Class notes
Some notes on my experience of the "Social Sciences in Education" master's program at Stanford University
I cannot dis-reccommend this program enough. From beginning to end, it completely failed to provide me with what I needed, and the administrative circus surrounding it was nothing short of astounding. I should emphasize that this is not the fault of the individual professors involved, who were all interesting, knowledgeable, and engaging people; the structure of the program itself, and the University which offers it, are at fault.
I went into the program hoping to ... well. Let's not start there. I applied to the "Evaluation and Educational Administration" program, as I wanted to focus on gaining evaluation-specific job skills in order to move into more interesting Research Analyst/Associate types of positions. I was aware that a one-year Master's program might not be a very in-depth experience, but I was sure that I could at least gain a strong grounding in basic quantitative and qualitative methodology and industry-standard software programs. One month before applications were due (I had already submitted mine) they cancelled the program. I hurriedly examined their other programs to see if I could find the skills I needed through one of those, and asked to have my application switched to the "Social Sciences in Education" program, which accepted me.
I don't want to linger on the various failures of the program (one intro quant class, one intro qual class, and no intermediate-level follow ups, one twelve-hour seminar on SPSS and nothing more, no intensive training with qualitative software packages, no evaluation-specific courses, etc.) Suffice it to say that it was designed to be an academic rather than a vocational program, and that even after arranging some independent studies and readings in evaluation, I still exited with a small set of new skills, a slightly larger set of new knowledge, and an enormous understanding of what I needed to know and still lacked. Oh, well, at least I had my diploma, right? The Stanford name, etc.
Not so fast. It turned out that I did not, in fact, have a Stanford diploma. No, due to a bizarre series of events involving my registering for a crosslisted statistics class under the wrong number, a staffing change in the master's program, the paperwork required by the University to fix it, and a professor's absence from campus on the day it all went down, I had not submitted all my paperwork to graduate in time to do so with my class. No big deal, I thought; I'm already employed, I'll just graduate next semester. I went off, got married, started my new job, and let it drop. But when I called them back to arrange my graduation, I got a nasty shock. "Oh no," I was told. "You must be enrolled to graduate. Send the proper paperwork and $3000 tuition in, and we'd be happy to grant you your diploma."
I railed. I reasoned. I cajoled. The School of Education finally, graciously, offered to split the tuition cost with me, but that's all I could manage to get in the way of concessions. Not having an "extra" $1500 around, I was forced to delay even that. Finally, two years later, I couldn't wait any more. I was about to look for a new job, and I needed Stanford to confirm the degree on my resume. I emptied out the savings account I had started for my newborn son and ponied up. This "tuition" did not, by the way, include any course-taking privileges, and the University still will refuse to confirm my 2004 graduation date, insisting instead that I graduated in Fall 2006.
And they lost my check. When I got the bill for the amount I had already paid, I called to see what had happened. They lost my "help request." I called again. They somehow thought I was my own mother and denied me information about my "daughter's" account. I cleared that up. They informed me I should check with my bank to see if my check had been cashed. I told them I had already done so and that that was why I was contacting them in the first place.
That's where we are right now, and I don't care if they hand-courier me the damn diploma tomorrow and take back the billing, at this point. I am so over Stanford University and their ridiculous inability to deal with my paperwork even as they demand ever more money. Some day they will send me an alumna fundraising letter and I will remind them of all of this in wild, red-eyed, rabid detail and tell them where to stick their funding request. In the meantime, I remain at the mercy of the most bungling agglomeration of red-tape and bureaucratic bullshit it has ever been my displeasure to encounter. Boo, Stanford University. Boo.
And now, on to what I did get from my year at Stanford University...
SPRING SEMESTER (My Stats 160 notes are handwritten, sorry)
SSE MA Seminar, Evaluation directed reading, School-Based Decision-Making, Politics of Education (audit), Intro Statistics, Evaluation directed project.
NEW order - most recent to least recent!!
5/6/04 Decision Making
5/4/04 Eval Directed Reading
4/29/04 Decision Making
4/27/04 Eval Directed Reading
4/26/04 Politics of Education
4/22/04 Decision Making
4/21/04 Politics of Education
4/20/04 Eval Directed Reading
4/19/04 Politics of Education
4/15/04 Decision Making
4/14/04 Politics of Education
4/12/04 Politics of Education
4/8/04 Decision Making
4/7/04 Politics of Education
4/7/04 Eval reading (I'll try to hunt it up, can't remember where I put it)
4/1/04 School-Based Decision Making
3/31/04 SSE MA Seminar
WINTER SEMESTER
SSE MA Seminar, Intro Data Analysis and Interpretation, History of School Reform, Online Learning Communities, Evaluation directed project
1/6/04 History of School Reform
1/7/04 Policy Analysis in Education
1/7/04 Online Learning Communities
1/7/04 SSE MA Seminar
1/8/04 History
1/13/04 History
1/13/04 Quant
1/14/04 Evaluation
1/14/04 SSE MA
1/15/04 History
1/16/04 OLC
1/20/04 History
1/20/04 Quant
1/21/04 SSE MA
1/22/04 History
1/22 & 27/04 Quant
1/27/04 History
1/28/04 Evaluation
1/28/04 OLC
1/28/04 SSE MA
1/28/04 Career Workshop
1/29/04 History
History short paper 1
1/29/04 Quant
2/3/04 History
2/3/04 Quant
2/4/04 OLC
2/4/04 SSE MA (survey lecture and group work, no notes)
2/5/04 History
2/3/04 Quant
2/11/04 OLC (missed class)
2/11/04 SSE MA
2/12/04 History
2/12/04 Quant
2/17/04 History
2/17/04 Quant
2/18/04 OLC
2/18/04 SSE MA
2/19/04 History - I was in class this day, but can't find my notes.
2/19/04 Quant
2/24/04 History
2/24/04 Quant
2/25/04 Eval
2/25/04 OLC
2/25/04 SSE MA
2/26/04 History
2/26/04 Quant - same as 2/24
2/27/04 History
2/27/04 Quant
3/3/04 Eval
3/3/04 OLC
3/3/04 SSE MA
FALL SEMESTER
SSE MA Seminar, Intro Economics of Education, Intro Qualitative Analysis, Intro Education Policy Analysis, Intro Data Analysis and Interpretation (audit)
9/24/2003 SSE MA Seminar
9/25/2003 Intro to the Econ of Ed
9/25/2003 Intro to Data Analysis (150X)
9/25/2003 Intro to Qualitative (151X)
9/30/2003 Econ
9/30/2003 Quant
9/30/2003 Intro to Policy Analysis
10/1/2003 SSE MA
10/2/2003 Econ
10/2/2003 Quant
10/2/2003 Qual
10/7/2003 Econ
10/7/2003 Quant
10/7/2003 Policy
10/8/2003 SSE MA (Faculty Panel)
10/9/2003 Econ
10/9/2003 Qual
10/14/2003 Econ (I missed class)
10/14/2003 Quant
10/14/2003 Policy
10/15/2003 SSE MA (I missed class)
10/16/2003 Econ
10/16/2003 Quant
10/16/2003 Qual
10/21/2003 Quant
10/21/2003 Policy
10/22/2003 SSE MA
10/23/2003 Econ
10/23/2003 Quant
10/23/2003 Qual (I can't find my notes, even though I know I took plenty.)
10/27/2003 SPSS
10/28/2003 Quant
10/28/2003 Policy
10/29/2003 SSE MA
10/30/2003 Econ
10/30/2003 Quant
10/30/2003 Qual
11/4/2003 Econ
11/4/2003 Quant
11/4/2003 Policy
11/5/2003 SSE MA
11/6/2003 Econ
11/6/2003 Qual
11/11/2003 Econ
11/11/2003 Policy