HGSE V. PENGSE

[rhianita]

I have received decent offers for the master of education program in higher Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education and from The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

Penn is ranked slightly higher within my field and the Philly area does have a lower cost of living.

Harvard has more name recognition and is offering more money (as a total sum and as a % of tuition).

I know there are others looking at a similar scenario.

How did you or how will you decide?

Edited April 1, 2011 by rhianita

[ZeChocMoose]

I have received decent offers for the master of education program in higher Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education and from The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

Penn is ranked slightly higher within my field and the Philly area does have a lower cost of living.

Harvard has more name recognition and is offering more money (as a total sum and as a % of tuition).

I know there are others looking at a similar scenario.

How did you or how will you decide?

I would probably go with UPenn. I say that though because I like the faculty there better. You have Laura Perna, Matthew Hartley, and Robert Zemsky (just to name a few!).

The questions that I would ask myself would be: What do you want to do with your degree? (Are you interested in student affairs jobs, policy jobs, or research jobs). What classes do you want to take? (do you want to learn about: education policy, colleges and universities as organizations, access/retention of certain populations of students, finance, student development, etc). I would make sure that there are multiple electives on whatever I am hoping to study in the program. Since both programs are one year-- it is going to be very course intensive. I would also ask current students how well the courses are taught.

In higher education, you are going to need experience in order to secure a job when you are done. What are the opportunities at either school to have internships or assistantships. Assistantships are ideal since they cover tuition and give you a stipend. I actually thought UPenn offered assistantships to their higher ed master's students, but I guess I am wrong...

Lastly, if you want to do the PhD-- what are the opportunities to get involved in research in either program? (Especially since you only have a year), what are the programs' philosophies on accepting master's students to their PhD or EdD programs? Does this happen? Or is this frowned upon?

Good luck. There is probably not a wrong choice with either program. Both are well respected in the field. You just want to make sure that you selecting the best one for your academic and professional interests.

[rhianita]

I would probably go with UPenn. I say that though because I like the faculty there better. You have Laura Perna, Matthew Hartley, and Robert Zemsky (just to name a few!).

The questions that I would ask myself would be: What do you want to do with your degree? (Are you interested in student affairs jobs, policy jobs, or research jobs). What classes do you want to take? (do you want to learn about: education policy, colleges and universities as organizations, access/retention of certain populations of students, finance, student development, etc). I would make sure that there are multiple electives on whatever I am hoping to study in the program. Since both programs are one year-- it is going to be very course intensive. I would also ask current students how well the courses are taught.

In higher education, you are going to need experience in order to secure a job when you are done. What are the opportunities at either school to have internships or assistantships. Assistantships are ideal since they cover tuition and give you a stipend. I actually thought UPenn offered assistantships to their higher ed master's students, but I guess I am wrong...

Lastly, if you want to do the PhD-- what are the opportunities to get involved in research in either program? (Especially since you only have a year), what are the programs' philosophies on accepting master's students to their PhD or EdD programs? Does this happen? Or is this frowned upon?

Good luck. There is probably not a wrong choice with either program. Both are well respected in the field. You just want to make sure that you selecting the best one for your academic and professional interests.

Thank you for your input! very helpful.

Penn does offer assistantships to their higher ed. students, and I received my top choice assistantship there. It is not full tuition, none of them are there, but it does pay well.