International Education Chances

[edmajor46]

Hello everyone,

 

I am writing because I am currently an undergraduate student with an interest in applying to some graduate programs in International/Comparative Education. Currently, I am not applying (I will this coming Fall), but I would love feedback back for others who have applied and have been accepted or denied to International/Comparative Programs.

 

Realisticly what are my chances of getting into a good school like ( NYU, Stanford, Lehigh, Vandy) with this background:

- Looking to graduate summa cum laude, 3.88 GPA, from major public university in Midwest

- Highly active in international programs on campus

- Winner of multiple scholarships

- 3 research positions as undergrad

- International teaching experience in Italy

- Speak some Italian

- Presented at two confernces

- Work with refugees

- Other various volutneer experiences

- President of a sports club

 

Thoughts on anything would be greatly adored

 

Cheers

[Kelly V.]

Hello,

 

I applied and was accepted to International Education Policy / Comparative Education programs at Harvard, Columbia (T.C.), Oxford, and GWU. I think your profile is great, but given the fact that most highly selective programs are not just looking for the summa cum laude, I recommend you research the curriculum of each school and ID the professors you admire (read a few of their publications) and connect where they are and where you want to be.

 

My experience was similar to years except I work in Peru and had at least four years of international work experience within the field of internationale education, counseling, and immigration.

 

Truth is, my BIGGEST recommendation is for you to ask yourself why you wish to apply right after graduation vs. taking a year or two to get MORE experience in the field.

 

I also definitely suggest focusing on FUNDING PLANS because as it was in my situation, getting admitted to all of the above was awesome BUT finding that they could not offer me the aid I needed to study was not.

 

So, plan ahead and never believe that there is a clock somewhere that is ticking against you. There isn´t you can only get better IF you look for the right direction and start building your application from now.

 

Recommendation letters are a major factor and given your academic strengths you should have professors willing to help you build this bridge to graduate school.

 

Statements of Purpose are also crucial. I cannot stress enought the qualitative factors over the quantitative ones.

 

That was my case. My GRE was just slightly above average. And none of my schools held that against me.

 

-Kelly

 

 LIMA, PERU

[bakalamba]

I second Kelly's recommendation. Certainly I don't want to dissuade you from entering a graduate program straight from undergraduate, but International Comparative Education is a competitive field, particularly with a focus on Europe (if that's your interest), and your cohort may likely have students who are mid-career in education or international development, or have substantial teaching experience, in the US or abroad. Taking time in between studies will give you more material and experience to bring to your graduate education, and having a credential or work experience is a great fall-back after your degree - particularly since Masters programs can be very expensive, even more so at the private institutions you're looking at.

 

I've seen students do great straight from undergrad, but they generally have a more academic focus (which is natural, considering they have more experience in academics than outside of it). You seem to have good qualifications for entry, but remember you'll also be competing with applicants with those qualifications plus substantial field experience. Like Kelly said, graduate study and admissions is all about fit, fit, and fit. Make sure there is a faculty member in your research area - don't choose a program just because it's at a University with high name recognition, but doesn't have faculty or a program that matches your interests. Unless you're sitting on a pile of money, look into fellowship/scholarship applications that you can apply to concurrently with school applications.

 

Sorry that I can only address your "what are my chances" question into a "should you apply and where" answer - because I really can't say what kind of applications these schools will see that year and how yours will fit in the pile (although these schools get a lot). Last piece of advice is to consider a larger range of schools - these are good programs, but there are also good programs where you'd least expect them, and if you continue on with this field, employers and faculty know where these programs are, irrespective of where the University sits on national rankings (and if you want to study Comparative Education, you should start being very skeptical about these kind of rankings). For example, I'm at a large Midwest school that funds students, MA and PhD, to work abroad on large projects, which I never got to do when I was obtaining a MA at a high-ranked institution.

[jasper8625]

On 2014. 10. 15. at 0:20 AM, Kelly V. said:

Hello,

 

I applied and was accepted to International Education Policy / Comparative Education programs at Harvard, Columbia (T.C.), Oxford, and GWU. I think your profile is great, but given the fact that most highly selective programs are not just looking for the summa cum laude, I recommend you research the curriculum of each school and ID the professors you admire (read a few of their publications) and connect where they are and where you want to be.

 

My experience was similar to years except I work in Peru and had at least four years of international work experience within the field of internationale education, counseling, and immigration.

 

Truth is, my BIGGEST recommendation is for you to ask yourself why you wish to apply right after graduation vs. taking a year or two to get MORE experience in the field.

 

I also definitely suggest focusing on FUNDING PLANS because as it was in my situation, getting admitted to all of the above was awesome BUT finding that they could not offer me the aid I needed to study was not.

 

So, plan ahead and never believe that there is a clock somewhere that is ticking against you. There isn´t you can only get better IF you look for the right direction and start building your application from now.

 

Recommendation letters are a major factor and given your academic strengths you should have professors willing to help you build this bridge to graduate school.

 

Statements of Purpose are also crucial. I cannot stress enought the qualitative factors over the quantitative ones.

 

That was my case. My GRE was just slightly above average. And none of my schools held that against me.

 

-Kelly

 

 LIMA, PERU

posted a long time ago but your advice really helped me.

I'm interested in applying for these majors,

thanks

[lit44]

Thanks for your explanation, its really helpful. International education is good anyway, and in some places it would be hard to enter, especially for undergraduate student, but possible. One of the most important thing is your cv i think, significance should be given for this, you can see some guides here https://pro-papers.com/blog/abortion-essay-writing-guide/ . If you know more guides about entering international education, share them. As aspiration, the work must be, remember that.