<p>@rhswim9 and @Rolemodel32 - they made it VERY clear to us in the final interview that diversity is a major goal in TFA. I teach special ed and have several students who do not have strong male role models in their lives. This is not something I can offer them as the stereotypical white female teacher. I would love to work in a school where the faculty is as diverse as our students and would also love to see more men in education, especially at the elementary level.</p>
<p>@hawkace TFA is a two year teaching commitment during the school year. You are also required to attend summer institute/training the summer before your first year of teaching. There are five application deadlines. The first one was in August. The fourth application deadline for the 2014 corps is January 24th. There is not an age limit for applying, but you must meet certain requirements such as having a bachelors degree and meeting certain GPA requirements. You can rank the locations you would like to teach in but ultimately if you are accepted into the corps it’s TFA’s decision on where to place you . I would definitely recommend that you look through the TFA website, if you haven’t already, for more information on applying to the program.</p>
<p>@spedteacher84 I’m student teaching this Spring in Philly. I got into the corps the last deadline and they’re sending me to Detroit next year to teach Social Studies!</p>
<p>@Hawkace Welcome! The program starts at the beginning of the Summer with a 5 day orientation in your assigned region. Then you do your training at Institute and at the end of the summer, you move on to begin your new two year journey. As far as I know, there is no age limit, but you must have a bachelors degree by the time your Institute starts. Once you get to the final interview, you can preference the regions you want to be placed in.</p>
<p>@RoleMode32 l thank you very much for your response. Yes, I was recruited by a recruiter at my university. I grew up in a low income community, received pell grants throughout my years in college. I bypassed the phone interview and had my final a few weeks ago. I just want to give back to the community. I had my mom in my life to steer me straight. Although it wasnt easy and I took a lot more pride in my athleticism than my academics, my mom proved to be my biggest support. Thanks to her I go to school in Washington D.C. I want to be to other kids, what my mom was to me. So much potential out in the world and I would enjoy the opportunity to hone in on it. I am interested in going wherever my name is called, if TFA calls it. What about you all? Tell me a little about yourselves and your story. I think listening and understanding someones perspective is pivotal.</p>
<p>There was only one minority at my interview, and that was me. However, my interviewer was a minority as well. During my interview day, nothing was really said about TFA and diversity. Of course they stated the core values and that was one of them, but other than that I didn’t hear anything else about diversity. I grew up in Baltimore City and know firsthand how many students, schools, and parents operate. A lot of us grew up in and out of foster care, with an absent parent, or in neighborhoods where we saw nothing but death all around us. We didn’t listen to teachers because listening to adults wasn’t something that we were used to. We always had an attitude because we were accustomed to being on the defense about everything and thinking that people were always against us. We got into so many fights because if we didn’t show people we were capable of standing up for ourselves, things would have been a lot worst. Our parents didn’t show up for parent-teacher conferences a lot of times not because they didn’t care, but because they were single parents who had to work 2 and 3 jobs to make sure we had some food on the table and some decent shoes… I just think future corps members, who are not from low income neighborhoods, should be aware of some reasons the students they’ll be teaching seem so unruly and disrespectful.</p>
<p>I just found this post last night, and I feel like this is a great form of support. </p>
<p>I have a transitional funding question – are anyone’s documents still unverified? On my main status page it says COMPLETE, but when I click into transitional funding it says “Transitional Funding Application Status: Under Review” and underneath that it says “We have not yet received your application or documents.”</p>
<p>I just noticed it said that today and I tried to contact admissions, but they are already on Christmas break. </p>
<p>It says complete, but also says they don’t have the application or documents, but I definitely uploaded documents. </p>
<p>@Brielle134 Yeah, mine is exactly like that. I know the docs have been submitted, because they’re listed at the bottom, but everything is still unverified. Makes me a little nervous :/</p>
<p>To the posters above, from what I can tell there is a myth that the transitional funding is an indicator of acceptance. BUT, if you scan through this thread there are those who have been denied even after having their documents verified. So don’t stress it until the 9th! I know it’s such a long way off.</p>
<p>@andrewcycs where did you find that? I havent seen anything</p>
<p>From the past three years, TF completion is an acceptance. Two people in years past were only looking at the main page where it says completion but not at the actual TF page. They were rejected but also looking at the wrong page.</p>
<p>The only other case is that you can have TF complete but still be waitlisted because they couldnt find a placement</p>
<p>That being said, it seems like a ton of TFs dont change until the actual day, so dont sweat :)</p>
<p>Also, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!! :)</p>
<p>Accepted/Rejected/Waitlisted: Rejected
Final Interview Date and Location: 10/14 in Chicago
Invited Directly to Final Interview/Phone Interview first?: Phone
Applied for Transitional Funding? (Yes/No): Yep
If yes, were your documents verified (i.e. did they have the words “YES” and/or “N/A” next to them?) (Yes/No): Yes, and they had YES
Was your status ever listed as Incomplete? If yes, did it turn to under review or complete after?: No
Did your TF Status change to Complete at any time? (if yes, list the date when the changes occurred): Yes, it was Complete the ENTIRE TIME. yep. that happened.</p>
<p>Documents still say YES/NA but overall status is still Under Review. This extra week for Winter Break is going to suck so much. Anyone know of any other alternatives for teaching in case this doesnt work out? Also, what were some of your final interviews like? Anything stick out to you? Impress you?</p>
<p>From our self-reporting in 1DL/2DL group, we saw that having the TF Status changing from “Under Review” to “Complete” to back “Under Review” and finally to “Complete” (on Notification Day) was “across-the board” sign of acceptance. In the case that @andrewcyscs mentioned above, the TF Status changed went from “Under Review” to Complete" but never went back to “Under Review”. Also, many, many, candidates do see their TF Status change from “Under Review” to “Complete” on Notification Day, it seemed like almost half of our self-reporting group saw the change on Notificate Day actually.<br>
Good Luck to all of you! Is there anyone who chose Philly as their 1st choice region?</p>
<p>@TFAHopeful21 yes I chose philly as my number one. It’s home to me and I hope that if I’m accepted I’ll be placed there, or at least somewhere close to it. </p>
<p>And if you don’t mind, was TF more loans than grants or the other way around? I’m trying to get a feel for how much I should save. I know Philly is kind of expensive (compared to other regions) to live in.</p>
<p>@Andrew: It’s not a myth. The example you posted does not mention whether the poster was looking on the Main Page (incorrect) or the TF Status page (correct). None of us previous DL’s made the connection between docs being verified and acceptance. We ONLY know that a change to COMPLETE on your TF STATUS PAGE, indicates acceptance. And of course, that change can happen at any time up until notification… </p>
<p>FTR - I was early accepted and placed into Chicago '14, my status did change to complete early, I did have requests for additional documentation, and I was also waitlisted as they couldn’t place me at that time (I applied 5DL '13).</p>
<p>@Wanderlust: Thanks for sharing! The situation is very similar in other urban areas as well. Ans as Rolemodel stated, I noticed a big push in Diversity as well. The TFA of today is different than the TFA of years past. Within my group of 12, there were about 9 females/3 males. There were 3 Black females, 0 Black males, maaaaybe 2 other ppl of color… I also think it was split regarding those straight out of undergrad vs career changers…</p>
<p>All of the people in my interview shared the same racial background, but we were very diverse in terms of where we lived, our age, our education backgrounds, work backgrounds, etc. so I would say we were a pretty diverse group!</p>
<p>And Wanderlust is right about the situations with many of these students. I have done some teaching in inner city, low income schools and many of them have very hard home lives. I had a few students who were living in shelters, several had children of their own, some were arrested several times when I was there, and there were many more stories like this and, for quite a few of these students, school just wasn’t a priority amongst the main things that were going on in their life. If we were to be accepted in to this program and choose to teach, it’s going to be extremely difficult, but it will be worth it in the end when we are able to help these students on the path to success! </p>
<p>Anyways, I hope everyone is having a good holiday season and not stressing too much about TF or any of this other stuff. Enjoy the time with friends and family!</p>
<p>Ohhhh okay. Well what do I know then. Lol. I just didn’t want peoples hopes to be completely dashed. I’m sure there are exceptions to these trends. </p>
<p>So the YES/NO next to the documents is not indicative of acceptance?? Or is? And request for extra documents is a good sign?</p>