<p>I know that I want to study education (foundations and policy,, particularly the history and sociology aspects) in graduate school. I have already looked into Michigan, NYU, Wisconsin, Columbia, Penn, and Harvard. However, I also plan to study African American and American urban history. Which route is more flexible? Joint PhD in Education and Hum/SS? MA in Education and PhD in Hum/SS?</p>
<p>It's going to depend on the school you attend and how those departments are structured. At my graduate school, the Education department was in the school of Education and Psychology where as the other fields you've listed were in a completely different college. This makes it difficult to structure a degree with emphasis in both. It's a little (not a lot) easier when your two areas fall within the same college at the school. Unfortunately it depends a lot of the flexibility of your major professor as well. Mine was very particular about my degree and path. Some are more flexible. </p>
<p>What I will tell you is that some Ph.D. programs require out of area coursework. I believe I had to have 9 or 12 hours of courses that didn't have a curriculum and instruction prefix. I chose to devote those hours to extra statistics courses and educational leadership courses. This may be a route you could take if you are not able to actually obtain a degree in both. You will really have to talk to the people in the schools you are considering to see if they will let you have flexibility in your program.</p>
<p>Thank you very much. I just know that deep in my heart I also want to teach history and sociology and not only education. That is why I've been looking into American and African American Studies PhD programs. At the same time, if I want to teach education courses, I will need to take coursework in education school too.</p>