2019 Education Applications

[2019CulturePhD]

On 12/23/2018 at 8:27 AM, eternalreturn said:

Woo hoo!  I'm in at Minnesota, too - Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Literacy Education focus.  Minnesota is ideal for us personally if we're going to relocate - family and friends and great job prospects for my spouse.  Just playing wait and see with other programs now - especially Harvard (CIS PhD) and Wisconsin (C&I).  

Hello @eternalreturn and @SPEDucator - This is my first post in the forums. Congrats on UMN admittance! I was accepted to UMN for PhD as well -- Dept of Curriculum & Instruction, Culture and Teaching (CaT)! I'm curious if you've had any direct contact from the department and/or received any indication of funding. I received the admissions letter from the Graduate Admissions Office before Christmas; in Jan reached out to a professor in CaT to express my excitement, as well as inquire about funding and the enrollment decision deadline. Haven't heard back yet, which is understandable -- I assume folks are still coming back from break. I don't want to leave UMN hanging, but funding and fit are obviously big factors in my decision and I've not yet heard back from all my schools and no word on funding from Minnesota. @Sandmaster Can you share "what happens next," in your experience? Also, will it speak poorly of me that I haven't established contact with program faculty at this point? I could reach out to a different professor with the same questions, but I am hesitant to appear overeager if the department has its own process for communicating with accepted students in due time. Thank you for any thoughts! And congrats again to all who have received acceptances!

[northie]

I got accepted by Penn State, Department of C & I, with emphasis on second language education. Still waiting on the funding info though. Anyone knows anything about the program? Please let me know! 

Edited January 14, 2019 by northie

[Sandmaster]

10 hours ago, 2019CulturePhD said:

Hello @eternalreturn and @SPEDucator - This is my first post in the forums. Congrats on UMN admittance! I was accepted to UMN for PhD as well -- Dept of Curriculum & Instruction, Culture and Teaching (CaT)! I'm curious if you've had any direct contact from the department and/or received any indication of funding. I received the admissions letter from the Graduate Admissions Office before Christmas; in Jan reached out to a professor in CaT to express my excitement, as well as inquire about funding and the enrollment decision deadline. Haven't heard back yet, which is understandable -- I assume folks are still coming back from break. I don't want to leave UMN hanging, but funding and fit are obviously big factors in my decision and I've not yet heard back from all my schools and no word on funding from Minnesota. @Sandmaster Can you share "what happens next," in your experience? Also, will it speak poorly of me that I haven't established contact with program faculty at this point? I could reach out to a different professor with the same questions, but I am hesitant to appear overeager if the department has its own process for communicating with accepted students in due time. Thank you for any thoughts! And congrats again to all who have received acceptances!

Hey there! Congrats on your acceptance as well! I know I was extremely excited when I got mine too. So next steps for me may, or may not, be similar to your's just since the department could have changed things from last year in their process. In the next few weeks, you will probably get an email from our grad studies coordinator with details about setting up a campus visit with other admitted students. The actual visit is sometime early in March (or it was last year). It gives you and your fellow potential colleagues the chance to meet each other, faculty, staff, and current students within your program area and across the department. It is common for domestic students to attend, or try to attend, but it can be expensive for international students so none came in my year but still accepted to attend regardless. This event is particularly useful when I came because I also placed a ton of emphasis on the fit of a program when I was attending all of the schools I was accepted to. I found UMN to be my perfect fit, so the event only solidified my choice. Other's may not, it is personal preference of course. Also, keep in mind that your initial advisor can be changed at any point in time too, it is just who the department felt could be a good first point of contact until you solidify research ideas and interest.

 

As for funding, that is where the timing can get a little complicated. Usually the program areas meet in March just after the visit day to discuss funding for all current and incoming students. Which means that you may not get your offer of funding until late March, or early April. (mine came April 6th I think). I know I can not offer you a guarantee of course, but if you selected you would like to be considered for funding on your application and are planning on being a full-time PhD student in the program, then you will be given at least a 50% appointment which covers all of your in-state and out-of-state tuition and you will be offered health insurance at a pretty awesome rate in addition to your stipend which is like your paycheck bi-weekly. You will still be required to pay fees out of pocket (~$800 a semester) though so keep that in mind if you are a budgeter like me. I do not know of a full time PhD student in any of our department programs who did not get funding that wanted it one way, or another. If funding is tricky in your case, the department works to try to find you funding. Also, one of the best perks (in my opinion) about UMN is if you want to teach here, you are usually given Instructor of Record assuming you already have a master's degree. Other places do not give you that level of responsibility and freedom, but I have loved my teaching experience here.

 

If you have any further questions, please feel free to keep reaching out here or in pm if it is more personal. I am happy to chat more about the exciting things happening in the department and how things work. I know I had a ton of questions when I first got admitted to.

Edited January 14, 2019 by Sandmaster

[SPEDucator]

6 minutes ago, Sandmaster said:

Hey there! Congrats on your acceptance as well! I know I was extremely excited when I got mine too. So next steps for me may, or may not, be similar to your's just since the department could have changed things from last year in their process. In the next few weeks, you will probably get an email from our grad studies coordinator with details about setting up a campus visit with other admitted students. The actual visit is sometime early in March (or it was last year). It gives you and your fellow potential colleagues the chance to meet each other, faculty, staff, and current students within your program area and across the department. It is common for domestic students to attend, or try to attend, but it can be expensive for international students so none came in my year but still accepted to attend regardless. This event is particularly useful when I came because I also placed a ton of emphasis on the fit of a program when I was attending all of the schools I was accepted to. I found UMN to be my perfect fit, so the event only solidified my choice. Other's may not, it is personal preference of course. Also, keep in mind that your initial advisor can be changed at any point in time too, it is just who the department felt could be a good first point of contact until you solidify research ideas and interest.

 

As for funding, that is where the timing can get a little complicated. Usually the program areas meet in March just after the visit day to discuss funding for all current and incoming students. Which means that you may not get your offer of funding until late March, or early April. (mine came April 6th I think). I know I can not offer you a guarantee of course, but if you selected you would like to be considered for funding on your application and are planning on being a full-time PhD student in the program, then you will be given at least a 50% appointment which covers all of your in-state and out-of-state tuition and you will be offered health insurance at a pretty awesome rate. You will still be required to pay fees out of pocket (~$800 a semester) though so keep that in mind if you are a budgeter like me.

 

If you have any further questions, please feel free to keep reaching out here or in pm if it is more personal. I am happy to chat more about the exciting things happening in the department and how things work. I know I had a ton of questions when I first got admitted to.

This is great advice! @2019CulturePhD I'm in a different department at the U of M so my experience may be different. I heard from the department before I got my official letter from the school. The  letter from the department invited me to the Grad Student Research Day (March 1st this year) and mentioned that I have until April 15th to decide. The letter also stated who my adviser would be and to reach out to them to talk about funding. I then emailed the professor and we have been trading emails back and forth to talk about funding and have a phone call set up.

Do you know who your advisor is? I would reach out to them or if you don't know to the department admin to check.

[2019CulturePhD]

7 hours ago, Sandmaster said:

Hey there! Congrats on your acceptance as well! I know I was extremely excited when I got mine too. So next steps for me may, or may not, be similar to your's just since the department could have changed things from last year in their process. In the next few weeks, you will probably get an email from our grad studies coordinator with details about setting up a campus visit with other admitted students. The actual visit is sometime early in March (or it was last year). It gives you and your fellow potential colleagues the chance to meet each other, faculty, staff, and current students within your program area and across the department. It is common for domestic students to attend, or try to attend, but it can be expensive for international students so none came in my year but still accepted to attend regardless. This event is particularly useful when I came because I also placed a ton of emphasis on the fit of a program when I was attending all of the schools I was accepted to. I found UMN to be my perfect fit, so the event only solidified my choice. Other's may not, it is personal preference of course. Also, keep in mind that your initial advisor can be changed at any point in time too, it is just who the department felt could be a good first point of contact until you solidify research ideas and interest.

 

As for funding, that is where the timing can get a little complicated. Usually the program areas meet in March just after the visit day to discuss funding for all current and incoming students. Which means that you may not get your offer of funding until late March, or early April. (mine came April 6th I think). I know I can not offer you a guarantee of course, but if you selected you would like to be considered for funding on your application and are planning on being a full-time PhD student in the program, then you will be given at least a 50% appointment which covers all of your in-state and out-of-state tuition and you will be offered health insurance at a pretty awesome rate in addition to your stipend which is like your paycheck bi-weekly. You will still be required to pay fees out of pocket (~$800 a semester) though so keep that in mind if you are a budgeter like me. I do not know of a full time PhD student in any of our department programs who did not get funding that wanted it one way, or another. If funding is tricky in your case, the department works to try to find you funding. Also, one of the best perks (in my opinion) about UMN is if you want to teach here, you are usually given Instructor of Record assuming you already have a master's degree. Other places do not give you that level of responsibility and freedom, but I have loved my teaching experience here.

 

If you have any further questions, please feel free to keep reaching out here or in pm if it is more personal. I am happy to chat more about the exciting things happening in the department and how things work. I know I had a ton of questions when I first got admitted to.

Thank you so much for your detailed and thoughtful response, @Sandmaster! This is really helpful and puts me much more at ease about communication with the department, funding, and timing. I might reach out with more questions as things unfold. Grateful to have a resource in C&I.

6 hours ago, SPEDucator said:

This is great advice! @2019CulturePhD I'm in a different department at the U of M so my experience may be different. I heard from the department before I got my official letter from the school. The  letter from the department invited me to the Grad Student Research Day (March 1st this year) and mentioned that I have until April 15th to decide. The letter also stated who my adviser would be and to reach out to them to talk about funding. I then emailed the professor and we have been trading emails back and forth to talk about funding and have a phone call set up.

Do you know who your advisor is? I would reach out to them or if you don't know to the department admin to check.

@SPEDucator Congrats again! I haven't been assigned an advisor yet, or at least have not been notified of one, but from @Sandmaster's reply it sounds like that might happen in the next couple of weeks. I'll try reaching out to the Grad Studies Coordinator in the meantime.

Thanks all!

[eternalreturn]

On 1/13/2019 at 11:00 PM, 2019CulturePhD said:

Hello @eternalreturn and @SPEDucator - This is my first post in the forums. Congrats on UMN admittance! I was accepted to UMN for PhD as well -- Dept of Curriculum & Instruction, Culture and Teaching (CaT)! I'm curious if you've had any direct contact from the department and/or received any indication of funding. I received the admissions letter from the Graduate Admissions Office before Christmas; in Jan reached out to a professor in CaT to express my excitement, as well as inquire about funding and the enrollment decision deadline. Haven't heard back yet, which is understandable -- I assume folks are still coming back from break. I don't want to leave UMN hanging, but funding and fit are obviously big factors in my decision and I've not yet heard back from all my schools and no word on funding from Minnesota. @Sandmaster Can you share "what happens next," in your experience? Also, will it speak poorly of me that I haven't established contact with program faculty at this point? I could reach out to a different professor with the same questions, but I am hesitant to appear overeager if the department has its own process for communicating with accepted students in due time. Thank you for any thoughts! And congrats again to all who have received acceptances!

Sorry @2019CulturePhD!  I've been trying not to obsessively check the forums so I'm a little slow.  I did hear about funding shortly after I was offered admission - a phone call a few days after my unofficial admission.  My read is that Literacy Education moved pretty quickly but their context might be different than Culture and Teaching?  Program coodinator has been super helpful.  Congrats to you too and hope to meet in the Twin Cities next year!

[Jack90]

Anyone else applying to BE3 at Berkeley, or know about the quality of the program? I'm applying to Stanford STEP, UCLA TEP, and USC MAT, and trying to suss out relative strengths of each program. Berkeley's mission statement is so exciting, though the "rankings" online place it much lower than Stanford and UCLA. I don't know how much stock to put in this, if any. Had my UCLA interview last weekend, and Berkeley is next month.

J

[educonomist]

Hello Everyone and best of luck with your applications!

Has anyone here applied to one of the Ph.D. programs at Stanford's GSE? They state that they do not hold interviews on their website; however, almost all who were admitted to the program wrote in the results page that they had some sort of an interview/discussion with their POIs, and they received those interview invitations around the last week of January. Is it safe to say to expect a rejection email by mid-Feb if you do not get an interview request? 

 

Edited January 17, 2019 by educonomist

[Jack90]

I'm not sure either -- applying to STEP and am not aware if there would be contact about an interview.

[civitas]

I am still wondering... I am applying to educational technology/learning sciences programs. Three days ago my project was featured in Apple Inc's official Wechat account (similar to official Twitter, while in China). I also made several more achievements after deadlines. Should I send some emails to professors I contacted before?

[JWalters]

It seems as if Doctoral Weekend invites for UPenn are going out today...

Edited January 18, 2019 by JWalters

[OperationPhDforMe]

1 hour ago, JWalters said:

It seems as if Doctoral Weekend invites for UPenn are going out today...

Yeah I am waiting on Penn and Harvard today. I will officially give up hope on both around 7PM EST tonight. If I don't hear anything by then...I know it's over. I'm trying not to be upset, but this is hitting me hard....it just hurts that we have to wait at least 2 to 3 more weeks before they officially deny us...

[SPEDucator]

3 hours ago, OperationPhDforMe said:

Yeah I am waiting on Penn and Harvard today. I will officially give up hope on both around 7PM EST tonight. If I don't hear anything by then...I know it's over. I'm trying not to be upset, but this is hitting me hard....it just hurts that we have to wait at least 2 to 3 more weeks before they officially deny us...

I agree.Harvard said in a webinar that if you don't get an interview you basically won't get in. Why don't they send the rejection letters (or waitlist a few people if you are concerned about your numbers) earlier? I just don't understand!

[LizKay]

Hello! Has anyone applied for a Masters degree (for teaching certification) in Social Studies at Columbia Teacher’s College? Did you hear anything back about an interview?

[educonomist]

On 1/18/2019 at 11:11 PM, SPEDucator said:

I agree.Harvard said in a webinar that if you don't get an interview you basically won't get in. Why don't they send the rejection letters (or waitlist a few people if you are concerned about your numbers) earlier? I just don't understand!

Does anyone know if this also applies for Ph.D. programs at Stanford GSE?

[t_ruth]

On 1/18/2019 at 3:26 AM, civitas said:

I am still wondering... I am applying to educational technology/learning sciences programs. Three days ago my project was featured in Apple Inc's official Wechat account (similar to official Twitter, while in China). I also made several more achievements after deadlines. Should I send some emails to professors I contacted before?

I don't think it will hurt. Good luck!

[civitas]

1 hour ago, t_ruth said:

I don't think it will hurt. Good luck!

Thanks! Still anxiously waiting... Wondering if I will get any interviews for PhD programs. Seems that education departments prefer to domestic applicants

Edited January 21, 2019 by civitas

[civitas]

On 1/22/2019 at 7:52 AM, civitas said:

Thanks! Still anxious waiting...

1st interview from Northwestern! Informal request from a POI, scheduled on February 4th. CS+LS Joint PhD Program.

[naoone]

On 1/20/2019 at 3:39 PM, educonomist said:

Does anyone know if this also applies for Ph.D. programs at Stanford GSE?

Did Stanford GSE interview invites go out for their CTE PhD programs? I didn't see anything yet posted on the results page but I might not have been looking carefully enough!

[educonomist]

2 hours ago, naoone said:

Did Stanford GSE interview invites go out for their CTE PhD programs? I didn't see anything yet posted on the results page but I might not have been looking carefully enough!

Nobody has posted on the results page for Stanford GSE since the beginning of this year. My understanding is that interview requests are usually sent out in the last week of January, and the decisions are posted in the second week of February for Ph.D. candidates. 

One thing I am trying to figure out is whether not getting an interview could be interpreted as an "implied rejection." Some people in Stanford GSE post stated that Stanford does not interview. On the other hand, however, it seems that the majority of those that were admitted had some sort of an interview with their POIs. 

[GhostyGin]

Hi all! First post in the forum. I heard from Northwestern yesterday that I got into their Master of Science - Teacher Leadership program. Will hear about funding sometime next month. I didn't apply for any other program.

Wondering if anyone else got into Northwestern?

[JWalters]

On 1/17/2019 at 4:48 PM, educonomist said:

Hello Everyone and best of luck with your applications!

Has anyone here applied to one of the Ph.D. programs at Stanford's GSE? They state that they do not hold interviews on their website; however, almost all who were admitted to the program wrote in the results page that they had some sort of an interview/discussion with their POIs, and they received those interview invitations around the last week of January. Is it safe to say to expect a rejection email by mid-Feb if you do not get an interview request? 

 

My POI from Stanford GSE contacted me today, CTE/ LLE applicant.

[eternalreturn]

Hi, all! Congratulations to the individual who heard back from Wisconsin! Just saw this on the results page. Just wondering about the poster's field - the department is so diverse that I'm trying not to get antsy. ? If you see this - any insight is welcome. Wasn't expecting Wisconsin until next week based on past years. 

Best wishes to all as things continue to pick up!

[civitas]

On 1/27/2019 at 2:05 AM, GhostyGin said:

Hi all! First post in the forum. I heard from Northwestern yesterday that I got into their Master of Science - Teacher Leadership program. Will hear about funding sometime next month. I didn't apply for any other program.

Wondering if anyone else got into Northwestern?

I have an interview from LS+CS PhD program... Congratulations to you!

[OperationPhDforMe]

On 1/26/2019 at 1:05 PM, GhostyGin said:

Hi all! First post in the forum. I heard from Northwestern yesterday that I got into their Master of Science - Teacher Leadership program. Will hear about funding sometime next month. I didn't apply for any other program.

Wondering if anyone else got into Northwestern?

 

10 hours ago, civitas said:

I have an interview from LS+CS PhD program... Congratulations to you!

I am applying to Northwestersn   PhD in HDSP and I'm anxiously awaiting. Good to see there's movement for at least some of the programs.