FreeZapata

Way to go @iamsoscared96 thank you for sharing your great success with all of us : ) @Jeanne A.that was wonderful the way you walked this applicant through their doubts and fears. You are truly an exceptionally remarkable person : )

I love your online screen name. We are truly a creative bunch ; )

Thank you @kraftpunk. I too made an account after silently watching everyone on here sharing their stories of personal struggle and perseverance. I have been inspired by the kindness everyone has contributed to this community. I was hesitant to make an online account too. In fact, this is my only online presence other than my district email lol. I'll be sad to go off the grid again but I am humbled to have met so many great online friends.

Yes! California Los Angeles : ) USA

Ok can I just say @iamsoscared96 should hands down get the award for most creative name on this forum. Thank you for capturing so much in something so little.

@Jeanne A.I realize this is a difficult time for you. I'm very sorry you did not get the result you were hoping for. Nothing anyone one can say can change that. But change can come from you. I hope in time you forge a new path forward and continue realizing your dreams. The fact that you can write. That you have some type of education. Means that you are by no means without choices. I hope my tone comes across respectful and caring. I am by no means anyone to judge your actions or tell you how your should feel. But I feel it's important to say keep moving forward no matter what. Let your life be an example to all those without voice, without education, and without a path forward. For no matter where you are or come from there is one thing that we do have. The ability to read, write, and share ideas. Maybe ideas can be repressed. Maybe ideas can be buried. But just like you I hope for a better future. Please take care of yourself and mourn for the future you had in mind without loosing sight of the present and here and now. I believe you will go very very far with the amount of passion and generosity you have shown us here Jeanne. Best wishes and Respect, Zapata

CTE

Thank you for sharing @fliss59. Please continue to dream big where ever life may find you. This is my first time applying but I have already decided to apply a second time if things don't work out this round. I usually never get things on the first try and I don't see why this would be different : ) In high school I failed my exit exams at least three times before finally passing. I graduated in 2008 around the time the Housing Market tanked and brought the whole economy down with it. I applied to more teaching jobs than I can imagine without any luck for about two years with zero replies. Even Target and Panda Express said "no thank you". After much struggle I moved to a tiny farming town where I fell in love with teaching and finally caught a break. After many years I was able to find something closer to home with my family in a big city. Last week I got a call from my district. I was surprised to hear I have won Teacher of The Year 2021. Please don't ever let one door be the only path forward. I am happy to have come this far and would love to go even further in the future.

Thank you for sharing your info @Toyo. I graduated in 2008 with a BA have been working for 10 years. Taught all grades K-6th and run summer camps focused on STEM. best wishes to you all : )

I totally felt the same thing @Jeanne A.That was a really cool way to invite other people into this small but very supportive community. I like the way you described this virtual space with such clarity and little details. I think you captured it perfectly. I appreciate how everyone on this forum is super chill, supportive, and wishing the other person success. I would be honored to be part of a class with anyone on here. This is by far one of the most kind and sincere online communities I have encountered. Thank you all. May The Force Be With YOU!

My file changed to show that specific page about 1 month ago. I think it might just be the system updating itself. It's a great question though I would have thought something similar.

I was wondering if the faculty that does the interviewing is typically the one you are assigned as your advisor? Since I listed three POI but only heard back/interviewed with one I'm a bit confused how (advisors) are matched with potential students. Thank you for getting back to me. I appreciate it. CTE PhD Applicant.

Hi Jeremy. Can you shed any insight about their interviews? It seems by leaving it open ended there is a lot of confusion/anxiety on the part of the applicants (myself included : ) Thank you.

I forgot to mention @Toyothat @Jeanne A. had asked in a previous post why certain people got phone calls and emails and other did not. In light of the information I posted in my previous post it really seems to be the case that it was just more practical and personal. I mean instead of the Dean's or faculty waiting for the info to travel and get stuck inside the system they went old school and either picked up the phone or emailed the person directly. It really seemed to be a matter of speed and they had probably been dealing with tech issues for some time (hence the massive restructuring) that was supposed to happen pre Covid 19.

Dear @ToyoI did a quick search of "incomplete applications" and there are a surprisingly large amounts of results that show up across all schools/disciplines/degrees. It seems that each department goes in and can access the information from the main office of Graduate Admissions so I would say your applications has been seen/reviewed. However, the main system (The Office of Graduate Admissions) that oversees notifications and updates does not always reflect where your application is at that point in time with the School of Education. Just as an example. When I attended the webinars this past fall with the school of education office they were quite frustrated with tech updates from the Graduate Admissions department. The application didn't even open up until more than 3 weeks after the timeline on the School of Education's website. There were a few folks voicing their concerns as well because they had tighter deadlines in Nov for various scholarships. It seems like the Graduate School of Education was the very last school to undergo the tech updates necessary to handle the large volume of applications coming in over the last few years. Apparently they (G Admissions) were restructuring tech/departments/people but Covid 19 had severely messed with their plans. But the admissions officer particular to the School of Education reassured us that they would reach out if anything was missing. I hope this helps a little.

I know many other programs give you a prompt, want a statement of purpose, and interview. I remember one of the admission officers said they don't provide one in order to leave it completely up to the applicant to make their own best case forward. That gave me words of comfort. Because it meant there are many paths that can lead to a great SOP. My POI confirmed that an interview is up to each faculty and goes on a case by case basis rather than the norm or rule. I hope you do extremely well where ever your journey takes you now and in the future.

I googled GSE SOP and it's the second item that comes up @mkkenny13. ?

I agree @Toyothe SOP I wrote wasn't about accomplishments. Neither was my interview. It was much more about why do you want to do a PhD.

After many webinars, youtube channels, and forums the very best advice I got was from the GSE website itself. This small article is only 3 pages long but there is sooooo much to breakdown. You would need to really pick out all the little clues they are giving you. Here are the main points that forced me to think if GSE is the right place for me at this moment in time. It could very well be that I need to grow more before I give it another shot. But I think it's important to not give up on yourself regardless of the outcome: "The statement should be narrowly focused on convincing the intended reader – i.e., a professor at GSE who teaches in the program to which you are applying – that you have a serious and well-considered purpose in applying to that program. A compelling statement will convince the reader that you are the kind of student likely to thrive in the program to which you are admitted and who would contribute to (and not merely benefit from) our academic community. Too often, statements of purpose are poorly focused, vaguely autobiographical essays, in which case they become inadvertent disclosures of purposelessness. The reader of your file will make a judgment about whether you merit admission on the basis of many considerations, and your file will include much material including your transcripts, what your referees say about you, etc., that reveal your academic and other accomplishments. There is no harm in mentioning a particular accomplishment in passing in your statement when this is relevant to explaining your purpose in applying to the program. But statements go astray once the author assumes that his or her purpose is to persuade the reader that he or she is highly qualified for admission. Remember that we will be quick to deny admission if we have insufficient evidence that the candidate is well-suited to the program by virtue of his or her interests and ambitions, regardless of how intellectually well qualified the applicant might be. The statement of purpose is usually the only part of the applicant’s file where one can find strong evidence of whether the program will really mesh with the applicant’s interests and ambitions. If you devote the statement to a list of the things, the great things you have done, then you will merely exasperate the reader. When your file is being read by members of the faculty, it will be reading it alongside many other files, and they will typically be reading under severe time constraints. People tend not to be especially tolerant of verbosity under these circumstances, to put it mildly. If your reader has evidence that you will take ten words to say something that another, equally qualified candidate will say in six, you might well find that the other candidate will be preferred over you." Good luck to everyone here. The hardest part of the application is sometimes the waiting. But you've already come this far.

Best of luck. Which program did you apply to? I think you have a good a chance as any.

To everyone here and who applied : )

You must try things that may not work, and you must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul. Ratatouille (2007) a quote from one of my all time favorite movies.

Please take a look at this article, the most powerful part goes something like this: His journey to the university began the day he watched a television interview with a Stanford admission officer who said she was especially impressed by candidates who had accomplished much with few resources. At the time, Spyres was sitting in a prison cell in Illinois. “I looked around my room and asked what resources do I have,” he recalled. “I have a pencil and an 8½ -by-11 writing pad. I have stamps and a prison library card.” Full story linked below: https://news.stanford.edu/today/2021/02/04/transfer-student-forging-new-life-path-stanford/

By the way. Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! We can all use a little bit of reassurance and love. ? ?

? I find it a little bit funny that decisions are made near Valentine's Day. It's almost like, "It's no you, it's me" situation when we're hoping to hear, "You had me at hello". ? ???