Applications to apply for the PhD program in Criminology & Criminal Justice at UT Dallas are due soon, January 15th is the deadline. Are you interested in crime mapping, crime analysis, evaluating policing interventions intended to reduce crime? Well then apply for a PhD at UTD and come work with me!

For general advice, the PhD program is more like a mentor/mentee relationship than your prior schooling. The expectation is that you will become an independent scholar, and the best way to do that is to actually be involved with research projects of your advisor and subsequently conduct independent research for your dissertation.

So wherever you apply, you should have a good idea about what topics you want to pursue and who on the faculty you want to work with. And that focus should be reflected in your cover letter. That working relationship with a professor should be a stronger deciding factor than the rank of the program — if no one on the faculty conducts research in the area you want to pursue you will have a hard slog at pursuing that topical area for your dissertation.

If you are interested in working with a specific professor, feel free to send them an email about your interests and if they have time to advise another student. Not everyone does, and if you do not get response by email I would take that as a red flag that professor may not have enough time to effectively mentor you. See this scatterplot blog post for advice when emailing potential advisers.