boscojoba

OMG lol now this cunt Hi Ed Hopeful has downvoted everything. Yikes. Why my program has had so many losers is abundantly clear now.

Yeah. Whoever this person is, they've been systematically downvoting every post I've ever had (and I hadn't accessed this site since 2017 lol). Far be it for me to not return dickery with dickery...

Womp womp

Paid or not, people on an F1 visa are limited to 20 hours of work per week. There are a few exceptions but you will get deported and face a potential ban on entering the US ever again f you violate these terms and officials find out.

Got rejection notifications from U Washington Seattle and UNC Chapel Hill yesterday and today - not too concerned as these had the weakest matches with faculty anyway! Best of luck to other PhD hopefuls finding funding and choosing their programs!! ?✨???

K

Is there such a thing as a non-cognitive mindset, I wonder? I have no intention to discuss TFA. This isn't the forum or thread for it. I don't think I said TFA is creating a white man's burden vibe. What I did want to say is that from what I've heard, the most vocal individuals in IEP program classroom discussions are TFA and Peace Corps alums who talk about development and education in such ill-informed and paternalistic ways stemming from an overinflated sense of messianic self-importance as to create the sort of general white man's burden vibe that's in place. To me, what's lent credence to this are the experiences the international students have shared about how they have been treated by white Americans. Also, of course I am listening to a few samples of experiences. Did I say otherwise? Am I a researcher evaluating this program who needs to be setting up rigorous controls for validity and reliability? Is anyone on here? I'm just sharing what I know with no more nor less claims of truthfulness than anyone else on this forum. Like I just posted, you can take it or leave it. You or anyone else simply not liking the contents of my post doesn't change its reliability relative to anyone else posting stuff they've heard from people in the program (or elsewhere that's relevant). "Hate" whatever you want to and say I'm a racist. It's no skin off my nose.

1. I have experienced programs like TFA. 2. Of course this is hearsay. A lot of info posted on these forums is hearsay. No one here can substantiate anything anyone says someone else told them. My post is no more nor less reliable than anyone else's whose content shares something someone else told them. I suspect you simply don't like what I've written, which is fine by me. Anyone reading can take it any way they like. On a related note, in view of recent realities about echo chambers, people could do with being aware of differing experiences.

Well good for you! Not everyone has the same experience. You and your friends all got x. The people I know all got y. Incidentally, are you white? I have no axe to grind, and it's charming that you would jump to that assumption. People from developing countries who come to the US to study have certain expectations. I could not possibly comment on what everyone expects, but at the very least I myself would hardly expect students at Harvard of all the places to talk over each other or contribute close to nothing constructive in most discussions. Sure I've not seen this myself. I never claimed to. Everyone I know who attended has told me whatever I wrote. Again, you got/perceive x. The people I know got otherwise. As for jobs, like I said. They expected to be able to work in the US and be able to use their degree to be paid more and do different work. They didn't, and don't. I'm frightfully sorry you found the content of my post insulting. Terribly sad you don't consider yourself amongst the kind of people I mentioned in my second post, those who attend this program and aren't like most.

I'm glad you found it helpful (although not specifically to you! :P) I don't about EPM unfortunately, but I do know from the one ex-coworker/current very good friend that students in other programs have it better. She chose to take this one course that was largely made up of HGSE students from other programs and found both the professor and students MUCH better - i.e. the quality of discussions was great, the professor was actually interested in what he was teaching, that sort of thing. This friend of mine had to go through so much to actually get to the program and it's been heartbreaking over the past year getting updates from her about how awful it's been. A lot of the IEP folks, most particularly the American ones, seem to behave like really immature undergraduates both inside and outside the classroom, creating a terribly toxic social environment for everyone, but very especially for international/minority students. There aren't racist incidents per se, but from what I understand the international student community in the IEP program has been for a few months now talking about smaller acts such as being excluded / not fully included in study/project (I don't know if this is the correct term) groups by their white peers. The popular belief seems to be that "diversity" in the program is simply a buzzword and just an exercise in quota-filling , although of course I/everyone knows quotas aren't officially a thing. It's terribly ironic - given the program is IEP after all. As such, there's this whole white man's burden vibe to most of what's discussed by a lot of white students, particularly ones returned from things such as TFA/the Peace Corps. Cringeville, if you ask me. There's no denying there are some truly brilliant, well-informed, racially-sensitive and decent folk - white or otherwise - in the program, it's just that they are rare is what I hear, and by no means is the 'culture' of the program reflective of those attributes.

This has been the case for years now. While there's no hard data to support this - people on this forum can crucify me for that haha, I don't mind - it's an incredibly easy (and somewhat worthless) program to get into. If you can pay, you can attend. The quality of the courses, teaching, resources, etc. in the program - or even the students - isn't too great, from what I've heard from four of six ex-coworkers who went to study there. The students bit isn't surprising because a lot of them in the program haven't worked beyond doing some version of a feel-good public service program locally or internationally and feel they're enlightened enough about the world; also from what I've heard talking over each other in class discussions and contributing mostly fluff out loud is common. There's not a lot of deep thinking happening - unsurprising again since the GRE requirement published on their site isn't true (people with below average abilities to reason verbally, in writing, and using numerical data easily get in). What I've also heard: grad assistants teach a lot of classes (badly), HGSE is perennially broke and the amount of surprise fees throughout the year is ridiculous. If you want to attend things, you have to have $$$ to pay for it always: there are barely any opportunities to fund yourself once you're there. A lot more college money is going towards building buildings/infrastructure than on supporting students (or faculty). All of those 6 ex-coworkers of mine returned to their home countries after spending a LOT of money because job/career placement resources to stay on in the USA (something all wanted to do) are terrible. The Harvard tag for the IEP master's is not really a big thing for employers either - again, all of these ex-coworkers have jobs now at pay grades not very much higher than what they earned before (contrary to what they expected). All in all, a thoroughly shitty return on investment. I have no idea what the other programs are like, just IEP. ^ Pretty much why I declined the option to be considered for the master's program in case my PhD application didn't work out! The last thing I want as I push 30 is to bury myself in debt for an experience like that!

Congratulations @nikkimx! Ack, I'm still waiting to hear back!

Got an HGSE PhD rejection notification! Hurray!

Folks who had PhD interviews at HGSE/GSAS - have you heard back?

@songofgallifrey ah that makes sense! fingers crossed for getting funding!

"Confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength, not weakness. It takes strength to acknowledge our anger, and sometimes more strength yet to curb the aggressive urges anger may bring and to channel them into nonviolent outlets. It takes strength to face our sadness and to grieve and to let our grief and our anger flow in tears when they need to. It takes strength to talk about our feelings and to reach out for help and comfort when we need it." From The World According to Mister Rogers I believe you have strength, @hopefulPhD2017 ! I believe we all do!

I haven't heard about the weekend event either, but I'm an international applicant who's currently outside the US, so it's possible I wasn't emailed about it for that reason? I was told by my POI in September when we first connected that funding would be a challenge, and she reiterated that when she wrote some weeks ago to let me know she'd accepted me. She's currently looking for TA/RA opportunities outside the C&I department as I don't qualify for TA positions in their own teacher prep programs like other phD students (I was a teacher, but my foreign teaching certifications aren't recognised in the States). I applied to a Fellowship at UMN itself meant for those whose research will deal with issues related to the global south and I expect to hear back from them about it later this month/early in March. Separately I'm applying to a few grants in my home country that fund grad students abroad. @MTAdventuress - pretty high up the list, I'd say. The Twin Cities seem like a fantastic place to live in, and the potential for rigorous interdisciplinary research there seems high (provided I receive that Fellowship, since it comes with courses and seminar series seriously relevant to my focus!). What about you? Have you heard about any funding? @songofgallifrey - Literacy education! Do you mind sharing where else you applied to? I've gotten accepts to UW-Madison and UConnecticut in addition to UMN, but am pretty much in the same situation funding-wise with all three just right now! I'm also thinking this could be because it's still only February... the student jobs websites at all unis seem to list TA/RA positions only for Spring at the moment (many of them lapsed, naturally, it already being a few weeks into Spring Semester)

Hi everyone! I was accepted to the PhD program in Curriculum and Instruction and I was wondering if there were others on here who were too! It'd be nice to chat about our thoughts on attending/funding/etc.!

Oops - that should read Curriculum and Instruction*!

Hi all! I applied to the PhD programme in Curriculum and Development at UW. I received an email on 31 Jan letting me know that my application was sent to the committee to review and that the target date for decisions is 10 March. It's only been 8 days, but I'm eager to hear from them soon! My POI hasn't reached out to me, and I'm not sure if interviews happen at all - but not too worried yet cos again, it's only been 8 days since my stuff was sent for review! Fingers crossed and best of luck to everyone!

@reallydontknow I applied to the C&I PhD programme. Although I haven't received an official acceptance from the school yet, my advisor reached out to let me know that I've been accepted and to talk funding.

Congratulations @lisetta! I certainly hope so, I've pretty much given up hope and made peace with it (lots of me telling myself how I have a couple of pretty lovely and kind professors at other universities who are happy to advise me in their programmes--if I get in--and how I'd be less stressed competing for professor time/attention at their unis than at Harvard! :P)

paging @jmaroon

@PirateJenny I don't know if this is local to Skype where I am (South Asia) but calls to US are completely free of cost for me. I don't have any sort of a payment plan or business account or anything special. They've generally been really good quality - super clear - but do have an annoying delay of a second most of the time. I usually let whoever I'm speaking know I'm calling from abroad and using Skype so there might be a delay... and apologise in advance for any inadvertent talking-over one another!

@hopefulPhD2017 I'd be so grateful for that link! I had an interview on Skype - I'm an international student outside the U.S. so I can't really travel to universities for interviews. The interview was very casual, which surprised me a little despite knowing the U.S. isn't a terribly formal place in general, I guess I'm just used to academia my side of the world (it's a little too formal). I was asked to pretty much describe my experiences and research interests in relation to one another, which I started to and about halfway through sort of laughed and asked the faculty if I wasn't being repetitive since the information was in my personal statement anyway. They were very sweet to laugh in turn and acknowledge that it would feel a bit awkward and repetitive, but they were interested in hearing me talk about all of it more conversationally and hopefully fill in some information gaps they perceived they had. Also one of the faculty interviewers commented how it was always much nicer to hear a person speak about their interests out loud compared to reading an essay that was written, rewritten, edited, etc. for months before being presented. I did end up filling whatever gaps they had in their minds by the time I finished speaking, they acknowledged and thanked me for that and had just one question after (just one about who I preferred would be my advisor; a professor I've been corresponding with for months now). They asked me if I had any questions and I did, so once that was done, that was pretty much it! I don't know if this is the typical experience though, because like I said I'd been speaking to that professor on and off for months and we spoke on Skype once earlier. I imagine it might differ a bit for places like Harvard where the faculty doesn't quite entertain prospective student requests for emails/calls...