This page gives some high-level overview of being a PhD student in my lab and in the schools I am primarily associated with.  This is mostly information stolen from the Health Policy Data Science Lab page (https://healthpolicydatascience.org/prospective-student-info), with some tweaks for different contexts.  Such gratitude to them for this work.

Q: Can I have a high level overview of being a PhD student here?

• Fellow students Perhaps the primary function of the CARES lab is to foster the camaraderie among the students. Both the stat and ed programs also have systems to help build a sense of cohort and community.  Mainly, however, various networks of students, largely self-organized, pass on knowledge from year to year about funding, exam prep, coursework, faculty, etc. When you join, if you are not plugged into these, then ask someone (or someones) so that can happen ASAP.
• Vocabulary and terms Harvard seems to have special words for everything: undergraduates are in “the college”, their majors are called “concentrations”, and we refer to graduate students using the letter G followed by their year in the program. First-year PhD students are called “G1” students. The summer between your first and second years, you’ll be called a “rising G2.” The education school PhD program has three general concentrations: Culture, Institutions, and Society (CIS), Education Policy and Program Evaluation (EPPE), and Human Development, Learning and Teaching (HDLT).  I mostly work with EPPE students, but am interested in quantitative research in all three of these concentrations.
• Organization Harvard University has many schools nested within it, e.g., Harvard Medical School and Harvard Divinity School. Among these, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) is special because it is the only school that can confer PhD degrees. Thus, the Education PhD program is based at GSAS, but the faculty who teach and advise students are in HGSE.  This can look a little weird, but generally works out fine.
• Harvard is big!  There are many doctoral programs that cover areas of research that have overlap with both education and statistics. For example, the Kennedy School has a PhD program in Social Policy and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has a PhD program in Population Health Sciences. Like ours, these PhD degrees are technically granted by GSAS.  There is also the economics department, if you wanted to go more econ (I am statistics, not econ, but the overlap in research methods between my interests and economics is large).

Q: How does your lab work logistically?

The CARES Lab is primarily a touchpoint of students interested in similar areas of research and a vehicle for supporting and promoting excellent research in causality and education (and other things as well).

The lab generally meets every Friday from 2 to 3:30 PM. At these meetings we discussed ongoing student research (students regularly present their work in progress) or discuss papers that we have read together. These meetings serve as a touch point for all of us so that we know how everyone is doing, and so that we build a common language for discussing research. We also have occasional social hours. Students are usually working on their own projects, but will reach out to other students in the lab to talk about things or bounce ideas or get support.

Each semester, one student will act as the lab organizer, ensuring that we have interesting things to do at our regular meetings. Other students will volunteer to take notes at our meetings so we have a record, and when were in person someone regularly brings snacks (very important!).

We also have a subgroup of lab that is an ongoing reading and discussion group for reflecting on how to best conduct anti-racist research with quantitative methods.  In this group we read papers from QuantCrit and other related areas.

Outside of these lab meetings, I meet one on one with my students regularly, ideally every other week for about 45 minutes. In these meetings we talk about ongoing research projects as well as whatever logistical decisions need to be made regarding courses, summer plans, and so forth.

Q: How do finances work?

In their G1 (and, for HGSE, G2) year, students are paid a stipend for living expenses (about $31k for the academic year) by the program. For education students, nearly all students also receive a stipend from the “dissertation completion fellowship” (aka DCF) in their final year. Most students also supplement the stipend with additional paid work (more on this below). Thus, if you take five years to complete the program (which is the norm), you’ll need to find funding for summers plus the middle years. Both statistics and HGSE help ensure that this funding happens (usually by offering teaching positions or research positions with faculty). 

Q: Where does funding come from?

Student funding varies a lot. I work with my students to ensure all my students have funding throughout the course of their studies.  Because the sources vary, it can be sometimes a bit confusing.

The main sources of funding are teaching and research fellowships.  First, most students work at least some of the time as “teaching fellows” (called “teaching assistants” at most universities) for Harvard classes, both graduate and undergraduate classes. Most also work as research assistants for Harvard faculty, at an hourly rate that varies a lot from school to school. Graduate student workers (e.g., teaching fellows and research assistants) at Harvard are unionized.

Some students are funded on training grants that faculty affiliated with the program manage; these often are restricted based on citizenship and immigration status and may also limit students’ ability to work other hours for pay.

Fellowships with outside organizations (e.g., private industry or government) are another way that students make money during the program. Working for these outside entities are independent of Harvard, meaning they are not bound any rules about graduate student work (or the union).  In our lab we have had several stat students win NSF Graduate research fellowships, which provides good funding independent of any faculty.

Some students have jobs (called “proctors” and “tutors”) working with undergraduates that provide housing and some meals (14-21 per week, depending on the job).

There are also a lot of fellowships.  For example, in HGSE many obtain a PIER fellowship, that provides funding as well as other opportunities to connect with education organizations.

Q: Will I get funding from you?

Depending on your research interests and my own grant situation, one source of funding is to do research with me. My general model is to offer funding and co-authorship on the projects that I have the ability to fund.  Currently this is mainly for causal inference and also text analysis.  We can identify possible projects as part of our ongoing advisor relationship.

Q: What about summer funding?

During summers students will often do research (ideally with faculty in a manner that furthers their PhD work). In particular, it is common for GSAS students to receive summer stipend funding for two months of stipend in the summers following their G1, G2, G3 and G4 years to further this.

Statistics students are required to do research between their G1 and G2 year. Doing an internship in that summer is not allowed. All following summers are flexible.

Summer internships are also an option, and can be quite lucrative.  They can also distract from PhD work, so there is a trade-off.  But I believe it is good to have a mix of internships and summer research over the course of a PhD.

In my lab I check in with students about summer plans to help navigate choices as to what to do with this time.

Q: What about medical?
Tuition and health insurance are paid for all students in the program for the first five years. The health insurance is pretty good; the dental insurance is not (this may change with a new union contract).

Q: How do you live in the Boston area?

Unfortunately, living in Boston is expensive; nearly all students have roommates or live with family.  That being said, Boston is designed to be a place for students to live, as there are a lot of students here!  It would be good to talk with other PhD students when you are coming to our programs to get a sense of what this is like.

Q: What will my coursework look like?

Your G1 and G2 years will be spent primarily taking courses, and it will be a lot of work. Your fellow students will take many classes with you, but in education there is a lot of flexibility in the coursework so you won’t quite be traveling through them together as a cohort. (Stats has more of a common core of courses.) In education, for G1, you will take two semester-long courses called “Pro sem” and “Con sem” that will introduce you to the landscape of education research.

Q: When will I start doing research?

Some students do a research project or internship during the summer between their G1 and G2 years, or start research projects in their G1 and G2 years. This isn’t required, but can be a nice way to explore relationships with faculty and research ideas of interest to you.

Research will begin in earnest, for many students, the tail end of G2 or in G3.

Q: Tell me more about the actual PhD work?

Throughout your PhD program there are several milestones of note:

• Qualifying exams In the spring after your G2 year, in HGSE you’ll take a comprehensive exam (called “quals”). The students generally form study groups and work with program faculty to prepare for these exams. Failing is extremely rare; this is not a “weed-out“ mechanism, it’s a check point for the faculty to make sure students are generally on track.  Statistics is in the process of eliminating these exams.
• Dissertation years In your G3 year, you’ll explore potential dissertation topics and assemble a committee of three faculty members who can mentor that work. This work can be joint with faculty.  Most of my students have projects that are co-authored with me that form part of their dissertation work.
• Dissertation proposal. In HGSE you will have to form a field statement and then, eventually, a dissertation proposal.  These are opportunities for you to talk with your committee about your research plans and get feedback.
• Dissertation A dissertation usually comprises three publishable papers that are related somehow (though they may be quite loosely related). “Publishable” means it could be published as an article in a peer-reviewed journal. However, it does not mean “published”; some students never publish their dissertation research in journals and others do not publish until after they graduate (during their first job). Students do not have to generate research projects entirely on their own; your faculty mentors will help you.
• Dissertation defense. The last thing you do as a student is “defend” the dissertation. This entails sending a complete copy to the whole committee and then giving a talk, which is called a “defense”. (It is public in HGSE and not public in statistics.) At the defense, you will present on your research and the committee will ask questions, and then “pass” you. It is very rare for someone to fails the defense; it is generally a celebratory occasion. If you’re not ready to defend, your committee will delay the defense until you are ready to pass. You may end up with revisions as part of your pass; you would then have some time to clean up your dissertation manuscript before final submission.

Q: What about the job market?

In your final year of your PhD you will both be finishing up your dissertation and quite possibly looking for a job. The academic job market usually starts in the fall, and will require you to put together a teaching and research statement. You would meet with me and I would provide you some sample statements to get you started, hopefully in the summer before your final year. The non-academic job market is more ongoing, and you can look for jobs in the spring.

See my alumni page to get a sense of where my students end up.