B.A. in English for Student Affairs Grad Programs?

[GoneWilde]

Hello all! I was planning on going for a PhD in English Lit, but I've had a lot of recent life events happening that make it seem less and less viable. But I know I definitely want to work in Higher Education, so one other career I've been looking at is Student Affairs. I wonder, though, if my background in English will have prepared me for the coursework. I notice a lot of Student Affairs programs seem to aim more toward quantitative inquiry (which I have taken one class in and it is the lowest grade on my transcript), so I worry about that. However, I have a ton of experience in student involvement - writing center, peer mentor programs, various ambassador programs, editing positions, club leadership, and I'm currently an administrative assistant for the English department. Also, I plan on taking a gap year and will apply for student affairs jobs during that time. So, does my background seem like it could work for higher ed/student affairs programs? If not, what should I be working on?

[Sandmaster]

I think you will be fine. There are tons of people who have lots of different backgrounds in Student Affairs programs. My background was in Physics and I had colleagues from English, Business, Engineering, Math, etc backgrounds when I did my Master's program. I think having your involvement history is crucial as you have already gotten some exposure to student affairs and the step to a professional life in that field is a logical one. In the program you will do a TON of critical analysis of case studies and research articles that focus on ethnographic, quantitative, and qualitative data sets. It will vary greatly on the individual program. Like I said, having a background is crucial as it will help you relate the readings and discussion to your own experience. Lastly, try to work as a student affairs professional part, or full, time while in the program, or secure a on-campus graduate assistantship in a student affairs office. (I recommend something you haven't done yet as it will give you a more holistic experience and make you more marketable to a multitude of different jobs).

As an example, I came into my Master's program with experience in housing, university marketing, student involvement, honors college, academic advising, student government, admissions, peer mentorship programs, and greek life. I did my graduate assistantship in financial aid because I felt it was one of the areas of Student Affairs I was lacking the knowledge in. Unfortunately, I chose not to pursue a job in student affairs after my program, but I definitely found the information extremely helpful and I will take it into my academic affairs life after my Ph.D. to be able to better support my students and be able to advise if my institution asks me to.

Hope this helps!

Edited June 4, 2018 by Sandmaster

[ZeChocMoose]

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).

14 hours ago, GoneWilde said:

I notice a lot of Student Affairs programs seem to aim more toward quantitative inquiry (which I have taken one class in and it is the lowest grade on my transcript), so I worry about that. 

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.  

[GoneWilde]

7 hours ago, ZeChocMoose said:

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. 

That is what I meant - I have very little background in statistics so seeing anything about experiment design/analysis on curriculum kind of freaks me out. As long as there's some kind of introductory research class, though, and I'm not expected to have it going into the program, I would think I'll be fine.

[ZeChocMoose]

Yes, you will be just fine.  Even at the doctoral level in Higher Ed/Student Affairs, it is not assumed that students would have already taken stats, data analysis, or research design.  Usually, there is an intro class (or classes) that starts off very basic and gets you up to speed either by the end of the course or the end of the sequence of courses.

If it helps, I teach the intro stats course for graduate students in higher ed for my dept and I assume that students have either little or no prior knowledge. All the other faculty that I have talked to who also teach a course like this for their higher ed/student affairs program have said that they assume no prior knowledge as well.