Teach for America...?
Hi All,
I hope everyone is not going hair pulling crazy during finals week. (um, ok)
I skimmed a fair amount of entries back trying to find entries about Teach for America. I stumbled on one entry that an LJ friend of mine wrote, asking about what to do during time off from undergrad and grad. Her major is in the sciences, and someone's suggestion to her was to spend time doing research, not Teach for America.
In light of this, I was just wondering if anyone here thinks that doing Teach for America would help me in qualifying as a competative candidate for grad schools in International Affairs/Relations/Development...
Obviously, anything international travel experience would be a plus in that, and possibly working abroad. However, I do have a wide variety of travel experience already. To be frank, I do not know how I feel about many of these abroad programs. I'm talking about programs outside of the Peace Corps and other government affliated programs. Some look super shady. I'd rather stick to government affiliated programs just to be on the safe side.
I want to take time off, because unfortunately, my GPA is dwindling in numbers as we speak (I have a 3.28). I'm pretty much a B student. I'm not trying to make excuses or anything, but I honestly can say that, even though I have a 3.28, I definetely took challenging classes that I know will help me out in the long run. Also, I lost one semester in caculating my GPA (I had to go to another school because of Katrina for a semester), also, I had to leave for a good while last semester, because my uncle passed away in Hungary. I managed to get nothing lower than a B, and I was taking research classes and Stats, so I think getting B's after all that is pretty damn good, though it severly dropped my GPA from a 3.4 to a 3.28.
Even though Teach for America is currently serving only the U.S., I figured that it would help me in the application process? No? I mean, wouldn't that show leadership skills? Courage? Professional and problem solving skills? You have to work in pretty stressful environments, especially if you work in the New Orleans public school system.
This is just a thought. All contradicting responses and devil advocates are HIGHLY encouraged...
EDIT: this is not something that I want to do, just because it'll help me look good, but I did want to make sure that it would be something that would help me too, not impede on my application. Like adcom thinking that I should've done something else more relevant to the field...like going abroad. I'm not thinking about it as merely a back up. In high school I did tutor in very low income/poverty level areas of Miami for about three years. I've also done a lot of community service in impoverished areas.
I hope everyone is not going hair pulling crazy during finals week. (um, ok)
I skimmed a fair amount of entries back trying to find entries about Teach for America. I stumbled on one entry that an LJ friend of mine wrote, asking about what to do during time off from undergrad and grad. Her major is in the sciences, and someone's suggestion to her was to spend time doing research, not Teach for America.
In light of this, I was just wondering if anyone here thinks that doing Teach for America would help me in qualifying as a competative candidate for grad schools in International Affairs/Relations/Development...
Obviously, anything international travel experience would be a plus in that, and possibly working abroad. However, I do have a wide variety of travel experience already. To be frank, I do not know how I feel about many of these abroad programs. I'm talking about programs outside of the Peace Corps and other government affliated programs. Some look super shady. I'd rather stick to government affiliated programs just to be on the safe side.
I want to take time off, because unfortunately, my GPA is dwindling in numbers as we speak (I have a 3.28). I'm pretty much a B student. I'm not trying to make excuses or anything, but I honestly can say that, even though I have a 3.28, I definetely took challenging classes that I know will help me out in the long run. Also, I lost one semester in caculating my GPA (I had to go to another school because of Katrina for a semester), also, I had to leave for a good while last semester, because my uncle passed away in Hungary. I managed to get nothing lower than a B, and I was taking research classes and Stats, so I think getting B's after all that is pretty damn good, though it severly dropped my GPA from a 3.4 to a 3.28.
Even though Teach for America is currently serving only the U.S., I figured that it would help me in the application process? No? I mean, wouldn't that show leadership skills? Courage? Professional and problem solving skills? You have to work in pretty stressful environments, especially if you work in the New Orleans public school system.
This is just a thought. All contradicting responses and devil advocates are HIGHLY encouraged...
EDIT: this is not something that I want to do, just because it'll help me look good, but I did want to make sure that it would be something that would help me too, not impede on my application. Like adcom thinking that I should've done something else more relevant to the field...like going abroad. I'm not thinking about it as merely a back up. In high school I did tutor in very low income/poverty level areas of Miami for about three years. I've also done a lot of community service in impoverished areas.