McPerson

Well spotted! I was not emotionally prepared for this analysis.

Deferred UMich Ann Arbor CSHPE last year, now applying to Harvard's EPPE program.

You're my type of person, this is so beautiful!!! Thoughts on GradCafe data: 1. For interviews, we can only see the date it was added, so if someone added it a few days after, that would be the date it shows up. Accept/Waitlist/Reject are recorded differently. 2. Timezones! Depending on where someone is in the world, they could be a day ahead or behind. 3. 2015 was a weird year. It makes me wonder if individual professors are sending emails out to their prospective grad students rather than relying on an automated system like the master's program. Then again, the dates are a lot tighter following that so... who knows! I think you're right that it'll be towards the end of that week, especially because J-Term is underway right now and goes until the 13th. Professors have a 10-day break before classes resume for Spring on the 23rd. I'm thinking they'll have that time to really finalize everything. Also, can confirm: Master's is still the first Friday in March, except two years ago where it was the second Friday in March (Covid threw it off).

I think you confused the EdLD and PhD. The EdLD has historically been 12/15 and the PhD has historically been 12/1. I did some sleuthing and looked through previous GradCafe results - Since 2017, interview invites have gone out the third week in January, either on a Wednesday (1x - 2022), Thursday (2x - 2017 and 2020), or Friday (2x - 2018 and 2019). HGSE did not accept PhD applicants in 2021. Prior to 2017 it was the 4th week on a Friday or Saturday. I'm starting to go nuts, people. I'm making spreadsheets of data now that are just going to get increasingly more elaborate the next two weeks.

Not sure where you're located, but there's a bunch of upcoming in-person events around the US. Also some remote/hybrid ones as well. Link: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/admissions/events I'm currently in ELOE - feel free to message me if you have any questions about the program ?

I got loans and work study :-( Trying to figure out how to make it all work.

Congrats on your acceptances! I didn't end up applying to Stanford this year, but I seriously considered it. I did apply and get accepted into HGSE, though. HGSE and Stanford are very different programs, and when you make your decision, focus on what you actually want out of your time in school. Cohort size Stanford is significantly smaller than HGSE. I think POLS is ~25 students? At HGSE, you'll have an EPA cohort of 100+ people. This can affect everything from class size and how much attention you get from professors to future networking ability. Who teaches classes? This is actually why I didn't apply to Stanford. All the classes I wanted to take in the POLS program were taught by adjuncts or were outside the ed school. HGSE is really good about their core faculty teaching classes. That being said, I was really interested in education and the future of work type stuff and HGSE just seemed better at that. The classes you want to take could be taught by core faculty. It may be worth looking at Stanford's course catalog and HGSE's course catalog and seeing which one is more interesting to you and who teaches those classes. Thesis/capstone vs. practitioner degree HGSE students graduate with an Ed.M and the degree is practitioner-focused. There is no thesis or capstone project. POLS is an MA and has the POLS project, so you'll get to work with a stakeholder and design a real-world solution for them. I'm not so sure how EDS works, but I'm assuming it's similarly structured. It's an MS as well, which is essentially a STEM degree and has different implications than an Ed.M when looking for a job. Outcomes Your school's location will be where you build your network, so think about industries you'd be interested in working in/what companies and/or resources are on a particular coast. Also think of how much you'll make after you get your degree. For the person considering the EDS degree, consider the cost of attendance vs. salary after you graduate. Data scientists easily make over 100k and EPA may not lead to as lucrative a career. Policy isn't my field, however, so I'm not too familiar with it. It may be worth comparing graduate outcomes for Stanford and HGSE. Other factors to consider Your financial aid package Cost of living - Cambridge and Palo Alto are both brutal, CA may be a little worse Course format (Stanford is on the quarter, not semester, system) Climate preferences (Boston can be COLD) Extracurricular/co-curricular activities Cross registration (HGSE lets you take courses at MIT) Family/friends' proximity to each school and if you'd be doing a lot of expensive flights to visit them or have a support network nearby Here are some other GradCafe threads talking about similar things: Always remember: The best choice is the one that gives you the most tools to be successful. Both are excellent choices; it boils down to what you're looking for. Congratulations again, and good luck!

I found a link to HGSE Ed.M student outcomes and thought it might be helpful for people. I know that UPenn, Stanford, and TC have similar reports as well, and comparing HGSE's with other schools could be really useful. HGSE data: https://cso.gse.harvard.edu/edm-student-plans-reports

The foundations courses section says that orientation is August 1 and on campus classes start August 3. The first foundation classes start online in June/July, but they’re supposed to be part time, 15-20 hours/week. (https://admit.gse.harvard.edu/foundations, https://www.gse.harvard.edu/masters/foundations)

Definitely! I'll message you directly.

Same!

I checked the portal, https://apply.gse.harvard.edu/apply/update

Decisions are out!

Last year the websites were updated almost exactly at 4pm EST and the emails were sent out at 4:15pm. There’s been a similar pattern the past few years as well.

I think we’ll know tomorrow. I heard through the grapevine that the first accepted students event is Monday, March 14 (remote) and I think they’ll want to give people at least a week’s notice. In previous years they sent out the email notifications around 4pm EST, so hopefully it’ll be around the same time this year as well.

Last year, accepted students who already had HarvardKeys (past/current students at other Harvard schools including Harvard Extension, past/current Harvard employees etc.) were able to log into the admitted student site (https://admit.gse.harvard.edu/) before decisions were released without seeing "Unauthorized Access” and poke around before it required an OpenScholar login. Anyone with a HarvardKey want to try? If you have a HarvardKey and can't get past the unauthorized access message then it may also not be open to admitted students yet.

Yea, interviews are only for PhD applicants.

I'm not an admissions rep but the vibe I keep getting from them is that if you think it'll help your application then add it. You can also email them to ask if you want to be 100% certain.

I attended today's Admissions office hours for Ed.M applicants and thought I'd post some of the questions/answers (paraphrased) that I remember: I can't get in touch with one of my recommenders and they haven't started their recommendation yet. What will happen if it's late? Should be ok if it's late, but needs to be in ASAP One of my recommenders can no longer complete a recommendation. Will I be penalized? Contact the office to see if switching out the recommender is a possibility I am reapplying this year and have all new recommendations. Will all six recommendations be read or just the new three? Just the new three I am reapplying this year, how many new recommendations do I need? Just one I started the application but will not submit it this year. Can my recommendations roll over to next year if they've been submitted? No, you will need new ones I have a new job but haven't started yet. Can I still put it on my resume? Yes, just indicate it starts in the future Can I attach my recent academic publication to my application? Yes, either with your resume or under the "Additional Information" section, whichever makes the most sense Do I need to add citations to my SoP if I reference something/someone? Yes - footnotes, reference section etc. ok. Any citation style (as long as it's consistent) is ok Can I cite myself? Yes How many citations do I need? Only ones that are necessary. This is not a research paper, it is a statement of purpose and there is no need to refer to research I am in the process of getting a green card but do not have it yet. Do I need to check that I need Visa sponsorship? Yes. If the status changes notify the admissions office ASAP If I submit the application but don't pay by the deadline, will my application still be read? Contact the admissions office ASAP if you cannot make the payment I am from a country that is not eligible for fee waivers, and I cannot make the payment Contact the admissions office ASAP if you cannot make the payment If I have a new accomplishment after I submit the application and I email the admissions office details, will the new information be included in my application? Cannot guarantee any information received after the application is submitted will be considered Can my SoP be longer than 1500 words? Be as close to 1500 words as possible Is the deadline in eastern time? Yes What is the LDIT capstone? None of the Ed.M degrees have a capstone/thesis; classes have finals I ordered official transcripts but they won't arrive on time. Is that ok? Unofficial transcripts are ok Hope this is helpful, and good luck!

HarvardKey is the SSO tool for all of Harvard. Current/past harvard students, faculty, staff etc. have an HUID so they have access to HarvardKey. It looks like OpenScholar is school specific. You won't be able to create an OpenScholar account unless you have more information from HGSE. If you aren't getting a 404, 500, or unauthorized then the site isn't down and you still have access, you just don't have the credentials yet. Editing to add that I think this is a really good sign for you. You have to be added as an authorized HarvardKey user to the site. If you want to confirm, see if you can find a link to another Harvard school's admit page and try logging in using your HarvardKey. If they give you an unauthorized user message then you have your answer.

Are you getting a 404, 500, or an unauthorized notification after entering your HarvardKey? If you got a 404 or 500 then something's happening on their end after attempting login. If you got a not authorized notification then they blocked access.

Interesting. So much of my stress waiting is that there's so little data from HGSE to go from. I think concentrations definitely factor in, but the program's too new so it's impossible to say how much. I'd imagine they'd want their class to be as evenly dispersed across interests as possible. If certain concentrations were overrepresented then there wouldn't be enough room in the associated classes and/or co-curricular activities. It's a resource allocation thing. Then again, it depends on the number of people who select concentrations. I personally think most people will choose a concentration, but data trumps my opinions and the available data showing national trends says it's likely most won't. If most won't then the selection would become more abstract.

Started typing this earlier but had to leave for a meeting and accidentally posted it early! There's a lot of speculation about application increases etc., so I did some research into it. I want to add this is based on a lot of assumptions, so take it with a grain of salt. If we look at Peterson's data, then there was a 54% acceptance rate in 2020: 1700 people applied, 912 people were accepted, and 667 matriculated. Things we can extrapolate if we assume the data is correct and Harvard does not want to increase the incoming class size: Those numbers are representative of all the master's degrees, not individual programs They'll accept ~912 students for 2021 - 2022 Increase in applicants: Despite a decrease in international graduate school applicants, there has been an increase in domestic applicants across multiple disciplines. Recessions typically see an increase in applicants, but there are other factors at play this year as well. This article from Berkeley shows a 16% increase in applicants for all master's, outlining how removing the GRE and altered recruitment strategies have been beneficial for many students, specifically minorities. The article does not go into which master's saw the increase. Keep in mind this data is specific to Berkeley and may not hold for all schools. The numbers in the Berkeley report are 2x the number of applicants across many universities for the last recession, which saw an average 8.3% increase across business, engineering, and social sciences. Removing the GRE could be a leading reason. I decided to look into the overall trends for an education master's to get a better idea of our specific field. Despite the overall applications between 2009-2019 dropping, 2017-2018 saw an enrollment increase of 3.2% for a master's in education. Basically, despite fewer applicants, master’s in education programs are accepting more people. I know this data isn't the most recent; if you can find more recent numbers please post them. Based on recession trends compared to trends within our field, if there is an increase in applicants, it will most likely be modest (think < 10%). HGSE wants to keep the number of students the same, so the acceptance rate may modestly decrease. Statistics across the master's programs While it looks like there's four HGSE programs, each applicant is actually placed into one of 24 buckets based on degree + concentration. Example: an ELOE applicant with a higher education concentration won't take the spot of an ELOE applicant with an early childhood concentration. If we use the stats from Peterson's while assuming each of the 24 options gets the same number of applicants and the programs are all the same size, then everyone will be placed in a pool of ~71 people of which ~38 will be accepted and ~28 will attend. There are so many “if”s I want to start spelling "if" "iff." The actual stats will break down differently based on popularity. Iff HGSE application patterns follow 2019 government data on master’s in education, HGSE’s degrees ranked in popularity are this: ELOE HDE LDIT EPA (couldn’t find in the data so I’m putting it last) And the concentrations are this: No Concentration Early Education Higher Education Arts and Learning Global, International, and Comparative Education Literacy and Languages (couldn’t find in the data so I’m putting it last) Generalized education was the most popular subject in the data which is why I put “No Concentration” at the top. That seems weird to me because I’d assume most people applying to a master’s know exactly what they want to study. Using the government data, you could actually create an estimate of how many more applicants will apply to which program, but that’s more math than I want to do right now. What the government data doesn’t take into account is that HGSE is ranked No. 1 in Education Policy by U.S. News, so EPA will probably not be the least popular program. It also doesn’t take into account other nuances, like types of program-related jobs within the Boston area, whether the pandemic increased interest in pursuing LDIT due to the increase of online learning etc. If you’re trying to figure out your chances with all the moving pieces, then this may be a good framework to start with. If anyone has stats I left out/thoughts, please post!

.

That seems the most likely. It's not uncommon for schools to send these letters out to all applicants; HGSE sent one out nine days after the application due date and even had people fill out the HGSE financial aid form. There's also a lot of moving pieces here: There's a pandemic and a new workflow needed to be established due to WFH They added a new Master's program so they're adding and toggling listservs. As someone with a tech background I can promise you this: whatever can go wrong with tech will go wrong. It's the nature of the business You were forwarded to a Master's so you needed to change listservs. See comment above When I read the email, zero part of me was like "oh, this means I got in." It was more of an "oh, false alarm!" It did, however, reinforce my theory that we'll have a decision starting Feb 28 and everyone would know by the end of the first week of March. If they're trying to have priority financial aid applications open Mar 1 and close Mar 5, they'll be trying their hardest to give all students the longest amount of time possible to fill out the form.