<p>Nice that is cool! Mine is next Wednesday!
Where is your top choice?</p>
<p>Well I’m interviewing in SF, but I want to get out of California. I’d like to go east, or south. But I’m really ok being sent anywhere because I’m so in love with TFA’s mission! :)</p>
<p>I applied in the DL2 deadline and accepted to the final interview! I’m soooo nervous! Good luck to everyone :D</p>
<p>Hi everyone! I applied to the 2nd deadline, went through the phone interview, and invited to the final interview. It’s on Monday!! Ahhh…Good luck to everyone!! :):)</p>
<p>does anybody have any idea what the likelihood of being placed in your highly preferred versus preferred or least preferred SUB-REGION is? I know that they say they do their best to place you where you’d like to go… but sometimes the difference between sub-regions is like two completely different worlds! (example. louisiana delta and new orleans)</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this or has a friend who has applied before/been accepted/gone through the process, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks! and good luck to everyone this week !</p>
<p>Hey for those who had their interview today- how did it go!</p>
<p>Went good!!! It was a long day … but really positive!! When is yours??</p>
<p>@TFAhopeful125: Great job on finishing your final interview! Without going into too much detail, how was the group overall (ie. how many did you interview with, did you guys divide up for the group discussion)? Thanks for your input!</p>
<p>Hey all! Applied 1st deadline, no phone interview. I have my interview Friday. Ahh! I feel ready, but the butterflies in my stomach are freaking out. I hope to end up in baltimore or charlotte, NC.</p>
<p>Mine is Wednesday! Looking forward to it!!!</p>
<p>I had my interview yesterday, too. I agree with tfahopeful that it’s a positive experience. Now the wait til Nov. 1st begins…</p>
<p>I’ve been watching this thread closely and finally decided to just join it! I have my interview tomorrow and am very nervous but also very excited! Fingers crossed all goes well!</p>
<p>I had my interview Monday. </p>
<p>It was overall pretty positive, although my lesson ended up being like 4:05-10 instead of 5 minutes. I guess the nerves made me talk really fast (although it did flow really well and my bubbly personality was definitely fun to show off). I have a feeling that’s really going to hurt me. :[ </p>
<p>I thought mostly everyone in my group was awesome. I really wonder how they pick one over the other.</p>
<p>But now I am so nervous until November 1! It really could go either way for me. I definitely was confident yet smile-y? (is that an adjective? if not, too bad :P) during my one-on-one interview. But I don’t know.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if the final interview is the other thing that matters (i.e. 90% of how they evaluate their decisions)? Or if they collectively look at your app/GPA/school attended/resum</p>
<p>Brought out my old username from high school to post on this thread! </p>
<p>I applied first round, went direct to final round, and my interview is tomorrow. I’M SO NERVOUS! I keep finding blogs online where people talk about how confident they were that they were going to get in after the final interview and they were then rejected… not good for my nerves. At least we only have to wait 2-2 1/2 weeks to hear back. </p>
<p>Does anyone know the statistics for people who make it to the final round for acceptance?</p>
<p>I have heard that about 50% of the total pool of applicants make it through each round of cuts. I’m not sure how accurrate that is though?</p>
<p>So, may I assume then that everyone in this thread has already earned their teaching credential? As otherwise frankly you should not be teaching in a classroom at this time! Being a teacher is not a gap year experience, it is a profession - so please treat it that way!</p>
<p>If you have in fact earned your credential, then you should already know which state you’ll be teaching in. Frankly, I am beyond surprised that this program still exists at all. Teacher unemployment right now is far higher than the average rate of unemployment (have you heard about the massive layoffs in many of the large cities? How good a teacher you are also has nothing to do with whether or not you’ll still have a job next year) - so why is a program like this still in business??</p>
<p>When you join TFA, you go through an intensive summer training program where you get student teaching experience under supervision in addition to a lot of training – a boot camp of sorts. While you are teaching your first year, you earn your credential where you are geographically and you have a lot of support from TFA including classroom observation and support with lesson planning, discipline, etc. I have heard educators who went the traditional route say that the schooling they took for their credential wasn’t worth much in terms of making them good teachers – being mentored whether on a traditional route or otherwise seems to be more effective. Yes, I have heard of the massive layoffs. I live in a state with massive layoffs. My daughter was laid off at the end of her first year teaching and subsequently worked in a charter school which is not something that all union teachers might choose to do and where a need exists. While the layoff problem is real, the need for teachers in under-served and underachieving schools is still great, even in places where layoffs have occurred. In those areas, TFA corp members are placed in charter schools, some of those schools want TFA corp members based on experience. My daughter taught at a well-respected charter school and many of the faculty and administrators began their careers in TFA and continued in education. You are right, it is not a gap year experience, because it is a two-year commitment at the minimum. It is worth noting that times have changed and in every career there is more mobility and there is more staging of a professional life than there used to be. Some people come into teaching later in life. Some people work in one field and then another. Apart from TFA, many teachers do not stay in teaching for many years, particularly in difficult schools. So there is a need. And no school has to work with TFA or hire their teachers. The fact that schools go back to TFA for more corp members says something about what they think they are getting. That is why it is still in business.</p>
<p>I’m just going to ignore negative comments…</p>
<p>This is my first time actually posting to this thread. I had my final interview yesterday and these next two weeks of waiting are going to be nerve racking!</p>
<p>How did everyone feel? Any idea how all of the different application components are weighted? Also, I wasn’t able to highlight everything that was listed in the “Who We Look For” section of their website; I hope that doesn’t hurt me. They never asked a question about motivating people so I forgot to bring it up. Whoops!</p>
<p>I just had my interview today. I didn’t feel they asked me many questions during my actual one-on-one interview at all (not sure what to think about that). But the lady interviewing me said that the reason she wouldn’t be asking me much is because the person who did my phone interview took really great notes…who knows! The 2 week wait begins.</p>
<p>congrats to everyone who has completed their interview.</p>
<p>I will be having my interview tomorrow and the nerves are finally kicking in. Any advice and suggestions? Thanks!</p>