Here are some tips for selecting schools, based on an analysis comparing each school to all others across dozens of factors:
Schools Concentrating On Secondary School Teachers
- Focus: For schools with a focus on this career area, look at Berklee, Cambridge College, Northeastern, and Emerson.
Fastest Response From Schools
- Request Info: For the fastest information for prospective students, look at the Spotlight schools on this page.
Student Body
- Part-Time: For schools emphasizing part-time studies, consider Longy, The New England Conservatory of Music, UMass Boston, and Worcester State.
- Female: For schools particularly welcoming to female students, consider Smith College, Wheelock College, Simmons College, and Regis College.
- Diverse: For a diverse student body, consider Atlantic Union, Endicott, Cambridge College, and BU.
- Adult Learners: For lots of adult learners, consider Lesley, Atlantic Union, Fitchburg State, and Framingham State.
School Setting
- Out of State: For geographic diversity, take note of Berklee, Smith College, Emerson, and BU.
- Dorms: For a residential campus environment, take note of Lasell, Gordon, Smith College, and Merrimack College.
Excellence
- SAT: For students with high SAT scores, look at Tufts University, Brandeis, BC, and Northeastern.
- % Accepted: For selective institutions, look at Tufts University, BC, Brandeis, and The New England Conservatory of Music.
- Class Size: For small class sizes, look at Hebrew College, The New England Conservatory of Music, Smith College, and Tufts University.
Student/Alumnus Reviews of Schools for This Career and State
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Framingham State College • Framingham, MA
Studying K-12 Spanish Education (Undergrad); International Education (Post Grad) (completion in 2006)
• 10/29/2011
"I had a good time socially. I learned a lot academically."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | The school in general is wonderful. The program I think is normal. Education is a very large field and they try to weed out people in the lower level courses, which is annoying but probably necessary. |
| Program Reputation | 9 | I honestly do not know their nationally recognized rating. However, I feel that they do a good job at preparing educators for the most part. |
| Program Quality | 7 | The major for general education was not very realistic and did not prepare me well (except for student teaching). However, my methods class which was specifically for my subject area, prepared me well. |
| Instruction | 7 | I had several instructors who emphasized jumping through hoops and doing work that was not related to education. I had other instructors, however, that taught me methodology and management well. |
| How Difficult | 7 | Sometimes the workload was immense. For example, during student teaching I was swamped. However, it was not stressful, it was just a lot of work to do and not enough time. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | We were assigned field experiences. However, sometimes the field experiences were not related to what we wanted to do. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 6 | There were no weekend classes offered. Summer classes were available but were mostly general education classes. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | I always went to a free tutor to practice my Spanish. We had wonderful classrooms. |
| Social Life | 10 | We had field day which brought all the students together. RAs were integral to campus life. We had chapel twice a week. |
| Placement Services | I am not aware of any official job placement services that I can remember. However, I could be mistaken. | |
| Alumni Network | 8 | My school keeps students connected using Facebook. They also do a good job at sending out announcements. There is also an alumni area on their website. |
Boston University • Boston, MA
Studying Mathematics And Statistics (completion in 1999)
• 11/4/2011
"I found my college years to be intellectually challenging and socially engaging. From the urban environment to the community feeling, it was a great experience for me."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Great professors. Great reputation. Diverse environment. I would recommend it highly. |
| Program Reputation | 7 | I'm not too familiar with the current rating of Boston University's math program, as I have been away from it for many years. However, when I attended, it was a highly reputable program in the New England area. |
| Program Quality | 9 | On the whole, my professors were inspiring and provided an excellent learning environment. I was given many opportunities to grow and challenge myself academically. |
| Instruction | 9 | There were many brilliant instructors that provided interesting lectures. I was consistently surrounded by hardworking students and teaching assistants. |
| How Difficult | 7 | Because the school was rather large, there was much opportunity to select the most appropriate courses. If courses were too challenging or too simple, many alternatives existed. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | My program of study was very book learning oriented (math). However, I knew of many astronomy, geology, and education majors who spent a good bit of their class time using hands-on learning. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 7 | I have been away from school for a while, but online classes weren't very popular when I was in school. However, summer courses and evening classes were plentiful. |
| Academic Facilities | 8 | Specialized libraries, tutoring centers, and computer labs were plentiful and open 24 hours. Office hours for professors were limited, but always offered. |
| Social Life | 8 | I met my husband in college! Hockey games were popular, as well as performance groups. Fraternities were not popular. |
| Placement Services | 8 | Career Services offered many opportunities for internships. Also, because the school was in a metropolitan area, there were many on-campus recruiting opportunities. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | I don't take advantage of many of the social and networking opportunities offered by the alumni association of Boston University. Mainly, it is a time constraint on my end. |
Worcester State College • Worcester, MA
Studying Secondary Ed (completion in 2006)
• 11/30/2011
"I was able to earn a degree on my own schedule. It was affordable."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | I would let others know about their flexibility and affordability. I would also tell others that many of the buildings on the campus are new. |
| Program Reputation | 8 | Many teachers that I know go to this school for post-grad work. I haven't heard bad things from my coworkers when discussing the school. |
| Program Quality | 8 | The school is very affordable. The school also has many night classes. |
| Instruction | 6 | Some of the professors seemed to care and give you personal help/criticism on your work, while other professors seemed to only care what time the class was over. |
| How Difficult | 5 | Putting in the bare minimum effort for many classes would get you a B in the course. Some professors never really looked at your work to see if you followed the directions. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | In my course of study, there was only one course that was hands on. For that course, you needed a computer to complete your assignments. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | No matter what you have available, the school would generally have a course offering for that timeslot. If the class you needed was not available, there would still be other courses that could fit your requirements. |
| Academic Facilities | 6 | The school was in the process of putting up new buildings. Some of the buildings were older. |
| Social Life | 4 | I didn't go there to socialize with the other students. The students in the courses with me were always friendly. |
| Placement Services | 2 | The school did not ask about current employment. The school also did not ask about future employment. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | I don't have much experience with the alumni network. Every so often, the alumni will mail me a flyer. |
UMass Amherst • Amherst, MA
Studying Education (completion in 2006)
• 1/1/2012
"As I stated before, I went to UMass for undergrad as well as grad, so I am very satisfied with my education. I have a very successful career that I love."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Definitely. I received an excellent education, at a decent cost. It is a state school, so it is much cheaper than a private school. |
| Program Reputation | 8 | UMass is known for their excellent education program. There are not many schools in the area that have the same program that I participated in. |
| Program Quality | 10 | I participated in the Bridges to the Future program at UMass. It was a one year, intensive Master's degree program where at completion you will earn your degree, plus your initial license in your subject area. In addition, instead of student teaching, we had clinical teaching which had us teaching two classes for a full year, as opposed to a half year of observation and teaching of one course. |
| Instruction | 10 | My professors were extremely knowledgable and helpful. Many of them were also classroom teachers. In addition, my mentor teacher was amazing, and I feel that it was due to her that I consider myself a successful teacher. |
| How Difficult | 9 | It was a one year program. Most Master's degrees in Education take two years, so it was intensive. We would spend all day at our schools, then have courses at night. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | I can only speak for my program, but it was much more hands-on with having experience in the classroom. While there was some book work, it was mostly discussion based. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 5 | From what I remember, UMass did not offer many weekend courses, but there were a few night courses available. I also think you could take summer courses, but they didn't offer many. |
| Academic Facilities | 8 | UMass has one of the best college libraries in the state, the WEB DuBois library. In addition, the School of Education had many resources available for their students, and my advisors were often available through office hours or email for assistance. |
| Social Life | 8 | UMass is the largest school in the state. There were hundreds of organizations to get involved in at the school. I also studied at UMass for my undergrad, and was in the UMass Minuteman Marching Band. |
| Placement Services | I did not take part in the job placement services. I can't really give an educated answer on this question. | |
| Alumni Network | 7 | I get frequent emails from UMass about alumni gatherings. However, many of them are not for people in my field, and I get too many phone calls from them asking for money. |
Lesley University • Boston, MA
Studying Technology In Education (completion in 2007)
• 3/10/2012
"Pretty easy program. Different instructor for each course, but we always met in the same satellite building."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | maybe | I honestly have not heard the mention of Lesley University lately among my colleagues. I don't know if they are still offering courses there, but I would still recommend the program. |
| Program Reputation | 8 | Non-computer literates were extremely positive about the program and information. The one-weekend-a-month design was popular. |
| Program Quality | 5 | There really wasn't much "new" content throughout the program. The cohort group was restricted to a group vote on which elective courses to take. |
| Instruction | 5 | Some of the course content was focused on already outdated software. Instructors were restricted by hardware issues in the building. |
| How Difficult | 5 | I had already been teaching software courses, so I was not overly challenged. Some instructors were unclear as to their expectations. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Most of the coursework was completed using technology. Researching/finding new classroom uses for technology was the focus of the entire program. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 7 | Two people in my cohort group were able to temporarily join another cohort group for a specific course they were not able to attend during our one-weekend-a-month program. For those who like a one-night, weekly class situation, they seemed content with how the program was run. |
| Academic Facilities | 4 | This satellite program was held in my local district's building. Computers were too "locked down" for some software applications to run properly. |
| Social Life | Satellite program. Full-time teachers seeking their master's degrees. | |
| Placement Services | 1 | I don't remember any attempt to help in this area. This was a master's degree program, so I wouldn't have expected it. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | The school alumni association does contact me regularly through mail. I really have no connection to the school at all, as I completed my program through a satellite situation 100s of miles from the campus. |
Salem State University • Salem, MA
Studying History (completion in 2011)
• 3/23/2012
"Great price for tuition for the education I received. There were way too many general core requirements to finish on time."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | My school was great for my field. The experience living on campus was not the best, though. |
| Program Reputation | 9 | It is one of the best in the state. It is always up to date. |
| Program Quality | 5 | The textbooks are outdated. The department is unorganized. |
| Instruction | 8 | The program I completed was a great one. I have had lesson plans ready since I completed a course on them. I get ready for the day the night before. |
| How Difficult | 8 | You are basically a double major when you are in education. It was a lot of work to be done in a short amount of time. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | It depended on the teacher. Some were better than others with hands on. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 4 | Courses vary every semester. It was hard to finish on time. |
| Academic Facilities | 8 | There was help available if you needed it. The library was a great resource. |
| Social Life | 4 | I ran cross country, but I truly felt no connection to the school. It was not a special feeling to be there. |
| Placement Services | 4 | I never used the service. It never seemed welcoming. |
| Alumni Network | 6 | The alumni really don't care. We do not have a strong presence at the school. |
University Of Massachusetts • Lowell, MA
Studying Social Studies, Education 6-12 (completion in 2009)
• 4/11/2012
"I am satisfied with UMASS. I got a degree, I have a job. I would like to make more money but UMASS does not control that."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | UMASS offers a strong Education program and I felt very prepared upon graduation. |
| Program Reputation | 7 | Most school districts look towards UMASS for entry level teachers. |
| Program Quality | 7 | I felt educated and prepared when graduating. I was able to be successful in the classroom and school and have always received strong evaluations. |
| Instruction | 5 | My training had very little to do with classroom/ behavior management. This is the bulk of the responsibilities for a classroom teacher. |
| How Difficult | 5 | It has never been hard for me to remember facts and write about them. This was the bulk of what was required from my professors. The most difficult part was the amount of time that it took for research. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | We were responsible for student teaching as well as filling our days with "book learning". I feel there was a 50/50 mix but would have liked more field time. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 5 | Not very flexible for the summer. The rest of the year the school offers a variety of courses at various times. |
| Academic Facilities | 6 | The Library is HUGE at UMASS. This tends to be a secondary resource these days due to the fact that electronic media is available for most articles. |
| Social Life | 5 | Lots of parties at UMASS. This does not seem to be to much different from most schools. |
| Placement Services | 7 | I was given career advice, interview preparation, resume help and guidance about applying for jobs. My professors wrote strong recommendations and many of them are still part of my professional network. |
| Alumni Network | 7 | I have met up with many of my fellow Alum. They seem to be everywhere. I have not made job connections as a result but we do exchange some good stories. |
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