jmaroon

@gradhopeful0000 I had a response to this person's post awhile back also (they downvoted it) but thank you for the affirmation! I mentioned that MOST hgse PhD students earn their EdM during their doctoral studies, not before. I agree that this type of blatantly false information is bad/dangerous

@OperationPhDforMe hi, this is a bit of a delayed response but just want to clear something up in case someone else reads your post. Most HGSE PhD graduates receive an EdM en route to their PhD, they dont come into the PhD program already earning their EdM. I have access to some inside data and the application tags HGSE EdM students/alumni in the process; in past years less than 15% of the applicant pool were either current HGSE students or alum (mostly alum) and like other applicants, they get cut throughout the decision process and some don't even pass the first review. for reference, i am a current harvard student (not hgse) and a friend has ties to hgse faculty involved in admissions

@brainman1130 HGSE didn't have a PhD program until Fall 2014, it was the EdD program up until that year. An EdD program is pretty different than a PhD so that would probably explain the change in admissions; also since the PhD isn't awarded by HGSE and it's a joint venture between GSAS/HGSE would likely have something to do with it as well. I have heard higher ed, TIE, ed policy, and international ed policy tend to have the most applicants. I think if you research this board, anecdotal experience is that higher ed is competitive overall, since out of the big applicant pools it has the smallest cohort (the latter three have large cohorts). However some of the more specialized programs - like SLP - may be even more competitive due to the requirements to apply, so not sure which is the most competitive and it probably also varies year to year.

@brainman1130 I have a friend who works at HGSE with a faculty member on the PhD admissions committee... he told me recent applicant pool info over the past few years was that there were around 600 applicants, they narrow that down to a top 45-50 interviews, and admit between 25-30 for all 3 PhD concentrations. So about a 5% acceptance rate. An EdM-wide acceptance rate probably isn't that great of a statistic since it kind of depends on the program, I've heard that the number of applicants vary widely across the programs.

@sakurajima I've personally never heard of an EdM applicant applying to one program but getting admitted to a different one, unless you're lucky enough that someone reading this board has experienced it or knows it first hand, I don't think there's any way of finding out. However, I know that PhD applicants who are rejected as a doctoral student but referred to EdM admissions and have been accepted that way.

@sakurajima You don't have to be a US citizen or resident to be part of that program, but the EPM coursework is focused on education and policy within the United States education system. The required coursework is mainly US centric. Alternatively, there is the International Education Policy program for those interested in policy worldwide (or in specific countries outside the US)

According to my HGSE friend, between 45-50 applicants receive interview invitations in the past admissions cycles (so about 16 per program, give or take). When we talked last year there were a little under 600 applicants if I remember correctly. Not to be discouraging, just something to keep in mind, the number of interviews compared to applicants is REALLY low.

@NFarrell Interviews for EDLD always come after PhD. The interviews aren't until late Feb, if I remember correctly a little over a week prior, maybe two.

I'm on mobile so apologies if this has been posted. I heard from my HGSE friend that some interviews are going out today. Notifications all go out individually not in a mass form, so it's possible someone will hear hours before another person gets an invite!

@imagical I will be sure to post here if I find out any additional info or private message you! Good luck. @NativeEd I applied to special studies at HGSE last year and didn't make it in there, but due to my cross-discipline interest in education/personal development/crisis management I also applied to 2 additional harvard grad programs and ended in grad school. Still get to take HGSE classes so it's a win-win. Best of luck to you.

@NativeEd I am a student currently at Harvard and I have several friends who work in HGSE. Last year one of them was very helpful in letting me know certain dates and timeframes - they sent out invitations in mid January last year, so a little later than now. I just saw that friend last week, aside from Harvard being closed last week, the meetings for PhD apps have been going on and on the appropriate faculty's schedules and whatnot. They do meet almost weekly around this time. Hope that little bit helps!

@waitnhope They do not do any interviews for master's and they release all acceptances on the same date for master's program as well. I have a friend working at HGSE who I've been speaking with throughout the admissions season & he has some insider info about PhD admissions. He told me that in past years, no one has been offered a PhD spot without being interviewed, and that's probably the same for this year. PhD interviews have already finished, I believe many have received admissions calls too.

@pj060690 If you look at the HGSE 2016 thread you can get an idea of what admitted students got last year. The Urban Scholars award is very competitive but provides full tuition. It's my understanding that the vast majority of students get $10k-$20k in need based aid and have to take out loans.

@Lbug @Espeon My friend at hgse told me that acceptance notifications will most likely come in the form of a phone call from an advisor or the people you interviewed with. Hope this is helpful!

As an aside, I havent recieved any fin aid emails or any sort of communication regarding my EdM app, but I guess we've all still got awhile and maybe fin aid is also working slowly