universe

Agreed, and that's understandable.

Thanks for that. I went to the admit days at Harvard and felt the same exact thing - a lot of fluff - and not a lot of developed thinkers. I mean, if it was Harvard Law or Business, sure, but the Harvard name doesn't hold too much ground in the Master's system. Also, I know one of my friends who isn't "super" in any field, apart from the fact that they are a teacher, was accepted and that kind of turned me off.

EDIT: $1,600/school year, not month, as previously stated.

I'm actually glad I went because it solidified my decision not to go to Harvard Ed. It seemed like most people there were in the same boat - a bunch were worried about the financial aid aspect of it. The one thing I liked about Harvard was that the people there were super friendly and helpful, and my perspective cohort was really nice and people that I could get a long with. What turned me off though was the fact that none of the professors were there for the admit days to meet us, and that the people we talked to were mostly directors of admissions, student services, disability services, student affairs, etc. I was really looking forward to at least meeting the head of my department, who wasn't there to talk with us - instead, we talked for an hour and a half with 1st year students. For those who weren't able to attend, (or will be there this following week), here is what the schedule looked like: 8:15-9:00am - CHECK IN 9-9:30am - Welcome (Director of Admin and Associate Dean for Enrollment) 10:30-10:45am - Break 10:45 - 11:45 am " A year at HGSE: Student Life Panel" 11:45- 1:00pm - Lunch (with your cohort members) 12- 1:00pm - Student Services Open Office Hours (Oprtional)/Transitioning with Family/Children - Student Perspectives 1:00 - 2:30pm - PROGRAM MEETINGS (probably the most useful thing) 2:30-3:15pm - financial aid overview 3:15 - 4:00pm - Housing Information Session 4:30 - 5:30pm - Reception (optional) The school itself is pretty small, and the building is an old one. Right across the way is the ed school library, which is nice, but not huge. It was also pretty snowy that day and Boston seemed quite gloomy to me. I wasn't a fan of the "small-town city feel." The classes you can take seem pretty fun - not only at the ed school, but also at the other schools at Harvard. They stated that the average grant was $13,000 for all prospective masters students (and just because Harvard's endowment is so big, doesn't mean that the ed school gets a huge portion of that). The average master's debt they said was $47,000, which scares me because of compound interest and the fact that jobs in education don't earn that much. The average starting salary is $65,000 for ed school grads (which wasn't attractive to me, especially because the average Harvard College UNDERGRAD starts off around $80,000). Housing is also costly, but they do offer through a lottery system 20 single occupancy GSAS Residence Hall rooms under Harvard Housing (which would be ideal because they're right on campus): Ranges between $6,976 - 10,956 with a required $2,332.48 meal plan (5 meals/week) with an application deadline of April 25th. Other housing is the Conkrite Grad Center (120 rooms) only 2 blocks from the ed school, but it's a 12 month lease, so you'll have to sublet the other 3 months. Rate is $1,206-$1530/month, pay per month, with a required $6,323 meal plan (10 meals/week). Applications between March 1 - May 1. There's Harvard Housing, where you can get a whole house, but they cost between $1,248 - $4674 monthly and are usually for families. All utilities are included. Off campus, you're looking at maybe $1,300-$1,500 per month, with utilities costing average $300/month (think about the heat), with a washer and dryer in the apartment. Look at Harvardhousingoffcampus.com for that. They recommend not bringing a car because parking is about $1,600/month. Apartments do not usually include parking. For me at least, I didn't think a Harvard Master's was worth the time or money. I was expecting students of a much higher caliber with more work experience in the field (not saying they weren't, but that was my general sense). It seemed like there were many students in the program who just finished their undergraduate, and for me whose been in the field for the last four years as an administrator, I didn't feel like I would be able to learn as much from my cohort members. I believe though for other programs at Harvard (the PhD or EdLD at Harvard Ed), I would feel more comfortable with the level my peers are at. Just for the master's though, I think I'm going to choose a different school. Further, I don't want to be burdened with debt, and it seemed like the cohort sizes were HUGE compared to other schools I applied to (where the cohort sizes at those schools are between 15-30) which is beneficial in getting to know your advisors/deans/professors well. Also, the fact that Harvard doesn't offer a lot of Financial Aid really hits the nail on the head. I know that Teacher's College at Columbia has like 4,000 master's students, and I read somewhere that they use the master's funding mostly to help fund the PhD students... I'm going to keep as much as I can about myself and my personal experience anonymous right now, because I do feel like I may apply to Harvard for a PhD or EdLD. However, for a master's, I don't believe it was worth it for me. Curious to hear if anyone has similar/different thoughts?

I was there.

Looks like Stanford sent out their financial aid packages yesterday. $10,000 in grants. Anyone else?

Anyone see the bad yelp reviews on Teacher's college? Google it and you'll find tons of negative reviews. Not sure how much you should read into it, but I would be wary about going there.

Not sure; but what it looks like is you send them a request and they'll look at it and either deny/accept

Just emailed Harvard admissions and they were really helpful. Looks like they're offering need-based travel costs, but it's limited.

Harvard and Stanford have their admit days on the SAME EXACT DAY! WHY? But it looks like harvard is offering another open house on March 30-31. Anyone know anything about that/the difference from the April 2/3rd one?