HGSE 2021

[mjsmith]

2 hours ago, McPerson said:

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:

1. Those numbers are representative of all the master's degrees, not individual programs

2. 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:

1. ELOE

2. HDE

3. LDIT

4. EPA (couldn’t find in the data so I’m putting it last) 

And the concentrations are this:

1. No Concentration 

2. Early Education

3. Higher Education 

4. Arts and Learning

5. Global, International, and Comparative Education

6. 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! 

Thank you for this analysis! I think you're assumptions are pretty spot on!

I do think this year will be an outlier overall for a few other reasons, including that HGSE isn't enrolling any students in the Ph.D., Ed.L.D., or any of the teacher prep/programs that result in obtaining a license (counseling, some of the school leadership folks, etc.). Add in COVID, and it is a lot to sort through! In the end, it'll be interesting to see where things shake out. Hopefully we'll have admissions decisions from HGSE on Friday (but seems like even that norm my be disrupted from what others have mentioned elsewhere here). 

[chai time]

12 hours ago, McPerson said:

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:

...

I just gotta say that this is so impressive! Thank you for putting in the time to do this. 

[emcollins3]

23 hours ago, xyzxyz123 said:

What’s your thoughts regarding the number of the applications? I personally think it may remain approximately the same... I don’t think a larger number of applications would lead to a much longer waiting game... I personally lean to the reason that this is the actual first time (excluding the summer round) that the admissions committee (I think they are the faculty members) has to work together remotely to review applications, make decisions, and communicate with the admissions office. Maybe they are just slower and trying to adapt the new way of making admissions decisions...

I work at Harvard (different school) and next week marks one year since we went remote across the schools. So yes, while the committee may have completed bulk of last year’s first round reviews in person, given the pandemic they allowed for a second round of admissions and those would have been reviewed remotely. With programs fully remote we have all adapted to leveraging Harvard’s technology to replace in person meetings (in some cases, it has actually allowed for some internal processes to be completed more quickly). I would think any delay in the decisions are more likely attributed to an increase in applicants and assessment against the new structure. Still (naively) hoping for Friday, hang in there everyone!!!

[chaiandsushi]

On 3/2/2021 at 1:30 PM, xyzxyz123 said:

Fellow EPA applicant here. Do you mind sharing your basic stats? GPA, GRE if submitted, schools went to for undergrad, etc. thanks!

Sure!

Program/concentration: EPA (GICE) 

Undergrad: private institution outside the US 

GPA: 7.00/8.00 (not sure about the conversion) 

GRE: didn’t submit 

LORs: 2 professors and current program manager 

Work ex: 2 years with Teach for India 

other schools applied to: McGill (accepted), NYU (accepted), TC and UPenn (was informed I’m ineligible to apply because of my 3 year undergrad degree) 

[xyzxyz123]

53 minutes ago, chaiandsushi said:

Sure!

Program/concentration: EPA (GICE) 

Undergrad: private institution outside the US 

GPA: 7.00/8.00 (not sure about the conversion) 

GRE: didn’t submit 

LORs: 2 professors and current program manager 

Work ex: 2 years with Teach for India 

other schools applied to: McGill (accepted), NYU (accepted), TC and UPenn (was informed I’m ineligible to apply because of my 3 year undergrad degree) 

Thanks! I think your gpa in the US is 3.5 out of 4 because just need to divide by 2 to make it on a 4.0 scale. My stats is on the 2nd or 3rd page of this thread! Could you give me some thoughts regarding my stats? Thanks! Really nervous!

[hmj598]

22 hours ago, emcollins3 said:

I work at Harvard (different school) and next week marks one year since we went remote across the schools. So yes, while the committee may have completed bulk of last year’s first round reviews in person, given the pandemic they allowed for a second round of admissions and those would have been reviewed remotely. With programs fully remote we have all adapted to leveraging Harvard’s technology to replace in person meetings (in some cases, it has actually allowed for some internal processes to be completed more quickly). I would think any delay in the decisions are more likely attributed to an increase in applicants and assessment against the new structure. Still (naively) hoping for Friday, hang in there everyone!!!

Very true...I'm seriously hoping to hear back tomorrow...another week of waiting will be rough  

[JRF]

Any news on admission info, etc? I've heard decisions are usually sent in the afternoon (or have been in years prior).

[hales1013]

2 minutes ago, JRF said:

Any news on admission info, etc? I've heard decisions are usually sent in the afternoon (or have been in years prior).

From what I've heard from admissions via email, they will be released by the end of march and they are aiming for mid-march if possible. Still hoping to hear back today but I feel like it is gonna be pushed back till next Friday.

[emstaal]

1 hour ago, JRF said:

Any news on admission info, etc? I've heard decisions are usually sent in the afternoon (or have been in years prior).

I've seen from other posts here that historically they send emails around 4pm or later on a Friday 

[emstaal]

21 minutes ago, emstaal said:

I've seen from other posts here that historically they send emails around 4pm or later on a Friday 

Clarification-- 4pm EST 

[coonie99]

I’m so anxious I can’t sleep 

Anyone else??? 
best luck to everyone hopefully tmr!! 

[caxiatec]

5 hours ago, coonie99 said:

I’m so anxious I can’t sleep 

Anyone else??? 
best luck to everyone hopefully tmr!! 

I am a little anxious and not losing sleep. Actually I overslept. I think I'm really not expecting the results out today. and it seems most of us are not. Anyway, do take care of yourself and best of luck!

[emcollins3]

Ahhhh is today the day?! Who knows. All I will say is that regardless if we hear today or not, and regardless if (when we do) we get the answer we are each hoping for or not, this does not make or break us. Each of us were drawn to apply out of a hope and desire to make this world a better place, and that doesn’t change with an email today- it only changes the path we might take to do so. For some of us, HGSE might be a part of that journey. For some of us, we might learn HGSE is not our next step but discover a completely different path we had not previously imagined for ourselves, and that is okay too. Don’t lose sight of your goals and passion, and don’t forget that any program- HGSE or otherwise- is only a small piece of the story, even though it seems so all encompassing to each of us at the moment. Be proud of the work you put into this process and taking the step to apply, and trust that you alone will define your next chapter in your story, not this decision. Go out and keep changing the world no matter what lands in your inbox today (or next week, or month end). Deep breaths and best of luck to  all!!!

[chai time]

I live near Harvard and walked to the Yard today to give John Harvard's shoe a rub for all of us (then promptly sanitized my hands haha). I completely agree with what @emcollins3 has said-- we are all bound for greatness no matter what happens today! 

Wishing you all warmth and comfort today, and above all, good luck!

[hales1013]

Just now, chai time said:

I live near Harvard and walked to the Yard today to give John Harvard's shoe a rub for all of us (then promptly sanitized my hands haha). I completely agree with what @emcollins3 has said-- we are all bound for greatness no matter what happens today! 

Wishing you all warmth and comfort today, and above all, good luck!

HAHA love this! 

[xyzxyz123]

Hope we ALL hear the answers we want to hear TODAY! Have been crazily waiting for this possible moment....

[hales1013]

Not sure if it's a parallel reference, but just wanna provide another perspective. I also applied to a program at Stanford's GSE which has a similar decision release timeline of early March as advocated on their website similar to Harvard. I received my decision in late Feb. However, the program is much smaller so it might not be comparable to Harvard. They do not even accept or consider GRE this year, so perhaps people would be more inclined to apply given that everyone has the same playing field in terms of GRE stats to give it a shot. Hopefully Harvard will stick to their original decision release timeline as well. 

[caxiatec]

22 minutes ago, chai time said:

I live near Harvard and walked to the Yard today to give John Harvard's shoe a rub for all of us (then promptly sanitized my hands haha). I completely agree with what @emcollins3 has said-- we are all bound for greatness no matter what happens today! 

Wishing you all warmth and comfort today, and above all, good luck!

Nice one! You should have taken a picture as well. Good luck to everyone!

[hales1013]

Not sure if it's only happening to me but the gse.harvard.edu website and the LDIT program website is not opening up. 

[chai time]

2 minutes ago, caxiatec said:

Nice one! You should have taken a picture as well. Good luck to everyone!

I did but it is too large to upload

[hmj598]

3 minutes ago, hales1013 said:

Not sure if it's only happening to me but the gse.harvard.edu website and the LDIT program website is not opening up. 

I tried and it's not for me either.

[hales1013]

Just now, hmj598 said:

I tried and it's not for me either.

Maybe it's a good sign? lol

[hmj598]

Just now, hales1013 said:

Maybe it's a good sign? lol

I sure hope so...maybe they're updating the website

[chai time]

It looks like the whole website is down eek [edit: realizing someone else said this already sorry]

Edited March 5, 2021 by chai time

[coonie99]

Hmm that’s super weird cuz the website works for me