will this plan of study work?

[dillonr1]

Hey everyone,

So I have a plan of study that I would like to complete but I don't know if it will work, so I'm relying on you guys to help me out. Here it goes. As of December 19th, I will be graduating with my bachelors in English Education (along with a minor in History and minor in Psychology). My long-term goal is to get a PhD in English (20th century American drama to be exact). However, I know that most PhD programs require a foreign language exam and a comprehensive examination, and well, I'm not the best test taker in the world.

Now, my student teaching experience has brought me to the realization that being a high school english teacher is not the same thing as being an english professor. You can't teach a work of literature as deep as i hoped, and you have to teach vocab and teach to standardized tests. Therefore I am applying to a masters program (which will start in the fall) for a degree in social studies education (basically because social studies would be a lot more fun to teach at the secondary level). This is sort of a "back up plan." However, i would eventually like to go for my PhD in in English. My question is simply can I get into a PhD program with a masters in social studies education?

to get a better overview, this is how it will turn out.

bachelors in english ed-->masters in social studies ed--> PhD in english.

Is this whole plan plausible or will programs deny me because my advanced degree will be in social studies education?

Thanks guys!

[dillonr1]

I forgot to mention that I will be graduating with Two major (english and education) and two minors (as previously stated) and my GPA will be a 3.7 (this is just undergrad)

[rising_star]

If you want to teach social studies, why not just take the courses and tests you'll need to get certified? It'd be less work than getting a M.Ed. Another consideration is that you're unlikely to find funding for a M.Ed. Finally, I'd say it's not to your advantage to get an unrelated degree, particularly if you already know what you ultimately want to do. Why not apply to MA programs in English and use that as a stepping-stone to a PhD program?

[lotf629]

Rising_star makes some good points. I would add, though, that having an MA in a different field can be an asset IF you can make a strong case in your SOP for how you are planning to do cross-disciplinary work and IF you have an adequate background in your primary field. It depends a ton on your research interests. Whether a social studies masters would make sense depends a lot on whether your work on 20th c drama will have anything to do with history, sociology, etc.

In your case, however, I think the problem that you'd face is that both of your degrees would be ed degrees...neither one is a straight-up degree in English. For one thing, you may not have enough undergrad coursework in English lit to be a strong contender: I don't know. What's more, in general, however unfairly, ed degrees are perceived as less rigorous than arts and sciences degrees. How close is the English ed major to an English major? How rigorous has your program in English been? If you're far short of a major in English lit, you really need to take that into account as you consider applying: you may really need the MA in English.

I also agree with rising_star's point that the M.A. in social studies ed may be more than you need if your objective is just to find a classroom enviroment that better fits your pedagogical preferences. At some schools, English classes contain very little rote memorization and almost no "teaching to the test"; on the other hand, at some schools, history and social studies are taught largely through drill...or at least that's been my experience. You might consider looking around for different secondary schools, including private schools or charter schools, before you go back to school for another two years. That's the final thing to consider: if you go back to school for an MA, teach secondary school for, say, three to five years, and then start work on a Ph.D., you'll be in your mid to late 30s by the time you hit the job market as a Ph.D. Not the end of the world, not that unusual either, but on the other hand, if you want a career in academia, you probably want to get the earliest possible start. Another way to think about the question: what does "eventually" mean to you, and what are your eventual goals?

[dillonr1]

great thank you so much guys! You guys were saying why not just apply to MA programs in English?

This is basically because the social studies degree is my "backup plan" If i can't teach college English, I'd want to teach social studies.

Also, "eventually" means right after i finish my masters degree. After this, I'd like to apply to PhD programs. Lastly, my undergrad english ed program is a 5 year program because you have to double major in english (get a bachelors in english lit) and then get a degree in education, so my background should be adequate enough. I'm banking on my SOP because I know exactly what I want to focus on: 20th century american dramatic literature (dissertation focus would probably be on the cold war's political influence on the works of Tennessee williams) and I'd also like to focus on 20th century political fiction, world war II lit, 19th century drama, and literature of Steinbeck (these, i know are secondary focuses but I believe I have a clear and concise view of what i want to study). Soooo hopefully the social studies will help in my case. Any other thoughts and comments?

[rising_star]

A degree in social studies education won't help you teach social studies at the college level. To teach at a community college, you'll need at least 18 hours of graduate credit in a specific discipline (history, geography, political science, psychology, sociology, etc.). Most social studies programs require a mix of courses, which won't get you to the 18 hours you need. Something to consider if that's your goal. Also, the pay for adjuncting sucks so getting a MA to teach college is a crap plan unless you like not having benefits and making $2K for each course you teach with no teaching assistants.

My advice? Stop trying to make plans about a degree that will get you a career that you only may what you want. Pursue what you love. Graduate school is a pain and if you aren't passionate about what you're doing, it'll show in your work and you'll be miserable.

[Minnesotan]

The only problem that I foresee is that ed. majors are perceived as weaker applicants to some humanities programs, since their coursework is normally not of the same caliber as majors in the discipline. Since you are fulfilling a double-major, you might be in the clear on that one.

[lotf629]

Three things:

a) I agree with Minnesotan that, since you've done the double major, you're probably in the clear re: the ed degree being less rigorous.

As a non-expert, I'd predict that most English Ph.D.s would look at the ed masters degree itself as moot (neither a pro nor a con), but might look closely at any graduate courses that you did in the social sciences as part of your ed masters. If you can do some graduate-level study on the history of the Cold War, for instance, and then get a strong recommendation from a history professor to add to your stack, and finally integrate it all into a strong SOP, I'd imagine that you'd be strengthening your app by going back. You just need to make sure that you choose an ed program with enough flexibility to allow you to do quite a bit of graduate work in arts and sciences departments.

c) When you get down to it, the Ph.D. itself would be a decent backup plan: it will enable you to teach at most private high schools. If you don't want to teach English at the secondary level, just take history courses while you're in your Ph.D. program.

Here's one suggestion. The first time around, you might consider applying to two types of programs: MAs in social studies and English Ph.D.s that will allow for electives in history departments. If you don't get in to the English Ph.D. programs, go for the MAs, and re-apply. If you do get in to the English Ph.D.s, by all means, go...and then take enough history classes to be considered for high school history positions when you get out. You're young enough, it sounds like, that you don't need to worry too much about hedging your bets.