Tips for Graduate Students
(Especially for my fellow part-timers and Ed.D. students)
From 2008-2016, I worked as a Student Development Specialist at UTSA. What that actually entailed was recruiting and retaining master's and doctoral students for the College of Education and supporting them in any way I could. I learned a lot from listening to students' needs, navigating all the services available at the university that would benefit graduate students, and I often applied that knowledge to my own experience. I hope I can impart some of that knowledge to students.
I proudly have an Ed.D...But I didn't intentionally choose that degree.
I originally intended on pursuing a Ph.D. in history. When I learned about the job prospects for those graduates, especially for tenure-track positions, I began to think about a career in higher education. Like many folks in higher education, I sort of fell into it and didn't realize it could be a career. I started to have some great conversations with mentors about career advancement.
The Ed.D. in Educational Leadership at UTSA was highly recommended to me for a variety of reasons, and I chose to pursue it largely because I was already a full-time employee at UTSA and could pursue the degree while still working. For students who want a doctoral degree but don't want to stop working full-time, know there are options available to you. What was incredibly helpful for me was that my full-time job gave me access to tuition remission, so the cost of 1 class dropped from about $1400 to about $350.
The Ed.D. in Educational Leadership at UTSA was highly recommended to me for a variety of reasons, and I chose to pursue it largely because I was already a full-time employee at UTSA and could pursue the degree while still working. For students who want a doctoral degree but don't want to stop working full-time, know there are options available to you. What was incredibly helpful for me was that my full-time job gave me access to tuition remission, so the cost of 1 class dropped from about $1400 to about $350.
I was vaguely aware of negative perceptions of Ed.D. programs, but those didn't factor into my decision to pursue the degree.
I considered other programs briefly, but I realized that doing the degree at my university would cause the least disruption to my life. I could still attend the program without doing online courses (I knew that wasn't for me), and I had a LOT of support from my supervisor and co-workers to make this possible.
If you are interested in pursuing a doctoral degree and worried about the Ed.D. stigma, know that it can be real, but there are many high-quality Ed.D. programs with caring, invested faculty. Do your research on the program's rigor, the support it offers students, and decide for yourself what program fits your life and needs.
Also, If you're unaware of the stigma I'm talking about, read some of the comments on this page: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/phd-vs-edd. I don't think the author of the article is trying to sway anyone either way or make the case that Ph.D. > Ed.D. But some of the comments to this op-ed capture some of the short-sighted and dumb perceptions some people have about Ed.D. programs.
If you are interested in pursuing a doctoral degree and worried about the Ed.D. stigma, know that it can be real, but there are many high-quality Ed.D. programs with caring, invested faculty. Do your research on the program's rigor, the support it offers students, and decide for yourself what program fits your life and needs.
Also, If you're unaware of the stigma I'm talking about, read some of the comments on this page: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/phd-vs-edd. I don't think the author of the article is trying to sway anyone either way or make the case that Ph.D. > Ed.D. But some of the comments to this op-ed capture some of the short-sighted and dumb perceptions some people have about Ed.D. programs.
Get creative with financial aid opportunities.
There are not necessarily a ton of opportunities for graduate students, especially part-time doctoral students, for grants and scholarships. My tuition benefits that I received as part of my job were wonderful, but I still had about $350-400 per class to pay for out of pocket, the benefits would only cover 12 hours per year, and I still had to worry about extras like books. I was determined not to take out loans for the doctoral, but I still needed help.
Some things that helped me:
Some things that helped me:
- I scoured UTSA's Scholarships page every single year (usually in January). Remember that with grants and scholarships, you may have to apply anywhere from 6-9 months in advance. If it's summer and you're barely starting to look for funding, you're probably too late.
- Apply for everything you qualify for. My university was awesome in that the general scholarships application was typically one form that could be used for multiple scholarships, so I would check everything I thought I would vaguely qualify for. Many folks who work in grants and scholarships will tell you that there's a shocking amount of funding opportunities that don't get applicants. If you don't get it the first time around, keep applying!
- Follow the directions of each scholarship!!! As a faculty member now who works on my school's graduate scholarships committee, I can't even tell you how many applications get ruled out because the applicant didn't follow directions.
- Be aware of the full breadth of funding available to you. Tuition and books are one thing--funding for conference and/or research travel can be a whole other challenge. Be organized and clear about what you need and for what.
- For travel, I would normally take advantage of the funding my college offered PLUS what the Graduate School offered to fund different conferences.
- I was fortunate to receive a travel scholarship from AERA-Division J one year. This travel scholarships can be incredibly competitive, but they're worth applying for.
- Check out local organizations and smaller conferences for opportunities.
- One scholarship I received was from the San Antonio chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) that I applied toward tuition one semester so I could spread out my tuition benefits.
- I also received a graduate fellowship that came with a stipend from the Texas Association for Chicanos in Higher Education (TACHE) helped me in my last year that helped me complete my dissertation research and helped with travel costs so I could disseminate the results in conference presentations.
If you want to be a faculty member, know that there are important things you need to do in graduate school to make yourself a competitive candidate.
The academic job market was everything that everyone warned me about--it was slow, frustrating, and frankly, it can be depressing. It is incredibly hard to apply for jobs knowing that it's not uncommon for 1 position to receive 100+ applications. I can't even tell you how many I applied for over multiple years. And the fact is that there are many extremely capable and deserving folks who do not land tenure-track positions.
If you are a doctoral student, especially one like me who worked full-time and/or opted for the Ed.D. track, it's not impossible to be a faculty member. You just have to know that you need to figure out ways to play the same game the full-time Ph.D. students are. It's hard, but it's not impossible.
I'll never forget the first advising conversation I had with my original advisor. He told me, "I know you say you don't want to be faculty, but I still want you to graduate with 2 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 2 book reviews." He wanted me to have options, and he had me working on my first book review the summer before I officially started coursework.
If you are a part-time student or an Ed.D. student who may want to go faculty, know that you may have to advocate for yourself more than others.
My doctoral program offered research fellowships to full-time students, and at the time, I opted not to apply for many reasons (including, but not limited to, the funding was limited to 2 years and did not include benefits like health insurance). But when I found opportunities to tell faculty members that I wanted to get involved in research activities (e.g., conference presentations, assist with research), they kept me in mind. Anne-Marie Nunez helped me write my first (and second and third) conference proposal. Gloria Crisp gave me a place on her research team where I was able to work on manuscripts and conference presentations.
Own the experiences you have in your job because you should know that you'll have knowledge and skills other students may not have.
There were a number of experiences I picked up from working full-time that looked desirable to potential employers when I was on the job market, things that other students might not have had:
If you are a doctoral student, especially one like me who worked full-time and/or opted for the Ed.D. track, it's not impossible to be a faculty member. You just have to know that you need to figure out ways to play the same game the full-time Ph.D. students are. It's hard, but it's not impossible.
I'll never forget the first advising conversation I had with my original advisor. He told me, "I know you say you don't want to be faculty, but I still want you to graduate with 2 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 2 book reviews." He wanted me to have options, and he had me working on my first book review the summer before I officially started coursework.
If you are a part-time student or an Ed.D. student who may want to go faculty, know that you may have to advocate for yourself more than others.
My doctoral program offered research fellowships to full-time students, and at the time, I opted not to apply for many reasons (including, but not limited to, the funding was limited to 2 years and did not include benefits like health insurance). But when I found opportunities to tell faculty members that I wanted to get involved in research activities (e.g., conference presentations, assist with research), they kept me in mind. Anne-Marie Nunez helped me write my first (and second and third) conference proposal. Gloria Crisp gave me a place on her research team where I was able to work on manuscripts and conference presentations.
Own the experiences you have in your job because you should know that you'll have knowledge and skills other students may not have.
There were a number of experiences I picked up from working full-time that looked desirable to potential employers when I was on the job market, things that other students might not have had:
- I decided to enroll in the online teaching training course that the community college where I adjuncted offered. It was a 10-week introductory course that I did in addition to everything else in my life. Did I learn everything I needed to know about teaching online? Absolutely not. But I received more formal training in online learning through that program than a lot of other folks did, and that was desirable to potential employers.
- I talked about my experience as a graduate support specialist a lot. While faculty were the official advisors of the programs I worked with, I often coached them on how to advise and managed the day-to-day support of students. I learned a lot about services offered by other offices and colleges on campus and when/how to direct my students to them. I learned how graduate programs are funded and run. I could talk about things like enrollment management, strategic recruitment, going through accreditation visits, and state reporting. Even as a staff member, I knew a LOT.
- I owned the fact that I worked full-time and finished in 4 years. I was even the first one to finish in my cohort. What I could say is that I understood the needs of part-time students who are balancing a lot (e.g., work, family, etc.) and that I could approach them with empathy and care. Not everyone can be a full-time Ph.D. student, and that's perfectly valid.
Know that some of your biggest struggles might be in carving out time to write.
Some resources that I hope will help you:
Something that one of my mentors drilled into me in my master's program that I often repeat is that "Writing is a muscle." That means you have to do it regularly, and it'll get stronger with time. If you don't do it often enough, it'll hurt.
Speaking of mentoring, I strongly recommend that you check out Gloria Crisp's page for graduate students (http://www.gloriacrisp.com/grad-students.html) that also discusses how to be a mentee and build a developmental network of mentors for yourself. (In the spirit of full disclosure, Gloria is a close friend and mentor of mine who served on my dissertation committee.) Surround yourself with good people who have your best interests at heart, who will advocate for you, and who will give you honest feedback. I continue to be surrounded by folks who have been there for me, and you should definitely have more than one person to serve as your mentor.
- Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird (I come back to this book regularly.)
- Raul Pacheco-Vega's website and Twitter feed, especially his resources on academic writing (or #AcWri): http://www.raulpacheco.org/resources/academic-writing-acwri/
- Class(es) focused on academic writing: This was something offered by UTSA's English Department that I took, and I can't even begin to fully explain how important it was to my writing development, especially writing for publication. The bonus of it was that I developed a manuscript based on a paper for another course I had taken for publication--and that was my first sole-authored publication. Shoutout to Dr. Crystal Colombini for this chance.
- There are a lot of books that help with dissertation writing or academic writing broadly. Don't be afraid to pick them up.
Something that one of my mentors drilled into me in my master's program that I often repeat is that "Writing is a muscle." That means you have to do it regularly, and it'll get stronger with time. If you don't do it often enough, it'll hurt.
Speaking of mentoring, I strongly recommend that you check out Gloria Crisp's page for graduate students (http://www.gloriacrisp.com/grad-students.html) that also discusses how to be a mentee and build a developmental network of mentors for yourself. (In the spirit of full disclosure, Gloria is a close friend and mentor of mine who served on my dissertation committee.) Surround yourself with good people who have your best interests at heart, who will advocate for you, and who will give you honest feedback. I continue to be surrounded by folks who have been there for me, and you should definitely have more than one person to serve as your mentor.