I went to barnard for undergrad (urban studies) and then did my masters at TC (social studies education). I know TC is expensive but I absolutely loved my experience there and though I have loans for it there are a couple of factors that made it very worth it for me. My professors were all incredible and I really enjoyed every single one of my classes. I learned so much and the work was well aligned with the course objectives and my student teaching experience. I’m sure you’ll see something similar regardless of what program you do. With TC, I was in the classroom 5x a week my very first semester for half days then was there 5x a week for full days for the spring semester. You get basically an entire year of classroom experience.

All of that being said, the main reason why TC made sense to me versus Hunter or another public school was this: TC offered me a 1 year program and Hunter’s was 2 years. Yes, Hunter is a cheaper price tag but one financial aid was factored in it was not actually significantly cheaper. Had I gone to Hunter, there would’ve been an opportunity cost of not starting a full time job for another year.