I've been in pretty consistent contact with a few professors who reached out to me about two weeks ago and can shed a little light on what's happening right now. One of them told me that the process is: from the initial hundreds of applications, about 30-45 (I can't remember the number precisely) get a full faculty review. In that full faculty review, each application gets read by a minimum of two faculty members. If they are interested in a person, they'll set up a phone call. If an applicant specifically mentioned a faculty member, that's brought to the faculty member's attention. One professor who called me was one of the two that I mentioned in my application. In other cases, faculty members call whoever's research interests they are drawn to. This was the case with the other professor who called me. One of the professors emailed me for a conversation the next day and told me that she was in a bit of a rush because she wanted to talk before some kind of... faculty meeting about candidates that week. We talked Monday the 28th, so I'm assuming whatever event she was talking about was Friday the 1st. The other professor reached out the next day, so I had two phone interviews that week. They've put me in contact with a few current students over the past week and have been quite thorough in answering my questions. That all feels positive, but one of them was very careful not to give me the impression that I was in, and made clear they were talking to a number of candidates. Any questions you have, let me know. Best of luck to all.
* I should note that all my information is only relevant to CTE
SESAME is a great program – I got my science education MA and credential in their sister masters program (MACSME), which shares a lot of classes and faculty with SESAME. Good luck!
iheartscience got a reaction from Songbird222 in Fall 2016 Applicants