jimindc

I completed my application on March 5, got a confirmation on March 7 that all pieces were received and sent for faculty review, and was accepted on March 16. This was well under the 4-week timeline, but it was for one of the smaller programs (school leadership), which I'm sure made a difference. If you're applying for a larger or more popular program, I suspect the wait time is longer.

If you want to teach in private schools, particularly high schools, definitely consider the MA programs. In my experience, private schools don't have a preference for an MAT/MEd over an MA in the discipline you'd be teaching, and might even have a slight preference for an MA, especially from a good school like Penn or Northwestern. An education degree might give you a little bit of a leg up in terms of going into school administration, but that's more true if the degree is in something like education management/leadership/administration, rather than Secondary Ed/English. If money, time, etc. allow, you could consider doing the MA, teaching for a couple of years, and then going back for a degree in Ed. leadership/administration. (Penn's school leadership mastsers program, for example, has a specific track for private schools and is designed for those working full-time in schools, so it's an executive style format on evenings/weekends.)

Just a quick update for you all: I checked the Penn website today and discovered that I was accepted, with a $10K scholarship! Still need to officially decide if I'm going to do it or not, but it's looking pretty good. Thanks to all who responded for all your advice and support.

Great advice, thanks a lot everyone! I'm still waiting to hear from Penn, so I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch (even though I kind of was in my original post!) If I get in (big if!) I'll probably accept their offer, for all the good reasons cited here. If not, well, I'll probably reapply to both of these schools, as well as apply to some others, a couple of years down the road. I'll let you know what happens!

I guess what I'm trying to figure out is whether I have a shot at being accepted if I reapply. Given my stats/experience, am I going to have a hard time getting into HGSE regardless, or would I have a good chance if I applied to a "better fit" program and had a better essay? Also, any thoughts on reapplying in general after having been rejected? Is it sort of a "scarlet letter"? To have any chance, will I need a drastically improved application (e.g. perfect GREs, additional significant experience, amazing recs), or will I be treated pretty much the same as someone applying for the first time?

Good advice all. Thanks!

I was rejected from HGSE this week and am trying to decide what to do. Any thoughts, advice, etc. is appreciated, especially from Ed school alumni, either at HGSE or anywhere else! My profile: ~3.6 GPA, top 20 state school, humanities major GRE: 670 V, 720 Q, 5.0 W Work Experience: 4 years in admissions at small private HS, currently on senior admin team (no teaching exp.) Other: serve on volunteer alumni boards at my college and HS, volunteer tutor at inner city school I applied to the EPM program at Harvard and was rejected. Honestly, for my interests and experience, school leadership might have been more appropriate-- but I liked EPM's flexibility and thought it would be a more versatile degree than school leadership. So I guess in my SOP I tried to sound more interested in ed policy than I really am, and maybe that showed through. I only applied to 2 programs and HGSE was by far my top choice. I also applied to Penn's school leadership program, which sounds great too, but is pretty different. (The Penn program is one weekend per month and one night per month online, plus 2 weeks in the summer, for one year, so I'd still work full time at my school and commute on those weekends.) Because of when my application was completed, it will probably be a few more weeks before I hear from Penn. Anyway, I'm trying to decide whether it's worth even thinking about reapplying to HGSE, perhaps in the SL program next year. I was excited about the possibility of HGSE, going to school full time, meeting new people and getting involved in stuff outside the classroom, which wouldn't be the case at Penn. Or, if I get into Penn, should I just go ahead and accept their offer? It's a great school too, and financially it would be great not to have to interrupt my career. My GRE also expires this year, so I'd have to take it again if I were to reapply (ugh). Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about reapplying to HGSE or other education schools? Do I stand a chance? Is it worth the stress and time involved? Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Been reloading the website all day! Unless I'm looking in the wrong places, nothing has been posted yet.

Same here.