I’m currently applying to PhD programs in education, with a focus in urban schooling. I’ve been out of school for a few years, and I don’t really know what the admissions environment is like anymore. I’m only applying to a handful of schools, since I have to stay in the LA area for personal reasons. I’m applying to UCLA, USC, and Loyola Marymount. I just took the GRE, and thus don’t have my writing score yet, but predicted 170 in verbal and 158 in quant. I have 5+ years of teaching experience, in both public and private schools. I’ve also done some education research, but no significant publications. Undergrad GPA (religion and poli sci) was 3.75 from UChicago, and my masters GPA (MDiv) was 3.95 from Harvard Divinity School. Recommendations should be pretty strong, but maybe not incredible. UCLA is my top choice, followed by USC, with Loyola as a backup. I feel like my chances are pretty strong, but again, I don’t have a lot of recent experience in this (and I’ve never applied for an education program before). Does this seem like a competitive profile? Thanks!
Also, any advice on how to get potential advisors to respond to email? I’m tempted to go Full Funke and send them bags of glitter with threatening messages, but that seems a wee bit excessive ; )
Do these programs have events for prospective students? Also, emailing the Director of Grad Studies might work. They are supposed to be involved in recruitment.
I’ve already spoken to the directors at USC and UCLA, but they were not very helpful. They basically said just keep trying email. I’ll take a look for prospective student events though, since I’m already in the area!
Professors, for better or for worse, are notoriously bad at responding to emails in a timely fashion (or…at all). It’s not uncommon for university professors to let emails go unanswered for weeks or even months sometimes. It’s true that there’s not much else you can do besides try them again, but one thing you could do is arrange a visit with the departmental secretary and see if you can catch any of them in their offices, if their office hours are listed. (Graduate students, on the other hand, are far easier to get a hold of, and the departmental secretary may share some contact information of grad students who are willing to be contacted by prospective students.)
I’m not in your field but your profile looks relatively strong to me. The keys are going to be the quality of your research experience and those recommendations.
Also, bonus points for the Arrested Development reference.