Eternal Icicle

I dont know much at all about the PhD process here, but I do know some of the PhD candidates, cause they're friendly. I believe they all have contact information up on the webpage under the department > people> students, so dont hesitate to reach out to them to ask what their experience was like with the interviews.

I think it's really difficult to predict your chance of admission based on their reputations. For example, I got accepted to Harvard and Vanderbilt, but waitlisted to NYU. My advice is to ask administrators at your school for their opinions and suggestions regarding respected schools.

With the assistantship I have free room and board, but no tuition remission. Total bill is something like that $30k a year. When I was applying, I had found a pdf current students had put together of what their loan/bills/assistantship packages looked like and it was all over the place, but helpful. Assistantships have widely varied benefits but it seems like everyone was coming up heavy on loans in the end.

I've been encourage by my professors as an M.A. student to pursue book reviews as a route to publishing. I found the easiest way is to join a professional association (at a student rate) that has a journal including book reviews. The editors often post a list of Advanced Review Copies they've recieved that they'll send out for free to potential reviewers.

Hi all, I'm a current first year masters student at NYU Steinhardt in their M.A. program for higher education and student affairs. I wound up coming here with very little information about the program (I was offered an assistantship that I loved, which was the swing vote in my decision), and so I thought I would throw my voice out there and offer to answer any questions (here, or through PM) about the program for any of you HESA nerds who might be interested!

Has anybody else been having trouble with the FinAid portal? I've been trying to log in since they sent the email out and keep getting this message: "Access to Net partner is currently not available. Please contact your financial aid office for more information." Obviously I will do as it says and contact them fmi on Monday, but is anyone else getting this too?

My blog, ETA in Bulgaria: http://unintentionalexplorer.wordpress.com [more BG blogs in the blogroll] ETA in Peru: http://respirandonuevoaire.wordpress.com/ ETA in Indonesia: http://figonester.wordpress.com/ ETA in Malaysia: http://saraexplores.blogspot.com/

I hope no one has qualms about the anonymous divulging of qualifications. And I don't know for sure about everyones experience, so these are the impressions I've had from what info people have volunteered. About half our group has no experience or summer/short-term teaching experience. Someone has a TESOL MA, a couple have two-ish years of FT teaching experience, and a couple more have several years of FT work experience (in and out of education). Some of our group have admittedly no interest in teaching as a career, while two plan to head into TFA post-Fulbright, and some may be teaching English abroad again next year. Also, about people applying through universities-- different schools have different policies, so that graduates of varying years may still apply through their alma mater if their institution allows it, so not everyone applying through university is just graduating.

Re: age of ETAs Most of us in Bulgaria are early-mid 20's but some are a smidge older [one is 30]. The older ETAs seem to get as much from there experience at the school, traveling, and seem to connect with their students just as well. In fact, the older ETAs might have a better time of it in the classroom because the just-graduated of our cohort are only 2-3 years older than our oldest students, so there is more of a struggle with maintaining control in the classroom, drawing boundaries, etc that older ETAs either don't have to deal with as much or are better at handling.

Just in case anyone here interested in higher ed, admissions & enrollment hasn't already seen this. http://admissionsproblems.tumblr.com/

I just sent a message to a friend from high school who's currently in Oregon State's CSSA program. I'll let you know what I hear back.

I am planning to apply for a masters in Higher Education Administration/Student Affairs in the next couple years, and I'm looking for suggestions of schools to further look into. At the moment, University of Vermont is one of my top choices. I love the small cohort size, the emphasis on practice-based learning, the slant towards social justice, and the very generous funding. There's something about the student-centered ethos that really grabs me. But, with such a small cohort and such generous funding, I know a spot in their program is much sought after. Does anyone have recommendations for schools and programs similar to UVM? (small, funded masters, practice-based) I'm not necessarily looking for less competitive schools, but rather more fishing holes to cast my line into.

Thanks for the replies! I'm hoping to do Americorps, which offers health insurance but the coverage on my mom's plan would be better. I was more worried about the time in between a job before grad school and whatever job I get after grad school and being decently covered. Not a problem without solutions, though. Thanks for the thoughts!

While the upcoming Presidential election is one that has been frustrating, enraging and at times disheartening for well over a year, Portland, OR's mayoral race is kind of refreshing. A lot of the news coverage on the race for mayor has been about how un-excited and unenergized people are, but I think that's a result of neither being polarizing individuals. Between the two options, it honestly seems like a win-win. I wish I would feel that way about the presidential election EVER. Plus one of the mayoral candidates organized/compiled video for this in 2011 as state representative. I don't know if a sense of humor is necessary for the job, but it doesn't hurt! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi0f6vsbOEQ

I used Barron's New GRE prep book, which I found useful. My advice would be to start with the sections you feel most uncomfortable with first (that way you don't leave them for last and burn out before you get there). And do some of the practice essays with a timer, so that you get a feel for how much time you have and how to get a whole coherent essay down in such a short span.