HGSE 2016

[Expateacher]

7 hours ago, cokpala said:

To attempt to answer your questions:

1. I wrote activities that wouldn't be considered employment but are still relevant to education and the program to which I am applying (IEP)- volunteer ESL instructor, internship at a homeless shelter, member of community service sorority in college, current membership in a edtech professional development cohort. I am not sure about including sports. It may be interesting to add if it is still an important part of who you are.

2. I am also a teacher and did not drastically change my resume but focused most on parts that were relevant to international ed. and included presentations and research (don't know if this was necessary, as there was space for this on another part of the application).

I'm not sure how helpful this is but it's something. Good luck finishing up your application!

I've volunteered in ESL and at an elementary school and other things like this but it was around 20 years ago. I'm thinking it might look silly on an HGSE application.

[Expateacher]

Would it be inappropriate to write in my statement that I am single with not dependents so now is a good time for me to take on these studies at the Masters level?

[Vulpix]

1 hour ago, Expateacher said:

Would it be inappropriate to write in my statement that I am single with not dependents so now is a good time for me to take on these studies at the Masters level?

That's a really interesting question. It's certainly a practical and very important reason to take on these studies at this time, but maybe try to phrase it more in the sense that you are independent with freedom to fully commit.

[Expateacher]

9 hours ago, Vulpix said:

That's a really interesting question. It's certainly a practical and very important reason to take on these studies at this time, but maybe try to phrase it more in the sense that you are independent with freedom to fully commit.

That's the way I see it too Vulpix.

Does look bad to not put in any extracurricular activities? I can't think of anything really relevant.

[Vulpix]

11 hours ago, Expateacher said:

That's the way I see it too Vulpix.

Does look bad to not put in any extracurricular activities? I can't think of anything really relevant.

I put stuff that wasn't exactly relevant, such as being in a running club that raises money for cancer. I don't think the things I put were all that significant, but I did feel the need not to leave it blank.

Didn't the deadline pass already?

[Expateacher]

I got everything in for my application last night by 9pm. But now I'm a little depressed. I left the extracurricular activities portion empty, and there were two fellowships, one in particular I should have applied for but only noticed last night that if you clicked 'yes' to apply that you had to write 500 words about it. Same for the other fellowship. And, I had one other person editing my statement of purpose but they couldn't get their draft to me in time and they ripped apart what I had wrote, it seems. So I have visions of rejection running through my mind. If I don't get in I will apply the next year and if not accepted again the year after that. But you only get 3 tries at HGSE. I'm also not getting any younger.

[Vulpix]

14 hours ago, Expateacher said:

I got everything in for my application last night by 9pm. But now I'm a little depressed. I left the extracurricular activities portion empty, and there were two fellowships, one in particular I should have applied for but only noticed last night that if you clicked 'yes' to apply that you had to write 500 words about it. Same for the other fellowship. And, I had one other person editing my statement of purpose but they couldn't get their draft to me in time and they ripped apart what I had wrote, it seems. So I have visions of rejection running through my mind. If I don't get in I will apply the next year and if not accepted again the year after that. But you only get 3 tries at HGSE. I'm also not getting any younger.

Don't worry about those fellowships... unless you are perfectly suited for one of them, everyone applies and they don't pick many people at all. You might have saved yourself some time.  Nothing you can do now.

[Expateacher]

On 2017-01-07 at 2:19 AM, Vulpix said:

Don't worry about those fellowships... unless you are perfectly suited for one of them, everyone applies and they don't pick many people at all. You might have saved yourself some time.  Nothing you can do now.

Thanks Vulpix. So now I'm playing the waiting game. But I'm also thinking of things I can do to increase my chances of acceptance the next time around if I don't get in. There are organizations I have always wanted to get involved with that I could put in the extracurricular part of the application. Thought my starting dates which would be now might look suspiciously like I did it just for my HGSE application. I think I'll still do it, as I am interested in them. If I don't get in I will also immediately start to study to get better GRE scores though I don't think the ones I submitted were too bad, especially since I only studied for 2 days and haven't look at math since the late 80s!