<p>@NYRicanGirl, I’m sure there are a number of factors the interviewers were looking for in addition to the application itself. I am not considered “young” in terms of being in my 20s (I’m mid 30s), I come from a diverse background and I have had plenty of challenges which I discussed in length during the interview process. I am a minority, a grad student, and the first in my family to attend college. Questions can be subjective and how you present yourself to your interviewer may not be the way that you see yourself or perhaps it’s how confident you respond to leadership questions. Maybe it’s how your graduate studies relate to your undergraduate and how that can be used in the classroom. In any case, you are almost finished with your grad studies and sound like you have an excellent future ahead of you with or without TFA.</p>
<p>I completely agree with @NYRicanGirl, I am also questioning the whole TFA organization. I for sure won’t be applying for 2013, especially since by that time I could just get my teaching credential and go teach in a low performing school (many of which I have tutored at). I don’t want to sound conceited or anything, but I am not sure what else I could of added to my resume or done in my interview to make it better. I also can’t raise my gpa since I’ve already graduated.</p>
<p>It was surprising to see that in the latest TFA admissions blog about 60% of applicants were re-applying. So maybe the second time around you would get in.</p>
<p>For me, I think it’s probably a blessing in disguise. I touched base with an old friend last week who is currently a TFA member, just to see if TFA was something I should commit to. This person was not very encouraging about the whole process at all and made “institute” sound horrible although it’s different for everyone.</p>
<p>Hey Houston Institute folks! Let’s get to know each other here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1323314-tfa-houston-summer-institute-2012-a.html#post14210902[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1323314-tfa-houston-summer-institute-2012-a.html#post14210902</a></p>
<p>Hi Everyone! Really excited to be Part of Teach For America 2012! Looking forward to meeting some of you at the Philadelphia Institute! Congrats to all who were accepted and good luck to everyone who wasn’t!</p>
<p>One thing I have heard from everyone during this process is that often it’s difficult to really understand why people are accepted. I think it’s really says a lot about you all to have made it to the final interview!</p>
<p>Accepted/Rejected: Accepted
Final Interview date: March 23rd
Applied for transitional funding? (Yes/No): Planning to apply for it now that I was accepted
If yes, was there a change to Complete (if there was, list the date when the changes occurred):
If accepted, also post the region you were assigned to and grade level/subject you’ll be teaching: Greater Philadelphia, high school Physics (Institute: Philadelphia)</p>
<p>@NYRicanGirl I agree that it is important to discuss the unsettling issues about rejections as well as celebrate acceptances. I think I forgot to say that I am the first American in my family and although I’ve alluded to the age difference I could many of the applicants mother and for some grandmother. Have to laugh and think my Cruella DeVille streak of grey didn’t make a difference.</p>
<p>@NYRicanGirl and shellby due to my grey hair I’m not sure that I agree with the issue of integrity. It might be possible that TFA over reached this year with applicants for final interviews. It might be less than stellar performance or an unrealistic hope that more positions would open on the organization’s part to only invite a small number of the 5DL applicants to the final interviews. I hope they will learn from this as the last blog we all read gave many of us for many reasons no hope at all and became very frustrated with the process. That is hopefully not what TFA wants at all.</p>
<p>@PotCM123 I agree about the subjective aspect of many things. It is important how you present yourself. You are correct that it may not be the way that you see yourself. I see that very clearly in your post. </p>
<p>Subjectively I was offended by the tone, attitude and lack of respect for NYRicanGirl, shellby, myself and the many others that were not accepted in your post.</p>
<p>Objectively I would suggest think very hard about “how you present yourself”. If I am one saying it ten others are thinking it here in an adult forum so how may your future students view you? </p>
<p>One of the commandments of TFA is self reflection.</p>
<p>I would suggest you start with your last post and a few before that i.e. “Congratulations to everyone that was accepted today. Opportunities await all…acceptance or not.” Then take a look the posts from those of us who were not accepted i.e. gracious, well wishing, not angry but questioning and most of all hoping the best for those who were accepted.</p>
<p>I wish you the best and hope you make a great impact with the caveat that you really think about what you brought up in your reply to NYRicanGirl about “how you present yourself”.</p>
<p>Once again to everyone who was accepted I wish you my best and hope you blog on “Teach For Us” and to those like me rejected, well next year 1DL is only months away. . .enjoy your summer :)</p>
<p>@tfaoldster, I am not going to attempt to defend an online posting since I was not trying to come off as condescending. The way we interpret written words in our online world can be misinterpreted so if you believe I was trying to sound a way, I was not. I simply gave my opinion. I work at a university and I know one should not attempt to make judgements without getting to know someone. I meet students that appear brilliant as well as lazy. By the end of the year, I often realize some of those that come off as being brilliant can be the ones that are only motivated in a certain area, not when they are with me. How an interviewer sees you within the time span of perhaps a few hours can be misleading. </p>
<p>On another note, I have found that the way people interact on a message board often leads to many surprises in terms of persona. This being from positive experiences and I do hope you reapply. I know how rejection can be disheartening as I was hoping to enter into a doctoral program. I too must wait!</p>
<p>@PotCM123 Humility, kindness and caring are my watchwords or the “Golden Rule” do unto others as you would have them do to you (paraphasing) and with that thought. . .</p>
<p>As someone who has many more years of writing and interpreting the written word than you and have had many pms thanking me for my post I again urge you to self reflect. Your post claiming to be a non response was in fact a response. I do wish you the best on overcoming what many have a “tone deafness” to others as it will help you in your teaching experience.</p>
<p>I would urge you to think about the possibility that those of us who were not offered a position was due to the fact that the region was closed, our preferences didn’t match what was needed and we chose not to opt to teach a subject that we didn’t feel comfortable making a differnce and could possibly harm students.</p>
<p>Also as I have been through many more interviews than you have i.e. panels, flying in to a site with day long interviews including a meal to confirm social skills, international turnaround interviews or multiple country interviews within a few days I suggest you keep your opinion on how one appears to an interviewer to yourself.</p>
<p>I hope in the future you will be open to learning from peer, supervisory, family of your students and students critiques as those critiques will be vital to making you a success. </p>
<p>Think of this post as a tutorial on how your Professor for your Doctoral thesis will help you gain friends in academia and publishing.</p>
<p>You must be willing to take on the feedback, self reflect, ask for advice, stop talking and listen and then self reflect again.</p>
<p>In academic terms, write, review, edit then repeat. . .repeat. . .repeat.</p>
<p>I hope you think about this back and forth because I want you to do well teaching our youth. If you continue to self promote rather than self reflect then you will be doing TFA and students you will be teaching a huge disservice.</p>
<p>That said, I do wish you well at Institute and in your first year teaching. I hope although you are “waiting” for the admission to a doctoral program that you will take the two year commitment seriously. If you are accepted I hope you defer your entrance to fulfill your term with TFA.</p>
<p>Please know that the only reason I am posting the pm is because I am open to pms but PotCM123 is not. I tried to reply but was denied because of the choice PotCM123 made not to accept pms.</p>
<p>To all who supported my response to PotCM123 the lady sent me this pm:</p>
<p>So here it is:</p>
<p>Since I do not wish to turn an otherwise well-meant thread into a negative one, I will say that everything you have “publicly” stated, can be (and perhaps, was correctly) a lecture. Just because I only have 18 years full-time work experience does not mean, however, that your experiences makes you a “better” teacher or person. My initial response to one of the posters was the result of them stating they are the epitome of what TFA wants or “not to sound conceited/cocky.” Additionally, if a person points to “The Sham of TFA” prior to their notification or remarks in a negative way how their friend’s TFA experience was bad, I am wrong for my comments? I previously commented to someone that leadership is not viewed in the same ways as years past because I wanted to be encouraging. However, if someone wants to be part of an organization that is competitive, and immediately questions their integrity upon rejection, that makes little sense. I applied to a highly competitive doctoral program that admits less than 15 persons a year. Sure I’m bummed but I know the school only knows me based on a writing sample based on another degree program, excellent grades & recommendations, and very average test scores. What made them reject me, I am not sure exactly, but I know I was not prepared when I wrote my essays (I do work and attend school FT), I did not properly research the faculty, and I should have taken the GRE again. I will definitely apply again, but I’m sure the school offered positions to those students more qualified than I. One could easily take “not to sound conceited but” as anything but the opposite. Perhaps there is now a bias (for them) on your part because you were not accepted. I doubt very few persons that made it to the final interview would be a poor selection for TFA. The only persons in my interview group that seemed a mismatch (and they may have been accepted) were those that were extremely late or one that talked over everyone during the group project. Still, before I left my interview, I stated that those that were late may have been the result of wrong directions on the website. I would hate for the best person to lose a chance if it was not their fault. </p>
<p>I am joining TFA because I really hope to bridge the achievement gap that I have experienced. I chose my current program because it is based on multiculturalism, diversity, and social justice. I do extensive research and have taken on additional courses for my M.S. program so that I have multiple ways to assess my students’ work, properly write grant proposals, and identify students’ needs in areas where socioeconomic challenges are presented. So while you may want to judge me based on a handful of posts, be mindful that your “concerns” regarding my first year teaching are very-much on my mind. I do extensive research, spend time in the classroom (high school setting), and I love and live diversity.</p>
<p>I am not sure of the intention of your comments, whether to “show me up” or to “show off.” I have studied and worked abroad and I travel frequently. I appreciate parts of what you have said but it is better equated to a tongue-lashing (albeit virtually) vs. a sincere message. It’s as if you assume I am with limited experience or that I am somehow oblivious to the future. I have held multiple jobs (int’l as well), now within a grad program. I get along great with all of my professors and I have a perfect GPA. I have not always appreciated education which is ultimately the reason I want to teach. I enjoy learning and I am a lifelong student. Not everyone understands why education is important, or they were taught in an environment where teachers lectured rather than allowed the students to lead a classroom. I attended many schools in different places. I bring with me those many experiences which help me with my grad students and will hopefully help me with HS students as well. I love history, music, theatre, and art and will apply those to my lesson plans. I am creative. So I understand what you have said, but there are many things I chose not to state about myself because I did not see a reason. </p>
<p>So if you are still reading this; I know it’s long…I stand by my comments. I am only responding to you because you believe I do not understand the concept of humility which in my “real life world” is something I fully embrace. I am not, however, someone that is afraid to speak her mind. Telling me that people have sent you PM’s only shows me that even in a virtual world, people do not communicate enough. It is one of the reasons why racism, oppression, and discrimination (among others) continue to occur. I won’t think less of someone if they tell me I’m wrong. I may not agree, but I believe that if you can tell the person that agrees with you, you should address the person that does not. It is not my intention for you to respect me since you don’t even know me. There is plenty more to say, but I should spend that time completing my work. </p>
<p>My response:</p>
<p>@PotCM123
You chose not to accept pms yet you availed yourself of my choice to accept pms so I will post your pm to me and my response. These issues between individuals that get hidden fester and that should not happen. All that goes on, other than personal information, about disputes that help TFA applicants should be posted on the forum as many more may feel the same way.
Again I urge you to self reflect. Your comments were all about “I”. Please read your post again as if you were grading an undergrad, it is not a thing you might want to grade an A, B, C but maybe a D.
My wish for you and the children you will be teaching is that you can learn from critiques and not just knee jerk a reaction which is how you come across in the written word.
Let me point out that your initial response to NYRicanGirl (which is the reason I responded to your post) did not start off with what would be expected from a member of a group of caring individuals who went through the process. Phrases such as “I am sorry I won’t have you to share experiences with” or “I understand your frustration and I’m sorry you won’t be in the corp this year but relax for a few weeks then decide” or something else in that tone would have been much more appropriate.
What you did was take on a person who had put in as much effort and maybe more than you and came down on them when they were on the mat. Then you ground her into the mat because you of who knows what you were thinking and yes, she is the epitome of what TFA wants.
Unkind, unprofessional, and beyond the pale.
About the pms I received, l when one person is saying something aloud then ten more are thinking that but they are concerned about saying it in a public forum.
My post was not a lecture by any means, it was a critique pointing out the weaknesses in your post i.e. the tone, message and the abysmal understanding about others feelings.
I stand by what I said also. I wish you the best in teaching but as you relate to me at the moment and to others on the forum I would not want you teaching me or any children.
I hope that in the first month of your teaching position you gain maturity, stop making off the cuff, rude, condescending, insulting comments and listen or it will be a very hard first year for you and devastating for your students.</p>
<p>Whoa! Where do I begin?!?! </p>
<p>So I decided to leave the forum after PotCM’s initial response to my post. I felt (and my suspicions have been confirmed) that trying to engage in dialogue with PotCM was equivalent to beating a dead horse. I am responding due to the amount of tension that resulted from my post, for which I do apologize. </p>
<p>In my defense, my comment which has been quoted on more than one occasion (“Not to sound bitter or angry or cocky but I am the epitome of what TFA says they want”) was fueled by raw emotion (look at the date and time it was posted). Perhaps, that part was better left unsaid. Perhaps “epitome” was too strong a word, but I stand by my assertion that I possess the characteristics that TFA says they want in corp members. In reference to PotCM’s comment about being rejected because of the way I presented myself, that comment was offensive for obvious reasons. However, perhaps there WAS a problem with the way I presented myself. Perhaps I demonstrated TOO MUCH leadership and perseverance in the face of challenges… too much critical thinking ability, respect for other people’s backgrounds, and motivational skills… Too much commitment to their stated mission. So yes, maybe the way I presented myself could have been the problem as it could have been viewed as a threat to the organization. </p>
<p>I am currently in a sociology doctoral program that I decided to leave because of my commitment to teaching underprivileged populations (so TFA was not a way for me to get into a doctoral program). In reference to PotCM’s suggestion that the rejection could have been due to the ways in which my undergraduate and graduate studies relate to each other and how they can be used in the classroom. Well, for undergrad, I had a double major in Sociology and Black and Puerto Rican Studies. In my graduate studies, I have explored the challenges facing Latina/o college students. Obviously, my undergrad and grad work are closely related to each other and they also relate to the students that TFA targets. Perhaps, TFA wanted more school subject type of courses (like Math or Science) and maybe what I had was insufficient. But then again, I thought that those were things that TFA looked at after they accepted or rejected an applicant. As everyone can tell by my choice of majors, I’m a sociologist by training, which means that when patterns emerge (such as particular types of people getting rejected- although this forum hardly qualifies as real research), I explore structural issues that may explain said phenomenon. This is why I said that I questioned (and still do question) the integrity of the organization. When I applied to TFA, I was fully aware of the critiques floating out in cyberspace that questioned the integrity of the organization. I decided to see for myself before passing judgment. But that is simply my opinion and I respect those who still believe in the organization and more importantly, are committed to working to minimize the achievement gap. I applaud their efforts and wish we had more people working towards this common goal. </p>
<p>In response to PotCM’s comment that “the way we interpret written words in our online world can be misinterpreted so if you believe I was trying to sound a way, I was not.” I believe that if someone realizes that something they say or write can be misinterpreted, then, if they really care about not offending others, they have a responsibility to take the time to evaluate what is being put out there. PotCM, you have not done that and that gives me cause for concern as teachers often communicate with parents in writing. Like TFAOldster mentioned, you need to (or rather, you should) stop being so quick to pass judgment on others and refrain from insulting and condescending remarks. You should also learn to listen to others because there is always a lesson to be learned. This skill (should you decide to refine it) will be invaluable as a TFA corp member. Listen to, not only TFA corps members and administrators but also to parents, children, and other veteran (non-TFA) teachers, as they are all treasure chests of information. Teachers are known for not reinventing the wheel. You can’t do that without learning to listen. </p>
<p>Finally, to TFAOldster who went above and beyond in defending an anonymous poster, I thank you! I agree with everything you have said and unfortunately, believe it is falling on deaf ears.</p>
<p>I have taken the time to write the above post, not because I necessarily care for a response, but because, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I think it could be useful to other TFA applicants in the future. Lastly, I’ve also had a couple of days to reflect on my rejection and think that perhaps, I was not accepted due to my inflexibility with placement. I had listed one highest preferred region and then others in preferred and least preferred (with a note explaining extenuating circumstances for staying in my highest preferred region). Again, I thought these things didn’t carry any weight in terms of whether or not you were accepted but perhaps there is more to it than we are told… just an fyi 
</p>
<p>I noticed some people had questions about the application process. Check out an article I wrote detailing what to expect. Good luck!</p>
<p><a href=“http://kirouackp0.hubpages.com/hub/Teach-for-America-Admission-Tips?done[/url]”>http://kirouackp0.hubpages.com/hub/Teach-for-America-Admission-Tips?done</a></p>