debinkenya

It wasn't an easy choice, especially because they don't tell you who your advisor will be before you accept. That makes it a bit difficult to imagine your next 4 years and thus hard to compare with other universities where I met personally with the potential advisor. At the end, though, they were consistently supportive of my research ideas, eager to allow me to collaborate across departments (Policy and Special Education), offered a respectable package and I love Nashville. It was critical to me that the department be collaborative in nature. There were only 2 schools that met that requirement. I had to love the location. It had to cost me nothing to attend. I needed a guarantee of being involved in a large research project so that I could get that experience from the start and it was non-negotiable that I be able to use my anthropology background in my research design. It doesn't hurt that the programs I want to work with are ranked 1 and 4 in the nation. Those were my requirements. I'm sure your requirements are different or would have different weight in your consideration. I have been talking to a lot of different people about this, including some profs at Vanderbilt (and other unis). I find that people are very honest if you ask about how well they think you will fit. Everyone wants you to be successful, so if you are clear about what you are looking for, people are more than happy to offer advice.

Is anyone entering Peabody College at Vandy this year? I'm in the Ed. Policy program. Would love to chat with future peers.

I rec'd notification on 23 Feb. Not sure how they update the system, though. Good luck!

I talked to Kelly Britt yesterday, Admissions Officer for SUSE. She said that they were handling separately the PhD apps that had checked the MA option. I asked if it would be reasonable to assume that one had not been admitted to the PhD program at this point if we had not heard and she said she could not say that because they are handling the apps in a different manner this year and that particular group is being sorted separately. She also seemed to think that if you had not checked the MA option that you should have heard via email the decision at this point. If you haven't, I would suggest calling to see what's happening. Good luck, everyone!

As is stated repeatedly on this forum, it all depends on the school. But, let us speculate and overgeneralize. If you did not already hold a Master's, then this would be perfectly normal. Since you do, they may have made that decision simply because it is out of field, as you have guessed. At the end of the day, the courses will be the same and if they will be applied toward a PhD after qualifying, it doesn't really matter. The only thing it might affect is funding and time to completion. Otherwise, congratulations on your acceptance! I'm sure you will progress smoothly through the Master's portion and qualify for the PhD program. Did they indicate how long it might be before you can apply for or qualify for the PhD program? And how much coursework is required for their PhD program? I know in the British system this type of situation is quite normal and usually people can spend 1 year in the Master's program, apply to the PhD program using the Master's work to fulfill the coursework requirement in which case, there is no time lost or wasted. To answer your final question, I am also applying to Ed. Policy programs and I do not feel good about attending without a guarantee of funding in the form of at least a tuition waiver.