<p>Hi Everyone,
I am new here so I might be posting in the wrong area. I am a recent graduate from the University of California, Berkeley. I am moving to Tennessee to do Teach For America starting this summer. I am looking into graduate schools as well and want to apply to Vandy's M.P.P. (masters in education policy) program. I know they are the best education program in the country and their GRE average is 1150. I seem to be unable to find what their average GPA is. I have a 3.3 from Berkeley, and double majored in Political Science and Legal Studies. I worked the entire 4 years I was in college, interned at Justice Corps, researched for 2 years and volunteered a whole lot. I guess I am just trying to find out what sort of people they are looking for. Except for their admissions page there does not seem to be many discussions about this (at least none I can find).
Any information will be helpful. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>^ ^</p>
<p>If the experience of a college dorm-mate and an apartment roommate who were both admitted to Harvard’s M.ed program are any indication, your 3.3 GPA is actually well above what they both had. </p>
<p>One of them, in particular, had a 2.8 GPA and was not only admitted, but given a small scholarship and he was upper-middle class and not a URM. However, I don’t know if this holds for Vanderbilt’s M.ed or MPP programs.</p>
<p>Most likely, someone who can come up with $80k, plus room and board.</p>
<p>My daughter is in that program at Vandy. She graduated from her small private college with a 3.8 GPA and taught in China for one year, a local Middle School for a year and a Charter school in Harlem for a third. She is enjoying Vanderbilt very much and chose it over Georgetown and NYU. And umm, no, she does not have $80k…</p>
<p>I only go by their website - in 2010 in was $1,164 per credit. Figure 5% increase each year. A two-year program would be around 64 credits. In addition, Peabody estimates living expenses at $21.5 a year. Not all of it is room and board. So $80k is likely a little low. </p>
<p>Scholarships would help. The majority of M.Ed. students likely don’t get 'em.</p>
<p>Cobrat, Your example is a bit off the wall. What does your your dorm mates acceptance to one college have to do with the acceptance of another college?</p>
<p>There are 36 credits in the program the OP is talking about. <a href=“http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/Documents/pdf/lpo/IEPM%20curriculum%202010.pdf[/url]”>http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/Documents/pdf/lpo/IEPM%20curriculum%202010.pdf</a> Grad students take three classes a semester.</p>
<p>I’m just not sure why you are responding in such a negative way towards a program that it sounds like you know little about mini. To say that they would take anyone that can afford it is quite a slam. The Peabody School is very highly ranked. [Ranked</a> Among the Best](<a href=“http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/Ranked_Among_the_Best.xml]Ranked”>http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/Ranked_Among_the_Best.xml) Obviously the OP read what was on-line, but he/she is asking specifically,
Answering that question, my daughter has told me that at least half the people in her program are International students with interesting life experiences. When I visited her a couple of weeks ago I met a few of them and most were a bit older then her. I would suggest that you visit and see what you think. The one negative I have heard is while an internship is required, the school does not have a resource person to facilitate that.</p>
<p>I am NOT negative about the program. (On the contrary, I think it is a great program!) But many terminal masters programs at private universities are run as cash cows (even when they are excellent).</p>
<p>(Why is it a two-year program when only 36 credits are required? That would make the costs around $90k including all costs, according to the school itself.)</p>
<p>^^
kathiep,</p>
<p>My mentioning the dormmate and my apartment roommate who were both admitted to Harvard’s M.ed program, a top-2 program at the time, with GPAs far lower than the OP is to provide two data points that may or may not apply to Vandy, another top Ed school program. I also neglected to mention another younger non-URM college friend who also attended Harvard’s M.ed program whose GPA barely broke a 3.0 who was admitted straight from college. More interestingly, none of them did anywhere near the amount of ECs, volunteering, and interesting post-college experiences as the OP or your daughter. </p>
<p>What’s more interesting was when I mentioned this to friends and classmates who attended other top M.ed school programs…including Columbia’s Teacher’s college, they confirmed similar accounts of how entrance standards to their programs were such that a 3.3 would actually be slightly to well above average in the pool of admitted students…especially considering many of them had GPAs barely breaking 3.0 or were even well below it like that dormmate at my LAC. </p>
<p>As for your mentioning that Vandy’s program has 36 credits…that’s well-within the average range for most Masters-level programs I’ve looked at. Also, some Masters programs require much more such as Columbia’s SIPA MIA/MPP as they require a minimum of 54 credits over 2+ years. </p>
<p>Regarding courseload, if each course is assumed to be a normal 3 credit course, 3 courses/semester would be considered a light courseload by most M.ed students I know. Most were required to take at least 12 credits or 4 normal courses per semester with some taking as many as 5-6(15-18 credits) so they could finish early and/or free up some time to take courses in other graduate divisions(i.e. Business, Law, Graduate school of Arts & Science, etc) and/or a specialized research project with faculty.</p>
<p>The OP asked about a specific program. My daughter is in this very program, had a very high GPA, and in no way, shape or form, is paying $21,000/year for living expenses. This link is interesting regarding financial aid - [The</a> Graduate School at Vanderbilt](<a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/gradschool/fees_and_financial_support/]The”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/gradschool/fees_and_financial_support/). </p>
<p>Since the OP was asking about this specific program I thought I would give him/her a real life answer. My understanding is that grad schools are not as stat driven as undergrad and they pick their students with a more holistic approach. If they wanted someone with big bucks, they made a mistake picking my daughter.</p>
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<p>Mini does have a point, although his point does not apply to Vanderbilt’s Peabody. All he needed to do what make a reference to the gigantic M.Ed factories in New York. where Columbia and NYU surely fit his negative view.</p>