loans to pay for moving costs, living expenses, computers, etc. even though we were fully funded. Although stipends in education are not as high as stipends typically are in science so you might not have a need for a loan.
-
FAFSA is the application that you fill out to receive federal student aid and stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It's not a "form" of federal aid - it's the application to get the aid. For undergraduates, aid either comes in grants, loans, or work study from the federal government. Pell grants are usually only for undergraduate students so most likely you are not eligible. For graduate school, this aid comes in loans or work study from the federal government. For loans, you have the choice of Stafford unsubsidized loan or Grad PLUS loan. They have different interest rates, maximum borrowing limits, terms, etc. For more information, I suggest going to this website (https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/) and reading the information provided. For assistance from your state for grad school that is fairly unusual. In some high demand fields (education, health, medicine, etc), the state may offer graduate students the ability to borrow more for graduate school, pay the interest on your loans, or loan forgiveness after working x number of years in particular industries. I would suggest looking at the department of education in your state to see if they offer this. Usually, they restrict some of these programs to in-state schools only or you need to be employed in the state. FYI - most state aid is directed towards undergraduate students.
-
Could you get on-campus housing? It might be more expensive - but hopefully much easier than trying to do this from afar. If that is not possible, I would ask for recommendations for specific apartment complexes from current graduate students in your department. I have also known friends who have asked for Skype tours of apartments from property managers when they can't visit. I personally have never done that though and I can't see that working in my current college town because the market is too hot, but perhaps that could be an option if the property manager is willing and they still have a bunch of units that they are trying to rent.
-
If you can - I know two large apartment complexes that I rented at in two different cities, they didn't allow people to see the actual unit that you would end up getting. I think it partly was because they didn't quite know which tenants were going to get matched up with which units. Both times it worked out okay for me that the show unit and the actual unit were very similar. So ideally, you would get to see the unit. I guess I also won't be too surprised at larger complexes if they didn't allow this.
-
Using a class term paper for my thesis
ZeChocMoose replied to Charlie Moon's topic in Writing, Presenting and Publishing
I agree. This is generally what students in my PhD program were encouraged to do as well especially for trying out topics for our comprehensive exams and for the dissertation. I mean, you can't generally take your class paper, do no extra work on it, and then turn it into your thesis because that would be odd and probably wouldn't pass because it is not comprehensive enough - but it's a great jumping point as @fuzzylogician describes.