What is his/your priority? Education or Football?
Not if you have an unlimited budget.
If you donât have an unlimited budget, that becomes the 3rd requirement behind I95 and D3 football.
I get it. College is expensive. If I told you how many colleges my son (and I) applied to last year to find him an affordable option that appealed to him (and me) you would fall out of your seat. Itâs not always the easiest thing to do, to find the right university for our children. Yes, the search can be a little frustrating and exasperating along the way. But Iâm sure that if you widen the search youâll find the right one.
For one thing, apply to some schools that do not meet ALL your criteria. You donât need to attend if they accept, but it might be nice/helpful to see what real Financial Aid offers look like from more than just two or three schools. And you wonât likely get actual Financial Aid offers until you apply and get accepted to a university.
BTW, my son is in the same boat as you. No car and not likely to get one soon. Itâs just not the right financial option for me right now. College for him is.
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I am saying education major (secondary history concentration(
Does NJ have any programs for teachers who agree to teach in an underserved area? Some states offer loan forgiveness, grants, etc. Youâve got Camden, Patterson, Trenton and Newark- werenât they taken over by the state a couple of years ago? Might be worth an hour of your sonâs time to find out if heâd qualify for any special financing if he agreed to teach in one of those school systemsâŠI donât think there are subsidies for working in Montclair or Short Hills- but if he could figure out preferential financing, might be worth a couple of yearsâŠ
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Yes, seated dining has dried up, but grocery stores are hiring, especially once the college kids go back after break. Aldi pays well. Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, most other fast food places, pizza places like Dominoâs, etc all hiring. NJ college students going to school in the south are leaving in a week or two; there are a lot of them. There will be jobs opening back up, especially for responsible, college-bound young man with good references from his teachers/coaches.
One of the things you keep coming back to is transportation costs (car + insurance) but presuming he doesnât live at home and commutes to a school nearby, heâs going to have the additional costs of room and board. How do the costs compare?
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Secondary education teaching what?
Iâm a career public school educator. I had more than dozens of students shadow me over time because they wanted to enter education. More than half changed their minds once they got to college. Of the half that entered education, about half are no longer in the field.
I think you need to view the long term. And find out the requirements for certification. In my state all teachers are required to major in a content area. There is no âeducation majorâ only in this state. That piggy backs onto the content area major.
If your son wants to teach Spanish, HS math, HS physics, his job prospects will be a lot better than if he wants to teach physical education, English, social studies of any kind.
What is his plan B if he decides he does not want to teach?
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History NJ has reciprocal with pa and MD
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The Rutgers program BA/MAT (Masters in teaching) is for getting your BA in any subject matter (history definitely counts) and then applying for accelerated entry into the masters of education program during your Junior Year. It allows the student to take up to 3 graduate level classes that would count toward both the BA and the MA during their senior year of undergrad and be charged the undergrad tuition for those graduate level classes.
You donât need a degree in education as a BA (in fact many educators would argue that limits would-be teachers quite a bit). Have your son get a BA in a subject area, and then get the masters in education. He needs the masters anyways.
ETA: Looking at the NJ requirements for teacher certification - âeducation/pedagogyâ classes donât count towards certification standards. For each specialization in secondary education in the state, an aspiring teacher needs at least (depending on the subject) a specific minimum number of courses within that specific subject. Looks like 30 is typical number.
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He wants to do his masters in educational leadership
Honestly I am not seeing an education track for history at all on RC website every college weve talked to you major in history and minor in secondary edu so where would the education part come in if Rutgers Camden has no undergrad education program?
What I am saying is that he doesnât need to minor in secondary educationâŠnot minoring in that will not stop him from being able to teach in secondary education in NJ. That is most likely why Rutgers doesnât offer education/secondary education as a minor. It isnât at all necessary in order to teach or get certified in NJ as a teacher. It would be wasteful for them to offer it as it isnât needed. Best way to explain is that if Rutgers did offer it, they would be offering classes that might make less knowledgable families think those classes were necessary and spend money in a way that wouldnât get the student closer to the studentâs goal.
Most states are moving toward a model of having teachers have subject matter expertise for their BA to get into teaching - NOT getting an âeducationâ BA. Thatâs why many states also want teachers to get their master. The master helps teachers understand the pedagogy of teaching/become a better teacher, but having subject matter expertise makes a better teacher of their specific subject.
If your son wants to get into teaching, I would highly suggest more research into the field and the requirements/expectations. You may have an outdated understanding of the field.
ETA: Here is a link from Rutgerâs History undergrad degree about careers from majoring in historyâŠHigh School History Teacher listed:
https://history.camden.rutgers.edu/undergraduate-program/career-opportunities/
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He can get a sixth year in educational leadership. Does he want to be a teacher or department chair, or administrator?
While there is reciprocity, you need to check the praxis test requirements. Some states insist that these tests be taken in their state. I am not making that up.
If you are unsure about the five year program at Rutgers Camden, after the new year, pick up the phone and call and inquire about this.
I agree that especially with high school teachers, a degree in their content area is important. Much more important than a generic âeducation majorâ from anywhere. If your kid wants to teach history, he needs to demonstrate an interest and knowledge ofâŠhistory. Anyone reviewing applications for high school history teachers will be looking for this.
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Please realize that in NJ an administrator can not coach. Not sure how that goes in other states. Unless thatâs just the district I live in?! Check it out though. This thread is getting long, but I think I read somewhere that your son wants to coach in hs? If so, he may have many years of coaching before heâs ready to be an admin and stop coaching, and wonât need his Masters in EdL immediately out of college. That means he can pay for it himself over a number of years of night school (or summer sessions) while workingâŠor even better, have the district heâs working for pay a portion of his grad credits! What Iâm saying is, make sure he has the certifications/degrees he needs to teach first so that he can coach. That might mean a BA/MAT 5 year program or an education degree with 30 credits in a subject matter depending on the school/state.
If teaching is his thing, have you looked at Kean University in NJ?
But there is no track to do your practicum or student teach at RC
I had 2 relatives alt track in NJ and it was much harder than if you just take an education plus subject matter track
I found this in four seconds of googling:
The TEACH Grant is a federal program that provides up to $4,000 each year for individuals that agree to teach in a high need elementary school, secondary school, or educational services agency for 4 years after graduating.
Itâs from the State of NJ official government website. I did not bother to scroll down to see what other programs your son might qualify for. But it seems like your son could invest an hour or so evaluating the stipends (they exist), subsidies (they seem to exist, see above) and loan cancellation programs that he would qualify for.
If itâs the difference between affordable and not affordable- worth the time.
And folks here are NOT suggesting Alt track- which is a completely different way to approach becoming a HS teacher.
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Teach grant only for special ed or stem or spanish
Actually I believe it would. Rowan is a teaching college and the undergrad model is subject matter plus education.
The Dual Degree Program in Subject Matter Education (SME) provides graduates with a B.A. degree in their field of study (English, History, or Spanish), a separate B.A. degree in Education, and New Jersey teacher certification (Certificate of Eligibility with Advanced Standing). The Program includes both the New Jersey state-mandated full year of clinical practice (student teaching) and preparation for a required education teacher performance assessment (edTPA).
RC is mainly business med and law
Rutgers Camden has no apparatus for practicum student teaching or even learning how to teach at the undergrad level
A BA in history from RC would require alternative track or grad schopl
Dept head can coach he was shooting for that iand principal eventually but that could take years
You have confused two different loan forgiveness programs. The STEM/Special Ed program has different loan limits and requirements from the secondary school/low income population program.
Your son needs to be doing the research- there are lots of programs (I just glanced through a few- some provided by private philanthropic foundations, some the federal government, some state) and the requirements are all different. But they are out there, and they are actually designed to keep young professionals (like your son will be) in-state, in the teaching profession, for as long as it takes to complete the programs.
Looks like a win/win to me, and you donât need to teach STEM to qualify for some of them.
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