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Sorry so late to this. May no longer be relevant, but I do know something about the program at UVA. It's a good program. I've met a few students, some staff and professors from the program at conferences. Everyone was very nice. In particular Mable Kinzie is pretty interesting, she's one of the professors there and is very nice. Also Glenn Bull, another professor, is pretty prominent in the arena. If you haven't already checked it out, I'd recommend you do.

Congratulations on your acceptance. I think ASU's program is better known within the edtec community -- lots of professors come from there, but NYU's program looks very impressive from what I've read of it. One odd thing I noticed was ASU's edtec website has been completely redone, the edtec page looks like it's been stripped to a bare minimum, not a factor per se, but is a bit off-putting. Did you choose ASU? If so was the funding sufficient? I'm very curious as I'm considering applying to both programs this fall. Would love to hear what you chose to do. thanks!

I can't speak to the Social Studies programs, but I'll tell you this -- I went to Syracuse undergrad, and I lived in NYC for 12 years after that. I don't know if the $20,000 is in tuition alone, but if you live up there already know you're gonna save a ton of money on cost of living too. A lot of people pass through the TC Masters programs, so I'd really weigh whether that degree is really worth the extra $20,000 if its just about TC. I think you'll get a good education either place. Hell there are people coming out of far lower ranked programs than Syracuse getting teaching jobs -- maybe not their first choice right away, but it also depends on where you want to work. Good luck!

I went to Syracuse undergrad, I live in Los Angeles now. Yes the city of Syracuse is cheaper than LA, but they are both large private universities and, if not funded, are expensive. Ironically, Syracuse's campus is in the nicer part of Syracuse, USC is in a not so nice part of Los Angeles (though the campus is nice). I know absolutely nothing about computer scinece but here's one more thing to consider, it was in the mid to upper 80s today her in Los Angeles -- it's currently raining and 35 degrees in Syracuse. If you go to Syracuse you will see snow on the ground from October through April. It gets very cold in the winter and when it's not snowing it's often raining. Not that thesee are bad things, it's also very pretty in upstate NY but it's worth noting, USC is 12 miles from the beach and it's warm and sunny in LA 85% of the time. good luck!

if you're not looking at any other schools, I don't know why GRE would be a concern, but that said, Education Students avg. the lowest GRE scores of any field in the ETS comparison charts. As for NYC, if you are living rent free, you just upgraded your income by about $40,000. So don't be discouraged about being in NYC with your future spouse. Everything in NYC is expensive but it's the Rent that kills you, pure and simple Being a long time NYC resident, (who now lives on the West Coast) but has also been looking at both these programs for doctorates I'll tell what I know. TC apparently has that TC Mafia thing going, so if you do wind up going elsewhere it probably has a better networking system than NYU. Commuting to NYU from Brooklyn will save you 200 blocks of commuting probably an hour a day. I don't know about funding from NYU, but serioulsy doubt you'll get anything from TC in a Masters program. Most attend there while they're working. Have you looked at Hunter or CUNY? They're a lot cheaper. I don't know about tyour he particular specializaton, but the ed schools are decent (obviously not in the same rankings as NYU & TC) good luck

You may not get the chance to address it in an interview if they do hold it against you. Rather than an addendum, why not incorporate that into your essay, not directly per se, but perhaps discuss your past experience with failure, what you learned, how it motivated you to move ahead, etc. I'd had to justify a poor undergrad transcript (granted from years ago) and focused on the changes and growth between then an now. I think you can include something along those lines without it seeming too hamfisted. just a suggestion.

Not every irrational fear is symptomatic of a cultural phenomenon. Sometimes people are just confused or naive. have a beer.

locating their application without emailing them to ask, adds 15 pts to your overall applicant score.

if you're concerned about your undergrad gpa re getting into a Doctoral program, I'd agree about shooting for the Masters first. I'd not agree about choosing a program because you can't afford to take the GRE. I don't know how long you've been out of school, and I don't know what your goal is with these degrees, but I'd take that time to see if you could get some real world experience if you don't already have some. My assumption is, if you considering a recommendation from a lecturer at your former college than it's probably pretty limited. Because a professional recommendation in that area would carry weight too. You want to make sound decisions at this point in your life. If you did get into Columbia's Masters program purely as a means to an ends, do you really want to start racking up those types of debts when you currently can't even afford to take the GRE? -- I've worked in film and television for years, cinema studies graduate degrees don't get jobs in the industry (MFAs from USC and maybe NYU film programs yes--- but not the cinema studies degrees), so my assumption is you know this and your interests are academic. Real world experience can be quite helpful. Unless you're 100% certain about exactly what you want to do why rush like this to get into an expensive masters program you don't have a passion for?

I suppose if you're applying for an MFA or something or that nature it would be fine, even appropriate. But unless you're extremely confident in you creative writing ability and familiar with your audience, I'd agree with the above poster and err on the side of caution. Admittedly I know nothing about the Research Proposal structure as compared to the SOP, but even effectively used, humor can be misinterpreted as cheeky or even gratuitous in the wrong company.

I sympathize, and wonder myself if I should take them again. It got me in to my MA program, but I'm planning on applying to doctoral programs next year. I've been in the working world a long time and have been writing professionally for several years. I've sold scripts and articles, authored technical manuals, financial, scientific and legal presentations and been published in major publications. I got a 4.5. Granted, with both essays I felt very rushed towards the end and my conclusions suffered. I'd not be surprised to see this exercise modified or removed from the GRE in the next couple of years. Frankly it's a ridiculous exercise.

I took the GRE 6 months ago, I'd not taken a standardized (or non-standardized) tests in about twenty years. I was confident in my writing, pretty sure of my verbal and worried about Quant, so I focused 90% on quant. That said, when I did finally look at verbal, I'd realized pretty quickly that applying a formula to the verbal questions will be much easier and efficient than trying to memorize the potential words. Knowing roots was way more important than memorization in my opinion. I didn't get the scores that some of you guys got, but I broke 95th percentile having put a total of maybe four hours of worrying into verbal (twenty two years since I'd had any type of formal education mind you). Sure, if you're cable of memorizing everything it's impossible to fail. But think of it this way, what's the most efficient way of answering the following: 478.53 x 36.002 = ? A. Learning and applying a mathematical formula or process, such as simple multiplication B. Memorizing your times tables up to 500 and the third decimal

More great advice. That's really good point. Thanks! Justin

Thanks! That's really helpful. Yes, the majority of the programs post the minimal GRE score, with the caveat that they are the only a minimum for grad school acceptance (few distinguish between MA or PhD score requirements) Of them, maybe half include the AW scores, and none have been above my score of 4.5. In fact one of the top programs makes a point to state they do not even consider the AW scores. Your point makes sense and your experience is really a help. Thanks.