Just got married, and my wife and I plan to move next summer to start grad school next fall. I want an MBA, she's leaning more toward a PhD in Science Education/Curriculm & Instruction. We need schools that are pretty good in both, are at least cities that have good programs in both. Some programs we're considering: University of Texas Texas A&M Ohio State Indiana North Carolina Thoughts, comments, advice?
Can she actually get a specified PhD. for just science like that for curriculum and instruction? I know of some schools that are supposed to have good programs for curriculum and instruction, but I think, once you hit the PhD level, they don't break off into the subject matter studies like that. I think they take care of subject matter at the masters degree level. If she can find a program that's specific like that, that's wonderful. As for a standard PhD. in curriculum and instruction, one of the better programs out there is the one at University of Illinois Chicago. That's the one I'm looking at if I decide to go in that direction. How about Penn State? I went there for a little while. Every class I took was completely awesome. As for an MBA, I don't know much about them. I'd guess most programs at decent universities are good.
Chicago, huh? I think she told me University of Illinois Urbana Champagne (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) has a pretty good program. Is that in Chicago? Cool. What's your background? Have you been teaching for a while? Do you have a masters? She wants this degree so that she can teach at the college level. Is that reasonable? How does grad school in education work? Is it like the hard sciences, where the schools will often pay your tuition and give you a stipend?
Yeah, Chicago... UIC. University of Illinois is in Champaign-Urbana. Champaign is a couple hours from Chicago... 2.5 - 3. I have been teaching for a couple of years. I have a master of arts in teaching from National-Louis University. I got a teaching certificate and a masters at the same time there. A good program. Reasonable? Hmm... Not sure what you mean? Are you talking cost? It's not particularly reasonable. Are you talking whether or not that's a good to get the curriculum and instruction PhD.? Well... I don't think that's the route she'd want to go. If she just wants to teach science at a university, then she just needs a lot of science. She should get a PhD. in some science. Anyone with a PhD. should be able to teach at a university. Really, the curriculum and instruction doctoral degree is usually an EdD. She wouldn't need that. Really, that's probably for teachers who want to teach how to teach. It's for education teachers. It's all about educational research and designing curricula. She wouldn't need all that to teach a university science course. She just needs to get her doctorate and then do a bunch of research and get published. I would suggest a cure for AIDS or cancer! I have no doubt that would get her a university teaching job! Umm... no. Probably not. Most teachers have to pay their own way. There are some seriously desperate school districts who will pay for people to get certification in hard-to-hire subjects... special ed., math, and science. But that's not really happening these days with the economy the way it is. Most teachers have to pay for everything. In fact, they require us to get CPUs and CPDUs for recertification... something required by the state to continue teaching... and we have to pay for our own classes and seminars to get them.
Thanks for the replies. She's a biochemistry undergrad who has decided she doesn't like lab work. About all the teaching experience she's had is being a teaching assistant for a few ungergraduate biology classes. (one problem she's having is that most PhD programs want you to have a masters or some signifigant teaching experience). She wants to teach future teachers 'how to teach science' and do research on Science Education at the college level. Designing curricula would be right up her alley. So, my revised question, would a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction allow her to do this, or is the fact that she doesn't have a whole lot of teaching experience too big a problem?
Ok... I've got a few minutes, now that the baby's asleep, so I am going to attempt to hit every thread! A PhD in curriculum and instruction is designed for people who would like to teach about teaching. Mostly, however, this is about teaching K-12. That would probably be the focus of most of her classes. I don't think it's what she's looking for. I don't really think there are education classes that focus on becoming a professor. I think they look more for professionals in the fields they would be teaching. Whether they can relate the material they know to students is another story. That would probably decide whether they get the jobs or not. Bill Clinton was the president of the US... but I think he'd land a job teaching political science at a great university before someone trained in teaching political science would. See what I mean? So, basically, if she wants to teach at a university or college, I don't think the curriculum and instruction PhD is the route she should take. I would say that she should get a doctorate in a science. This would basically imply that she wants to teach at a university. That's really what it's for.
She might want to contact or check out what degree the people who work in different universities' pedagogy centers have. Most major universities have centers that specialize in helping faculty and grad students with lecturing and teaching (you can easily go through grad school a lot of places without ever teaching). The center at UM is called the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. Its website is http://www.crlt.umich.edu/ . It might give her some ideas.
Re: Funding This should be one of her main concerns going into a PhD program. It simply takes too long and is too expensive while lacking the huge payout of a law or medical program afterward. When she's looking at programs, she should ask what the sources of funding are, whether they cover tuition, what percentage of their students get outside funding (competitive fellowships) once they achieve candidacy (dissertation stage). She should find out how much funding comes from teaching (TA'ing). People who do EdD's should be eligible for a lot of the government sponsored social science fellowships, especially if they're doing science instruction. At UM, friends of mine doing EdD's have gotten these and have gotten teaching appointments supervising student teachers (which is a pretty easy job) but if she doesn't have much teaching experience, that kind of job might be harder to get.
Don't know much about the science programs, but for the MBA, the best measurement is "median post-graduation salary". If you're already making more than the average graduate from a particular program, probably best to look elsewhere. On another note: If you're even remotely contemplating doing a commuter-marriage deal during your MBA (it's alot quicker than a PhD.), don't. Just don't. It is not even remotely worth the hassle and stress. My wife is getting her PhD. in Comparative Literature at the U of I (U-C), and I'm at USC getting my MBA. Two years and 100,000 frequent-flyer miles later, our grades suck, our papers are late, and I'm accelerating to get done more quickly. And this is after 8 years of marriage. Newly married? No way. Don't even think about it.
Thanks. No, we're only considering schools that are at least pretty solid in both areas, or cities that have good schools in both.