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hi everyone

im taking a year off to tutor children from low income backgrounds for a program very similar to TFA. I was wondering if it will be as good as a soft as TFA? or is TFA in a class of its own? thanks

Tutoring low-income youth is a worthy endeavor and certainly counts as a soft, but I doubt it would be viewed by ad comms as equivalent to TFA. I have to say, I hope it wouldn't be seen as equivalent, because, as a TFA corps member, the level of difficulty is quite different. Someone coming out of TFA has a much different skill set than someone coming out of one-on-one tutoring.

I've heard that TFA actually looks better than having normal work experience as a teacher.

bfigsan wrote:Tutoring low-income youth is a worthy endeavor and certainly counts as a soft, but I doubt it would be viewed by ad comms as equivalent to TFA. I have to say, I hope it wouldn't be seen as equivalent, because, as a TFA corps member, the level of difficulty is quite different. Someone coming out of TFA has a much different skill set than someone coming out of one-on-one tutoring.

+1

I doubt TFA is as good what TLS says TFA is worth.

TFA is seen as very selective (it is) and prestigious (it effectively markets itself as such). Adcomms therefore view it more favorably than many softs, for example, working as a teacher in the exact same school under the exact same conditions as a TFA corps member, although its unclear how meaningful this boost is on admissions.

Employers may or may not have a different view of how valuable the experience is, although they would probably view as superior to most post-graduation public interest work simply because it is a signaling mechanism for "prestige".

Desert Fox wrote:I doubt TFA is as good what TLS says TFA is worth.

I don't know, my cycle has been pretty great so far. In at CCN, full funding at Berkeley for a Ph.D and JD and I only have a 172/3.58...

Anyway, don't do TFA for law school. Do it to do TFA.

EDIT: This is anecdotal but still... I'm very pleasantly surprised.

iteachtenthgrade wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:I doubt TFA is as good what TLS says TFA is worth.

I don't know, my cycle has been pretty great so far. In at CCN, full funding at Berkeley for a Ph.D and JD and I only have a 172/3.58...

Anyway, don't do TFA for law school. Do it to do TFA.

EDIT: This is anecdotal but still... I'm very pleasantly surprised.

3.6/172 seems about right for CCN.

The PhD/JD admissions are basically PhD admissions. I dunno how competitive you were.

Desert Fox wrote:

iteachtenthgrade wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:I doubt TFA is as good what TLS says TFA is worth.

I don't know, my cycle has been pretty great so far. In at CCN, full funding at Berkeley for a Ph.D and JD and I only have a 172/3.58...

Anyway, don't do TFA for law school. Do it to do TFA.

EDIT: This is anecdotal but still... I'm very pleasantly surprised.

3.6/172 seems about right for CCN.

The PhD/JD admissions are basically PhD admissions. I dunno how competitive you were.

They didn't need to offer me anything for the law school. I got in off FR2. And the Ph.D. program is JSP at Boalt, so it should be pretty representative. Cohort is only 8-10.

TFA is a good soft but not in a league of its own. NYC Teaching Fellow is a similar program that follows the TFA platform and boasts essentially the same level of selectivity as TFA. I speak as a NYCTF and someone who works with several TFA members with newly minted bachelors degrees.

As far as law school admissions go, I went from outside top 20 last year (applying right out of undergrad) to T5 with essentially the same numbers and 'softs'.