I have one more year of college and want to start a PhD program after graduation. I have a 3.9 grade point average, Deans List every semester, 3 departmental awards. I will get stellar recommendations (from teachers who have written them before). I also have over 25 years of work experience in Management, including serving as an Officer on two off-campus nonprofit Boards of Directors for 3 years. I haven’t taken the GRE yet but will - expect to score high on verbal and analytical but not so well in math. I haven’t studied abroad yet, but I’m going to try to squeeze something in this year in case they consider that. If subject matter is relevant to how important research is, I’d probably be going for a PhD in Art History or History.
I have done “research” all my life at work and in classes, but no “formal” research project with a faculty supervisor. I was never made aware that was even possible for an undergrad. I also have not published in an academic journal, another thing some people are saying is “critical.”
I emailed my advisor to ask if there are any research options, no response yet. I’m also considering adding to and editing a research paper from last semester to submit to my school’s peer reviewed journal (If published would that count as research?) Finally, I’m going to try to get a certificate in academic research from a local University, in case that helps if there are no research options at this point.
I am attending George Mason University hoping to apply to New York University (top choice), Rutgers, University of Delaware, and a school in Florida (not sure which yet). And probably a few more. I cannot afford to get a Masters first - unless funded - which is practically nonexistent for Masters degrees, so please don’t suggest that.
Are my chances hopeless without research? Is it too late to get it before application deadlines in December? Is there any way to do it on your own if you can’t find a mentor that will work with this timeframe? It’s going to be incredibly tough to do while in school full time AND working full time like I am doing, but if I can and need to I will.
I know of a research opportunity I could do next spring - but I am guessing that will not help since it will be after the application deadlines. I don’t want to wait a year to start for reasons I won’t go into.
I hope the tremendous hard work I’ve put in to get a 3.9 gpa the last four years will actually count for something and that people saying only research matters are mistaken!
Think about it this way. Most PhD programs are funded, right? The program is paying for you to study to get your PhD. If they are going to admit a student and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars educating you (not to mention their own time and energy and other resources), they want to be as sure as they can be that 1) you actually want a career in research in your field, and 2) that you have enough foundational knowledge to succeed in the PhD program, which is a research program. So it’s natural that most PhD programs have a strong preference for people with research experience - they’re taking less of a risk that the student will get to the PhD program and say “nope, don’t like this” (or worse, “nope, can’t handle this”) in the first year or something.
However, in some cases programs have and will take a student with minimal research experience. It depends on the circumstances and the school, of course, as well as the field (it would be a much harder sell in the natural or social sciences than in the humanities, for example). But if you are otherwise an outstanding candidate AND can demonstrate that you know what you’re getting yourself into and are potentially worth the risk. warblersrule outlines those elements above.
I would also do some more digging to find a funded master’s program; they do exist, and you sound like a really strong candidate for one.
But you do need to be prepared for the possibility (strong, I’d say) that you don’t get into any PhD programs for Fall 2018 and come up with a Plan B that will help you get to your goal.
My recommendation is simple: Actually try to publish some papers in the top-ranked journals of your field. That would necessarily entail reading articles from those journals to determine the methodology and subject matter that those journals will accept and then devising projects that will fulfill those requirements.
Granted, your papers will almost certainly be rejected. But the mere act of trying to publish a paper in those journals will force you to learn what research is truly all about, which mere coursework alone does not provide. You will be forced to learn which methodologies and theories are necessary to become a competent researcher. You will be forced to think about how/where you might procure interesting data (if you’re performing empirical research) or how you might develop an interesting new theory (if you’re a theorist). You will be forced to learn such publishing minutiae as who the journal editors are, the status hierarchy of journals, and the lag-time of the peer review process.
If nothing else, you will at least be able to determine whether a PhD is truly right for you. If you find that you don’t enjoy reading -and especially, writing - research articles, if you don’t think you can develop or are not interested in developing the methodological skills necessary to produce a publishable paper, then it’s better to know that now so that you don’t waste more time and can therefore move on with your life.
Moreover, such keen familiarity with the publishing process developed by a bona-fide attempt to publish would surely be a boon to your PhD admissions chances. Adcom officers would be quite impressed with an application that demonstrated a clear and plausible publishing strategy (e.g. “I an developing project #1 that I am targeting for journal X because it has a similar methodology to papers A,B, and C that were recently published in journal X. I also have project #2 that I believe could fit in journal Y, etc.”).
And then there is that chance that your paper might actually be accepted, or at least be granted an R&R (revise-and-resubmit).