<p>Has anyone asked to have their subject assignment changed, and if so, what was the outcome?</p>
<p>@jtenglish I don’t know the exact numbrt, but a couple of people on the thread have said that they were allowed to change their subject assignment once they spoke with a staff member. It seems TFA is much more willing to work with you about subject assignments instead of regional assignments. I asked a staff member from my region how likely I would be teaching my subject assignment (Social Studies) since they recommended I take a certification exam in another subject area. She told me that it’s almost 100% guaranteed that I will be teaching Social Studies. The recommendations are just there for in case the certification exam in your initial subject placement is too difficult. So I think that if you have a reasonable uncertainty about your subject assignment, they will work with you to figure something out. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>I applied to the 4DL and I was not asked for a letter of intent. Did tfa do away with this part of the application or will I need to write one later in the application process?</p>
<p>You won’t need to write one later. They replaced it with the 3 short answer questions you wrote for the initial application.</p>
<p>Thanks, in a way I like the 3 short answer questions better.</p>
<p>@jtenglish my assigned subject was high school math and I contacted my region (philly) about getting it changed to middle school math. After speaking with my region about my concerns (the praxis for high school math), they changed it immediately. I don’t know how other regions work, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Good luck. 
</p>
<p>And good luck to the 4DLers. My advice: try not to stress and obsess (this is not an easy task)</p>
<p>I have been begging (Memphis) since Tuesday to have my assignment changed and I haven’t gotten an answer yet! ): I am so worried about being a math moron (I really am, and rusty) on the middle-school Praxis, so though I tutor ESL, I don’t want to have to study unfamiliar ESL theory for my content assignment when I have English degrees and the middle-school Praxis to study for. Sigh…fingers crossed.</p>
<p>Any other 4th Deadliners out there? I did my phone interview yesterday. I thought it went pretty well. I’m unsuccessfully trying not to stress about it. </p>
<p>@Rolemodel32 how did you get lucky enough to be assigned Social Studies? I am a History graduate student and hope that if I get an offer from TFA that Social Studies will be my subject!</p>
<p>-In other news, just had my phone interview. It felt a little bit awkward at first because you can tell its obviously a little bit scripted, but overall I thought I did alright. At least I hope I did </p>
<p>I’m a 4th Deadliner as well… I had my phone interview Sunday. I think it went well, my interviewer made me very comfortable. Can’t wait til Feb 12 to see if I made it to the final interview. </p>
<p>@cholt5 I think there were many reasons why I was assigned Secondary Studies. Individual staff members do not make the decisions on a person’s subject and regional placement. All of your preferences are put into a computer algorithm and then that will determine what your placements will be. When I selected my preferences for subject areas, I highly preferred Social Studies and English. I slightly preferred Math and have all of the other subject areas on the lowest preference choice. I also selected regions in high needs areas. So I didn’t include any of the northeastern cities like Philly, New York, Baltimore, etc. as my highest preferred options. So since I selected regions like Memphis and Detroit, I think that made it easier to put me in a subject area that I was confident in. Plus, my degree will be in Secondary Education-History, and I only took one math class in college, and I got a C in it! So all of these factors helped me out. If you know you only want to teach Social Studies, then you have to make that clear on your subject preference sheet. A lot of people make the mistake of selecting multiple subject areas that they are not confident in, assuming that this will make it more likely to be accepted. TFA does a good job of pressuring you to do this, but I would not recommend you do it. There’s nothing worse than being stuck in a subject placement that you have no confidence in just because you thought selecting it would make you more attractive to your interviewers. Know your strengths and weaknesses, and if you really want to teach Social Studies at this later deadline, then you might want to think about selecting regions that need people. Just my two cents haha!!!</p>
<p>Hi Everyone! I just completed my phone interview and was selected for the final interview. I am interview at TFA and the New Teacher Project, both final interviews! I am super excited and nervous at the same time. Any suggestions on what to expect in the final TFA interview? </p>
<p>@Rolemodel32; Thanks for your input! I had heard that the need for Social Studies teachers was few and far between so I am definitely considering English as an alternative subject placement if I am offered a position. You mentioned that you selected regions with high needs for Social Studies; what regions other than Memphis and Detroit are high needs for this subject?</p>
<p>@erinnire; I thought they weren’t sending out notifications for the final interview until next Wednesday (February 12th)? </p>
<p>Congrats @ErinNire. My biggest piece of advice for the final interview is to remain calm and confident even when things don’t go as amazingly as you hope/dream/imagine before hand. I had a couple of difficulties with my lesson including not getting the full objective written down in my prep time.I went on teaching and when asked in my face-to-face how I thought the morning went I was very matter of fact about my lesson but in a calm and confident way that didn’t show how much I was beating myself up and drew attention to my strengths. Of course, I can’t say that that was a factor in my being selected but it certainly didn’t hurt me too badly. You’ll do fine. </p>
<p>@cholt5 I think people who were able to skip the phone interview were notified earlier than everyone else. One of my friends told me yesterday that he got to the final interview so I’m pretty sure that’s how it’s done. It just means that the interviewers felt they already had enough information about the candidate on the written application to make a decision. </p>
<p>If you look at the ‘Where we Teach’ page on the TFA website, you will see a list of all of the regions and all of the ones that are considered ‘high priority’. I’m not completely sure, but I think they also list the regions that have more corps members than they need. The high priority regions are marked orange. Off of memory, I think they’re Detroit, Memphis, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, and the Mississippi Delta. There might be one more, but those are the ones I remember! Also, they’re not high needs based on a subject. They just are in high need of people in general so it’s more likely you’ll be able to teach your first choice there because they lack staffing across all content areas. </p>
<p>@funnnygirl I had my phone interview Saturday morning and i thought it went great. I told myself I wouldnt obsess over “Feb 12” until a week before. I enjoyed an obsess free weekend (no tfa related google searches etc) but that’s officially over as of today -_-</p>
<p>Got through to the final! Anyone else? Doing mine in NY. </p>
<p>I got through to the final interview as well! Mine will be in San Francisco.</p>
<p>So… most of the summer institutes begin June 2nd-June 9th, which sucks, because I graduate June 14th. It was difficult to choose a high priority placement option, because they all met before my graduation date and I absolutely do not want to miss that. My parents are already planning to come up and I’ve worked hard to graduate. I particularly didn’t like how it said that by choosing a location whose institute days conflict with your schedule, it means you’re willing to give up your own schedule for the institute dates; however, it seems we don’t even have a chance, because by choosing a high priority place (which they make you anyway), you’re essentially saying you’re willing to give up your schedule to accommodate theirs. /rant</p>
<p>I don’t know if this has happened to anyone else, or if anyone has any sort of advice for this, but I’m just a first-generation college student so me graduating is a huge deal to everyone in my life, and to myself. I really don’t want to give that up, if I’m honest. </p>
<p>I was invited to the final interview as well! Mine will be in Milwaukee! </p>
<p>-Anyone have tips for preparing for the 5 minute mock lesson? :)</p>
<p>@Stressy I would definitely attend your graduation. I believe TFA will agree once you explain about being 1st generation and your family already booked. Encouraging more students to graduate college is the point of TFA after all.</p>