<p>Hi all! I just signed up with CC to jump into the TFA chat. My final interview was on Friday… and ever since then my stomach has been doing flipflops. I want this gig SO bad!</p>
<p>Can anyone say whether they know of TFA accepting people who didn’t do so hot on the 5-minute lesson plan? I got extremely nervous during mine, starting when my one minute prep time was up and I hadn’t finished putting my objective and subject on the board… They are completely serious about the time limit! I moved onto the lesson, thinking it was more pressing to have my teaching sample, but I don’t know if it’s major points off to not complete the preparation task.</p>
<p>At least my group had a good vibe; everyone was helpful during the participatory section of each presentation. I think I did well on the other activities throughout the day, especially the one-on-one, but I can’t help but rerun the weak parts of my interview in my head. Arghh. </p>
<p>Good luck everyone!!!</p>
<p>Jitt3rbug, welcome! I think they understand that you are nervous and they just want to make sure you have a logical, consistent lesson plan. If you go back and red posts from previous deadlines, some did not finish and were accepted. It was hard to have kids comprehend a lesson in five minutes, but I think the purpose is to see how excitable you are, if you’re engaging the students, if you’re organized, and if you are engaging different types of learners.</p>
<p>I agree about the groups, everyone in my group said they were leaving feeling super positive and hopeful! In my personal interview I was asked how I thought I did. I said okay; when I asked others they said I did really good! I think we are all going over the negative and not the positive.</p>
<p>I have read the previous posts, a lot of people “knew” early because their transitional funding had changed.</p>
<p>Zettibetti, I agree 100%. These kids just need a little big of encouragement. As a corps member, I wish to reach out to these students and help them see their opportunities, understand the power of owning their goals, and work to accomplish them. </p>
<p>Smarques, ah so close. I do the same, I think about TFA 24/7.</p>
<p>Jitt3rbug, I’m sure you’ll be fine! I’ve also read how some people have gotten in and they didn’t even finish their lesson plans.</p>
<p>Does anyone have an idea of what the % on acceptance is for the candidates that make it to the final interview?</p>
<p>husker, I read somewhere around 25% - 30%. Not sure though</p>
<p>QUWordArt…</p>
<p>I preffed CT in my highly preferred region. I applied for the 4th deadline, so I’ll be finding out on March 6th. I’m really hoping things will work out… I’d love to be back in the New England area!</p>
<p>Hey everyone,</p>
<p>I’m new to this forum. I applied for the 4th deadline and had my final interview on February 17th in Baton Rouge. I’m really excited, but also reallllllly nervous about finding out. I am planning on applying for transitional funding, but I haven’t yet. I have also applied for PhD programs, but I really hope TFA works out for me. I applied 2 years ago and did not get past the phone interview, but I don’t think I really understood what TFA was about at the time. I have now gone to grad school in a low income area and taught and TAed low income students, so I think I have a much better grasp of the importance of TFA.</p>
<p>I felt like my lesson went well, and my interview went well. I don’t think the group portion went particularly well for me… I had mentioned alternate ways of communicating with parents like e-mail, or a class website because I have taught online classes, but then realized that not everyone would have access to the internet after I had said it! DOH! Hopefully that won’t be what keeps me out of the corps!</p>
<p>Not sure what else to say other than good luck to everyone!</p>
<p>It’s very encouraging to see everyone excited and ready to take on this new chapter in their life! I had my interview on Valentines Day, and am currently finishing my last semester of law school. I really hope I get into TFA. Education has given me a completely different life than anyone in my family has ever experienced. I hope I get the opportunity to do the same for others.</p>
<p>cinemaniac7147, welcome to the board! Great to see you here. I’m sure they won’t penalize you for saying that in your group interview. Someone else said that as well in my group. I think they just want to see you can work with a group of peers and effectively try to solve a problem.</p>
<p>husker090, that’s awesome you are in law school. I agree, education has opened up so many doors for me. I hope we all get in :)</p>
<p>Calijunkie, what were your assignment preferences? My top three were Memphis, Nashville, and Colorado.</p>
<p>Ok, so I went to admissions blog: [Teach</a> For America - Admissions](<a href=“http://tfa-admissions.blogspot.com/]Teach”>http://tfa-admissions.blogspot.com/)<br>
and I found this:</p>
<p>-We held interviews in over 102 cities. </p>
<p>-359 interviewers traveled across the country to meet and interview our applicants. </p>
<p>-These interviewers conducted 401 interviews. </p>
<p>So, I didn’t get it 401 interviews total??? I was thinking more like 4000 (4 thousand)…
So could you guys clarify this to me? Did they conduct only 401 total interviews through those 4 days?</p>
<p>Welcome to the board cinemaniac!!</p>
<p>I wonder if they mean 401 Group interviews… you figure if each interview group had about 10 people (mine had 12) that is where you would get the 4,000 people, right?</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m really excited to be here! Thanks for the welcome… I’ll be checking this page multiple times a day I am sure to complain about the waiting process!</p>
<p>I was wondering that too because it doesn’t seem to make sense! I would have thought there were a lot more people to interview!! Since there were two interviewers at each interview, may it is double and they interviewed an average of 401 each? I don’t know because I would have thought it was 4,000 too. I read about 44,000 applied last year and there’s about a 10% acceptance rate. That is after people APPLIED though, I can’t find the rate for after the final interview. </p>
<p>Cinemaniac, I honestly think that would be okay. At least you were thinking outside the box and trying to engage parents! No need to stress!!!</p>
<p>I just find it scary because I thought that all of us were equally good at my interview. I just don’t know how they exactly determine who is the “best”. I’m seriously so nervous to find out!! I applied to another fellowship program and have an interview this month with them, but I REALLLLY want TFA because it is so well planned out.</p>
<p>Has anyone else been obsessively checking their funding status??!!!</p>
<p>husker090, I put CT, RI, and Indianapolis as my top three. I preferenced all the cities you mentioned too!</p>
<p>Smarques2, yeah I think they mean 401 group interviews like cinemaniac7147 mentioned. That would make more sense to me haha</p>
<p>It’s so nice to have so many people to wait with who understand how hard it is to wait two more weeks! I know they told us we weren’t in competition with the people we were interviewing with, but I can’t help but comparing myself to them and feeling worried that they all thought they did well too! Did any of your interviewers tell you at the very end that they wanted to thank you for applying and going through the process etc. because they know how much work it is? I felt so good coming out of the interview, but now everything is a bad sign to me! I’m thinking maybe my interviewer didn’t choose me so that was sort of an apology!</p>
<p>Oh one more thing. You guys were talking about putting down priority regions, but my interviewer specifically told me they don’t look at your preferences until after you’ve been accepted. She said she had no way of seeing what I chose and that the regions you picked had nothing to do with your being accepted.</p>
<p>Yes, it makes more sense now, 401 GROUP interviews… so if there was 10 in each than it would total 4010 people interviewed…
I think that they accept about 1000 each deadline because there are 5 deadlines and 5000 total acceptances… so I would say thay accept 25% (1000 out of 4000).
But then again, they told me in the interview that if they like everyone than they will accept everyone, I don’t see how that would work.</p>
<p>Chikvicious, my interviewer told me the same thing and I actually thought the same thing as well hahah. I think all of us are second guessing our answers and driving ourselves crazy.</p>
<p>zettibetti, I totally have been too!</p>
<p>smarques, maybe that’s why some people get waitlisted closer to 4D and 5D?</p>
<p>Chikvicious, I honestly don’t remember the end but I wish I did!!! I don’t remember them saying that. My interviewer kept saying, “when you get accepted”, but I think they meant when anyone gets accepted. I felt excellent coming out of the interview because they said “perfect” to everyone of my answers. Anyone else get this too?</p>
<p>I asked people how they thought it went, and they all kept saying soooo good and they all felt so great about it. I know what you mean about the “competition”. I only felt like I was in competition because either you get it or they get it and you don’t. I didn’t think I had to be “better” than them in any way though or try to make myself seem better then them.</p>
<p>Did anyone have to answer questions about the video again!!!</p>
<p>I felt like the entirety of my interview was spent talking mostly about the program. Anyone else?</p>
<p>Here’s a link, I KNOW it’s wikipedia and it is not good to rely on them for answers, but there’s some good info.</p>
<p>[Teach</a> For America - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teach_For_America]Teach”>Teach For America - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Chickvicious- I heard the same.
They said they do not look at your preferences until after you are accepted… but we never know…</p>