<p>I want to be a teacher. Is it an automatic reject applying to Harvard? I wonder why one of my teachers graduating from Harvard College teaches at my school when there was no education program for him (as I looked on Harvard's website)</p>
<p>This question was already answered in your other thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/724174-ec.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/724174-ec.html</a></p>
<p>This thread, I might note, is like your 6th in the past few days. Simmer down. The time to worry about college - especially Harvard - is a long way off.</p>
<p>I know, Ace2209. ANyway, thanks for reminding me that but I don’t know why he majored in sth and then graduated and teach. How can he do that I wonder why. Yet I don’t want to ask him because he’s quite of a grounchy teacher.
So when do you think I should think about it Ace?</p>
<p>You can major in anything you want and still be a teacher. In fact for private school, you don’t even have to have a teaching degree.</p>
<p>If you want to teach in public school, you’ll probably still want to get a degree in whatever you want to teach (Biology, English, History, etc.) and then go on to teaching school whether at Harvard or somewhere else.</p>
<p>So what can a psychologist do in teaching besides teaching psychology?
And why do they have undergrad education at other schools?</p>
<p>
Anything, that’s why there is grad school. But why are you so set on psychology and also on teaching? </p>
<p>
That’s generally for elementary and middle school teaching.</p>
<p>Because it’s the only thing I can think of right now lol
So when do you think I should start prepping for college (except for visitting any, I’m a poor chap)?</p>
<p>What year are you in?</p>
<p>Public schools (which means most of the teaching jobs in most of the country) universally require certification in order to teach, and certification requires a bunch of coursework, a bunch of tests that courses can prepare you for, and some classroom experience. Most future teachers would rather not spend a couple of years AFTER college getting their certification. Most states had “teachers colleges” – most of which became the secondary state college systems in their states – that trained women (mainly) to be teachers, and that’s a lot of what those colleges still do.</p>
<p>Actually, Harvard and other schools have programs called–at least at Harvard- UTEP.</p>
<p>Here is some info from the web. I personally know two Harvard students who completed the UTEP program.</p>
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</p>
<p>[UTEP</a> Educator Licensure Program](<a href=“http://gseweb.harvard.edu/about/administration/licensure/programs/utep.html]UTEP”>http://gseweb.harvard.edu/about/administration/licensure/programs/utep.html)</p>
<p>^ That’s true. The University of Chicago has a similar program, but it takes 5 years to complete. (Harvard’s may, too.)</p>
<p>Here’s pretty much where things stand: </p>
<p>– The kind of students who get admitted to elite colleges generally do not have as their career goal being teachers below the college level. </p>
<p>– Notwithstanding that, a number of them do wind up teaching, either as a career, a gap period before graduate school, or a day job to support creative work. When they do that, they generally either teach in private schools that do not require credentialling, or they use alternative credentialling programs, such as Teach For America or The New Teacher Project, that allow them to earn their credential while they are teaching. Some come to teaching later. My mother dropped out of law school to be a private school teacher, and wound up getting an Education PhD 35 years later. I had a college and law school classmate who became a high school teacher after seven years in corporate law firms.</p>
<p>– The value of all of the various programs for training teachers is in dispute. Non-Education-School university faculty and administrators often do not have high regard for their Ed School counterparts, and the Ed School world is more than a little insular and self-regarding. Everyone agrees that teaching is a skill unto itself, and everyone agrees that a “good” teacher without substantive knowledge to impart is not very effective. Not everyone agrees that traditional Ed programs do a good job of producing effective teachers, and not everyone agrees that the alternative programs do any better.</p>
<p>The two Harvard students I knew who were in the UTEP program had Advanced Standing. I believe that they both spent four years at Harvard instead of three and spent some of that time doing a practicum in a local school as part of the program. Had they not had AS, they probably would have taken 5 years. My two Ss had student teachers who were graduates of Princeton, Georgetown, Tufts and other top schools.</p>
<p>If you have your heart set on teaching, I would recommend going to a State school within the state you wish to teach in and save your parents a lot of money. In the state I live in, the only thing that matters is your certification from the state itself and your transcript since it is very competitive to get a job in some areas of the state. I know of one instance where a teacher from an Ivy did not get the job she was going for within the district I teach in because she may have been intelligent but had no teaching skills. If you have what it takes, you will get a job and if your schoolong is within your own state, you do not have to recertify.</p>
<p>So here are two things I need clarification on:
- What level can we teach college? We have to go to graduate school? But I know some teachers who went to the graduate school and ended up being a high school English teacher.
- In case we join UTEP, what is the advantage of having gone to Harvard compared to that experience in my state’s college? We get the same salary?</p>
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</p>
<p>In order to teach at the college level, you generally have to have a post-graduate degree, most usually a Ph.D. unless what you teach is applied in nature (for example, one does not expect music professors to hold Ph.D.s).
Many Ph.D.s, however, do not teach at the college level. At least two of my Ss’ high school teachers had Ph.D.s (one in English, another in anthropology). I know a math Ph.D. from Princeton who teaches math at a prep school. And, in my Ss’ k-8 school, there is a Ed.D. who is teaching 6th grade by choice–he just loves working with young kids.</p>
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<p>In terms of salary, probably none. I should clarify that UTEP is different from a regular college B.A. insofar as the requirements for the major need to be fulfilled, but there are also teaching requirements, including a practicum. For students who graduated from top schools but are going into teaching, the difference is in the college experience itself.
Besides UTEP, other ways for students who did not attend education colleges to go into k-12 teaching is Teach for America. TFA recruits heavily at top schools and is very popular there.</p>
<p>I really would encourage you not to go to Harvard if you really are certain about teaching at the secondary (middle/high school) level. I go to Harvard now, I’m interested in education, I’ve looked into UTEP. I don’t really understand why you would want to pay for Harvard for five years, use up all of your electives on classes at the Grad School of Education, and STILL have to complete all of the regular requirements for your major and the core curriculum. If you’re absolutely serious about teaching, go to a school where you can major in Math Education, or English Education, or History Education, etc. </p>
<p>America needs smart teachers – but I’m not sure I believe that means Harvard-educated teachers. Not that Harvard grads are “overqualified” to teach regular (not wealthy prep school) kids, which is the other thing I hear a lot.</p>
<p>Can I ask something,
If we major in , say, linguistic, can we teach that in school?
I think if I get accepted I dont have to pay. And I have a goal more than becoming just a usual teacher.</p>
<p>If anyone has questions about the Harvard -> Teach for America path, send me a PM. It’s the route I’m currently taking.</p>
<p>I don’t know about MA, but here in CT, you’re a lot better off going to CCSC or WCSC than Yale if you want to be a public school teacher. Its a no brainer and I certainly wouldn’t send my kid to Harvard to become a teacher - its not financially prudent unless you’re on full financial aid.</p>
<p>In Georgia, anyone who wants to be a teacher would be foolish to not go on and get a Master of Arts in Teaching degree - it’s a one-year Master’s degree that increases the teacher salary around 15%. It’s possible to get an undergrad degree in just about anything, then continue on for the MAT and get the teaching credentials there. If my Ds at Harvard had wanted to teach in Georgia coming out of HS, I’d have recommended that they do the A.B. at Harvard and then come home to get the MAT at an in-state university. I’d imagine that the same prospects apply in many other states.</p>