Studying with Me--PhD Students

I routinely receive emails from prospective students who are interested in applying to the PhD program in Public Administration at North Carolina State University. I welcome your interest. However, as you explore potential doctoral programs, it is important to understand what I study—and what my colleagues at NC State and scholars at other institutions study—so that you can identify a program and faculty advisors who are a good fit for your interests.

My research interests

The most important things to know about my work are these:

• I study the public policy process. I do not study organizational behavior, nor do I specialize in policy analysis. These are important and interesting fields, but I do not have particular expertise in either.

• I study the policy process primarily in the context of American politics. I do not do a great deal of comparative research. I sometimes wish I had done more comparative work, but that is not where my expertise lies. If you are interested primarily in studying the policy process in another country, you will likely be better served by working with a scholar who has substantial experience studying that country or political system.

• Students who want to work with me should have a strong interest in American politics and policymaking. Because my research focuses primarily on the United States, I expect students who work with me to be interested in studying policymaking in the United States. Students who want to work with me as research assistants, in particular, need a sound foundational knowledge of American politics, roughly equivalent to that acquired through a bachelor's degree in political science or a very closely related discipline.

• I do not primarily study or teach emergency management. Many people assume that I specialize in emergency management because so much of my research concerns disasters and disaster policy. My interest in disasters, however, comes from my interest in the policy process. I study disasters as a way of understanding such phenomena as agenda setting, policy change, institutional responses, and policy learning. I certainly know and work with scholars who specialize in emergency management, but my own research focuses on the public policies developed to address disasters and on what those policies can teach us about the broader policy process.

• My work is not primarily in the mainstream of public management or organizational studies. I have held appointments in public administration departments for more than thirty years, but my policy process research is grounded primarily in political science, the discipline in which I earned all of my degrees. I very much enjoy working in a public administration program. Before returning to academia, I had a short but very interesting career as a public servant, and public policy scholarship productively bridges public administration, political science, and several other fields. But if your primary interest is in the management of an organization, program, or policy area, I may not be the best person to serve as your advisor.

• Do not try to force-fit your interests to mine. I often hear from prospective students who want to study a mainstream public management or organizational studies question. When I explain that I am not an expert in those fields and describe my own areas of expertise, I sometimes receive a reply along the lines of, “That's fine; I am also very interested in your work.” Please do not feel that you need to change your interests simply to match mine. You will be much better served by working with advisors whose expertise genuinely matches the questions you want to study.

• If I suggest that you might be better served by working with another scholar, this is not a judgment about the quality of your ideas. I want prospective doctoral students to have successful and rewarding experiences. I often tell people how much I enjoyed earning my PhD; those were some of the best years of my life. A major reason for that was that my interests were a good fit with those of the faculty who advised me. Your interests may fit particularly well with one or more of my colleagues at NC State—or they may fit better with scholars at another institution. When possible, I am happy to suggest scholars or programs that may be a better match.

Applying to the PhD program at NC State

There are also several things you should know about applying to our program:

• Information about our PhD program is available on the program website. Please consult that page before contacting individual faculty members about admissions requirements. It provides information about the program, the current PhD program director, degree requirements, and the application process. It is important to note that, in most cases, we admit people with a master's degree, although there are paths for people starting with a bachelor's degree.

• I do not make individual decisions about admission to the PhD program. Admissions decisions are made through the program's admissions process and admissions committee. Faculty fit is, however, an important consideration. If you contact me because you are interested in working with me and I believe that your research interests are a good fit with mine, I can let the admissions committee know that I would be interested in working with you.

• I do not make individual decisions about financial aid. Funding decisions are made as part of the program's admissions and funding process.

• I cannot waive application fees, TOEFL or GRE requirements, or other application requirements. These requirements are established by the program or the NC State Graduate School. Questions about whether a particular requirement applies to you should be directed to the appropriate program or Graduate School office.

Why consider NC State?

If you are interested in studying public policy, broadly defined, this is an especially good time to consider NC State. We have made a number of excellent faculty hires in recent years and have developed considerable strength across several areas of public policy and the policy process. This means that prospective students interested in public policy have opportunities to work with multiple faculty members rather than relying on a single potential advisor.

We welcome your interest in our PhD program, and I encourage you to explore the faculty's research interests carefully as you consider whether NC State is the right intellectual fit for your doctoral studies.