Sunshinegrl456

Ok, so, my ONE friend in Cambridge actually went into LABOR yesterday evening! So clearly I'm not really able to ask her for meetup location suggestions like I was hoping to! However, I just got off the phone with Andy, the EPM program coordinator and he had a couple suggestions! First off, day and time? Is Saturday the best overlap between the Friday and Monday admit days? Or Sunday? Personally, I was thinking Saturday evening, after dinner but before people really start going out (so 7-8ish?). If that's the case, John Harvard's was Andy's top pick for being a "good introduction to Cambridge while also being big enough for a group" he also suggested downstairs of Tasty Burger as having a larger space that's less likely to be super crowded. How said The Druid is "rad old school" (quote!) and a good option, but much more likely to be crowded. Or there's Sunday afternoon, or Sunday evening? Anyone who's more familiar with Cambridge than me (aka anyone who's ever actually been there!) have any suggestions?? Thanks!

Fleshing out plans for a grad cafe meetup during admit weekend: too soon?

I'm not sure I think there's a way to "remove from timeline" but I think I remember concluding that that didn't necessarily remove it from people's newsfeeds :/ Wait. Aren't there also need-based grants/scholarships that could be included in your financial aid offer? The fellowships were just the merit-based side of life, right?

Oh my gosh, I got that too!! Literally got the email 20 minutes into the session but ignored it initially because the subject line was, "happening today!" so I was like, "oh, must be this evening" (because almost everything else online has happened in the evening) and then realized two hours later I'd missed it. Womp womp. I realize I should be organized enough to know when my webinars are, but seriously not helping TC! Not to hate on Columbia! Penn has proven itself equally hilarious in their email communications. I particularly enjoyed their "Congratulations on your acceptance to the GSE!" email that in the entire email, made no indication at all exactly which GSE they were referring to. Oh admissions, how I do not envy their jobs.....

Huuuhmmmmm....I wonder why they don't come up on search....that sort of limits this to grad cafe only people :/ I'll look into it, thanks for letting me know EdYouKateOr! (anyone that knows more about fb groups than me have any thoughts?? :/ )

I think this will work: HGSE 2013-2014, HGSE EPM 2013-2014 If the links don't work for whatever reason, those are the exact names of the groups and they are open groups so you should be able to successfully search for them on facebook (let me know if not!).

Ok, facebook groups created: HGSE 2013-2014 and HGSE EPM 2013-2014. Please join so I don't look lame all by my lonesome!

WOW. So so so glad I checked up on this thread - I never would have known aid letters were out. What the heck is up with them going to everyone's spam? Sigh. Seeing the numbers shake out, Teachers College is looking so much cheaper than Harvard and if I wasn't torn before, I sure as heck am now. Also anyone else super annoyed at getting the EXACT SAME email from TC about signing up for admit day FOUR days in a row?! I was it the first time TC, thanks plenty!

Thanks for the insight on the research salaries you've seen! I'm currently at large charter management organization. My role is on-site so really the only people I work directly with that are peaking 100 is the principal and the director operations (and even then, that varies from school to school). At the "network" (our slang for the people in supportive teams connected to the schools) such as the Business Information Systems, Data Strategy, and Operations teams each have multiple associate director and director roles that are hitting the higher salaries, not to mention the VP of each of these teams. Their direct subordinates, such as product specialists and analysts do end up in that 65-80 range you noted. The regional directors of operations and regional superintendents (of which there's about 5 each) all also are up there in terms of salary. Our top earners are obviously the co-CEOs who are wayyyyy up there in terms of salary (I'm a little scared of publicly naming numbers without permission), neither of whom have corporate backgrounds (I have a personal theory/hope that as the field expands in the next 10-15 years and the demand for analysts/researchers goes up, there will be more capacity to hire/train/produce strong people for these roles from within the field - that is to say, all the corporate switching to education is a temporary phenomenon due to a lack of internal development capacity because of how rapidly the field is growing currently). We also have an IT team, Team External Relations, Team Recruit, and a Finance team, but I have little to no clue what their hierarchies and salaries look like. In general, I've heard tell, and probably agree, that the money is especially good in charter schools so I recognize the paychecks I'm around probably are a little higher than your average person in education. I think your estimate of most people settling into 65-80 range is one I'd agree with, which honestly I have no qualms about - I grew up in a home where buying a gallon of milk was a luxury and have no sense of entitlement to hit six figures. My point yesterday was more in response to my feelings about SonicYouth's remarks about educators' salaries and that while no one can deny paychecks are smaller in this field, that does not at all mean there aren't those who are in the range of those average L and B school salaries cited to and it does not take 20 years to get there. It might not be "average" but it's also not NOT out there. If that makes any sense

Yes, I've grown rather cynical of the number of people with corporate backgrounds that walk away from it and waltz right into education with doors flung open and check books out as they scoop up the already few Analyst/Strategy/Consultant positions out there. That being said, pretty much my only response is that deep down I believe that l can prove myself to be just as valuable as them (being idealistic as a prerequisite of being an educator, is it not?). One question though: what the heck are these people in public sector that you know doing that's causing them to scrounge to bring home 50K? I haven't interviewed for or seen a job that I feel qualified for in a while that pays south of 50 and I'm only two years out of school and don't have a master's yet. The lowest paying job on the data team at my organization pays more than that, and I know several people earning over 100 that are doing things I could see myself doing in 5-10 years. Have I been DRASTICALLY misled? (choosing not to PM this because I figure we all lean in a little closer when talk of our future potential earnings comes up. If I'm wrong, feel free to boo and hiss and I'll gtfo )

For me personally, it's not so much the opportunity to say I went to "Harvard". Rather, it's that I want to study organizational change and leadership from a research (v. practical/professional) perspective. In terms of getting that along with the foundation in/context of education policy, Harvard EPM and Stanford POLS are pretty much it. Moreover, Harvard is the only one that focuses specifically on K-12. It's that preciseness of focus and depth that makes this program valuable and worthwhile for me. If I felt that I could get anything close to that anywhere else for cheaper, I'd be there in a heartbeat (probably). Also, I keep reminding myself that it's not THAT obscene an amount of debt - there's plenty of kids in B school and Law school spending $100,000 more than I am who aren't guaranteed to come out it earning that much more than me (right away or over a lifetime), and you never know how many of them will end up switching to education down the road which makes me laugh a little because we'd effectively end up in the same place but my degree cost less and took less time

I read somewhere (sorry to be vague, I swear it was a link off the pre-matric site but I can't locate it now) that the average starting salary coming out of the HGSE Ed. M is around $55k. That said, I don't put too much stock in it given the variety in years of experience we're bringing into the program and the variety of industries we'll all be going to after the program. I also think what you DO with your time in the program has a large influence on your value coming out of the program (eg. making sure you take the right classes so you can actually get that analyst job). Rather than think of it in terms of averages, I think of the value of my time spent in this program as equal to a "promotion" if I'd stayed at work. It increases the salary I expect to move to after the program, it speeds up the rate at which I expect to reach said higher salary, and I expect the biggest pay off in the next 3-5 years when I start hitting those job descriptions that require a minimum of a master's (or 10+ years work experience that I am not willing to wait for!). Maybe that's a flawed/exaggerated justification for why it's worth it for me to attend this program, who knows. At the end of the day this is more than just a career move for me and maybe it's financially reckless (my parents, neither of whom finished college, certainly think it is), but I'm SO HUNGRY to study about organizational change and knowledge management and to be able to dig into research and theory and work with professors and talk with peers - for me it's the mecca of what I derive fulfillment and happiness from. And if I have to pay $65K for that, ok. Worst case, I'm earning what I earn now, which is enough to make the student loan payment without facing serious economic constraints. Bottom line is this is what I REALLY want to do; I might not be a ton richer for it, but I certainly hope my life will be enriched, which has value in and of itself.

I definitely also have a vague memory of reading that! Edited because I was yammering on unnecessarily

I considered it for a few minutes and decided that a) I wasn't sure how cool I was with being surrounded by majority GSAS students (on the one hand, I like the idea of the variety, on the other, I didn't want to be the ONE random HGSE kid on the hall and feel out of sync) and b.) they're all single rooms and I am not a lone wolf pack. I personally feel like it can be a wild card in terms of ending up on a hall that socializes a lot despite the single rooms, or everyone just keeps to themselves. So, with those thoughts in mind, I personally am not sure it worth saving the money in terms of quality of life trade-off I'm assuming would be the case (based on my personal preferences) . HOWEVER, I consider this a personal opinion and do see that it could definitely be a great option for some.

Definitely just completely abused the privilege of having a huge printer in my office and just printed out about 80 pages worth of class descriptions and course syllabuses. Whoops.

Eh no, I thought about either starting an HGSE 13-14 or HGSE EPM 13-14 group on facebook but I wasn't sure I wanted to keep it as an open group that anyone can join and I was very sure I didn't want to have to deal with approving/looking into join requests. I know at Penn GSE the Ed Policy group is moderated by their program coordinator (who has a full roster of who to accept requests from) so I'm sort of waiting to see if that happens with HGSE too. Also I'm pretty sure I just mailed my transcripts to 110 Longfellow Hall instead of 111 Longfellow. Every time I do something idiotic now, I have that moment where I think facetiously to myself, "why, yes, I did in fact get into Harvard" - finding another way to pressure myself into perfection wtf

FYI the women's Rockland hoodie runs like three sizes too small. Not actually, but definitely go up a size. Or two.

Haha yeah still not sure how that happened - I really think they got me mixed up with someone else when they were scoring my test! But thank you!

Hi guys, I'm a LITTLE embarrassed to be the posting more than anyone else these days BUT I have some news that I think will be valuable. I spoke with the EPM program coordinator a bit ago and he told me where the list of current student's housing leases is. Here's the path: Pre-matriculation site -> Ed M Programs -> Education Policy and Management -> (scroll down) "The Great Apartment Swap" -> Link to Google doc. There's currently about a dozen and a half postings on it and he said he's confident there will be more up shortly so to keep an eye on it.

I called and asked about deferring to. I actually didn't get the "it's really rare" line pushed in front of me like on the website, if anything the guy was encouraging that it's definitely possible and definitely happens (maybe he was just feeling especially chipper though). The caveats he expressed were that more than anything, it has to do with the COHORT more so than the REASON. That is, if they can spare a person for a year, if they really really want you regardless of the year, etc. He said they absolutely didn't have any type of prescribed list, or even trends really, with what types of situations get approved and it absolutely is not directly correlated with the severity of your need to defer. That said, he also said he could give absolutely no estimate of how long the approval process takes (which I think is a little BS - however, I get that it probably depends a lot on where they are with knowing concretely who all is showing up next year). The pinch for me is that my people won't make a job offer until they can be sure I'm available but I don't want to apply to defer, get it approved, and then somehow the offer doesn't come through. It's fairly low risk, but I'm still not willing to at all risk both not having Harvard or a job next year. So, just cake. No eating it too for me.

Ok I am neither of those categories but for what it's worth I'm beginning to recognize that things won't really start rolling until May at the earliest (if you're getting an apartment through HUH) and likely June-ish if you're on your own. It's hard to trust the process that there does have to be an accepted element of waiting.

alliknits, quick question if you don't mind! (not to turn this into the "interrogate a current student forum" ) BUT, how has your experience been registering for classes? Have you had trouble getting into any you wanted to take? I'm a little nervous because in four years of college there was an econ class I was dying to take but never managed to get a seat in and with only two semesters at Harvard, I think I'm nervous about that happening again.

alliknits THANK YOU, thank you, thank you. Totally confirmed everything I suspicious of, both the good and the very short list of not so greats I'm also mulling over how the EPM program fits into future PhD opportunities (in context of the no thesis) so I'm glad to hear it can be done!

Haha, me too merrysoprano, me too! It's ok, I justify my need to gather and assimilate massive amounts of information way too enthusiastically as a symptom of being a research nerd (which is always ok in my book) Are people looking into getting grad apartments through HUH? If not, I'm assuming you're fairing on your own? If so, why? (cost, location, duration, unusual constraints, etc?)

Is Cronkhite really that much cheaper than getting an apartment? I sort of feel like I'm missing something because the cheapest room is $8k and the meal plan is another $4k so at the very least you're out $12,000 which is like getting a $1000 apartment for the full-year lease. Sure, not accounting for utilities, but almost all the HUH apartments/grad commons have utilities included in the rent. Is it really just about the location when it comes to Cronkhite?