College Grad Still Wanting to get in Ivy League School

Applying to College
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<p>I have always wanted to get into an Ivy League school. I don't know if I'm just wanting to prove something to myself that I can do it or what, but it's been a dream of mine for quite some time. I live in Alabama, lower middle class, married. My husband is willing to relocate if I got in. I'd need financial aid though. I graduated in May 2008 from Jacksonville State University in the field of Elementary Education. I'm now wanting to either pursue a masters degree in this field or add another Bachelor's Degree in English. My future goals are to become a college professor teaching either Education courses or English courses, depending on what I do. So my question is what are my chances? I would think I'm probably better off trying to get in as an undergrad instead of grad school. I probably don't have a shot in hell, but I'm hoping someone can tell me yea or na on the subject. </p>

<p>Graduated Honors Diploma in high school and college
GPA - 3.8 - college/magna cum laude
Special honors in major field
Haven't taken standardized tests since high school
Would I need to take these again? Or would they look at the tests I took during college? </p>

<p>Would I need to work as an elementary teacher for a few years to get experience first? Or should I go ahead and apply now? I'm 22 and wanting to keep going in school now. How do they look at people applying for undergrad that already have a degree? Thanks for any input.</p>

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<p>Most schools will not take you if you already have an undergraduate degree. Your best bet is to look at graduate schools. You will have to check with the individual schools to find out if they accept people right out of undergrad or expect some experience first. You will have to look at each Ivy to find out which ones have graduate schools in education. I know that Columbia does.</p>

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<p>^^^^^ditto</p>

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<p>To become a college professor, you usually need a PhD. In only rare circumstances will somebody without one be hired as a professor.</p>

<p>On the other hand, many colleges will hire lecturers who don’t have PhD’s, but rather just master’s degrees. But lecturers are not professors. </p>

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<p>I would actually disagree, as I would say that it’s often times easier to get into an Ivy for grad school (at least for master’s program) than for undergrad. Strange but true. This is true not because Ivy grad admissions are truly ‘easy’, but because of the sheer difficulty of Ivy undergrad admissions. </p>

<p>As for why this is, one major reason is that, in this day and age, you basically ‘need’ an undergraduate degree in order to get a decent job (with only a few exceptions such as entrepreneurship). Hence, since the top high school seniors figure that they have to get a bachelor’s degree from somewhere, they might as well try to get one from a top school like an Ivy. However, nobody really ‘needs’ a master’s degree to get a decent job. Hence, the competition for those slots is lower. </p>

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<p>I can’t speak in great detail about some of the other Ivies, but if you want Harvard, your clearest shot is almost certainly going to be the Master of Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.</p>

<p>[Master</a> of Education](<a href=“http://www.gse.harvard.edu/academics/masters/index.html]Master”>http://www.gse.harvard.edu/academics/masters/index.html)</p>

<p>Frankly speaking, it’s almost certainly easier to get into the Ed.M. program at the Harvard GSE than into Harvard College. For example, according to the latest USNews graduate school ranking, Harvard GSE admitted a whopping 61.4% of its master’s applicants. To be sure, a high admit rate by itself does not necessarily mean much. However, one should also note that the average accepted GPA for master’s students was a 3.51 and the average GRE verbal/math score for all GSE students (including doctoral students) was a 636/705, which is only in the 88th-90th/70th percentile. Since we can probably assume that the doctoral students tended to get higher GRE scores, that means that the master’s students must have gotten lower scores than indicated. Granted, these are still fairly high figures, but it does seem to indicate that the GSE is not as selective as is Harvard College, whose admissions are not only highly demanding but also unpredictable, for example, you might have perfect SAT scores and a 4.0 HS GPA and still get rejected from Harvard College just because the lacrosse team that year just happened to need a replacement defenseman. Nobody at the GSE is going to care whether you can play lacrosse. </p>

<p>To clarify, I am not picking on the Harvard GSE specifically. Again, according to USNews, the #1 ranked graduate education program is Stanford’s. Yet the Stanford GSE admits a whopping 49.1% of master’s applicants, and the GRE scores for all its students (master’s and doctoral) is 630/706.</p>

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<p>Take the GRE first. Don’t count on your GPA much.</p>

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<p>The graduate colleges at the Ivies are full of students who earned their undergrad degrees at public universities. My old lab at Cornell was positively aswarm with them.</p>

<p>Think carefully about the graduate program you would like to get into, work on your GRE scores, and cultivate good relationships with your old professors so that they will write you good letters of recommendation.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>

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<p>Wow! Thanks for all the feedback! (especially Sakky) I haven’t taken the GRE yet, so I’ve got to hurry up and do that very soon if I want to try to apply for Fall 2009. I was surprised to hear about the education program at Harvard. When I was doing research on all of the Ivies, I really didn’t look into Harvard that much for the fact that, to me, it’s the most well known/prestigious college of them all, and I figured it would be the toughest to get in. I’m actually a little bit encouraged now that I may have a chance. </p>

<p>Oh and about the college professor thing, I realize that most positions require Ph.D. If I did plan to teach college, I was probably going to come back home and try to teach at JSU where I got my bachelor’s. (A lot of their full time professors only have Master’s!). Anyway, if that doesn’t work out, and this is only a dream, but I’ve been working on writing some childrens’ books. I’d love to be able to make a career out of that. With an Ed.M from Harvard, I think that would certainly better my chances. But hey, I’m only 22, and I have so many dreams right now. I guess I’ll just have to concentrate my energy into one and go from there.</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks for the input. It really has helped.</p>

<p>And since I’m asking questions, I’ll ask another one. I know that for undergrad admissions, extracurricular activities are vital. Everyone’s 4.0, honors, valedictorian, so they want to know why any one person should be picked over another. I get that. So how big of a part does that play into grad admissions? I really don’t do too much, but I have been painting as a hobby for quite some time, I play the guitar, and I am the Children’s Director at my church and I teach a Sunday School class. I teach a 2 yr old class at a preschool and teach art and history at an after-school program. Should I strive to add more to my schedule? Or what?</p>

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<p>Previous Undergraduate and Graduate Transcripts (Grades and the courses you earned those grades in)
Letters of Recommendation
Personal Statement
GRE Scores
Publications if you have any</p>

<p>Not necessarily in that order, but that’s about it.</p>

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<p>Oh and by the way, Harvard is where I wanted to go, merely for location purposes. I’ve been to Boston and LOVED IT!!!</p>

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<p>ECs are of little or no importance in grad school admissions.</p>

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<p>If your dream is to be in Boston, you might look into other schools with M.Ed. programs. Brandeis has one, for instance:</p>

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<p>And as far as writing children’s books, you can do that without any degree at all. (And I doubt the money you earn from your books will make up for what you spent on a degree, unless you write the next Harry Potter series!)</p>