<p>Greetings! I briefly considered applying to Columbia for the MA in TESOL but then changed my mind. Now I am reconsidering it after looking at the program again. I am worried about financial aid though. I don't know how TC is with giving money. I know my cousin applied for a doctoral program there and was accepted, but only offered $4k. I'm applying for the MA so I can only imagine being offered less if anything at all....I don't know. Perhaps it's worth a try because I like the looks of the program.</p>
<p>What do you all think of Columbia TC in general? How is the area around the school? I've never been to NYC. All I know is that it's extremely expensive and hard to find a decent apartment in Manhattan. I'd probably look for something that's an easy commute to and from the City.</p>
<p>As far as TESOL programs, is this a good one to consider? In the same department, they also have an Applied Linguistics option but that focuses more on theory. The TESOL program is more focused on pedegogy. Both have practical teaching experience integrated into the program, which is one of the reasons I've grown to like it.</p>
<p>I know a young woman now in her second year at TC who is very comfortable walking around in the evenings throughout the neighborhood there, which has many major universities and schools: Columbia U, Barnard, Union Theological Seminary, Bank St. School of Ed, and Jewish Theological Seminary. Nice bookstores, cafes along Amsterdam Ave, very much an urban university feeling in the Far Upper West Side of New York City. Get on a subway or bus and you can go anywhere for the same fare ($2) or buy a metropass by the week or month for unlimited rides (google up the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority for details). Many students so enjoy living in Manhattan, especially in that university neighborhood, that they're willing to live in smaller rooms and shared apartments, rather than commute. Others commute from less expensive boroughs, given those metropasses cover everywhere, and read while on the subway trains. If you want to kind of live in a bubble, and not feel the rush and hurry of the city, however, spend more and get roommates to live right near the teachers college campus, I'd say. Good luck!</p>
<p>p.s. Columbia security police patrol the area constantly by car, so that's why the young lady I know feels so safe walking around alone, even at night near the university.</p>
<p>Thank you! I mailed out my transcripts last week and submitted the rest of my application online. Now, the waiting game!</p>
<p>good luck! have you also checked out the New York Teaching Fellows program; I think that if you work for NYC schools after you finish teachers college for about 3 years, they'll pay back your tuition. Espec. if you're studying TESOL, you'd be very valuable. Hard work, however, and Puh-lease check my stats ("3 years" "pay back all the tuition"...I'm not sure of those numbers). TC has a very, very fine reputation in the field. (I'm a NYState teacher)</p>