Rutgers Ed.D

[supertrout89]

Hello,

I am currently a third year undergraduate at the University of Scranton pursuing a B.S. in Elementary Education & Special Education as well as an M.S. in English as a Second Language, both of which should be earned in the Spring of 2012. I am beginning to think about my future options and am strongly considering an Ed.D. I wanted to start this thread just to see if I could be a good candidate for that type of program. Here is a quick summary:

• Currently have an undergraduate GPA of 3.79. I'm hoping to graduate summa cum laude (3.85).
• Undergraduate Honors Program, will be completing a thesis in Spring 2011 on "Integrating Physical Education into the Middle School Curriculum."
• Member of the Kappa Delta Pi National Honor Society in Education.
• One published research article, a second article soon to be sent out, and possibly a third to be sent out by the end of the 2009-2010 academic year. Articles span a variety of topics from transition services for students with autism to gifted reading education to Response to Intervention.
  My goal is to apply to an Ed.D program with a focus in elementary education or special education. Rutgers University offers just that. So, my questions are:
  
  • What does anybody know about the Ed.D program at Rutgers?
  • With my program and achievements, is it worth the investment of time and money to pursue an Ed.D.?

[TargetMore]

Hello,

I am currently a third year undergraduate at the University of Scranton pursuing a B.S. in Elementary Education & Special Education as well as an M.S. in English as a Second Language, both of which should be earned in the Spring of 2012. I am beginning to think about my future options and am strongly considering an Ed.D. I wanted to start this thread just to see if I could be a good candidate for that type of program. Here is a quick summary:

• Currently have an undergraduate GPA of 3.79. I'm hoping to graduate summa cum laude (3.85).
• Undergraduate Honors Program, will be completing a thesis in Spring 2011 on "Integrating Physical Education into the Middle School Curriculum."
• Member of the Kappa Delta Pi National Honor Society in Education.
• One published research article, a second article soon to be sent out, and possibly a third to be sent out by the end of the 2009-2010 academic year. Articles span a variety of topics from transition services for students with autism to gifted reading education to Response to Intervention.
  My goal is to apply to an Ed.D program with a focus in elementary education or special education. Rutgers University offers just that. So, my questions are:
  
  • What does anybody know about the Ed.D program at Rutgers?
  • With my program and achievements, is it worth the investment of time and money to pursue an Ed.D.?

Recently Rutgers divided their traditional research based Ed.D. into two different doctoral programs: research oriented Ph.D. and practice oriented Ed.D. So, unless you are interested in pursuing careers in educational administration, a PhD might be better for an academic or research position. I am not so sure which path you want to turn to with a doctorate.

The only Ed.D.'s that are regarded as the same as "Ph.D." in education are the Ed.D.'s from Harvard and Columbia. Their Ed.D.s are highly regarded in the field of educational studies; in fact, much higher than mediocre Ph.D.'s.

Yet, other Ed.D.'s are rather practitioners' professional doctorates. However, you should also consider the fact that people with practitioner's Ed.D.s can get teaching positions at schools of education, as those schools need professors of practice as well. In this sense, there is not much difference between Ed.D. and Ph.D. in a field like education. Ph.D. holders can get an educational administration positions, and Ed.D. holders can become university professors even producing meaningful research outcomes -- almost no difference in what they do with the degree.

Also, try to look for a doctoral program that can fully fund your study. Usually research based doctoral programs, like Harvard's Ed.D. or Stanford's Ph.D., have that.

Edited January 8, 2010 by TargetMore

[ColumbiaTC]

Hi supertrout89,

I just want to share the experience of my application to Rutgers GSOE with you. Actually, I applied for it last year because I also thought their program really fit my study interest. However, the "cold" manner the school dealt with applications really annoyed me a lot. Totally no responses at all during the entire process! Eventually there was only a simple line showing on the application website telling me that I was rejected. It was a very bad experience for me, not particularly because I was rejected, but because of the way they said no to students. I was rejected by many other schools last year, of course, but I really hate the way Rutgers did it.

Just for sharing. Wish you the very good luck after all!!!

[aditi123]

I have also applied to a PhD program at Rutgers.I wanted to know if Rutgers is very emphatic about good GRE.This is because I have terrible GRE scores and do not wish to take it again as I am not good with standardised tests.I have good academics & GPAs and those are the only things I am relying on right now.Any advice?