Advice on PhD vs Masters vs another year of BA, now or later..

[kcstudent]

This is my first post and I'm in a state of 7-days-till-GRE panic, so please forgive my rambling. I'm entering my senior year at a mediocre local university that doesn't qualify for a general undergrad ranking from U.S. News, and I spent my first two years hopping around at local community colleges. I had great high school credentials and was accepted into great universities but decided to shoot myself in the foot to stay in my home city. I'm majoring in Political Science with minors in Economics and Communications. I'm currently in a whirlwind of decisions. I first planned on not attending graduate school and going straight into the joke of a job market available to BA Pol Sci graduates.

I'm facing an uphill battle with the quantitative background needed for those Masters degrees. I've always 'dreamed" about teaching at the college level or working for a research institution, but it's something I thought I would pursue later in life. I'd like to study political communication, public opinion, and have a broad interest in issues surrounding campaigns and elections. I'm also interested in policy, hence the MPP, so a PhD in policy wouldn't be too far off either. I should eventually make up my mind on that.

I have 1.5 years experience as Deputy Regional Legislative Director of my state's political party and 6 months experience in the nonprofit field working in legislative advocacy. I've had one pol sci research paper published in my mediocre-school's undergrad honors research journal (no original quantitative research). I'll graduate with 3.7-.3.8 GPA. I'll have 2 good letters of recommendation, but one is from a non-pol sci professor. There is little staff at my university and not much room for possible conference attendance. I'm undergoing the background investigation process for a student career experience program (SCEP) position with the Federal Government, but that's probably just cubicle work. Do these experiences even mean anything in comparison to having more undergraduate publications? Should I quit the jobs, go broke, and focus on research in long shot attempt to boost my research credentials to get into a PhD program?

I'm trying to decide whether to stay in my undergrad program an extra year and turn my econ minor to a major and add a business minor - any opinions on that? I'd be able to raise my GPA a little, but I'd also be graduating with 150 credit hours and would get into a little more debt with what's not covered by my scholarship.

Do you think that what's learned in the MPP/MBA will be beneficial later in life in pursuing a PhD that concentrates more on political communication/campaigns and elections/public policy (yes, wide range). I'm looking into MPP/MBAs that have some specialization in market research and survey formation because I feel like those could be good assets to the quantitative skills needed in PhD research and some of the media/communication background.

How do you know which Phd programs are top 20-40? I know the obvious top 10, but other than that some of the public state school's and small LACs seem to fall into the gray zone. Any suggested websites geared towards PhD rankings?

Do most Political Science/Public Policy PhD candidates come directly from undergrad, and if not, what kinds of positions/experience do they shoot for in-between undergrad and grad school? There are essentially no research opportunities in the midwest area that I am from and I'm hesitant to relocate unless it's for school or a job I'm looking to stay in permanently.

Do organizations like Kaiser and Brookings hire applicants with Masters or do they go more for PhDs?

With the incredibly saturated teaching market, would it be better to wait to pursue the PhD so I could possibly raise my chances of getting accepted to a better university? Do most PhD programs value professional experience, or do they more so want 22 year old high achieving brainiacs? There are 10 pol sci PhD candidates at my school, which befuddles me considering their low chance of being hired as professors.

I'm at the point of thinking of applying to both PhD and MPP/MBA programs, wasting like $1000 on applications, and just seeing what happens. Or, I may stay in school. Any thoughts at all would be great and dearly appreciated! I've also thought about graduating on time, being May 2012, and then pursuing another Bachelors at another university.

If you made it to the end, congrats, and thank you! I want to continue in school no matter what because I'm dying to go to a university that actually gives a hoot about their students, and hopefully has some great professors as well.

[kaykaykay]

sorry your post is very jumpy and you have a lot of different questions, some of which should be in other forums. I found the US News Rankings the most easy to understand hence useful. http://grad-schools....ience-rankings. These are reputational rankings so they show what professors think about other grad programs, which may be good as they offer jobs as well. Till top 25-30 it is quite good. Your other possibility is to turn to he NRC rankings which are supposedly less subjective. This was done a couple of years back came out last year and people still debate about the methodology and what was left out from the algorithm, but you may find more information on different quality measures. PhDs from even lower ranked schools(below 50) like probably yours get jobs too but these jobs are on a lower tier , you should ask this in your school. These jobs can be quite satisfactory for those who are passionate about the subject . Again if you are still in school talk about your options with a professor probably one who has a PhD degree from an institution ranked at the level or higher that you are aiming for.

Edited July 14, 2011 by kalapocska