aradhna Posted March 16, 2015 Posted March 16, 2015 Hey Guys, How is prospects for international students in terms of financial aid. Are we eligible for federal loans?
StenoLubr Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 got the official acceptance letter and packet yesterday!
Z.TIE Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 Hey Guys, How is prospects for international students in terms of financial aid. Are we eligible for federal loan International students are not eligible for federal loans. We can take external student loans, but only if we can get a US Citizen to co-sign with us. I am an International student too. Waiting to find out about financial aid. mjsmith 1
samda Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 (edited) Has anyone started looking into housing options around the neighboring areas yet? I'm starting to get a little nervous after reading up on what it takes to find an apartment near campus. Couple that with all the money the Boston area charges up front, the fact that most of the area operates on a September 1st lease start date, and the logistics of coordinating an out of state rental process and I'm already overwhelmed. I have looked into the Harvard University Housing options which seem promising but even that is a crap shoot with their lottery system of selecting a property. Coming from Chicago where it is competitive but not this competitive (or as expensive) and I'm already pretty worried. Does anyone have any insight or know of anyone who has gone through this process and can give some starting points for how to handle it all? Beyond that, I received my admission packet yesterday as well which made me remember just how promising and exciting this all felt two Fridays ago Next, just waiting and crossing my fingers to see what the financial aid letter brings!! Edited March 17, 2015 by samda kasye 1
kasye Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 Housing: Look in Somerville, Medford, East Cambridge, North Cambridge, and even Arlington. I would stay away from living close to campus, its so expensive. You looking for a room or a whole apartment?
curiouslearner Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 I would suggest you think hard about program size. I know Stanford's program is quite small for higher ed, while Harvard's is much larger. Personally, I think the peer effects of having a good sized cohort with varying experiences, networks and skills is very valuable. The current cohort of higher ed folks at HGSE come from literally all over the US and the world, bringing a good breadth to class discussion and informal talk at Gutman. Also, the esprit de corps at HGSE is very palpable - in large part because of the physical spaces that enable the formation of community. The program is large enough that you'll get exposed to a range of perspectives and backgrounds, and small enough that you won't feel completely lost in a sea of other master's students. The size and admissions rate of HGSE's edM program signal that it is a cash cow. I think Stanford will give you more value and more attention overall.
Sofro Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 Housing: Look in Somerville, Medford, East Cambridge, North Cambridge, and even Arlington. I would stay away from living close to campus, its so expensive. You looking for a room or a whole apartment? As a lifelong resident of Massachusetts, I would echo these ideas. Somerville is a great town with lots going on and things get a little more affordable when you look a little further out in Medford. I spent some time on the Medford/Somerville line near Tufts and I liked it a lot. You'll still have relatively easy access to Cambridge without the high price tag. I live on the North Shore in Ipswich now, so I'll be commuting in from here if I am able to attend. It is not an ideal situation, but I'm lucky to not have to worry about moving and all the logistics that go with it. Like many of you, I am also eagerly awaiting financial aid information before making any decisions - fingers crossed. I'm looking forward to the open house next Friday.
adgjl Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 Sofro I'm excited to see another person going to open house next Friday! I'm going as well and hoping to have my financial aid package before I get there. Which program are you going for?
Sofro Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 Sofro I'm excited to see another person going to open house next Friday! I'm going as well and hoping to have my financial aid package before I get there. Which program are you going for? I'm going for TIE...IF my financial aid package tells me I can!
samda Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 Housing: Look in Somerville, Medford, East Cambridge, North Cambridge, and even Arlington. I would stay away from living close to campus, its so expensive. You looking for a room or a whole apartment? As a lifelong resident of Massachusetts, I would echo these ideas. Somerville is a great town with lots going on and things get a little more affordable when you look a little further out in Medford. I spent some time on the Medford/Somerville line near Tufts and I liked it a lot. You'll still have relatively easy access to Cambridge without the high price tag. I live on the North Shore in Ipswich now, so I'll be commuting in from here if I am able to attend. It is not an ideal situation, but I'm lucky to not have to worry about moving and all the logistics that go with it. Like many of you, I am also eagerly awaiting financial aid information before making any decisions - fingers crossed. I'm looking forward to the open house next Friday. Thanks guys! I'm looking for a whole apartment and areas like Somerville and North Cambridge are already on my radar since I stayed in a great airbnb around there when I visited last fall. I'm definitely going to check out some of these other towns and just keep chugging away at internet searching it seems.
StenoLubr Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) http://www.gse.harvard.edu/masters/life/who-studies I was just looking at the stats for last year's students and I thought it was interesting how average Ed.M students GRE scores are slightly higher than those of PhD students... Ph.D. students Verbal Average: 80 (percentile) Quantitative Average: 63 (percentile) Analytical Writing Average: 4.5 Ed.M. students Verbal Average: 81 (percentile) Quantitative Average: 63 (percentile) Analytical Writing Average: 4.6 Edited March 18, 2015 by StenoLubr
PeterQuince Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 The size and admissions rate of HGSE's edM program signal that it is a cash cow. I think Stanford will give you more value and more attention overall. I think it depends on what you're looking for between the two programs (bias: I live near HGSE and am not considering Stanford). If you have a K-12 focus on urban education and education equity, Harvard is a terrific place to study and has (what appears to be) deeper bench of experts thinking about these topics. I don't know as much about the higher education landscape, but the only person I know who studied Higher Ed at HGSE worked for the Department of Education for several years and is now wrapping up a PhD at Stanford focused on higher education access for low-income students. So in light of that I think both schools could do you well. Maybe I just know a small subset of people, but most of the people I know who went to HGSE was also generously supported with grants, not just loans, so I'm not sure about the cash cow reputation. But maybe I'm jinxing myself here.
SCGH Posted March 19, 2015 Posted March 19, 2015 The size and admissions rate of HGSE's edM program signal that it is a cash cow. I think Stanford will give you more value and more attention overall. Based on what? I have generally heard that if one is serious about higher ed, you'd go to HGSE or Penn. Stanford's program is far too small for anyone with that particular interest. By the same token, those interested in teacher prep/training probably fare better at Stanford than at HGSE. Stanford has about 100 or so in STEP while Harvard has (currently) 17 in TEP. Each school has picked their respective foci and I would suggest that given that more than half of Stanford's master's cohort is STEP, that's where their strength lies. P.S. Given your flippant comment regarding size and admissions rate, I'm guessing you're trolling here trying to incite argument but that's just my speculation. Truth is HGSE's admit rate is not materially different than most of the top 5-10 Ed school MA/EdM programs and the size of their master's cohort is right smack in the middle of the pack (far smaller than Columbia, NYU, JHU and USC, larger than Stanford, Berkeley, and Northwestern, but about the same size as Peabody, Penn, BC, UVA, UCLA etc). If you're not here to provide helpful guidance/information, probably better if you refrain from posting. OCD or Perfection? and elveintiocho 2
plumeria2 Posted March 19, 2015 Posted March 19, 2015 Is anyone trying to decide between masters programs at HGSE and Stanford GSE? I'm specifically trying to decide between Higher Ed at Harvard vs. POLS (higher ed concentration) at Stanford and feel that each program has distinct benefits. Going into this process, Harvard was my top choice--and it more or less still is--but there are a lot of unique aspects of the POLS program that appeal to me. Anyone else making the same decision and, if so, which way are you leaning and why? I'm also trying to decide between Harvard's International Education Policy and Stanford's International & Comparative Education programs. Location and financials are certainly big factors, but the programs also have significant differences. I like that Stanford's ICE requires an MA paper and takes the full 12 months, but at HGSE/in Boston there are more internship possibilities and the HGSE community is a big draw. Have you decided yet?
SCGH Posted March 19, 2015 Posted March 19, 2015 (edited) I'm also trying to decide between Harvard's International Education Policy and Stanford's International & Comparative Education programs. Location and financials are certainly big factors, but the programs also have significant differences. I like that Stanford's ICE requires an MA paper and takes the full 12 months, but at HGSE/in Boston there are more internship possibilities and the HGSE community is a big draw. Have you decided yet? I have a bunch of IEP friends who faced the same choice last year and (as is obvious because they are in IEP), chose HGSE. Paraphrasing, I think it came down to three things for them: 1. The range and network of faculty, 2. The diversity and depth of their peers, and 3. the intellectual community/vibrancy and real world interface/connectedness of HGSE and Harvard generally. Re (1), Fernando Reimers, Felipe Barrera-Osorio, Pasi Sahlberg, etc. all have deep networks with government and nonprofit leaders all over the world. Some of my friends are currently spending this week (spring break) in Colombia where they have met with the Vice Minister for Education (an HGSE '07 alum) and have toured various agencies and nonprofits. They are currently guests at of the Colombian First Lady at the palace in Cartagena - and the kicker is this is not unusual. Others are in China, Korea, Philippines, etc. at the moment (e.g. The Kennedy School and HGSE conduct an Asia Leadership Trek/Fellowship program three times a year for current grad students where they also interface with high level government and nonprofit leaders - google it for past trek info). Also, many leaders in the field teach at HGSE. Bruno della Chiesa from OECD taught a course during J-term and has done so for the last 5 years. I can't overemphasize how connected the faculty is to leaders all over the world. Re (2), the IEP program is usually the second largest cohort in the master's program. This year its tied with EPM at number 2. The 65 or so folks in your cohort will come from all over the world (I think I read that Stanford's program is around 12-15 students). In this year's class (from memory), there are students from China, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Jamaica, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Ghana, Sweden, UK and elsewhere (on top of folks in other programs from around the world - 46 countries represented and non-US students represent about 20% of the total students in the EdM program - so 120-130 international students at HGSE vs. 30-40 at Stanford). It's pretty impressive to see such geographic diversity. Also, the EPM and IEP folks also tend to interact with students at HKS as well who also hail from various places outside of the U.S. There is frequent collaboration (e.g. the Colombia trip, the Asia Trek, etc) on academic and social events. Re (3), we often joke that Harvard is our "fifth class" - there is so much going on around campus. This past year, HKS has hosted 5 heads of state so far (I got to meet the President of the Philippines and members of his cabinet) and that's not an unusual occurrence (check out https://forum.iop.harvard.edu ) . Other parts of the university have hosted folks ranging from Ban Ki Moon, VP Joe Biden, Gov. Deval Patrick, Thomas Piketty, Peter Thiel, and Edward Snowden (via Skype) to celebrities like Oprah, Shonda Rhimes, Barbara Walters, Eva Longoria and Seth Rogen. And that was basically just first semester of this year! At the Ed school, we've had Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Claude Steele, Mark Yudof, Jose Antonio Vargas, Carmen Farina, and many more (search Youtube for HGSE Askwith Forum to see some recordings of these events). And all of these events are open to all Harvard students. Every day of every week there is something going on, and its more than I had expected even having gone to a prestigious/globally-known undergrad. It is really a special place in that way. Hope that helps. Edited March 19, 2015 by SCGH plumeria2, samda, OCD or Perfection? and 1 other 4
plumeria2 Posted March 19, 2015 Posted March 19, 2015 @SCGH Thank you so much! This helps a lot and makes a great case for HGSE.
ltrujizzle Posted March 20, 2015 Posted March 20, 2015 Has anybody heard back about the urban leaders of educational leadership scholarships? I think many of us are becoming anxious!
kasye Posted March 20, 2015 Posted March 20, 2015 They are giving that info with financial aid. Agreed with the anxious part. Freaking out.
ChoSundari Posted March 23, 2015 Posted March 23, 2015 They are giving that info with financial aid. Agreed with the anxious part. Freaking out. Any idea when financial aid notice is happening? I'm so anxious about this...
adgjl Posted March 23, 2015 Posted March 23, 2015 From my understanding urban scholarship recipients should get a phone call and all others will be sent via email and should have it before open house! Agreed on the anxious part...times 100!
Z.TIE Posted March 24, 2015 Posted March 24, 2015 and yet another day has passed.....no news of the financial aid packages....has anyone spoken to anyone at the financial aid dept at HGSE?? JR14 1
ChoSundari Posted March 25, 2015 Posted March 25, 2015 and yet another day has passed.....no news of the financial aid packages....has anyone spoken to anyone at the financial aid dept at HGSE?? my sentiments exactly... I emailed yesterday, no response yet...
Z.TIE Posted March 25, 2015 Posted March 25, 2015 (edited) my sentiments exactly... I emailed yesterday, no response yet... I sincerely hope it comes before the open house...so that once I have attended the open house, I am all set to decide ! Edited March 25, 2015 by Z.TIE
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