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After teaching for almost two years, the department has become very unsubtle in its suggestions that I go get a PhD. Now, would be good. The university is trying to increase enrollment by 2000 students over the next 5 years, which means a lot of new tenure track positions will be opening, and several people (including the current Chair) have hinted that they'd like to see me stick around. The only stumbling block is that degree I don't have.

I've started meeting with people in the know to find out exactly how to navigate this process. Since I've never done the college application thing the way the books say one is supposed to, I'm not sure what's really expected of me. In the past I've always just gotten it into my head somehow that I wanted to go to X school, and off to X school is where I went. I know this time will not be so easy since I've already been rejected--two years ago--by the school I decided I wanted to attend.

Last night I sat down and assembled a list of every PhD granting institution in the Great Lakes region (which is as far as I'm willing to go for now). There are 39, not counting Purdue or Madison because I'm not returning to either one.

If you're attending or have attended a research university in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Kansas, could you please leave a comment with your perspectives on the school? I'm looking for the real scoop on the schools, not the info available on the websites.

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Aw, you aren't coming back to us at old PU. Sniff. I wouldn't either. Though the interior character of the department has changed quite a bit in the last 5 years, the same people are there.

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More seriously, here is some narrowing down advice. Do some basic research on the departments and their PhD curriculums you'd like to gain entry in (which should narrow it down pretty quickly based on how mickey mouse the curriculum looks).

Then try to find out more about the professors. What are their current research interests? Sometimes their websites are stale. Don't be afraid to e-mail them directly, it might give you synergy when you actually apply.

What funding opportunities are available? For instance, you should be able to teach Comp right out of the box because you've done it before, and they should be able to grant you a full fellowship for that. (If the institution is located near a community college you might also be able to pick up adjuncting on the side too, though some fellowships try to prevent this)

Then you get into the character of the department and the curriculum, which is what you are inquiring about here. IE, are the advising professors piranhas?

I'm desperately trying to find second tier programs that are as interesting as the first tier programs I'm interested in so I have a set of backups myself.

Then try to find out more about the professors. What are their current research interests? Sometimes their websites are stale. Don't be afraid to e-mail them directly, it might give you synergy when you actually apply.

It might be worth Googling for papers/talks/seminars/conferences they've contributed to. The other day, when I was trying to track down whether an old friend of mine (an academic) was still around (and where he actually was, since his website was down and I didn't know whether my email to him had been eaten) I managed to find out various conferences he'd spoken at in the last six months, all over the world. Mind you, he had an unusual name, so it was only a few hours work. You might not want to put in the effort needed to track down multiple academics.

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I hated the college of education & human services at Wright State University (Dayton, OH) but loved the college of science & mathematics there. The chemistry & physics departments really looked after me while I was there. (Despite being an education major, the chem department gave me a TA-ship as an undergrad. And several of the physics professors helped me out with independent classes when I needed to get my physics courses for physics certification.) I've not done any real graduate work anywhere (though have taken two graduate classes from University of Findlay).

Congrats on the Chair wanting you to stay! I'm afraid that I don't have any good dirt on universities in the states you mentioned, though.

I never had contact at the U of MN with anyone you would. My advice, however, would be to look up professors and their research interest. Then contact anyone with a research program that sounds interesting and see if they're looking for graduate students. :)

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