Wrapping Up

I am all graduated now! What a year. It flew by. New school. new job. new friends. new life. Penn GSE! How spectacular. I can't believe it is coming to a close. I am sure I will go into shock when I finally realize that I am done! It is crazy! Graduation was fun! And emotional. It is so strange to graduate with your master's!

My family came from California to see me graduate! They were here for a few days. We saw the Liberty Bell, South Street, the art museum, and fabric row (my mom loves fabrics!). We ate at Mid-town Continental and Ralph's Italian, two of Philadelphia's greatest restaurants. For one of my brothers, it was his first time  in Philadelphia. My mom loved it! When they got out of the car at the airport and said their goodbyes, I could hardly believe it. As soon as they left, I teared up a little bit - well, maybe more than I care to admit. I miss them so much!

The job search has been a wonderful adventure! I have traveled far and wide to find the right fit. In some ways, it is like applying to colleges all over again! Everything is in place for my next chapter and I am very, very excited!

Thank you for reading my posts this year. I will be around until mid-June. Feel free to reach out if you need anything at rbenson@gse.upenn.edu.

Why Hello There: A Critical Update!

 Today, I came in to work and found  piece of mail addressed to me on the desk! Did I say I love mail? I don't know that I ever told you that, but I love it. In any case, it was a handwritten letter from someone who is entering the higher education program next year congratulating me on graduating and thanking me for writing this blog!!! If you are reading --thank you. You made my day! And- you have nice handwriting. It's the little things like handwritten notes that keep me going.

As far as assignments, I am pretty much done.

Last night, I was up until 4 am putting the final touches on my final paper about arbitration agreements in enrollment contracts at for-profit colleges. What a hot mess! Generally, I am the do-it-ahead-of-time person, but this time I just became overwhelmed by all of the complicated issues at hand when these arbitration agreements are in play. My argument is that courts' recent interpretation that these clauses are pretty much always enforceable should be re-evaluated because there is a lot of room for the possibility that the agreements are unconscionable or entered into based on false pretenses that I argue would (or could) serve to void the contract. I do not know very much about legal issues, so it was certainly both a challenge and an adventure to investigate this issue and write about it for a final paper. my final paper of college. ever. or. at least for now.

I do have one last class meeting today with Phillip (Dr. Buckley), my uncommonly hilarious and incredibly knowledgeable legal issues in ed. policy and practice professor. The class is 12 students and we have pretty hot debates in there about things like homeschooling, special education, speech at schools and school finance. The paper I wrote about for-profit colleges is for that class because Phillip thought that it would be great for me to write about higher education for my final paper, since I am in the higher ed. program. I appreciate his flexibility in that (it was his idea!) because it makes my last paper in the program relevant to the sorts of things I am interested in the most.

Today at work, we are having an ice cream party for all who have helped with admissions events. I can't wait! Until then, I will be chugging away at a few things, wrapping up things here in the office. I'm building up a list of our continuing students who want to continue to be ambassadors for admissions and it makes me smile that so many want to continue to be involved. the next GA, who will come in late summer, will have no shortage of students to work with for admissions events!

I'm going to get back to work and my onion bagel now, but drop me a line if you need anything!

:)

Colleges That Change Lives

 College access. College choice. College application. College ranking and reputation. These are things I spend a significant amount of time thinking about as a student in the higher education program, particularly in my course on enrollment management. here are some of my recent thoughts on college rankings and the mechanisms I believe are more appropriate for evaluating a college or university (at the undergraduate level)
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In the 1980's U.S. News & World Report changed the landscape of higher education and the college selection process by creating a list of college rankings. For the first time, anyone could purchase a list that compared the vastly different institutions of higher learning in America. Initially, U.S. News & World Report's college rankings were based solely on peer assessment. A relatively small sample of college administrators were asked to evaluate the quality of other colleges. Over the years, the methodology has evolved,but the colleges that dominate the top of the list rarely change. So much of the ranking,as evaluated by the methodology (right) is dependent upon the resources that the college has available. The colleges that tend to be ranked the highest are not surprisingly the colleges with the largest endowments.And, completion rates, which are arguably one of the most important measures of institutional quality, make up a relatively small percentage of the ranking.

Because of this, and because I do not believe you can compare such vastly different institutions using a single methodology, I do not rely on the ranking system to evaluate the quality of a college or university. Instead, I look to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE for short), The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS for short) and the Colleges That Change lives (CTCL for short) to learn about what really matters. Instead of ranking colleges, all three of these sources seek to understand various dimensions of quality in higher education. They paint a more holistic picture of the institution that helps people understand what the strengths and weaknesses of any particular institution might be. It is a little more work than simply pulling up a list, but it is much more revealing. on IPEDS, for example, you can view first year retention rates, four and six-year graduation rates and even loan default rates). The list of 40 Colleges That Change Lives helps people to understand what is valuable in undergraduate education.Loren Pope, who wrote the book, Colleges That Change Lives, said that:

"These schools share two essential elements: a familial sense of communal enterprise that gets students heavily involved in cooperative rather than competitive learning, and a faculty of scholars devoted to helping young people develop their powers, mentors who often become their valued friends."

Isn't this -rather than faculty compensation, expenditure per student, or average SAT score- what makes college such a transformative experience?


Here is my one concession to the ranking system. People generally buy into it, and I think that the association between ranking and quality is real in the minds of some employers. It does not have to be that way. If recent graduates seeking employment are able to articulate the value they found in their college education in a way that makes sense to the employer, I think that rankings can g out the window. So, assuming that the applicant can use the cover letter and resume to "get off paper," rankings do not have to matter as much as they do.


For me, the undergraduate experience was incredibly valuable, in part because the University of California, Santa Cruz was the right place for me. It was a community of people dedicated to learning, to creating opportunity for one another and to flexible, interdisciplinary education.My UCSC education continually revamped my writing and critical thinking skills. It exposed me to scholars in my fields of interest with whom I am still very close. It allowed me to take courses in multiple subject areas, to gain valuable work experience, to find value in learning across disciplinary bounds, and to let all of the learning that I was doing interact in such a way that expanded my consciousness and aided in my development as a practitioner and a person. Of the undergraduate institutions to which I applied and was admitted, UCSC was fourth in the ranking. If I had chosen to follow what U.S. News & World Report had to say about UCSC, and about the other colleges to which I applied, I would not have gone to UCSC. To this day, I believe that UCSC was the best choice, for me. It's such a unique school, and one where everyone in the community values one another on a very individualized basis. I love UCSC.

Turning away from my own experience,there is research to suggest that fit and matching are important in predicting student success (you can draw this conclusion from the work of Kuh; Tinto; Terenzini; or Bowen, Chingos & McPherson). College is about changing lives, and it always has been. Everything else flows from this. If the undergraduate experience being offered by a college is valuable to students, they will graduate in higher numbers; they will want to come to the institution; they will be successful there; they will want to engage with the institution long after they graduate.

Inside a GSE Assignment

In the higher education program, we can take a few non-higher education courses, and we are required to take at least one GSE course that is non-higher ed. This allows us to sharpen our skills in other areas of education and stay connected to the field overall. The K-12ers are, after all, technically in the same field as us! My foray into K-12 education has been through the Legal Issues in Education Policy and Practice course. In this course, led by the fabulous Dr. Buckley, we explore the role and influence of litigation, precedent and statutes upon education and education reform efforts. We have looked at how the courts have viewed (or abstained from viewing) the role of common schools, school finance reform, special education, segregation, and now, we are looking at homeschooling.

To be completely honest, the class of about 16 students is full of brilliant education policy and K-12 experts from other programs, and sometimes I feel a couple steps behind. I read, and I generally understand the reading, but the students in the class know their stuff. They know how to get right to the heart of the issues and bring out some of the most interesting topics of discussion. Sometimes they get to that point when I am still pondering the more basic questions about whether or not the courts should even be involved in these issue at hand.

As part of meeting the course requirement, everyone has to partner up with someone and give a presentation on one of the units. My unit is homeschooling and I am presenting today! I partnered up with the one higher education student in the class, so we are both a bit nervous about presenting on K-12 to those who probably know a lot more about homeschooling than we do! As a practice run, I want to go over some of the things we will cover right here on my blog.

We will start with an overview of the constituents that have a stake in the issue of homeschooling, or of directing childrens' education more broadly. There are three interested parties: the state, the parent and the child. Then, there is the question of rights versus interests.For example, if a democratic community of parents decide not to include particular topics in the local school curriculum, and the state believes the decision is detrimental to the interest of the child, when does the state have the right to intervene?

Then, we launch into some historical context using an article by Barbara Woodhouse called Who Owns the Child? as an entry point. In the article, Woodhouse looks at the implications of supreme Court cases, Meyer V. Nebraska (1923) and Pierce V. the Society of Sisters (1925). though the cases were not about homeschooling per se, they helped to establish a precedent for parental rights to direct children's education. here is how:

Meyer V. Nebraska was a Supreme Court case which deemed a law restricting the teaching of languages other than English to students under the eighth grade unconstitutional. The argument behind their decision was interesting. The decision handed down by Justice McReynolds included the following:

“The liberty guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution denotes not merely freedom from bodily restraint, but also the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”

Two years later in Pierce, the Supreme Court decided that it was unconstitutional for a state to require students to go to public school, again because it infringed upon the rights of the parent to direct the child's education.Although these two cases had essentially nothing to do with homeschooling in their respective historical contexts, they have been put forth as support for the right of parents to home school their children. The cases, for the first time, created sa sort of right to parenthood in the 14th amendment (which would become very useful later).

The two cases raise questions that we still think about today. What are the interests of the community within the child? Are children the property of parents? Are they extension of parents? Or, are they individuals with rights? Again, if we look only at these two decisions, there seems to be a lot of support for parents rights, and the cases are deciding where to draw the line on state authority to infringe upon parents.

Then, my partner goes over a more contemporary case, Rachel, and some of the arguments about the constitutionality of homeschooling as they pertain to that case.The main article we use in this is from someone (who we do not agree with) who oppose the idea that there are some cases where is not in the interest of the child for the parent to home school the child (issues of abuse or threats to the child's welfare provide clear examples).

After that, I explore whether or not it matters why a parent chooses to home school. In short, I am asking; what about the interests of the state, the society? A democratic society is interested in having well educated, civically-engaged citizens who have been exposed to ideas of people different than themselves. If parents are homeschooling their children to protect them from the difference of ideas and people that exist in a diverse society, should they be allowed to do so? How do we decide this matter? Should the interest of the state in creating the future of its society come into play here?

Then, my partner goes over a third point of view, as presented by  James Dwyer. Dwyer's argument is that the dichotomy of parents' rights and states' rights is erroneous and irrelevant. we need to consider the rights of the child and the interests of the child. In practice, this is hard because children are immature and cannot be autonomous. Adults inevitably are a part of defining what kind of education children will have, but Dwyer argues that they should do i t not out of what will benefit or satisfy them, but what is ultimately best for the child. this is, in practice, quite difficult, but Dwyer does raise a pretty good point. He is saying that these cases, decisions and discussions should be framed in the interest of the child rather than the parent or the state.

Then, we do a short role-play example where the students are different parties to an interchange at a middle school where parents object to their children being taught about homosexuality.

Thank you for letting me practice. And, pardon the fact that I know very little about K-12 education! I am trying! :)

Wish me luck on the presentation today at 2!

Saving Money As A Grad Student At Penn

As a graduate student, I generally do not have a lot of extra money lying around, so it is helpful to be smart about how, where and how much I spend. before I came to Penn, I was ridiculously worried about money and having enough of it to get by and not miss out on everything. Over the year here, I have relaxed about that much more and I think that I am now in a position where I can share some insider tips about how you, as an incoming student, might begin to think about ways to save money or spend less when you do spend, rather. This short list is just a beginning, but I think it might be useful, so enjoy!

FOOD

• Bring small amounts of cash to school 
• At first, this may seem a little counter intuitive. Bring money to school in order to save money. I will explain. On and around campus, there are a multitude of ways to get cheap food if you have a few bucks in cash. Right at GSE, there is a snack bar on the ground floor. They serve up muffins, yogurt, waters, sports drinks, soda, coffee, espresso, soups, chips and granola bars. Then, there are tons of food trucks. One, near 37th and Spruce  sells the best custom fresh fruit bowls for $3.50. They're humongous, delicious, cheap and healthy. Some students go for vegetarian (but super flavor rich) Mediterranean food at the infamous Magic Carpet truck at 34th and Walnut. There are a couple other trucks there too. There's also three trucks right across the street. I have only tried George's. It is pretty good and offers sandwiches, burgers and such.
• if you don't bring cash, there are a couple other ways to get food while you are on the go without having to spend ten bucks on lunch
• Fresh Grocer (40th and Walnut, three blocks up on the same street as GSE)
• Never underestimate the power of buying your lunch at the grocery store. There's a microwave at GSE, so you can always heat something up a little. Fresh Grocer (40th and Walnut, three blocks up on the same street as GSE)
• Dunkin Donuts (between 34th and 35th on Walnut, a couple blocks from GSE)
• Maybe I am biased, but Dunkin Donuts is a great place to refuel for a super reasonable price. You can grab a coffee and a bagel with cream cheese for under $4.
• GrubHub (http://www.grubhub.com/)
• Grub Hub aggregates the menus of nearby restaurants, most of which will even deliver right to GSE for super cheap! I once got Chinese food for a fellow student and for myself for $11 including delivery!  

•  Bring a coffee mug to school
• If you find yourself tired at GSE, just stroll on over to the Graduate Student Center at 3615 Locust Walk and get yourself some free coffee (http://www.gsc.upenn.edu/)! This is a perk only available to graduate students!
•  Bring food from home
• This seems obvious, but remember that there is a microwave available for student use in the GSE building, so yesterday's pasta can actually taste like it was made today! 

SOCIAL

• Cohort Happy Hours
• This too may seem like a pretty counter intuitive way to save money, but hear me out. If you go to cohort happy hours, you are networking, getting in some social time and probably enjoying awesome drink specials. The higher ed happy hour has 75 cent Miller High Lifes. There simply is no beating that! 

•  Find Free activities
• There is a lot to do in Philadelphia and you do not always have to spend money fto have a good time. there are all kinds of great things going on all the time. Two of the best websites for fun and free or cheap activities in the city are (http://www.uwishunu.com/) and (http://www.phillyfunguide.com/). I am sure you have already heard that the spectacular Art Museum is free on the first Sunday of every month.
• GAPSA events
• One of the major purposes of the The Graduate And Professional Student Assembly is to help graduate students have fun, and they know that grad. students do not always have a lot of money. GAPSA seeks out opportunities for grad. students to have happy hours, enjoy sports games, go to karaoke or enjoy dinner together at a rate that is reasonable because a large group of people are attending. So, look out for the many GAPSA events that happen throughout the year.

SHOPPING

• Shop Sales
• As far as stores that are right near GSE, there is  a Gap, Loft, Urban Outfitters and American Apparel literally within a two or three minute walk of the school. They have sales very frequently, so there is plenty of opportunity to save.
• Check for your books in the library first
• A lot of people do not do this, but I have been able to save quite a bit by checking out the books that I need at the library! You get to keep the books for the whole term. What's not to love! 

TRAVEL

• MegaBus/Bolt Bus
• If you are going to New York City, DC or another major American city, definitely check out Bolt and MegaBus options. I once had a round trip DC ticket for under $25! Both buses leave from 30th Street Train Station, a short walk from GSE!
• Semester Pass
• If you live somewhere far enough away that you will be using public transit daily, it is worth it to get the semester or year long SEPTA pass. There are a variety of passes available depending on your needs, so check out your options if this applies to you!

Reflecting

Last Friday was Accepted Master's Preview Day. About 70 accepted students across the various Penn GSE programs came to see us! It was fabulous to meet and get to know you. You came all the way from California, Texas, Washington, Canada, North Carolina and other places to meet Penn GSE!

In the morning, we shared breakfast over the optional New To Philly Session. This session, which included a video, presentation and panel, was something new for this year. As someone who moved to Philadelphia and to Penn from across the country, a place that seemed worlds away, I thought it would be useful to have something like this so that students could begin to familiarize themselves with all that Philly has to offer. The students in the video and on the panel did a fabulous job of illustrating all of the amenities of the city and making the point that Philadelphia really is a city of neighborhoods!

Next, we heard from our Dean, Andy Porter. Andy talked about innovation in education, the education business plan, some of the recent investments Penn GSE has made and about the new opportunities for interdisciplinary research at Penn GSE! It was wonderful to hear from him! After he spoke, we moved right into the current student panel. There, accepted students asked questions about school-work-life balance, campus resources, student organizations, how we get around, what we do for fun and even where we get our groceries! Lots and lots of great questions came up in the panel. After the panel, it was time for lunch with more current students and some of the faculty! During lunch, students had the opportunity to speak with representatives from Student Health Services, financial aid, the libraries, the fitness center, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, student government, student organizations and the Graduate Student Center.

Fisher Fine Arts Library, one of the best places to study on campus!

As lunch came to a close, we moved into GSE and had divisional break-out sessions to discuss program specifics. then, we had the concurrent sessions, where students traveled between a mock class, a campus tour, a demonstration of next steps (for those who have already accepted their offers) and a panel on alumni, carer services and student life (from staff in those areas). Then, of course, we had a Happy Hour / Reception at City Tap House, one of my favorite Philadelphia hangouts, just blocks from campus.



If you did not make it to Preview Day, you can always join us at the Virtual Preview Day to be held on April 10th from 6 - 8 pm EST. You can RSVP for that here.

As part of the final project in professional development, I have been asked to develop a paper and presentation on my experience this year as a graduate assistant. On the right is what i will probably use as my opening slide! This presentation is bittersweet. It comes just as we come out of the last major event of the year and as our office is 'passing on the torch,' offering the position to two of next year's higher education cohort. Oh! How time flies! It's been an intensely productive year here at GSE, and I will be sad to go. I am moving on to the next phase of this adventurous life of mine as I seek out a full-time admissions position. That process has been going really well so far, and I am confident in my ability to secure a position that is both interesting and fulfilling. Then again, I was never that worried about this, as I said in the beginning of this year.

I can't wait for Enrollment Management class tonight. We read "The Order of Things" by Malcolm Gladwell and "The Admissions Arms Race" by Massy, Wegner and our very own Robert Zemsky so that we could gather to learn about and discuss competitive positioning in admissions. Here is the blurb from our syllabus this week:

In an era of branding, marketing and ranking, higher education confronts a competitive marketplace and which requires consideration of limited resources, consumer demands and peer pressures. The resulting dynamic has created a commercialized industry for higher education leaders and for its consumers. How do competition and commercialization impact institutional and consumer behavior and how do these dynamics influence each other?

Jenny Rickard and Eric Kaplan, the professors of Enrollment management, are both so knowledgeable about the field. It doesn't hurt that they work well together as collaborative teachers and both have a great sense of humor. The other wonderful thing about a class like enrollment is that it gets controversial. There is a lot of disagreement about early action, financial aid leveraging, the goals of admissions and the means used to meet those goals. I find it useful to hear the various perspectives mainly because these broad, diverse points of view are akin to what i will encounter as an admissions professional. Hearing a lot of view points now is what I like to think of as getting maximum exposure! This class gives me a whole new reason to love Monday nights!

- - - - - -  You should probably also know that  that I passed my master's comprehensive exam! 

Guest Post by KC From Education Policy

One of my favorite people at Penn GSE is KC. She is a current master's student in the Education Policy Program and is fiercely passionate about education reform. On her personal blog, she wrote about Penn GSE and I wanted to share with you what she wrote. What follows is her post, "Why I love Penn GSE."
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Why I Love Penn GSE

This time a year ago, the weather in Philly was miserable. The traffic was terrible, and the stench was unmistakably east coast industrial. My boyfriend dragged me around Philadelphia on what was clearly a noble effort to help me fall in love with the city I would soon call home. Having just been rejected from another top-tier ed school, my ego was bruised and the cloudy skies weren’t helping matters.

Now, I’m nearing the end of my program and I am often tasked with helping newly-admitted students understand what makes Penn GSE stand out. In the process, I found myself reflecting on my own journey to the little four-story building at 3700 Walnut Street.

There used to be a place on the Penn GSE website with a little cartoon man in a scrappy Popeye-esque fightin’ stance. The text underneath said something to the effect of, “we’re a small ed school, but we’re passionate.” With that, I was sold. Penn’s enthusiasm beat out the sunshine of the south, and the chance to live near the heart of DC. It even rebuilt my bruised ego. So, on that Saturday in March, I explored Penn and Philly with a disgruntled excitement — if that’s a thing. I even bought a sweatshirt that I then refused to remove (a tradition that I associate with my not-so-gently loved Reed sweatshirt).

I am eternally grateful that I ended up at Penn GSE, and not anywhere else.

It didn’t take long to feel justified in my choice. Within a week, I had my first revelatory moment — I knew next to nothing about education policy. Two weeks later, I sat outside a favorite Philly pizza joint espousing the gospel of Ravitch to my patient boyfriend. In another week, I would experience my next revelation: Ravitch was wrong. Whereas reading Ravitch made me indignant, everything I read thereafter made me confused. How could I know so little? As a well-trained Reedie, I felt my excitement build as I became more confused. I thrived on the need to ask more questions, which quickly led to spending time in my professors’ offices and joining an independent study class that focused on schools and community development.

The Scene of the First Revelation

(As a side note, I should mention that the size of my cohort was immediately shocking to me. I know that most ed schools have huge master’s programs where it’s easy to feel lost; where professors sometimes hold office hours but more often rely on their TAs to field the questions of pesky master’s students. Penn GSE is neither of those things. My Ed Policy cohort is 15. Fifteen students. My largest class at Penn is 25; my smallest is 6. My professors all hold office hours, and most are eager to have us stop by after class. One professor frequently interrupts his other meetings if he sees a student’s head pop around the corner.)

Within a week most of my preconceived notions were shattered, and my desire to read any and everything was uncontrollable. My professors quickly caught onto this passion and happily shared reading materials with me. What I respect most is that no professor ever says no to talking through an idea. These are professors who’ve been around for decades — and have probably heard it all — but they always want to engage anyway. They don’t treat me like a student. Well, they do, but they also treat me like someone who is capable of coming up with new and brilliant ideas.

Then, there are my peers. Like I mentioned, there are fifteen master’s students in Ed Policy this year. Within that group, I have friends who are passionate about teacher’s unions, merit-based pay, international comparative education, state-based policy initiatives that harness old resources in new ways, and the benefits of Waldorf schools. I learn something new from my peers daily. And we make connections between each other’s work. I can’t tell you how many times we realize mid-conversation that our seemingly-distinct thesis topics overlap in huge ways. We build on each other’s excitement, and we’re proud of each other. Rarely as an undergraduate student did I feel that my peers and I were encouraged to be proud of each other — excited, yes, but not proud. Here, I fill to the brim with pride when I hear about the work my peers are doing.

We’re intellectuals, and we’re a community. Those are two nebulous ideas, but I feel them distinctly when I spend hours in the lounge engaged in conversation.

 Lunch Hour Debate about Ed Reform

Lastly, I have my personal intellectual journey. When I entered Penn, I had pretty basic ideas about what I wanted to do. “I am fascinated by the bridge between high school and college.” I can’t tell you how many times I uttered that statement. But, as I near the end of my program, I am astonished by the naiveté of my past self. Not that the bridge doesn’t matter — it does. But I can’t focus on the bridge without devoting my life to K12. Things in our education system aren’t working, and few people agree on why. My time in admission often made me irate — why can’t schools teach reading, writing, and arithmetic? Why does financial aid have to hinder a student’s chances of admission so dramatically? I’m still angry, but now I feel empowered because I have a better understanding of the landscape.

In a class on the economics of education, I wrote a literature review on the barriers to entry and exit in the charter school market. When I began the paper, I knew next to nothing about charter schools — except the vitriolic rhetoric that both sides used to defend their positions. By the end of that paper, I was wrapped up in autonomy, states’ rights, accountability, and a dozen other issues that plague the school system and handicap the ability for charter schools to function. I entered the paper convinced that charter schools had an unfair advantage; by the end of it, I was sympathetic to a completely different position. My professor, the Vice Dean, calls this the power of viewing problems as an agnostic. He emphasizes the impact of focusing on whether something works and how it works, instead of whether I agree with it. Honestly, that’s the best piece of advice a professor has ever given me.

Now I am expanding that paper into my thesis. My first section examines the structure of the charter school market from a business and innovation perspective. My second section isolates the most important barriers to entry and exit and how these elements influence the growth of charter management organizations (networks of charter schools — think KIPP). My last section will synthesize data analysis with close readings of state charter school laws to better understand the impact of CMOs’ behavior on the development of innovation in the charter school market.

Nine months ago, I would have had absolutely no idea what any of that meant.

Not only do my professors love the angle I am taking in my thesis, but they are actively encouraging me to write my thesis with an eye toward publication. They have an incredible faith in my ability to produce consistently strong work. They see my potential, and want to light a fire under it. I never thought graduate school professors would devote so much time to their students.

I am a changed person. My undergraduate career gave me a taste of what an intellectual transformation can feel like, but it was my professors and peers at Penn GSE who have helped me realize, clarify, and act on my potential to be a game-changer in the world of education reform.

Even if I had the chance to re-enroll at any ed school, anywhere in the country, knowing what I know now, I would choose Penn without a second of hesitation. As for Philly, the traffic is irrelevant when you bike and walk everywhere, the smell is better than NYC, there are plenty of delicious restaurants with local food, and the hipsters remind me of Portland. Looking down Locust walk when everyone is using an umbrella is absolutely gorgeous. And, when the sun shines, campus looks damn beautiful.

Crystal's Wedding

I mentioned in a previous blog post that my best friend was getting married. I was nervous about taking off the time from work and school to go all the way out to Seattle/Olympia, Washington, but knew that doing so was essential. As I write this, I am a little under an hour from my short layover in Detroit on my way back from the wedding.

I got to see her get married yesterday! It was one of the most extraordinary and touching moments of my life. Even at the rehearsal, I cried watching her walk up the aisle. At the actual wedding, watching her and her grandpa walk up the aisle, seeing his proud face tear up a little, and watching her cross this very important threshold into married life totally reduced me to real, big, tears.

-- As much as I think the whole wedding business is super consumerist, possibly over-religious and most certainly hetero-normative, it still tugs at the heart strings to watch two people so in love with each other establish a marital commitment.

For the first time in my life, I had to make a toast at a wedding (I have only been to 4 weddings including my own). The pressure was on, to some extent because only 9 months before her own wedding, Crystal delivered a perfect toast at m wedding. Here is a little snippet of what I said. It's copywrighted, so don't try and steal! :)

"Crystal and I met 9 years ago. And we met because she knocked on my door. Yes. We were neighbors. She walked over to introduce herself and ask what high school I would be attending and if we could make arrangements to travel together. And, that is what we ended up doing. For our high school years, Crystal and I travelled together to Mt. Diablo High. We instantly clicked and became best friends, family even. One of the reasons I love Crystal so much is that she is the most tenacious,  resilient, and intelligent women I have ever met. She's fierce. She met David probably around 6 years ago and they have been together ever since. She had a beautiful son with him almost 3 years ago. And so, for me, this wedding only made official what I have known for years: these two souls form a blessed union. As a newlywed, I have little to offer in the way of advice, but what's probably been most helpful so far is recognizing opportunities to grow together, listen to one another , learn and remember that not every day or everything will be perfect. Don't stress too much about the little details that tend to eat up our lives because you are in it for the long haul and you now have each other's strength. Also, establish a 48 hour rule. Don't bring up old dirt! I love both of you and I'm so proud and happy to be here for you on this special day."

And it is all true. I am incredibly proud of my best friend. Congratulations, Crystal! 

In other news, I got to see the world famous Pike's Place Fish Market in Seattle! I have been wanting to see this place for years!

Higher Education Preview Days

The Higher Education Preview Days last week were fantastic! It was such a pleasure to finally meet many of the accepted higher education students. On Sunday evening, we started with a fabulous three course dinner at City Tap House, just blocks from the Graduate School of Education building. Throughout the dinner, I talked with students about their goals, expectations and excitement for the two busy days that were to follow. I learned about where people were from, what they were interested and why they were here. After dinner, we headed over to Drinker's West, where the current cohort holds our weekly happy hour. There was a comedy show going on there, so we headed right on over to Cavannaugh's a block up the street. There, I had conversations with prospective students about admissions, development, research, our faculty, program, living in Philadelphia and the assistantships. As an aspiring admissions, professional, it was great to be able to gain more familiarity with people's questions, concerns and values as they evaluate different programs. It was also simply wonderful to see everyone's smiling faces and hear about all of the areas in higher education that we are interested in! One thing kept running through my head. I love this program, but to me this is not about selling the program. I think of admissions differently. I think of admissions as a way to help facilitate the transfer of information so that people can gain a sense of whether or not the program is a fit. In short, I am here to answer questions and connect people.

There's something else my mind kept drifting back to as well. Almost all, if not all, of the accepted students who traveled to Penn last week to get a sneak peek at the Higher Education Master's program will be colleagues, in one form or another no matter where they decide to attend graduate school. We all share this important thing in common; we are passionately inspired by the field of higher education.

Maybe that thought stems from all of the networking I have been doing lately. In fact, I am sure that is why I keep thinking that. I have learned in the last year or so that one of the most important things one can do in their professional career is stay connected to other professionals in the field (and people in other fields).

If you are reading this and we met at Preview Day, Hi! I hope you enjoyed your time here in Philadelphia and that you learned as much as you possibly could about the cohort, the assistantships, the curriculum, the faculty and the location. If you want to connect and ask more questions, feel free to drop me a line on email or call admissions.

For those of you who have been accepted to the higher education program, but were unable to attend the Preview Days, don't fret! I was in your shoes last year. I lived in California and could not just take off from work in order to attend. There are still ways to connect even if you can't come to campus. I never officially visited campus, but I certainly did my share of calling and emailing! There are also a couple more opportunities to connect with Penn GSE online of off-campus. On April 4th, Admissions will be having an event in Boston for accepted students!

Chat! Chat! Chat!

Hi everyone! Long time no blog. We were on Spring Break and I did not write! I tried to relax, but still feel that the break was too short!

Tomorrow night from 8 - 9 pm EST, we have a web hat for accepted students. This one is themed around accepted students of color, LGBTQ students and allies, though everyone is welcome and encouraged to chat!

TO RSVP and get a chat room link, click here.Or, email me at rbenson@gse.upenn.edu.

Like A Mad Woman

This weekend we had our master's comprehensive exam. I can't say anything about the exam until it is completed and turned in (tomorrow) because it is not allowed. Let me say, though, it has been hard work! I spent Friday and the entire weekend reading and writing. There were probably less than five instances where I actually got up! I ordered pizza, and bought all the snacks I could ever want. Luckily, my husband went to Vermont to go skiing and I had some serious alone time with all my books and articles! It is hard to believe that comps are (pretty much) under my belt now! The program is flying by. I am connecting with people and applying to jobs. It is so exciting to not know where I will be in a couple months. Right now, I am connecting with admissions professionals to learn as much as I can before entering a full-time position in May.

We have two web chats this week that I am putting together so that you can chat with current students! One is our speed chat for students coming directly from undergrad. and it will run from 12:30 - 1:30 pm EST. RSVP here! The other is the "New to Philly" web chat for all of you that are considering moving here! It will run Thursday, the 1st from 7 - 8 EST.RSVP here!

After comps are done, I want to do something fun with the cohort! ooh, and since I will have a little more time I should do another assistantship profile.

Also-my best friend is getting married on March 23rd and I just found out last week! She was my maid of honor last August, and I am hers. I felt so awful about taking time off of work and school to go to Seattle, but as Alyssa (my supervisor) said, sometimes life has to come first. Admissions is always busy and no matter what time of year I wanted to do anything it would interrupt with something. After she said that, I felt better about everything. I look forward to seeing my best friend get married!

 The love statue was rainbow instead of red this morning! I LOVE it!

Assistantship Profile Numero Deux & More

Assistantship Profiles Continue!

I hope you liked hearing about Danny's assistantship last week. I enjoyed putting it together and must admit that I am a little over-eager to share the second assistantship profile. This one is with Meryem. She's a full time master's student in the higher education program who attended Messiah College, graduated in 2010, worked in admissions there and then came here to Penn to be a full time student in the Higher Education master's program! Her assistantship is at the Graduate Student Center! She plans orientations for students across the different graduate schools at Penn. She also staffs the desk at the Graduate Student Center, one of the most important resources for Penn graduate students! It is a study and social hub for graduate students with free coffee, a lot of online resources and, --well, now I should defer to the expert, Meryem!

 

In Other News . . .

I also want to let everyone know that we are having an accepted students web chat. It is themed around career changers and students with families, but all are welcome. The chat will run 8 - 9 pm (EST) on Thursday February 23rd. Please join us! I will be there! :) RSVP here.

Are You Telling Me That You Built a Time Machine... Out of a DeLorean?

Lindsey is a pop culture whiz kid. She knows everything there is to know about actors, their awards and she comes with all the best movie recommendations. I, on the other hand, know very little about movies. I tend to find a favorite film (Forrest Gump by  a long shot) and watch it several times rather than branching out. After all, a bad movie is two hours (sometimes more) of your life that you never get back. I don't want to risk wasting time on a bad film. Naturally, Lindsey became highly upset when I admitted I had never seen Back to the Future.

Our shared office space at admissions is pretty small, so I knew I had to see the movie. So, yesterday night I got a copy and watched the movie with my husband. It was a great movie. It is a snapshot of the very edge of creative storytelling circa 1985! Time travel! Fascinating! I won't spoil the story, but I will say that beyond not being a waste of time it is actually a really good film. I have heard mixed things about its sequels though.

My idea now is to go to the movies, to keep up so that in the future I am not seen as pop-culturally deficient! A couple weeks ago, I saw A Dangerous Method at Ritz 5 in the Old City neighborhood. From where I live, it is pretty easy to get out that way. I just have to walk up to Market, hop on the subway for about 5-6 minutes, hop off and walk a couple blocks. From what I can tell, a lot of the movie theaters in Philadelphia are on the east side of the city. There are at least three over there.

There is one by campus as well, but it is a little pricier than the ones on the other side of town. I absolutely love watching movies at home though. it makes me feel like I am getting good use out of the TV I bought at Best Buy when I moved out here.

Next time, I will have to watch another film that Lindsey is upset with me about. Only this time, it is going to be difficult. it is a musical, Newsies, and that is not my style!

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Questions. I have been getting a lot of really great questions in my email from admitted students. Please keep them coming and know that I am happy to share my experiences and answer questions. I certainly do not know the answer to all the questions I get, but Ioften know how to find someone who does! If you have any questions, email me at rbenson@gse.upenn.edu or drop me a line in the comment box below.

Also, I have officially started the job search. I think it might be a tad early, but I have applied to a few positions so keep your fingers crossed!

What I am Up To Lately

Before we start, I just want to let you know that February is the last month of the Alumni Interview Program.  If you're a prospective masters student and are interested in an alumni interview, fill out the request form and submit your application and we'll try to match you with an alum for an interview.  All your materials must be in by the end of the month to be considered.  The alumni interview component of the application is optional, not all interview requests can be accommodated and applicants will not be disadvantaged for not  requesting or receiving an interview.

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Enrollment!

Enrollment management is my favorite class! Last week, we read an article about small private colleges in Iowa and how their enrollment professionals are managing the declining number of high school students in the Midwest. Some of the colleges have under 1,000 students now, when ideally, they would like to have more than twice that. The article is here if you are interested in taking a look.

Declining numbers of students in the Midwest present a serious challenge to small, religiously affiliated colleges in rural environments with small endowments. A few bad years could run them into the ground. In class, we talked about some possible enrollment management strategies for a college in this precarious position and people in class came up with some pretty interesting solutions. Some said the colleges should perhaps look at merging with other college(s) that share a common value system or mission. Another student said that the colleges should develop exchange programs where students at other colleges in the country could study the re for a semester or vice versa. I thought that the colleges might want to penetrate a new geographic area with more population growth potential. It is tricky business to develop an enrollment strategy when resources are scace and the future is less certain then it has been for some of these colleges. A lot of people would not enjoy working under the pressure and anxiety of these circumstances. but, during the discussion, I realized that I would like to work in a place where there were real challenges like there are at these colleges in Iowa.

Out on the Town

I did not have a lot of time this weekend because I opted to do one of my courses in a weekend format - it is only three weekends a semester, but it takes up 16 hours of my weekend on the weekends in which classes are held. This weekend, we focused on negotiation and persuasion. We learned a lot about our own most comfortable styles for both negotiating and persuading. Some of what I learned was not surprising, but other parts were quite a shock and will be pretty useful moving forward. There are 5 negotiation styles and 6 persuasion channels! 

My negotiation style is collaborating with compromising coming in as a close second. The other styles are competing, avoiding and accommodating. My persuasion style relies heavily on data and rational reasoning, with vision and relationships coming in a tie for second place. I do not rely on authority, politics or incentives as much as some other people do. In learning these things about myself, and perhaps more importantly learning that everyone varies in their dominant style of negotiation and persuasion helped me to see what approaches might be more effective in specific contexts. All in all, the class was really useful and fun!

On Saturday night the cohort met up for dinner at La Chacala Feliz in the Fairmount neighborhood. I skipped the dinner part as I wanted to relax after class, but I met up with the cohort for the after dinner festivities part. We started at Chirsta's house, where we socialized for a bit. Then, we walked out to the Urban Spoon! Then, we got to dancing. I don't know if you know this about me, but you probably should: I am one of the first to get on the dance floor, and before you judge, it has nothing to do with inebriated. Dancing is something I enjoy thoroughly. It was a great time!

This week, I am swamped, so I don’t think I will go out even though I have a pretty open weekend. What I will do instead is study for comprehensive exams, which are coming up the last weekend in February!

Assistantship profile number 2 is filmed! I just need to edit!

Introducing Assistantship Profiles!

This time last year, I was a newly accepted student and wondered constantly about next steps . . such as . .  what assistantships were available? . .  and what the assistantships would be like because, to me, the practical is just as important as the intellectual. While I was excited to embark upon a new academic journey, I sought an experience that could bridge my previous professional experience (I should say my modest professional experience) with my future career aspirations.

Some of you already know this, but entering full time master's students in the higher education program work graduate assistantships for approximately 20 hour per week throughout the program.

Just so that you can get a sense of what some of us are doing, I want to post a couple assistantship profile videos of people in the cohort talking about what they do.

Below you can see a profile of Danny's assistantship. I chose to profile Danny first because his position is very different than my own. He works for the Athletic Director at Penn State Abington while I work for the Director of Admissions at Penn GSE. I work in the same building as our classes are held, while he takes public transit to get to his assistantship. I work doing admissions outreach work and event planning while he edits video and ensures that Penn State Abington is in compliance with NCAA athletics regulations. Here is what Danny has to say about the work that he does!! Enjoy!

Accepted!

It's almost my accepted to Penn GSE anniversary! One year ago next Wednesday, I logged into my email as I arrived at work and received an email from Penn GSE with the mysterious subject line:

Your decision is now available

I was scared to death - or at least to the point that I stared at the computer screen for a full five minutes before moving forward. I was so nervous and had no idea what to expect. I logged into ApplyYourself only to find that I had been accepted! Accepted! The first thing I did was call my parents and mentors to personally thank them for helping me along the way. No, that is a lie. The first thing I did was stare at the letter and think about how much it meant for my life, career, future and family. Then I shared the good news with mentors and family. Since Penn GSE was the first school to accept me, it was the first time I knew that if I wanted to move forward with studying Higher Education I could. Then, I thought about what it would mean to drop everything and move across the country to launch my career.


Some of you have recently been accepted as well. This Spring, we have tons of events for accepted students sprinkled throughout the semester that are really accessible even if you can't make it to campus. Join us online or off-campus. We have web chats, speed chats, a virtual preview event and even events in Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami.If you are in one of those areas, be sure to check them out!

A City of Neighborhoods

Toward the end of Winter  break, I was thinking a lot about what makes Philadelphia different than other cities. Most of this reflection was provoked by the fact that my dad and youngest brother came to visit me from California. They have been to various cities throughout the country and in England and Wales, but both said that Philadelphia was just different. I tend to agree.

Philadelphia has a completely different feel than Chicago, San Francisco, New York or D.C. Though I am still new to the area, I tend to think this arises from the notion that Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods, each with its own distinctive flavor and feel. It is also a very walkable city, so it is easy to walk around and get a sense of how the smaller neighborhoods make up the big city. I know that almost by definition all cities have neighborhoods, but Philadelphia is a city defined by the beauty and distinctiveness of its mini-cultures. Over the past few months, I have come to really appreciate the neighborhood feel of Philadelphia because it allows simultaneous access to a large, metropolitan city and the comfortable intimacy of a smaller setting.

Penn GSE students spend a lot of time in a neighborhood called University City. We go to school in this neighborhood and some even live on campus or really close to the Penn. University City is called as such because it is home to Penn, Drexel University, University of the Sciences, Lincoln University Urban Center, The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College and perhaps more that I am forgetting.

Students might also spend a lot of time in Center City. Center City is essentially the downtown district of Philadelphia (though no one calls it 'downtown' here). It's a hub of commercial and social activity in the Philadelphia. The majority of  the city's skyscrapers are here; there's also shopping, restaurants and lots of people. Center City is also home to the famous Philadelphia hangout (and excellent people watching station), Rittenhouse Square. Rittenhouse is a great place to meet up with friends, take a walk, have a picnic or just sit in the heart of one of America's most historically rich cities. It is beautiful during any season or time of day!

I live in a neighborhood that some call Graduate Hospital  for its proximity to Penn Medicine at Rittenhouse. Others call it Schuylkill  because it is right up against the river Schuylkill, while others, still, might simply dub it Southwest Center City  (self-explanatory). Graduate Hospital is home to many medical and nursing students, young families and pet owners. Almost every time I peer out the window onto busy South Street, I see a young mother walking her child to school, a person in 'scrubs', someone pushing a stroller or walking a dog or a couple jogging together. I love living here because it is a neighborhood of young people. I wonder about the career plans of the young medical students or the precious moments that parents and children share on the way to school. It's also a very convenient place for me and my husband to live because it is very close to where he works downtown and is only a fifteen minute walk to Penn GSE. We could not have asked for a more perfectly located place to call home.

And, there are many more neighborhoods that make up Philadelphia. Here,  I have included  one map of the neighborhoods, but the dividing lines and neighborhood names really depend on who you ask. As you read earlier, my neighborhood goes by at least three different names. Philadelphians take pride in being a city of neighborhoods and are generally excited to talk about their favorite neighborhood or the place where they live.Neighborhoods and the ease in moving between them to have a full, diverse Philadelphia experience, I believe, are a big part of what makes this city so unique. Now that I generally know my way around, it is fun to go exploring and find that wonderful Italian restaurant in the Bella Vista or Italian Market section of Philadelphia or enjoy the historic homes of Olde City.

Spring Semester Courses

School and work are back in for the semester and I am thrilled to be back! Soon, I will do a post to review my break, but for now I wanted to share a bit with you about the courses I am taking this term.

I will be taking:
Professional Development
Enrollment Management in Higher Education
Education and Entrepreneurship
Non-Profit Leadership (School of Social Policy and Practice Course)

Then, I am not sure which of the following I would like to take for my fifth class (so many decisions!):
Negotiations (Wharton Business School MBA Course)
Legal Aspects of Education Policy
Economics, Finance and Decision Making in Higher Education