Vulpix

Very smart to seek out the best financial decision, and yes, merit aid can go a long way (especially at Vanderbilt compared to the rest of these... NYU and HGSE are a longshot in terms of significant aid). If you are certain that you want a doctorate later, then going to one of these schools is more worthwhile than if you didn't, because the name will stick out for you later (but your undergrad institution will presumably stick out also, so that shouldn't be the biggest factor). This probably isn't what you want to hear, but the best decision I accidentally ever made was to work (teaching) for 3 years before doing my Harvard masters. I didn't plan any of it this way, but in those three years I managed to save up enough to pay for my degree without going into much debt (just a little bit of loans for next year). This makes me confident that even in the highly unlikely event that the program is a bad fit or not worthwhile, I won't have traumatically screwed over my future income. Although getting a masters over with quickly is very appealing (which is why I jumped into one I didn't want at the CUNY), working and saving up money was inadvertently the best thing to happen to me, and something I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who wants to go to an expensive school.

Your GPA and scores will be just fine, and your experience seems right. There's no reason you wouldn't get into some or all of these schools. If you want to be a public school teacher (or private for that matter), I really think you should consider financially your situation and how these very expensive programs may or may not match your needs. It's my opinion that you should go to a school like Stanford or Harvard if they offer a program that is rare or unique in some way that you cannot experience elsewhere. (For example, I wanted to be a teacher, so I did my masters at a very affordable CUNY while I was teaching full-time. It was only at the end of that experience I realized I wanted to study something different that only a few schools offered). I do not see any reason to go into debt for a professional teaching certification.

Nope, I doubt we'll receive that till the summer, or May at the earliest.

I would also say Fulbright would be more impressive, unless Cornell has a lot of significant research opportunities.

I opted to go to Hunter over TC for teaching because of the significant price difference. I am so glad I did. I have heard not so great things about certain departments and student experiences at TC. That being said I am not familiar with your program. Hunter's quality was average, but for the cheap cost I can't complain.

All the schools I have just declined/accepted have asked me to take an exit survey in which I list all the other schools I was accepted to and which one I picked/didn't pick. Your state school doesn't do that? I thought for their own admissions data collection they'd simply ask you in an anonymous survey what other schools you were considering. At least, I had the opportunity to share that in surveys from all of my schools. Actually, NYU never asked me. But Penn, Columbia, and Harvard all wanted to know where else I had applied to and gotten into.

At this point I'm just relieved I know where I'll be for the next 12 months!

I'm going to try to get HUH apartment with some cohort-mates as close to campus as possible. I want to be able to walk to campus and make the most out of my year (because personally, I know that if I live far away, I'm going to want to go home early and not go back for any reason). I also want to be able to be at the library late and get home, but the T stops running after like midnight/1, and I don't want to feel like I have to leave early or not go to a bar in Cambridge because I won't be able to get home. If this was NYC I'd feel differently. Mostly I just know myself, and I know that if I'm physically outside of Cambridge, I won't be on campus as much as I would want to be for things like guest speakers and other events. I'm intrinsically lazy (despite getting into this amazing school!)

A lot of us, I think, are moving out of public service, or more often, the unknown. We can't guarantee we won't pursue a PhD or work for a private charity or God knows what. Those of us who know we probably won't be in schools on a daily basis, at least.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I wish you so much good fortune in the future! I agree it's such a personal choice. The only reason I personally know I can opt for the more expensive option is because I have no existing debt and will need to take out less than $15k (hopefully less than 10k) in loans. This allows me to be optimistic about my future finances. While I'd be comfortable with a little more debt, id be so unhappy about it that I would probably opt for a different program. I also want to echo the idea that your existing resume and personal ambition can play a big role in your earning potential after Harvard. For example, I don't expect to earn as much as my classmates coming out of HGSE because I am new to my field whereas many of my peers will already have a background from which to get better jobs than me. Unlike them, I am not getting a masters to raise my future prospects, my masters right now represents only a springboard into an entry level carrier, so I have to be honest with myself about that.

I found Boston so simple! Granted, I arrived at South Station and just took the Red Line straight to Harvard. I got turned around a bunch in Cambridge near Harvard Yard and all the different schools, though. Thanks for the info about starting salary, I had not heard that before. Seems pretty logical... entry level education jobs (slightly higher than starting teaching salaries).

You might consider reapplying in a year or two when you have more savings. I happened to not even come to the realization I wanted to apply here until I had been working three years (teaching). Even though HGSE gave me ZERO aid outside of loans, working and living within my means has meant that I have enough savings to make this a low risk in terms of the amount of loans I'll need to take out (I'm not sure how much yet, but I'm aiming for the smallest loan possible.) Personally I might put Harvard on hold for a bit, there's a great chance you'd be accepted again when financially you're in a better place...

Oooooh, if you're talking about Masters +30/+60, I know all about that pay scale. I thought you meant for jobs in the private sector or other education jobs. Considering the degree I'm going for isn't for teaching, that's why I wasn't sure why the difference was significant (besides for the fact that you can ostensibly acquire more skills/knowledge with more classes).

Thanks. Weird/interesting. I live in New York, and plan to move back there after HGSE, so I guess I should care about this... but eh

I didn't realize Johns Hopkins required an MA. Do they mostly attract PhD/EdD candidates then? I wonder why they do that. I was equally confused when I was applying to TC, because they have an MA or M.Ed option, and they consider the M.Ed the "advanced masters" (so it was 30 credits vs 60 credits, or something like that). You needed to have an existing MA in order to apply straight into the M.Ed option, I think. But I couldn't figure out why I would want a "fancier" masters (unless I knew I was going for the PhD after) so even though I already have an MSEd, I applied just to TC's MA option. I figured it was cheaper and still got me a degree in the field I wanted.

Feel better! And my notes are definitely biased based on my own attitude and feeling there, but I'm glad they were inspirational!

Yay International Education! Something that was very interesting to me recently as I was accepting and declining my offers for International Education were the exit surveys --- HGSE and Columbia both had me select which other schools I applied to, which were clearly the ones that they consider their competitors. For IE/IED/IEP, there are really only 10 or so programs of note in the entire country that actually focus on this issue. It seems that you've identified all of them already... the only others are Vanderbilt, UCLA, perhaps GWU or other DC schools. Something that still baffles me is that Johns Hopkins is consistently ranked #1/#2 in education, yet I've read of almost no one this year or in previous years on this thread who has applied to it. I wonder why that is? It's got major name recognition like Vandy/Stanford/HGSE/Penn/TC etc....

I like the idea of this poll, and voted. However, I did find it hard to categorize (as clear as the options were), because I feel like a lot of us go through some kind of systematic pro/con comparison at *some* point in our decision process, but then perhaps *ultimately* leave it up to a gut feeling. I just chose my school after doing a lot of systematic comparisons and deciding that such data wasn't very helpful anyway.

I think 50 min out of Manhattan at < 850 is a reasonable expectation, you should be fine

I definitely want to!

Good luck, I'm sure you'll be successful wherever you go!!

Funny thing is that I was *definitely* leaning Penn for the longest time. If you go back and read old posts, I'm sure half of them were me saying "I hope I don't get into Harvard, I just want to go to Penn now!!" Originally, I only wanted to go to TC. I'm glad I rolled with the process though. I'm sure either school, I would have no regrets!! (Well, TC I might've regretted, because it seems that people do! But Penn and HGSE, I haven't heard much negative).

Have you decided for sure yet? I initially thought that IEP courses were more policy than skills, but in listening to students, it sounds like they are very pleased with how practical the courses are, and this was one of the big pushes that the program faculty was communicating, that they have a focus on implementation. Either way, I intend to take the classes that I know will give me the skills, so it's all good

This is a ridiculous question, but coming from NYC, I'd really like to know.... how bad is the cockroach scene in Cambridge?

Some GRE advice (coming from a strong writer/vocab): look over the essay expectations for the GRE. Although most of us are strong writers and will get a good score regardless, it was extremely helpful to know the *kind* of writing they are looking for on the GRE. You don't need to practice writing essays, but the GRE is a game and you have to know what they want. Apparently, length is appreciated (so type fast!). In one of my essays (the one that's about a big philosophical idea), I made sure to just hit them hard with lots of historical facts and current events so they knew I could relate a broad aphorism to real things going on in the world. They love that kind of stuff. All those GRE study books have really great tips for the essays. As for studying math... good luck !