Application Review Criteria for
Elementary Teacher Education Program Admission Why is admission to Elementary Teacher Education so competitive? - The College of Education is a professional school, just like the Colleges of Law, Dentistry, Nursing, etc.
- A cap on the number of admissions exists in order to assure small class sizes and access to a limited number of field experience placements in the community.
- The College of Education intends its teacher graduates to achieve excellence in the program and in the field post-graduation.
Approximately 2/3 of the overall admissions judgment is based on GPA. This means that your GPA is the most important feature of your application profile. The extent to which your GPA is above the minimum 2.7 is the extent to which you can best project your odds of being admitted into the teacher education program. The faculty looks at your overall GPA, the patterns of improvement or decline in your grades, and your ability to achieve good grades in your classes. In most semesters, a 2.7 cumulative GPA is not high enough for admission due to the competitive pool of strong applicants. And, a strong GPA alone does not guarantee admission. The remaining 1/3 of the admissions judgment is based on the rest of your application file: Recommendations When arranging for your recommendations, ask someone who can speak to your academic skills in college and to your experiences with school-age children. (Your kindergarten teacher from home or the manager from your high school job are not the strongest choices.) So that recommendations work in your favor, ask “Could you provide me a positive recommendation for the Elementary Education Program?” Experience Try to document as much experience as you can with elementary school-age children, especially in school settings. Your time with children will confirm your desire to work in the field of education and provide a rich context of experience for your future courses in the College. Essay Try to make your essay persuasive, interesting and free of spelling and grammatical errors. You may want to visit the Writing Center for assistance (http://www.uiowa.edu/~writingc/). College credit earned The number of semester hours of earned college credit is considered. Praxis scores Finally, the Praxis exam is not only used to qualify you for admission; the scores are also used for selection purposes. There is no way to predict acceptance rates, but these are recent trends in admission to the Teacher Education Program in Elementary Education: | Admission deadline in | Average UI gpa of admitted students* | Percent of applicants not admitted | Percent of applicants admitted with cumulative gpa 2.70-2.99 | | Spring 2008 | 3.33 | 32% | 17% | | Fall 2008 | 3.22 | 19% | 69% | | Spring 2009 | 3.28 | 16% | 56% | | Fall 2009 | 3.27 | 25% | 65% | | Spring 2010 | 3.20 | 9% | 78% | | Fall 2010 | 3.24 | 4% | 100% | | Spring 2011 | 3.11 | 11% | 72% | *Not including applicants under the Special Consideration Policy |