by Bryan Koval | Feb 26, 2010 | Doctoral Study
Tom Petty was right: the waiting is the hardest part. Once all of my doctoral stuff was submitted (approximately January 1, 2009), I got a pretty severe case of the “itching to find out what happens next.” Here are some “do’s” and “don’ts” based on my experience managing the purgatory that was January, February, and March of my doctoral admissions process.
DO . . . make sure to take some time to ensure that everything in your personal and professional lives that you fell behind on during application season gets taken care of. Wouldn’t it be a kick in the shins to have a program check your references and not have them be glowing because you’ve been distracted lately? How about a date night (or two) with that special someone who has hung in there while you practiced for the GRE, dropped hundreds of dollars on application fees, and continues to wait patiently while you decide which state you may be moving to?
DO NOT . . . start getting obsessed with all of the details related to relocating to your dream schools. I spent more time on Craigslist looking for aparements than I really should have. Figuring out the time it will take to get from that dream home to campus via public transportation is not the best use of your time, and may set you up for disappointment if things do not work out the way you hope they will.
DO . . . be aware of financial aid deadlines at the institutions you have applied to. I found that I was able to apply for departmental funding and other institutional aid once my application was in, and that those deadlines were earlier than I would find out about an admissions decision.
DO NOT . . . hesitate to contact the programs where you have applied to ask about the status of your application, particularly if there is not an online method of checking on this. I mentioned earlier that office managers and staff assistants can be great resources, and I found them to be excellent sources of information. A quick email or phone call is OK to ask about where the process is going. But . . .
DO NOT . . . call them everyday.
In all honesty, this in-between period was kind of fun. The true work was over, the possibilities were bright, and there is a sense of accomplishment that goes along with getting the paperwork taken care of (particularly if you are paperwork-phobic like me). For my next post, I’m going to discuss admissions decisions, getting real about money, and trying not to burn any bridges.
by Bryan Koval | Feb 5, 2010 | Doctoral Study
During the fall of 2008, while I was finishing my masters degree in Higher Education at Penn State, I decided that rather than taking a break from school I would try to move directly into a doctoral program. I was motivated by a number of factors. First and foremost, I had a pretty strong internal commitment to completing a doctoral program before turning 35 year old. This was a fairly arbitrary commitment, but I knew that it was something important to me and I wanted to be able to leverage my doctoral degree for a significant part of my career. Combining this intrinsic motivation with some restlessness in my current professional position was a recipe for getting serious about doctoral programs.
As I began to talk to people (family, colleagues, professors, etc.) about my doctoral aspirations, reactions fell into three basic categories. Here they are, and how I talked myself through the feedback:
1.) “You should work more before you get into a doctoral program. You’re too inexperienced for that.”
This is probably the feedback that held me back the most. I am indeed a fairly new professional (less than 5-years in the student affairs field), and I questioned my timing for two reasons. First, what might it mean to be finished with my doctorate at 32-ish years of age and have a work history limited to entry- and mid-level positions? Is it really possible to be “over qualified”? I came to grips with this by saying to myself, “My work and my education are only two of the many parts that make up who I am. There’s more to me than what you see on a resume.” I decided not to worry about this.
My second concern was how I would look to admissions committees. Clearly I would be at a disadvantage when compared to more seasoned applicants with much more professional experience. In the end, I decided that applying to grad school was not something that is limited to one chance. If I was not ready to take this next step, one of the gatekeeping mechanisms would let me know. Being turned away at this point would not deter me from pursuing a doctoral program later.
2.) “Why do you want to go right into another grad program? Take a break and recharge your batteries.”
This was tempting. Making a major life decision while you are in the midst of completing a masters thesis is probably a bad idea. That being said, I was really excited about the prospect of staying in school for my doctorate. I had enthusiasm for it, and I figured that if I stuck while the iron was hot I would have (basically) good scholastic habits and be in the right frame of mind for academic work. From a personal perspective, I want to make some serious progress towards this degree before my wife and I have kids. What good am I to a toddler if I’m preoccupied with transcribing qualitative research data? It will be a relief to get the degree and put the process behind me.
3.) “A doctoral degree isn’t going to necessarily be worth the investment for what you want to do. Do you even know for sure what you want to do?”
Well, to be honest I am still working through this one. I know I want to work in higher education. Having my doctorate will open some doors (or it won’t), but I’m fairly sure few doors will be shut in my face because of it. We’ll see about the fiscal sense that investing in a doctorate made further down the road . . . I’m not going to stress out about it today. That $4 latte at Starbucks wasn’t necessarily my wisest financial decision either, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t get something out of the experience.
For my next post, I will be writing about the application process, the dreaded GRE, and how I decided where to apply.
Tom Petty was right: the waiting is the hardest part. Once all of my doctoral stuff was submitted (approximately January 1, 2009), I got a pretty severe case of the “itching to find out what happens next.” Here are some “do’s” and “don’ts” based on my experience managing the purgatory that was January, February, and March of my doctoral admissions process.
