Phd in Social Work and public policy?

October 10, 2007 5:02 PM

What are the best social/public policy Phd programs in the country?

I am getting my master's of social work at columbia university. I want to go on to get my Phd in a similar field, but not at columbia. I have two questions.

1) Can you get a phd in a field slightly different than the one you have your masters in? For example, i am studying social work but with a public policy concentration, and will have taken economics, etc. Could i pursue a phd in policy or a related field? What about sociology?

2) What are some of the best programs for this in the country?

Thank you so much!!!

posted by tessalations999 to Education (4 answers total)

If you haven't written your Masters thesis yet, try to make it more "public policy" oriented.

If your GRE quantitative scores aren't high, retake the GRE.

If you can, take some stats and get good grades.
posted by k8t at 5:29 PM on October 10, 2007

You can definitely get a PhD in a field that is different from the one in which you got your masters. In fact, many PhD programs accept students straight out of undergrad; UCLA is one such school. At UCLA, undergrads can't apply for to a masters program. Rather, they must apply to the PhD program and they can get a terminal masters if they aren't able to cut the mustard.

Berkeley had a fantastic program for the field in which you have an interest. Very highly regarded. Many, many people who are working at think tanks and the highest levels of gov't went to the Kennedy School at Harvard and George Washington U.
posted by HotPatatta at 5:59 PM on October 10, 2007

#2: I just finished a masters program at the Kennedy School and the social policy program there seems quite well developed, with an excellent faculty. Here's the Malcolm Weiner Center for Social Policy website: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/socpol/
posted by lunasol at 6:08 PM on October 10, 2007

Duke, Syracuse.
posted by rachelpapers at 9:22 PM on October 10, 2007