Chance me please.

[dm242]

Chance me please

Latino: I want a PhD or EdD depending on the school

Illinois State University Undergrad, and various Junior Colleges: 2.72 GPA Psychology

DePaul University Grad: MPA 3.686

GRE: V:550 Q:560 AW:3.5

Work Experience: Over 6years in the field

Field of study will be Educational Policy

Stanford

USC

UCLA

CORNELL

UW MADISON

UColorado Boulder

Ohio State

Penn State

Illinois

ASU

Six years in the Education/ Social Policy Field

Member of the P20 Council in IL

Advisor for two student organizations at my job

Work in higher ed as an administrator of a grant

Member of Committee for the P20 council

Member of local community college committee on Latino issues

Member of the local Latino Coalition

Very good LOR from two professors of my graduate institution and a former employer

I have thick skin so let me have it, am I a loser or what?

[t_ruth]

It's so hard to give feedback on this because so much of it depends on your research match and ability to write a personal statement. Your background looks good, but those GRE scores are low. I'd try to bring your writing up to > 4 and your quant up to > 650. Neither should be very hard to do.

[ZeChocMoose]

I agree with t_ruth. In competitive education programs (accepting around 10-20% of the application pool), the majority of candidates have multiple years of experience in the field, great academic credentials, and stellar letters of recommendation. Therefore, it is important for your research interests to match the faculty in the school that you are applying. (This is also practical because you want to be at a place where the faculty are researching and teaching on your area of interest.) We can't tell from your post what your research interests are or how your research interests align with the faculty at the schools that you are interested in.

Also-- 10 schools (IMHO) is a lot to apply to. To maximize your chances, you'll want to speak with faculty and current students at these schools (before you apply) and craft a personalized SOP for each school which can be very time consuming while also working a full-time job. Initially, I thought I would apply to six and ended up applying to three because of time constraints (I was working a very demanding job at the time).

If you are interested in funding-- I would research whether the program funds all their students or not. In seems in the last application cycle, some education PhD applicants were getting in, but were being asked to pay out of pocket which can add up after 4 - 6 years.

[t_ruth]

I applied to nine my year--I got into most, but it was so worth it to have the choice. The school I chose might not have made my list if I had limited it to three...