HGSE Fall 2014

[Steelbacks1]

I'm applying for Ed.M in International Education Policy. Looking at focusing on policies that affect bilingual students. 

 

My Stats :

 

GRE 460 V 650 A 3.5 AWA

 

Undergraduate : First class in Forensic Science 

 

Post grad : (Teacher training) University of Cambridge

 

2 years teaching abroad, 1 in China and 1 in Cyprus. Both schools the students were at least bilingual and hence why that is an area I want to focus on. 

[OCD or Perfection?]

Applied to Ed.M. School Leadership-Developer Strand.

 

I really wish I'd known about this forum earlier. Would've loved to see the valuable insights you guys have shared here. Anyone else applying to the School Leadership Program, particularly the developer strand?

 

Best of luck to all of you. Here's hoping we all see what's good for us in March

[whirlwind1230]

How cool! I am applying SLP as well, but principal licensure. Also, from Houston!

[Fleet23]

@moyru, if it makes you feel any better, one of my LOR was about two weeks late, and I still got in.

[OCD or Perfection?]

How cool! I am applying SLP as well, but principal licensure. Also, from Houston!

Best of luck! Where are you teaching right now?

[caliteacher]

I am a new Doctor of Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) candidate at HGSE this year. I'm happy to answer any questions or be of service in any way if you are looking to apply this fall.

Thanks so much...I'm finding this forum difficult to search. Is there another forum that is specifically for HGSE Ed. LD 2014 applicants? If so, can you point me toward it please? 

 

I've applied to the Ed. LD program for 2014, and I'm curious about timelines for hearing back. Would you be willing to explain when you found out you got the interview and how you were notified? Is it too soon for me to be looking for an email or phone call?  Thanks so much for any information you can give me. Have a great day.

[moyru]

@moyru, if it makes you feel any better, one of my LOR was about two weeks late, and I still got in.

ahaha good to know!

 

my LOR made it in! I looked at the time...midnight.

[thelastgoal]

Has anyone received any intimation about interviews for PhD? They are supposed to happen late January, so the candidates might have been notified.

I haven't heard anything yet.

[kiwi_sheng]

Has anyone received any intimation about interviews for PhD? They are supposed to happen late January, so the candidates might have been notified.

I haven't heard anything yet.

 

I submitted my application in Nov. and haven't heard anything yet. 

[GenericGuy]

Has anyone received any intimation about interviews for PhD? They are supposed to happen late January, so the candidates might have been notified.

I haven't heard anything yet.

 

No word yet here. I've applied for HDLT. We still have a couple weeks

[SheWrote]

I submitted my application in Nov. and haven't heard anything yet. 

 

 

Has anyone received any intimation about interviews for PhD? They are supposed to happen late January, so the candidates might have been notified.

I haven't heard anything yet.

 

I haven't heard anything either. I'm guessing they'll go out no later than next Wednesday if they are doing "late January" interviews. Every year it seems that there is a least one poster per program that gets an interview or acceptance.  

[higheredphdapp]

Re: PhD programs

Haven't heard anything either.  Also waiting for word from UCLA and Penn, but I haven't seen anyone post anything on the results page.

Edited January 16, 2014 by jdw46

[justanapplicant]

When you check your status online, what do you see right now??

[higheredphdapp]

mine just says "submitted"... as each day passes I'm thinking it's just code for "not this time around"

[justanapplicant]

Yup same here.

 

Does it also indicate that the deadline for Fall admissions has passed?

[GenericGuy]

Yup same here.

 

Does it also indicate that the deadline for Fall admissions has passed?

 

Yes, mine says the same thing. Nothing to worry about, just means you can't submit a new application.

[Sunshinegrl456]

Has anyone received any intimation about interviews for PhD? They are supposed to happen late January, so the candidates might have been notified.

I haven't heard anything yet.

 

Tom Robinson, the assistant director of admissions for the HGSE Education PhD, told me mid last week the "late January" mantra - I couldn't get anything more specific out of him. 

 

I haven't heard anything yet but that might not mean much.

 

My logic is that since wintersession doesn't officially end until next Monday, the 27th, professors and employees are still making their sleepy way back to campus and catching up on paperwork, I doubt the office of admissions is in full swing just yet and I'm not going to start fretting until at least Monday.

 

Plus literally every time I've had a question about the application process, either the GSAS Office of Admissions punts me to the HGSE Office of Admissions, or vice versa - it's fairly obvious they're still striking the administrative balance in context of the EdD (HGSE housed) to PhD (GSAS housed) shift so I wouldn't be surprised if the crank turns just a little more slowly this year. 

 

Just my two cents  

[Sunshinegrl456]

Oh, P.S. where my Culture, Institutions, and Society peeps at? Anyone? 

[j7887]

Oh, P.S. where my Culture, Institutions, and Society peeps at? Anyone? 

That's me! Applied in October…looking forward to hearing something soon. Preferably acceptance…hardy har har.

 

Do you know if all the departments within Education interview? Or do some offer acceptance w/out an interview?

 

Just trying to understand how all the gears and wheels work…it's all so opaque.  

[Sunshinegrl456]

That's me! Applied in October…looking forward to hearing something soon. Preferably acceptance…hardy har har.

 

Do you know if all the departments within Education interview? Or do some offer acceptance w/out an interview?

 

Just trying to understand how all the gears and wheels work…it's all so opaque.  

 

Awesome! Hi j7887! What's your schtick? Mine is meso-level social networking analysis applied to school level systems. 

 

My understanding is that all concentrations interview.

 

For the masters at least (perk up EdM applicants!), the admissions office is focused in hitting their school-wide quota, but don't have set quotas from program to program per se so it's much more about the quality of your application as a prospective HGSE student, compared to say, and EPM student. I've been told they do this to maintain about the same level of quality between programs so that one program doesn't become known for being easier to get into, etc. I'm inclined to have a hunch this philosophy carries over into the PhD process as well so it would make sense for them be pretty concentration agnostic up to the interview phase, which supports the reasoning for interviewing all concentrations (totally unconfirmed if that's the actual reason, but it's my hunch). 

[NoChance]

Hey Sunshine! I just noticed that you're currently an EdM student applying to the PhD program. Was that your plan all along or did it just seem like a logical extension of your studies at Harvard?

 

And finally, does being there make you feel like you have any kind of leg up, or does it not matter at all?

 

Good luck! Us EdM applicants are just twiddling our thumbs at the moment (or avoiding filling out financial aid apps... *coughs and points at self*)

[OCD or Perfection?]

Hey Sunshine! I just noticed that you're currently an EdM student applying to the PhD program. Was that your plan all along or did it just seem like a logical extension of your studies at Harvard?

 

And finally, does being there make you feel like you have any kind of leg up, or does it not matter at all?

 

Good luck! Us EdM applicants are just twiddling our thumbs at the moment (or avoiding filling out financial aid apps... *coughs and points at self*)

What financial aid app? Do you mean the FAFSA? Or is there something I'm missing?

 

In my eagerness to find something to kill time with, I filed both my taxes as well as my FAFSA and made slight errors in both...and now I can't do anything about it.

[Sunshinegrl456]

Hey Sunshine! I just noticed that you're currently an EdM student applying to the PhD program. Was that your plan all along or did it just seem like a logical extension of your studies at Harvard?

 

And finally, does being there make you feel like you have any kind of leg up, or does it not matter at all?

 

Good luck! Us EdM applicants are just twiddling our thumbs at the moment (or avoiding filling out financial aid apps... *coughs and points at self*)

 

 

Hey NoChance (very optimist alias you've got there... ) - I've known for a long time that research is my thing (insert long story about multiple life confirmations of this over the last 8 years or so). I think the interest in the PhD coincided pretty heavily with a rapidly growing passion for social networking over the last couple years. Before I started at HGSE I was like, "I know this is something I like, I think a PhD might be a good idea somewhere down the road"

 

Then I took Ebony Bridwell-Mitchell's social networking course and Monica Higgin's Leadership and Learning Course and also at the same time was in a Micro Org Behavior PhD course at HBS. Everything just sort of came together really strongly and quickly and hit me in the face so hard I couldn't ignore it. I got along really well with the PhD kids at HBS and felt like I "fit in" and found that most of the kids in my other classes I got along best with were EdD students. I not only became more interested in social networks, but my burning questions around school staff relationship building really came to the forefront of my interests and I began seeing more and more how social networks can be used to answer unanswered questions that came up in the literature from my classes. I also came to realize how new and young and undeveloped research applying this perspective to education is and how the work that is being done to advance what we know about the topic really still is in the incubation phase of the academic bubble which I think was the turning point between thinking a PhD was a nice idea to knowing it was something I needed to seek out. By October or so, the place I was at was, "ok, I'll go work a couple years, with plans to come back and get the doctorate after I get more work experience."

 

Then I had this super weird couple of weeks where people I barely knew of classes were literally pulling me aside and unsolicitedly urging me to seek out a PhD. It was super weird. So I thought about it more and realized I was so anxious to move forward with this research that going back to work felt like a hoop to jump through - why jump through a hoop if you don't have to? So I pulled my application together super quick and got it in before the deadline. 

 

On the one hand, it was almost just too weird the number of unsolicited nudges I was getting from people that I'm a little inclined to think it meant something and this is going to work out for me. On the other hand, I've only had two years of work experience and I know admissions STRONGLY urges you to go work and then come back. All three professors I told I was applying, the first thing they asked was, "are you worried about not going back to work first?" so it's a real thing that I recognize I'm up against and admissions might ultimately conclude it's not my time yet. 

 

In terms of being at HGSE currently, I personally do feel it's a leg up. One of my recommendations was from my would-be advisor and it was a surprisingly strong recommendation. Plus I've been able to pop by the offices of the professors I'm interested in working with so I can better articulate exactly why I want to work with them. And I have a sense of the community and culture of HGSE and *think* I know how to speak to my fit with that (oh yeah, btw guys, it's AWESOME here - I've never been so happy. For real). 

 

That said, the professors don't have much say in who gets in. It's an admissions committee over at GSAS. HGSE has a little say, but not a lot. So I think that greatly diminishes the impact of any leg up I may have by being here. Conversely, Stanford's PhD decisions all come from within the department you're applying to and the professors DO get the final say, yet I haven't met or spoken with any of them beyond emails none of them have replied to. So, we'll see. I might get screwed just by nature of who/how the decisions are made. Either way, I now KNOW this is what I want to do, and even if I don't get in this time, I know that I want to reapply so there's still positive takeaway here  

[j7887]

Awesome! Hi j7887! What's your schtick? Mine is meso-level social networking analysis applied to school level systems. 

 

My understanding is that all concentrations interview.

 

For the masters at least (perk up EdM applicants!), the admissions office is focused in hitting their school-wide quota, but don't have set quotas from program to program per se so it's much more about the quality of your application as a prospective HGSE student, compared to say, and EPM student. I've been told they do this to maintain about the same level of quality between programs so that one program doesn't become known for being easier to get into, etc. I'm inclined to have a hunch this philosophy carries over into the PhD process as well so it would make sense for them be pretty concentration agnostic up to the interview phase, which supports the reasoning for interviewing all concentrations (totally unconfirmed if that's the actual reason, but it's my hunch). 

 

Wow! That sounds like fascinating research.  What an interesting field of study!  My focus is teacher-student (specifically learners of English) interaction as seen through sociocultural and critical frameworks.  Hope I applied to the right division… *gulp*  So about these interviews…I am so confused. Looking back through the gradcafe results of years past, there appear to be very few Harvard Education interviews posted. Maybe posters aren't posting that they've interviewed? Or am I missing something….again...  

Signed, Super Paranoid

[Sunshinegrl456]

Wow! That sounds like fascinating research.  What an interesting field of study!  My focus is teacher-student (specifically learners of English) interaction as seen through sociocultural and critical frameworks.  Hope I applied to the right division… *gulp*  So about these interviews…I am so confused. Looking back through the gradcafe results of years past, there appear to be very few Harvard Education interviews posted. Maybe posters aren't posting that they've interviewed? Or am I missing something….again...  

Signed, Super Paranoid

Were these posters that also eventually were admitted?

Here's what I've been told: we're looking at about a 5-7% acceptance rate overall (masters students you're more in the 35-45% range) to fill about 25 spots. Of those interviewed, about half will be accepted. This means about 50 people will be invited to interview. A 5% acceptance rate for 25 spots is about 500 applicants, meaning 450 will not be invited to interview (and consequently not progressed forward to acceptance).

So it would make sense if not many people are talking about interviews because it sounds like the vast majority don't make it that far