Goodbye_BlueSky

I mailed my deposit today I'll be at NYU for a MA in Science Education. I'm so excited!

Ah, I see. Well that makes me a bit less paranoid haha. Hopefully it'll come Monday. Well it sounds like SUNY could very well be a viable option for you. It would certainly be much cheaper, and the 50 hours of fieldwork in the first year is quite a lot. Even if that's mostly shadowing and observing, it could still be a valuable experience. I guess it will just come down to which concern outweighs the other: the loans it would take to attend NYU or the generality of SUNY's program. Good luck with your decision process!

It's so ridiculous to be waiting on financial aid with less than a week until April 15th, but I'm in the same boat as you. (Get with the program, NYU! lol) It makes the process so much more difficult because it's such a big uncertainty. I've already told myself to suck it up and take out the massive amounts of loans if need be; I just can't pass up a program that is so perfectly aligned with my interests--both career and research. But my other option is not much cheaper and not as good a fit, so I may not be the best example (and I'm a little crazy as well). I wouldn't go with school 1 since you already know you hate the city and the program isn't a match. When you hate the city you're in, it's hard to feel that great about the school, especially when the program isn't the best fit. School 3 seems like a very viable option, depending on exactly how much the partial tuition support and potential part-time job would help. I would be more inclined to go with school 2. But money isn't very high on my priority list. The fit of the program is much more important to me. The way I look at it, if I'm going to have to pay no matter which option I go with, I might as well fork out the extra cash and go with the program I love rather than the one I'm just okay with. But that's just my line of thinking. So basically, you just need to figure out what your priorities are. Is it more important to you to go with the program you know you have at least some funding for, or are you willing to risk having to take out lots of loans for the program of your dreams? I know what my choice would be, but you're the only one who can decide what will be best for you.

Hi, I was also accepted into Steinhardt but for MA Science Education. I looked up the English Ed program there as well as the program at SUNY (since I'm not familiar with it at all) so that I would have a better idea of your options. Okay, if I'm getting this correctly from the website, SUNY will require one year of part-time, mostly online coursework followed by two years of the same plus full-time teaching. I noticed mention of "field experiences" during the first year, but they weren't really specified, and as far as I could tell there was no real student teaching involved. I'm the type of person who freaks out and likes to know exactly what I'm doing before I go and do it, so I would be a little unnerved about starting a full-time teaching position not only before I finished my degree but also without any substantial student teaching experience. Of course, that is just me, and I don't know how you would feel about that, but one of the reasons I chose NYU is because of the substantial amount of student teaching I would be able to do before being expected to completely run my own classroom. Another reason I chose NYU is because the program is so focused on science education rather than just education in general. As far as could tell from the English ed page, you would have several options for content-specific courses. SUNY seemed to only include one content-area course throughout the three years. I think a content-specific program would be more desirable and would make me feel better prepared, but that's just my opinion. And of course, cost is a factor (though it isn't so much for me since I neglected to provide myself with a more affordable state option haha). SUNY will be cheaper, and you will be working full-time as a teacher during two of the three years of study. NYU, however, will require substantial loans. You could apply for a fellowship through the Expository Writing Program for your second year, which would help, I'm sure, and would be another source of teaching experience. And there is a good possibility that your Stafford and PLUS loans would qualify for Income Based Repayment, lowering the amount you would be expected to pay per month to no more than about 10-15% of your paycheck. Also, if you worked in public schools, you could qualify for loan forgiveness after 10 years of payments (25 most likely if you chose to work in private schools). I know 10 years is still a long time, but it's definitely something to consider, and IBR does make the loans slightly less daunting. I have also heard mixed reviews about the education at NYU, but those kind of personal reviews are so subjective. For instance, I greatly dislike my undergrad institution whereas I know several people who love it. There will always be people on both sides of the fence. I think I would only put stock into opinions like that if they seemed to be consistently leaning in one direction. And of course, I can't speak on the education quality at SUNY because I'm not at all familiar with it. Sorry for being so verbose haha. I hope that was at least somewhat helpful. P.S. Can I ask when you received your financial aid award letter from NYU? I'm getting paranoid about not having received mine yet lol.

I'm an undergrad at the University of SC in Columbia right now. I've never been to Clemson, but I've heard it has a good, college town feel. I'm also told that people from Clemson are all rednecks, but that's generally from people here in Columbia who hate everything Clemson because of the rivalry between the two schools, so I don't know how much stock I would put into that haha. The beaches here in SC are pretty popular, around Charleston particularly. And a lot of people drive up to the mountains as well.