babycakes

Got an interview with the MCERT program with UMD (MEd+Cert), excited (& Nervous)!

Applied for a PG-MT (Post-graduate Masters in Teaching, Secondary biology). It's a two years masters plus teacher cert. Haven't heard from them. My Praxis scores came in late (blech) so I don't know if that compromised anything. Granted, it's the most expensive program on my list (worse than Columbia!)

So on top of coralling a million LORs from your half dozen references, I am worried about schools recieving their ET. I have a deadline this friday for 3/5 schools I'm applying. ONE of the schools ... is my alma mater (University of Maryland), and 50% of their pages indicate no need for sending the transript to them. I haven't, and if they fuss about it I'll be like... yeah your websites man. SO THE OTHER TWO, I sent via mail and ET. I will check on the one I sent via mail shortly, but the one by ET, I am worried. Johns Hopkins application system ISIS is treacherous and indicates it doesn't have ANYTHING even though GRE scores were sent the day I took them (Dec 16th), the Transcript on Dec 31st, and one LOR was sent over thanksgiving break, and the other a week ago. I sent an email about the ET, but I'm SLIGHTLY paranoid their ISIS system won't let me complete my application 100% without everything being filed under "Complete". I have until this Friday. My SO is also applying at JHU (different program) and he says there's a bit of a lag. However, since I'm coming up on the Feb 1st deadline, I am a bit paranoid (and he sent everything via mail except the Resume and SoP). WHATS GOING ON? Anyone have issues with ET???

I read 2/3 of my LORs, they were both very positive. The two are from supervisors for my job, but one is actually adjunct faculty at one of the schools I'm applying to and the other is actually working on her EdD at the same school. I think they're a lot less stiff about it because they're not necessarily academics. My 3rd is from a professor I worked under for two years, she's very kind but a little on the formal side when it comes to personality. I'm sure her letter is much more objective but I did well in her lab and the only thing that would be considered "bad" is that I left the project I was working on to enter my current field and possibly construe it as money related. (It was not, I was totally into my project but I could not see myself making a living in lab research. )

I work in the DC burbs and I know it is INCREDIBLY difficult to land a job here. I do have an edge seeing that my SO is an administrator in a public school here and he and his crew know people in high places; they're also my primary reason why I even got the subbing position (the job is also supersaturated with CERTIFIED teachers. ) The term "beggars can't be choosers" applies heavily here. The only job I know where its guaranteed placement is tech ed (obscure major taught at a few schools out of state required by the whole state of Maryland, absurd!), and STEM educators with special ed background. If you're "just" another elementary education major or "just" another english major, you're going to have to work hard for placement.

Future biology teacher. MA/MAT/MT in secondary biology with initial certification. 1000 different names for these programs eh? I only applied to east coast schools because I was more prepared for east coast standards such as praxis scores and such. I was bummed that I couldn't try schools in the pacific northwest because that's my dream locale (they have obnoxious state specific tests that have to be taken in person, not about to drop hundreds to fly out to an area that I might not even have a steady job in!) but it wouldn't hurt to just get my degree here and work on certification later. I know for certain that California has issues with reciprocity for anything that is outside of the east coast. List of schools: Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Maryland (alma mater), University of virginia and two fallbacks Towson (north of Baltimore, MD) and George Mason (Fairfax, VA). My first deadline was today (Columbia) and I put that in. The other have Feb 1st and March 1st deadlines.

My SO is firmly planted in a career in education with a great salary; his work stress is high and his hours are long but he believes in what he does and he's making great strides in climbing the career ladder. I am entering the same field, but I'm a decade younger so I am applying to masters program and will be just starting out once I'm done. The furthest I applied is to Columbia, which is 300 miles from where we are. I suggested we could meet halfway every other weekend or something which is relatively implausible because we'd be spending 6 hours a day each just driving down to see each other. We can't even spend a week without each other. Thankfully, the best part is that its only a one year program. We've been together for over four years and we're deeply attached. I would like to consider a PhD later down the road and go to the best school I can get into, but I am definitely not asking him to give up my career for his and I don't think I can spend 4-6 years apart. Not to mention if I get a PhD, at best I'll become a professor at a teaching school which makes it un-worthwhile for him to leave his position. I am hoping that if he does get his doctorate like he plans, that he has more mobility to move. We're really sick of our area and other than the pay there's nothing really going on here for us. I have definitely at times wondered if my relationship is holding back my career (my original plan was to go into the peace corps then pursue grad school in biology). But at the end of the day, I think I would have burned out in grad school thinking I left an amazing relationship for a lab coat compacted with bleak employment perspectives in my field.

So, I'm applying for a MAT program (masters in teaching.) SO, in my foray into collecting addresses, forms and letters for JHUs application (my #2 school) I just realized two weeks before my deadline and after 2/3 of my LOR submitted my letters, that... I did not add a form. This form is two pages of ranking my abilities to do this or that, do they trust me with their kids, etc. Now how could that be? WELL FOR THE FACT THAT JHU HAS LIKE A HALF DOZEN PAGES DETAILING ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS BUT NO MENTION OF A LOR FORM ON ALL BUT ONE WHICH IS THE MOST BURIED LINK OF ALL THE ONES I ACCESSED THE PAST FOUR MONTHS. So, I feel reluctant to pester my recommenders to send in a separate LOR form because that's MY BAD. I should have read every damn single page on this one program. I do have the opportunity to slip in this other form for 2/3 of my recommenders but I think it'll look bad on me to spring it on them last minute like this. It was already a headache trying to get them all to submit on time and corralling up all my other forms and shit the last thing they'd probably want to see is another form. This is the only school I made this fluke (THANKS OBAMA!) I know that schools will see exceptions such as a missing class but seeing that most schools have a scoring system on applications not having this form could possibly hurt me. Will this hurt my chances? Should I even finish my application? What should I do? My stats are pretty solid so far and as far as I can tell my LORs are shining. Compared to a lot of other people who'd consider this program, I'd say I am a good solid top 10% of applications. I applied to six programs. This is getting cross-posted to reddit too.