Suggest programs: HE (Leadership & Policy)

[FutureEdLead1]

Hi

I'm trying to keep it brief here.

Please suggest masters or masters-doctorate integrated programs suitable to following profile and goals. Thanks a million!

Profile-

• Currently career-development manager in a graduate college, total experience till I apply-2.5 years, total exp in education- 1.25 yrs
  
• GRE: 163Q, 151V, 3.5AW (roughly similar to 800Q, 500Q, 3.5AW in old format)
  
• GPA above 3.5/4, bachelor in communications engineering
  
• Social work- yes with local NGO, special achievement: mainly local prizes,
  
• Scholarships: yes 1 National during Bachelors and 2 State-level scholarships during high-school
  
• Prospective international student for USA
  
  
  Program goals-
  • Higher education leadership & policy courses: masters or masters+doctorate (mainly Masters, PhD is not immediate focus)
    
  • Yes to leadership & policy courses, No to student-affairs ones
    
  • should have good (full?) funding, good exposure to work
    
  • preference to internship and cohort-based program (not rigid criterion here)
    
  • MA+MPP, EdM, MS, MA, EdD... etc.
    

  What I see myself doing afterwards:

  [*]Join senior administration in a reputed university, grow ahead with faculty position

  [*]work for policy and leadership issues at department of education- nationally and internationally

  [*]career with department of education, UNESCO etc. but primary focus on University-based academic career along-with leadership position

  So, do suggest the best ladders and steps!

[FutureEdLead1]

reply please? :-)

[FutureEdLead1]

As I strive to get response, I have found a few programs for consideration... They are: POLS MA at SUSE, MSEd at UPenn, MA+MPP at UMich and EdM at Penn State. Since its highly confusing to pick programs in general, I am sticking to criteria I have stated above. (Program Goals)

Any suggestions or precautionary notes about these or other programs?

[ak1208]

Very good profile I must say!

Just a suggestion- Have you thought of applying to MPP only ?

You may use this MPP as a gateway to get into MS in Education or Ed.M programs (esp in the universities having both School of Education and School of Public policy). This is a secondary option is suggsted assuming that you will be applying to MS in education at some places primarily.

Also may wanna check Duke Universitiy's Summer Public Policy Program in Geneva, Switzerland, although not sure if it has any education component attached.

Hope this helps!

Best Wishes.

[FutureEdLead1]

No, not just MPP. I guess MPP only would be a diversion from my focus on higher education. I don't see its correlation with 'What I see myself doing afterwards'. I went through Duke's program. In the courses they do not have any direct connection with education.

Well, thanks for the response!

[michigan girl]

I think you have not received many replies because your program goals are all over the place. First, I see higher educational policy then I see international education. Are you interested in international higher education policy??

If you could write your interests in a more succinct manner, then we can probably give you better ideas.

[FutureEdLead1]

Thanks Michigan girl. My primary focus is higher education leadership and policy, not international education. I can say that because international education will focus on issues that I'm too inexperienced to learn. I am not interested in comparative international education either. Although its combination as 'international + higher education' will look like my long-term goal, you may please limit the responses to higher education only.

I hope all other criteria mentioned in my post are not equivocal.

Edited September 24, 2012 by FutureEdLead1

[ZeChocMoose]

Well-- there seems to be a disconnect between your academic and professional goals. It is not particularly realistic (at least in the US) to achieve your career aspirations without a PhD and a sufficient amount of experience esp the senior leadership position or a faculty job at a college or university. You might be able to secure an entry-level job at a dept of ed with only a master's, but it really depends.

You also don't say what you want to study-- higher ed leadership and policy is a bit too vague for anyone to be really helpful. What particular subarea interests you?

I haven't come across any "masters-doctorate integrated programs" in higher ed. People typically get a master's, work for a couple years in the field, and then apply for the doctorate. There are a couple rare instances where someone will go directly from a bachelor's to the PhD, but they tend to have a lot of research experience under their belt and their reason to pursue their PhD now is very specific (i.e. they figured out what they want to study and why the program is a great fit for them).

Also funding at the master's level in higher ed, typically requires some sort of student affairs component i.e. you work in an office in a university and deal directly (or maybe indirectly) with college students. I don't know any master's programs where this is not the case.

[FutureEdLead1]

Thank you ZeChocMoose! Yes, there is a fundamental ambiguity in my post. Thanks for precisely pointing it out.

I understand the gap between my professional and academic goals. I assume it to be a time-gap. I will be applying for PhD at later stage. What you have mentioned (Masters->Experience->PhD) about some cases fits here as well. Rather, this gap puts me at a quite different question- what are actual career prospects of those who do Masters in Higher Education at my age-24? I know, the question should be 'what is my focus and goal'. But frankly, I am ignorant about what Masters graduates (of my age) usually do immediately after graduation in US. If it is some entry-level position (supposedly not in student affairs), what is the area they work in? What are they paid like? Some programs have concentrations like "Higher Education Policy'' or "International Higher Education". I am talking about Peabody here. What is the immediate outcome that is most often seen?

I am working with 120 students yearly. I am a founder of certain development initiatives in the institute. My students are often older than me. The main focus is on MBA graduates, their personality development, career-placements for them etc. I do not teach, but I am the whole and soul of this activity from management side. This work and my previous work-experience prompts me to reach the systems than merely student affairs. The influence of international programs is inevitably seen in my country as well. Hence, my primary focus deviates from higher education policy to international education. Relevantly, I will be more inclined towards economics than psychology in this career. If I have to give 'keywords', they will be: institutional advancement, policy analysis, quality improvement, institutional management, co-academic management and if it can fit: international aspects of higher education. Although this says that my professional goals will be two-ways: university position & management OR policy research & advisory role, I do not think that later alternative will be immediately available without PhD.

Your post tells me about focus-areas and assistantships. If funding requires me to have student-affairs component in the courses, I have no option. But if RA-like opportunities are available, I will prefer them. Its not like I want to anyhow keep away from students. I would just not 'prefer' it in my specialization courses. Also, special internship program might help financially.

[ZeChocMoose]

Although this says that my professional goals will be two-ways: university position & management OR policy research & advisory role, I do not think that later alternative will be immediately available without PhD.

I am taking this to mean that you are interested in either university admin -or- research and policy work. If that is correct, then the issue is that you would chose different master's programs to meet these goals. I am not aware of a program that is going to do both of these well or really at all (but perhaps there are some).

I guess I would lean more towards the research/policy side because there are technical skills that you'll need to pick up in a program in order to be competitive for an entry-level job. (I did educ research after my master's degree made possible by the different classes and professional experiences I had in the program).

Pure-ish admin jobs at universities don't necessarily go to people with a master's in higher ed. You may ultimately reach a management position at a university (after maybe a decade or so of experience), but it will be in an office that is going to be directly or indirectly related to students somehow (admissions, advising, res life, student programs, etc). I am having trouble because you list that you are interested in doing "quality improvement" and "institutional management." If you want to practice this, you might be better served in a MBA program. I know people who do similar-like activities to this at universities, but they don't have master's in higher ed degrees.

Your post tells me about focus-areas and assistantships. If funding requires me to have student-affairs component in the courses, I have no option. But if RA-like opportunities are available, I will prefer them. Its not like I want to anyhow keep away from students. I would just not 'prefer' it in my specialization courses. Also, special internship program might help financially.

I am not aware of any higher ed programs that promote research assistantship positions for master's students. There might be some programs that have a couple positions for master's students (1-2 per year), but most RA positions tend to go to the doctoral students. Most likely, you could volunteer to be involved with a professor's research that you find interesting. You'll have to juggle this with courses and work obligations. In a one year program, this may be very difficult to achieve given that you'll also be job searching in the spring.

You can definitely limit your exposure to student affairs in your course work. I know I did in my higher ed master's program because that wasn't what particularly interested me about the field. The programs that you list have a more higher ed focus than student affairs so you should be good (I am not familiar with UPenn's program though.) I would just look to see what the core classes are and make sure that you don't need to take any student development or counseling classes. It's sorta unlikely that you'll be able to get away from students completely in your internship or assistantship positions though.

[FutureEdLead1]

Yes, your inferences are correct. Hence, 'my type of programs' would be leaning towards research and policy work than sheer administration. Also, they will include paid or voluntary internships in summer etc. I will also need assistantships not only for fund but also to get closely acquianted with American system, whether with students or with professor.

1. Provided I can customize my courses, electives as well as internships & assistantships, what might be immediate career-prospects?
   
2. Any other program that will be suitable?
   
3. Is my profile suitable?
   

[michigan girl]

If you do not want to pursue student affairs-type work, you are probably best served with a MPP. Then, you can tailor your electives around higher education policy. Look for programs that also have education graduate programs so that you don't enroll in a MPP program that only offers K-12 education electives.

Edited September 27, 2012 by michigan girl

[ZeChocMoose]

If you do not want to pursue student affairs-type work, you are probably best served with a MPP. Then, you can tailor your electives around higher education policy. Look for programs that also have education graduate programs so that you don't enroll in a MPP program that only offers K-12 education electives.

I agree with michigan girl. It sounds like you will enjoy your master's experience more in a MPP program. Then I would take higher ed electives so look for a school that offers both.

Provided I can customize my courses, electives as well as internships & assistantships, what might be immediate career-prospects?

It is going to skew heavily towards student affairs. If you don't want to do that, you may be able to find entry-level positions in ed policy or ed research either at a university, in a dept of ed, research centers or think tanks (that are sufficiently large enough to have non-PhD level researchers), or other non profit organizations.

There are lots of caveats to this path though-- you'll need to look for 2 year programs and take a lot of quantitative methods and stats classes (and policy analysis if you go the policy route not straight research). You'll need one substantial internship in this area. You'll may need to relocate for the summer to get this experience (unless you are close to a major city).

Not all higher ed programs are set up to allow you this flexibility to take a lot of methods and analysis courses hence the recommendation to also look at MPP programs.

[FutureEdLead1]

That makes my search very much focused. I will be looking for UMich-like alternatives and yes, two year programs have higher probability of success here. Also, I don't see any difficulty in quantitative and mathematical stuff. I am an engineer btw. Although I could not 'name' multiple programs and compare them, I have got much specific things to work-with. Especially, I am now concerned about the specific courses and program content than merely university name and brand. At present, U-Mich, POLS @ SUSE and Peabody's Higher Edu Policy are on my list.

Thank you ZeChocMoose and Michigan girl. This thread has been wonderfully revealing! I hope I can PM you if I still have specific queries.

Thanks :-)

[Eternal Icicle]

As you were describing your interests, I was reminded of Boston University's Policy, Planning & Administration (HEA focus) program. Maybe it's something to check out.