Sandmaster

Usually it is just federal loans and it can only be Stafford direct loans, not the older FFEEL loans. You have to apply for it and qualify every year for working in specific places of employment and you have to make 120 qualified payments before you would qualify. If you have started this process and then go back for an advanced degree, you would need to talk to your servicer. I am not sure how that changes things.
 
I hope this helps!

Usually it is just federal loans and it can only be Stafford direct loans, not the older FFEEL loans. You have to apply for it and qualify every year for working in specific places of employment and you have to make 120 qualified payments before you would qualify. If you have started this process and then go back for an advanced degree, you would need to talk to your servicer. I am not sure how that changes things.
 
I hope this helps!

Hey there! Congrats on your acceptance as well! I know I was extremely excited when I got mine too. So next steps for me may, or may not, be similar to your's just since the department could have changed things from last year in their process. In the next few weeks, you will probably get an email from our grad studies coordinator with details about setting up a campus visit with other admitted students. The actual visit is sometime early in March (or it was last year). It gives you and your fellow potential colleagues the chance to meet each other, faculty, staff, and current students within your program area and across the department. It is common for domestic students to attend, or try to attend, but it can be expensive for international students so none came in my year but still accepted to attend regardless. This event is particularly useful when I came because I also placed a ton of emphasis on the fit of a program when I was attending all of the schools I was accepted to. I found UMN to be my perfect fit, so the event only solidified my choice. Other's may not, it is personal preference of course. Also, keep in mind that your initial advisor can be changed at any point in time too, it is just who the department felt could be a good first point of contact until you solidify research ideas and interest.
 
As for funding, that is where the timing can get a little complicated. Usually the program areas meet in March just after the visit day to discuss funding for all current and incoming students. Which means that you may not get your offer of funding until late March, or early April. (mine came April 6th I think). I know I can not offer you a guarantee of course, but if you selected you would like to be considered for funding on your application and are planning on being a full-time PhD student in the program, then you will be given at least a 50% appointment which covers all of your in-state and out-of-state tuition and you will be offered health insurance at a pretty awesome rate in addition to your stipend which is like your paycheck bi-weekly. You will still be required to pay fees out of pocket (~$800 a semester) though so keep that in mind if you are a budgeter like me. I do not know of a full time PhD student in any of our department programs who did not get funding that wanted it one way, or another. If funding is tricky in your case, the department works to try to find you funding. Also, one of the best perks (in my opinion) about UMN is if you want to teach here, you are usually given Instructor of Record assuming you already have a master's degree. Other places do not give you that level of responsibility and freedom, but I have loved my teaching experience here.
 
If you have any further questions, please feel free to keep reaching out here or in pm if it is more personal. I am happy to chat more about the exciting things happening in the department and how things work. I know I had a ton of questions when I first got admitted to.

This is great advice! @2019CulturePhD I'm in a different department at the U of M so my experience may be different. I heard from the department before I got my official letter from the school. The  letter from the department invited me to the Grad Student Research Day (March 1st this year) and mentioned that I have until April 15th to decide. The letter also stated who my adviser would be and to reach out to them to talk about funding. I then emailed the professor and we have been trading emails back and forth to talk about funding and have a phone call set up.

Do you know who your advisor is? I would reach out to them or if you don't know to the department admin to check.

While I can not speak to K-12 as my domain is higher education, I know that a lot of people usually do a M.Ed. as their first master's not as a second one. What I have typically found with teachers who have a second master's - they usually first get a master's in their specific content discipline and then get the teaching job (assuming they already have the license and certification requirements for that state) and then wait and do a second master's in education and curriculum specific once the school district is willing to pay for it (to avoid the some of the cost). The problem is, if you do not have the requirements to teach in your state you might find a private school who doesn't require the license or certification process, but public schools will. You can look into a post-bac program and see if that option is cheaper. Initial Teacher Licensure students are still typically eligible for federal and state financial aid, but are limited to the undergraduate aggregate level/amounts.
Just some food for thought.

Congratulations to you as well! That is my department, so if you have any questions, feel free to reach out!

They actually just sent out a more comprehensive schedule yesterday!
Guess who has a full schedule again?
Thanks for the help!

Different field here, but I would not mention it anywhere in your application materials. It may come across in a way you do not intend.

They are paid monthly at UWM.

Different field here, but I would not mention it anywhere in your application materials. It may come across in a way you do not intend.

Different field here, but I would not mention it anywhere in your application materials. It may come across in a way you do not intend.

Different field here, but I would not mention it anywhere in your application materials. It may come across in a way you do not intend.

Thank you! This is extremely helpful and consistent with some other people in my (our) situation. I have great recs from my undergrad and grad professors, I’ll make contact with some professors in my prospective programs, write a killer SOP and keep up my GPA in grad and hope ill be fine!

Depends what you want to do after grad school, where you are willing to relocate, etc. Can you provide some more details?

My brother came out as bi. I love him and support him especially cause I'm gay myself but I am so so worried about my parents finding out (about both of us really lol). My dad....sigh....
 

I would stretch it if I were you. When I went through my master's I got questioned multiple times by the department committee that oversees graduation and doctoral admissions on why I did my master's so quickly. (I started spring 17 and graduated end of spring 18 - so 1.5 years essentially for me) They had a valid point for bringing it up. Graduate school is not about how quickly you can power through the program, it is about giving yourself time to truly master the concepts and create original research (if applicable), or have time to reflect on what the content is (transformative learning).
That said, I had a good reason to go through mine quickly because I knew I wanted to get started with the PhD as quickly as I could knowing it would take 4-5 years. I am already in my late 20's and I started on an off-term being that it was January and I had to be finished in time for a fall start for the PhD. I did not want to take time off in between (except for a summer).
Long story short, it is your decision, but I would not do the entire degree in a single academic year. Maybe a fall, spring, summer trimester type timeframe, but I would not go quicker than that if it was my decision. Good luck!

I echo this, but also perhaps see if you can swap to auditing it? That way you can learn the materials without the stress of a grade? Not sure if it is possible for you or not.

Absolutely true. If nothing else, do a bit of half-hearted apartment/room shopping in your desired locale. I was blown away by how expensive it is to live in a few of these places. Seriously, shocked.

+1 for good info!
And, although I think the University of Oregon is a bit lower at around top 50~ish in the rankings, they don't guarantee first year funding either. It's a weird situation where they don't give classroom teaching appointments to PhD students straight out of a B.A. program if they don't have college teaching experience... and then, because you can't teach the first year, you have to compete for a "limited number" of "non-classroom" graduate teaching fellowships (essentially working as a writing tutor). This was why I ended up not applying though it was one of my top-choice programs. I couldn't risk moving across the country for a spot in a program that had a possibly unfunded first year. Too risky.
I think most people would be really surprised if they knew just how many of these patchwork funding situations exist out there. Also, keep in mind that a lot of these stipends are so low that you simply can't live off of them. I grew up near Eugene, Oregon (where the UofO is), and I guarantee that you can't live in Eugene on the stipend they offer (12k for 0.40 FTE). Guarantee. So you're gonna have to work a significant number of hours on the side. I'd posit that this same situation exists across the country. I wouldn't call a program "fully funded" if you can't eke out a living on the stipend. That's just my opinion.

Hey Sandmaster I appreciate you sharing your experience and advice. Yeah, I figure I'll try to retake it, I've already signed up for a Sept test. I'm cracking the books hard and am having someone help me with math. 150 is the dream, but 142-145 is the goal ha. I'm aiming for the 160s for verbal. While yes it does suck having to go through this again, that's life. 
Thank you again!

I took four online courses during my master's within a single term. It was not that enjoyable of an experience. I was working a 50% GA appointment as well, so I am not sure what level of time you have, but I know it was not fun. Definitely is doable, but will require a lot of time management skills trying to balance the workload of that many classes.
Best of luck!

Another option is to look for a credit card with 0% interest for as long as possible (18 months or more) and use that to fund the move. 

I think you will be fine. There are tons of people who have lots of different backgrounds in Student Affairs programs. My background was in Physics and I had colleagues from English, Business, Engineering, Math, etc backgrounds when I did my Master's program. I think having your involvement history is crucial as you have already gotten some exposure to student affairs and the step to a professional life in that field is a logical one. In the program you will do a TON of critical analysis of case studies and research articles that focus on ethnographic, quantitative, and qualitative data sets. It will vary greatly on the individual program. Like I said, having a background is crucial as it will help you relate the readings and discussion to your own experience. Lastly, try to work as a student affairs professional part, or full, time while in the program, or secure a on-campus graduate assistantship in a student affairs office. (I recommend something you haven't done yet as it will give you a more holistic experience and make you more marketable to a multitude of different jobs).
As an example, I came into my Master's program with experience in housing, university marketing, student involvement, honors college, academic advising, student government, admissions, peer mentorship programs, and greek life. I did my graduate assistantship in financial aid because I felt it was one of the areas of Student Affairs I was lacking the knowledge in. Unfortunately, I chose not to pursue a job in student affairs after my program, but I definitely found the information extremely helpful and I will take it into my academic affairs life after my Ph.D. to be able to better support my students and be able to advise if my institution asks me to.
Hope this helps!

I am focusing mostly on Higher Ed, but may include some research in K-12 (though probably not for the sake of time). My master's was in higher education administration with a cert in teaching and learning in higher ed so that was a nice mix of courses. I took lots of courses in adult and higher education instruction andragogy/practices as it relates to traditional and online learning environments. So I am primarily interested in and focused on studying instruction for higher/adult education.
The research I will be starting in a few weeks for the PhD program is focused on adaptive learning environments in STEM programs within higher education. Feel free to message me if you want more details, or want any advice. I am happy to connect and share my experiences and the quest searching for programs to apply to as well. 

I think it hugely depends. If the program there is good (which it is known to be good) then you shouldn't have much of an issue. My undergrad also had a good reputation for their master's program but actually denied me when I applied simply cause I went there for undergraduate. So I ended up in a different university for my master's. I would say at least apply to Ohio State and apply to other places and see which one gives you the best experience and funding (hopefully).