Hi Everyone! I am currently a junior studying for a BFA at an art school. I absolutely hate my major and college and just want to get out ASAP. I am thinking about getting an Education PhD or Marketing PhD and work in the academia in the future. Do I have a shot for top 20 Education/Marketing PhD?
My stats:
GPA: 3.7
GRE: V 165, Q170
Undergrad college: the art program is famous but the overall ranking is low.
Research Experience: Not much. Some research about my current design major.
Work experience: part time tutor for 2 years, internship related to design, also working on an education start-up which isn’t running very well.
Other certificate: Harvard HBX Certificate of Readiness Pass with high honors
Should I even target a top 20 PhD? Any advice will be appreciated! Thank you!
No, not now at least.
Graduate degrees are meant to build upon some former knowledge that you’ve gotten, usually through an undergraduate degree. Doctoral degrees, especially, assume some prior knowledge in the field, as well as research experience in that field. You can’t just easily switch fields at the doctoral level like you can in undergrad - not without some pre-work first.
The other thing is that if you are an art major with little background in education and/or marketing, and not much research experience (including none in those fields), how can you reliably say that you know you want to study them for 5-6 years and then become an academic researcher? That is what the admissions committee in a PhD program is going to wonder.
Marketing draws on economic, behavioral, and psychological principles, and competitive applicants - especially for top 20 programs - usually have some coursework or background in one or more of those fields. Strong quantitative coursework/skills is also a big plus for getting into a top marketing PhD program. A lot of marketing PhD students also have master’s in marketing, MBAs, and/or work experience in marketing - although none of that is strictly necessary. However, you won’t be very competitive unless you take some economics, other behavioral science, and psychology classes. Try to fit some in before you graduate.
Education is a broad field with lots of areas. There are content areas in education (like math ed, science ed, art ed), then there are other areas like educational leadership, curriculum and instruction, educational technology, educational policy, measurement and evaluation, school psychology, and so on. What area do you want to enter? You’d have to narrow that down first. If you wanted to do a content area, usually in order to be a professor in a school of ed you need to have at least 3 years of teaching experience, so most students admitted to doctoral programs in those areas have been classroom teachers for several years. Similarly, for things like educational leadership, technology, and curriculum and instruction, programs like candidates who have worked for a few years in a school setting in appropriate roles (like an administrator for an edu leadership program, or a curriculum specialist for the C&I). Without that experience, you won’t be competitive for a PhD, and you certainly won’t be eligible for academic roles as a professor of education.
Educational policy can be gotten into without the work experience, but you would still need the background knowledge (like an undergraduate major in education, policy, and/or political science). Measurement and evaluation requires a strong quantitative background, and school psychology usually requires a psychology degree or the equivalent.
So you’re not really competitive for top 20 programs in these field, because you’ll be competing with people who actually have a background in the area. You, too, should seek out a background in the area if you’re serious about either of these fields, and get some research experience in at least one of them.
Thank you for the advice!I want to get a PhD partially because a master degree is so expensive. I will definitely take some courses in economics and probably psychology! And for research experience, is it enough if I do some independent research? Or should I work as a research assistant for a professor?
You need to work as a research assistant for a professor, or do an independent study supervised by a professor. Independent research without the supervision or input of a professor or other researcher with a doctoral degree won’t be as impressive/competitive, since there’ll be no one to guide you on whether you’re conducting the research correctly, based on the standards of the field. You also would be missing out on an opportunity to earn a good letter of recommendation.
Also, I understand wanting to be frugal and not go deeply into debt. But if you don’t want a research career, it would make more sense to get a master’s degree even if you have to pay for it. There’s also the opportunity cost of not working for the additional 3-4+ years it’ll take you to earn the PhD to consider. If you really want to go work in marketing, it’d be better for you to get an MBA or an MS in marketing and go work.