<p>My daughter is going to be applying to masters in education programs in NYC area. She'll be paying her own way (mostly loans I think). Would like advice from those who have been there on whether an expensive but well known private graduate program (NYU, Columbia, Bank Street) would get her a significant edge in the job market over getting the masters at a CUNY School. Wants programs where she can get special ed and general ed certification. Thanks!</p>
<p>Where is your daughter planning on teaching?</p>
<p>In this economy, schools seem to be downsizing, and jobs are hard to come by. If she has a BA/BS in teaching already, it would likely be best to get a job and go to grad school part time. Schools will likely pay a portion of classes. </p>
<p>Others can weigh in, but, I would think a school will hire a teacher without her masters so they don’t have to pay for Masters level…</p>
<p>While the schools you mentioned are great ones, I would never recommend a private school for teaching, just not cost effective to me.</p>
<p>Actually if you are a teacher in NYC unless you are TFA, Teaching Fellows, or being recruited for a shortage area (math/science) you will be paying for own masters. You must complete your masters within 5 years of your initial certification in order to keep your job. </p>
<p>That being said, if your daughter can get into CUNY for grad school (hunter, bklyn, queens) them she should go. She is not going to make any more money coming from Columbia or NYU nor are they going to necessarily open doors for her. At the end of the day she is going to work where. the jobs are; most likely the boroughs because unless she can get w job uptown ( Harlem/ east Harlem) she most likely will not be in manhattan. </p>
<p>The good thing is this is the first time in many years that MYC is not talking about teacher lay offs. In fact they are looking to hire 2000 Sped teachers.</p>
<p>The networking for CUNY grads will likely be stronger, simply by virtue of the fact that there are more of them.</p>
<p>thank you for your responses; she will have a BA in history and wants masters in elementary and special Ed. she met with Columbia admissions and loves the program but also loves the tuition at hunter and lehman; probably could do those without loans if working part time.</p>
<p>Hunter, Brooklyn, Lehman, all excellent schools. Nothing at all wrong with the CUNY system.</p>
<p>If all she wants is the teaching credential, a CUNY school will be fine. Or check out Fordham, too, which has a big MAT program. If she wants a bigger role in elementary education someday, Bank Street is the gold standard and Columbia excellent.</p>
<p>Everyone teaches special ed, because that’s where the jobs are.</p>
<p>Definitely go the cheaper route. Unless she wants to work for an expensive private high school, HR won’t even look past the certification on her license (which she’ll apply for before she starts teaching). </p>
<p>One of my best friends has degrees from Georgetown and Case Western, while mine are from University of North Dakota and University of Missouri. We both make the same salary and have equally awesome teaching positions.</p>
<p>Special ed is definitely the way to go if she enjoys that demographic. In many states, SPED teachers are in such short supply that the district pays for the degree if one already has teacher certification. My M.Ed. in gifted (covered under special ed in my state) was free for me.</p>
<p>My daughter-in-law took the Columbia U. program that is particularly aimed at addressing the needs of children with autism, a 2-year masters program. They are dedicated to the ABA model, which isn’t the only way to address autism but they focus on that (at least in her time there, a few years ago). She got the Spec Ed Teacher classroom teacher certification with the specialization in ABA.</p>
<p>Immediately after grad school, she worked in a classroom for 2 years at a NYC charter school for children with special needs. Within a year, she determined that she still wanted to teach children with autism, but the venue to do it best, given her own skills and personality, was in their homes at preschool age, one-on-one, working with families as support system too. The work is very direct; there is less distraction with the school bureaucratic needs; and she doesn’t have to manage veteran teacher aides twice her age which can actually be daunting to a 24-y.o. who’s only lived through academia.</p>
<p>At the point she left classroom work to market herself to the independent private agencies serving NYC families, at that point I think having the Columbia U credential was helpful to her. Now she has the client families, and also trains/manages other therapists just starting out. There is still plenty of paperwork.</p>
<p>Had she stayed put in classroom work, then I agree about the CUNY ticket being equally or more valuable as the ooh-aah-named universities.</p>
<p>I only know ONE story here (my DIL) so welcome others who know the Spec Ed field to add perspective. </p>
<p>Point is: the place to find and reach Spec Ed children is sometimes outside of the classroom. At that point, perhaps (PERHAPS!) the tonier degree counts to the hiring agency, which is a private independent business.</p>
<p>From another direction, more advice: if she has any foreign language that’s current in NYC (they all are…), try to keep it alive during grad school somehow. It will help her be competitive in any job interview. I get the impression from my DIL that knowing Mandarin or Spanish would be valued highly, as that covers so many families. Schools have interpreters for parent/teacher conferencing, but nothing beats the teacher being able to converse directly. It’s not something to take time away, but if she has any workable foreign languages, keep them going somehow during grad school, too, even informally.</p>
<p>The certification is immediately more important than the master’s and unless she is going for a position that desperately needs someone or in math/science, she will have to get that certification to work. The chances for getting a job in some areas is better without the master’s in hand, because the schools have to start your initial pay higher if you have the masters. So the sweet spot is between having a certification and not quite having a masters.</p>
<p>@cpt - Yes. This.</p>
<p>CUNY Queens College has a great school of education both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. With all that is happening across the country in education, I would think twice about laying out big bucks for tuition especially when the CUNY schools are so well regarded in the NYC area for education degrees.</p>
<p>CUNY College of Staten Island is also an excellent program. The thing about CUNY education programs is that many of the instructors are, themselves, teachers or principals in the NYC public school system. Which makes for excellent contacts.</p>
<p>In New York, public school teachers all need to have masters degrees; you can get licensed without a masters and start to teach, but you do have to earn the masters within I think five years of starting to teach. So the masters really isn’t optional if she wants to teach in NY public school.</p>
<p>Updating thread; she is finishing at Hunter elementary ed/special ed and is optimistic about getting a job in Manhattan this fall (she has been working as an aide at a public school there she loves). Glad to not have a lot of debt. She believes the Hunter masters degree is well respected. The one thing she does complain about regarding Hunter is that access to advisors or just anyone who can answer basic questions about course selection, student teaching, degree requirements is really hard. That would probably be better at Columbia or Bank Street.</p>
<p>If the goal is teaching in NYC public schools, the CUNYs will be fine. </p>
<p>However, if one’s also hoping to go into teaching at private schools, especially ones like Horace Mann or Dalton, having a degree from a school like Columbia may provide a greater advantage. It could also provide more exit options if one finds a teaching career to not be to his/her cup of tea as a few friends found with their Columbia/elite U M.Eds. </p>