Ed.D or Psychology PhD

[eia]

Good day fellow graduate school pals! 

This will be a lengthy one and lots and lots of questions, strap in!

I am on a crossroad when it comes to the future of what I want with my grad school studies.  I am a Special Education teacher from the SE Asia, and I'm currently taking up MA Developmental Psychology here in my home country.

My experience is more based on the classroom, yet I personally feel that I won't be an educator forever, due to so many circumstances (pre-service teaching nightmares, CoVid, personal issues and what not) and I'm gearing towards Psychology, and I feel I am more comfortable in the field. I don't like administration too much.

And now the problem is, applying to US PhD programs. My CV will say that I work in the classroom, and can that affect my chances on having a PhD there that is not directly related to education? The thought reeling in my head is two pathways:

1. Use my bachelor's work experience:  Bachelor's: Special Education (Elem) -> Master of Arts: Developmental Psych -> Ed.D (in Educational Psychology???)
2. Drop it all and find relative work related to Developmental Psychology being a lab assistant or something.

In line to pathway 2, where can I have an idea of openings for lab assistants for Psychology graduates with a MA degree as a qualification? I worry most labs would want a PhD fellow to be with their labs. 

(This was posted on the Education forum too)

Whew, if you read up until this point, 

Thank you, will be eagerly awaiting your responses. 

[SoundofSilence]

Hi!

I am not sure I fully understand what you want to do in the future. But I will try my best to give you some possibilities:

- Your previous experience as a special education teacher can be very valuable in an EdD program, but if you don't want to go in that direction you don't really have to. Since you are already doing the master's, you can apply to PhD programs as well, in Developmental Psych or related areas. Your experience could make your application more interesting, as long as you have some research experience to highlight - from your master's for example, like your thesis or a publication.

- When you say lab assistant, are you thinking of a Research Assistant role, Lab Manager, or something different? In North America, RAs are mostly people with bachelors and it's a stepping stone for many to grad school. If you want to have a more advanced role in a lab, you generally need a PhD (so you can start as a post-doc or fellow), but there are people with master's as well - but usually people stay in a similar role for their entire careers, they don't move on to have their own lab.

But I think it all boils down to what do you want to do in the end? Do you want a purely research career and be independent and run your own lab/ studies - then you need a PhD. Do you want more exposure to the educational area and some research there - EdD. Do you want to stop at the master's and just work in a lab - then you can apply directly to work with a lab, you don't need additional degrees.

Just a small note - If you want to continue as a teacher in the US, I think you need additional certifications or at least equivalencies. I am not familiar with these requirements, so maybe someone with more experience here can help.

[eia]

4 hours ago, SoundofSilence said:

Hi!

I am not sure I fully understand what you want to do in the future. But I will try my best to give you some possibilities:

- Your previous experience as a special education teacher can be very valuable in an EdD program, but if you don't want to go in that direction you don't really have to. Since you are already doing the master's, you can apply to PhD programs as well, in Developmental Psych or related areas. Your experience could make your application more interesting, as long as you have some research experience to highlight - from your master's for example, like your thesis or a publication.

- When you say lab assistant, are you thinking of a Research Assistant role, Lab Manager, or something different? In North America, RAs are mostly people with bachelors and it's a stepping stone for many to grad school. If you want to have a more advanced role in a lab, you generally need a PhD (so you can start as a post-doc or fellow), but there are people with master's as well - but usually people stay in a similar role for their entire careers, they don't move on to have their own lab.

But I think it all boils down to what do you want to do in the end? Do you want a purely research career and be independent and run your own lab/ studies - then you need a PhD. Do you want more exposure to the educational area and some research there - EdD. Do you want to stop at the master's and just work in a lab - then you can apply directly to work with a lab, you don't need additional degrees.

Just a small note - If you want to continue as a teacher in the US, I think you need additional certifications or at least equivalencies. I am not familiar with these requirements, so maybe someone with more experience here can help.

Thanks for the reply, I'm not really sure about the lab assistant part, either. What I was thinking is I could find a job in a laboratory related to Dev Psych and related fields that will allow me to boost my profile before I apply to a PhD program. In my home country, we really don't have anything like this, so I have no idea what the term is.

Yes, my end goal is to work full time on a research lab (pure research and possibly a job in the academia), and also to earn a PhD.

[t_ruth]

I posted a reply to this same post in the Education forum, but in case others read it here too: There *are* PhDs in Educational Psychology, Learning Sciences, etc., and they are just as focused on research as PhDs in developmental, cognitive, or other psych fields. In fact, Ed Psych PhDs often have stronger research methods and quantitative methods training than many other psych programs (other than quantitative psychology itself).

EdDs are an entirely different thing and are more for those interested in administrative positions. They are more a practical/applied degree than a research degree.

[SoundofSilence]

9 hours ago, t_ruth said:

I posted a reply to this same post in the Education forum, but in case others read it here too: There *are* PhDs in Educational Psychology, Learning Sciences, etc., and they are just as focused on research as PhDs in developmental, cognitive, or other psych fields. In fact, Ed Psych PhDs often have stronger research methods and quantitative methods training than many other psych programs (other than quantitative psychology itself).

EdDs are an entirely different thing and are more for those interested in administrative positions. They are more a practical/applied degree than a research degree.

I think @t_ruth makes a very good point - there are many types of PhD programs that match your interests and experience. The best would be to get your CV as competitive as possible, so gaining more research experience is key. Look at labs that do work that interests you and see if they offer any RA positions; some offer remote roles so that might work well for you. I think you have a lot of options - you just need to narrow down to some labs/programs. Take a look at the literature at recent research that looks interesting to you and see where those labs are located, that might help. Best of luck!

[VentureIntoNothingness]

All good points! One extra piece to consider is visa issues (I am assuming that you will be an international student?). I am unaware of (paid) RA positions in the US that comes with visa sponsorship. So perhaps applying straight to PhD programs would be "easier" from the immigration perspective.

[eia]

On 11/10/2021 at 11:31 PM, VentureIntoNothingness said:

All good points! One extra piece to consider is visa issues (I am assuming that you will be an international student?). I am unaware of (paid) RA positions in the US that comes with visa sponsorship. So perhaps applying straight to PhD programs would be "easier" from the immigration perspective.

Yes, I will be coming on the US as an international student. Thanks for that reminder to always consider visas and other legal issues.