Great Colleges for Teachers? (degrees, counselor, educator, expensive)
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I'm a female college student from Alabama looking to improve myself. Currently, I'm majoring in Secondary Education / English and am planning to become a teacher. I want to be someone my students can look up to and respect, though, and I'm not sure a bachelor's degree in my field of study from the college I'm currently attending is enough. Does anyone know of an excellent graduate school for training teachers that isn't really hard to get into? There's a strong chance I won't qualify for a lot of the Ivy League colleges I would like to attend, but I still want a quality education from a college with a name most people recognize and respect. I would also like to get out of the South and live in a more diverse community.
Not to put your hopes down but I think for teaching, any college is fine, as long as you get the appropriate lessons for your target age group. Being a teacher is not at stake because schools are always looking for more and more teachers. I have a friend who is going at a teaching major as well and she tells me that there is no difference between a elementary teacher who graduates from Yale and a middle school teacher who graduates from UCLA.
Well, even if the administration doesn't look at it differently, it would still be a nice change of pace. Does anyone know of anything I might want to try? Really, I might not want to stop at teaching 6-12; I may decide to become a college instructor or an educational counselor. It would nice to get exposure to a more diverse and intellectually rich environment. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Try to get a job first and then go on for a Masters. You're right to keep improving yourself, but let your first school pay for it/help you pay for it if you can.
I'm the same 6-12 LA certification (though I got mine through an MAT in English Language Arts. . . expensive certification, but I already had a Bachelors in English) with an ESOL endorsement as well. When I come back, I'm going to finish up a Reading endorsement and then start working on either a PhD in Reading and Technology or in Leadership, so I can have better long-term job prospects and continue to grow as an educator.
There are any number of Masters programs that will help you later. I really wouldn't worry about the "name brand" on an Education degree, particularly undergraduate. Focus on internships, volunteer experience, and other work with literacy and children/teenagers to pad your resume.
Well, I guess you are right, but the college I'm currently attending still doesn't seem like anything special, and I would like to go somewhere that actually seems to care about whether or not I am achieving to my full potential. Don't get me wrong, there are some good teachers and programs here, but there are others that are just hard to bear. Plus, this college is suffering a bit because of funding cuts which will likely make the quality of instruction even lower. Ideally, I would like a quality college overrun with really enthusiastic instructors that offer a wider variety of quality programs that will help me a lot when I get my first teaching job. A little one on one instruction wouldn't hurt, either.
Well, I guess you are right, but the college I'm currently attending still doesn't seem like anything special, and I would like to go somewhere that actually seems to care about whether or not I am achieving to my full potential. Don't get me wrong, there are some good teachers and programs here, but there are others that are just hard to bear. Plus, this college is suffering a bit because of funding cuts which will likely make the quality of instruction even lower. Ideally, I would like a quality college overrun with really enthusiastic instructors that offer a wider variety of quality programs that will help me a lot when I get my first teaching job. A little one on one instruction wouldn't hurt, either.
I like the enthusiasm (and I'm sure your future students would appreciate it) but there is no magical amazing program with everything you want. You might have been able to find that in undergrad at a tiny liberal arts college, but every college is a mixed bag. Whatever you do, don't go into massive debt to teach. The job market is bad everywhere, especially for new teachers. The best programs (the ones with the prestige that will probably come the closest to your dream program) are very expensive and located in expensive areas and their grads still struggle to get jobs because so few places are hiring. They also aren't easy to get into because they are the best. Auburn University's program is in the top 100 (66th according to US News) and in-state tuition isn't bad. University of Alabama is also in the top 100 and inexpensive compared to everything else. Honestly, the top top schools will be prohibitively expensive and hard to get into- cheap, top quality, prestige and easy to get into are usually mutually exclusive.
Well, I guess I could settle for a school that's not highly competitive, but I would still like to attend a graduate school that's at least somewhat selective, just not impossible to get into. I might have to move to pay in-state fees, but it might be worth it. I'm not sure I'm going to remain a teacher, and a change of scenery may be good for my health.
I agree with the others in that education degrees really don't outweigh one another with respect to colleges/universities attended. Education is truly a major/field where you get out of it what you put into it, regardless of where you went to school.
But since you're asking for recommendations, I'd be crazy not to use my advertising skills You don't have to leave the South to get all you want. The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill automatically comes to mind. It's not Ivy League, but it is a terrific school for any major. Also, since you're already a college student, I would be willing to bet it's a little easier for transfer students to get accepted into schools than it is for freshman applicants. Understand you're going to have to pay out-of-state tuition, but Chapel Hill is in a diverse area (right outside of Raleigh and Durham, NC, two diverse and very fastly growing cities) and isn't nearly as far away as you may want to go. Chapel Hill is a very diverse and progressive college town. I have so much respect for that school--just throwing it out there
Best of luck to you--I do admire that you are willing to do what you have to do to get the most of your education, even if it means going to greener pastures and sacrificing being close to home and security. You only live once, so you might as well do it right!
The University of North Alabama is, for the money, one of the best places to get any kind of education related degree. Of course, it doesn't fit the bill in terms of diversity and all of that, but quite frankly, the education college there is better than Auburn and Alabama's.
Next in line would be Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. It's a selective school, but by no means difficult to get into. Plus, it's one of, if not the best, education colleges in the country.
After that, consider University of Virginia, North Carolina, Bank Street College of Education, Johns Hopkins, and possibly my alma mater, University of Pennsylvania.
Lastly, I don't think a lot of the other commenters have degrees in education. Well, I'm sure of it because of the nature of the comments, but not all schools of education have the same philosophy. Some definitely have a more intellectual approach as opposed to just teaching you things that are useless in the classroom.
Hofstra University in NY- program is NCATE certified
I learned a lot there. Great teachers
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You don't have to leave the South to get all you want. The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill automatically comes to mind. It's not Ivy League, but it is a terrific school for any major. Also, since you're already a college student, I would be willing to bet it's a little easier for transfer students to get accepted into schools than it is for freshman applicants. Understand you're going to have to pay out-of-state tuition, but Chapel Hill is in a diverse area (right outside of Raleigh and Durham, NC, two diverse and very fastly growing cities) and isn't nearly as far away as you may want to go. Chapel Hill is a very diverse and progressive college town. I have so much respect for that school--just throwing it out there 
