PhD in Public Policy without masters

[LRPolicy]

Hi everyone,

I recently graduated from undergrad and wanted to take time off to work for a few years before applying to grad school. However, the job market has been difficult and while I found a position, its not one I want to stay at for very long. So now I'm thinking of applying to schools this fall. I was thinking MPP but I've recently been thinking I want to stay in research and have been looking into PhDs in Public Policy. My questions is though whether or not I can get into a PhD program without having a masters.

My undergrad was pretty strong. I have four majors (poli sci/french/comparative lit/international studies), 4.0, wrote an honors thesis. I worked on two research projects and have a couple internships. I took the GREs and did okay (620V 730Q) but I"m studying to retake them and am thinking I can get around a 700V/760Q (or whatever the new equivalent scores are).

Without much work experience and no advanced degree, am I still competitive to apply for PhD programs this fall for admission in Fall 2013?

[state_school'12]

Most PhD public policy programs accept students that don't have a masters degree. Berkeley is the only exception I can think of. They also shouldn't really care about work experience. Remember, a PhD in public policy is a fundamentally different type of degree. An MPP/MPA is a professional degree, with all of the associated nods to the real world (internships, group projects, etc.) A PhD is designed entirely around producing scholars capable of producing cutting-edge research. You're supposed to get a job in academia and do research after you finish, not work for a federal agency, IMF, WB, governor's office, etc. (Sorry if you already know this, but I was surprised at how great the difference is between the masters and phd).

That said, many PhDs do work at the places I described, but typically that's more because the job market for policy PhDs is extremely competitive. So if research is your thing, then by all means, shoot for a PhD. If you can meet your target GRE score and have strong acadmeic LOR, you will definitely get in somewhere. Check out the profiles of PhD students at some of the places you'd like to go, and you'll get a good idea.

One word of warning: a policy PhD can be a tricky sell to many departments. Some view it as a watered down Econ Phd, and there are plenty of Policy Sci PhDs running around. So your two main hiring departments have a reason to pass you over from the start. The consensus is, constraints aside, an Econ Phd will give you the ability to do research at an econ, polici, or policy department. And once you get through the first couple years, you can target policy topics for your research. Econ PhD admissions is a much, much more competitive than policy. In this case, 760 is at the lower end of the GRE.

[OregonGal]

I agree w/ state school that PhDs are much more research/academically focused than Masters programs--those are really geared towards being a professional's terminal degree. That being said, I also know of people who go to Masters programs with the objective of transitioning into their school's PhD program, and manage to convince the program to let them do so.

Also, while I think it would be difficult to convince an Econ school to fund you as a policy PhD there are policy programs with PhD tracks, and they're not exactly the ugly stepchild of their programs. I'll give you the example of the one PhD program I looked into seriously before realizing I didn't want an academically focused program, at UC San Diego.

UC San Diego has a Political Science and International Affairs PhD offered through the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, and their PoliSci department. It's ranked the #7 IR PhD program in the country and it's the #1 public school IR PhD program, according to TRIPS and Foreign Policy magazine. According to their admissions site, the PhD "prepares students for careers in university teaching and research, or as international affairs researchers and specialists in policy analysis...combine the analytical skills of political science with the political economy, institutional analysis, policy analysis (especially economic policy), and regional training of IR/PS." They admit 15-20 students per year, with 4 years of guaranteed funding followed by teaching assistantships.

To give you an idea of what stats to aim for, the UCSD PhD minimum admissions requirements are:

GPA: 3.3

GRE: V 560, Q 720, AW 5.0

[CalSeeker]

I think RAND has a PhD program in which you get your degree and work at the same time. I think it is a degree in "policy analysis" or something of the sort. It looked like a pretty attractive program to me (if I had known about it sooner). I recall that a masters is not necessary, but I do not know about the admission requirements.