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Posted

So my second biggest concern for my apps (aside from my GRE scores) is my lack of experience working in a classroom. I've been a longtime lurker in this forums and I've noticed that some people who got accepted to schools like HGSE, Vandy or Teacher's college have been working as teachers or school administrators for years. I just recently graduated from college and aside from a brief fieldwork at an elementary school where I shadowed a teacher for a few months and a 3-year stint as a tutor for a high school afterschool program, I do not really have much professional work experience in the classroom. Should this concern me? How much do you think experience matter in your application??

 

on a side note: my GRE scores are also a source of worry for me. If we are talking about HGSE, Teacher's College and Stanford, I'm not sure if my scores areenough to help me stand out. I got 156 for both quant and verbal, and 5.5 for the writing portion. My GPA is 3.9 from a good UC and my Letters of Rec are strong. But as mentioned, my GRE is not that great and I'm inexperienced compared to other applicants so I'm debating whether to push going to grad school for another year to gain more experience.

Posted

I was told that it would be beneficial for you to gain experience before applying to schools. Basically, when the schools see that you have actual experience in the administrative field working with students, they will be more inclined to see you in a positive light.

Posted

I study at Teachers College. In my department, three years of teaching experience is stated as a requirement. In my cohort, the overwhelming majority have at least this, or something similar to it. There are, however, students who do not have three years teaching experience, though the one I have in mind appears to be a professional student with a prior degree from Harvard and time spent at Oxford.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Say what it is you want to do! What kind of degree do you want to get, in what subfield, and what do you want to do after that. If you're looking to get a MEd/MAT in Special Education before going off to the classroom, your lack of experience probably won't hurt you. If you want to get a PhD/EdD in Higher Ed Admin and then be a prof, it almost certainly will. 

 

A fair amount of post-degree jobs in Education ask for applicants to have a certain number of years of experience, often in-classroom experience, often lead-teacher in-classroom experience (meaning internships and after-school tutoring doesn't count). If a program takes you on, and you can't get a job after graduating because you don't have the prerequisite experience that employers are looking for, that's a ding to the program's placement rate. 

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