Ed.D and Ed.M at Harvard Graduate School of Education

Now, after graduation from JFKU, I plan to apply Ed.D (Human Development and Education) and Ed.M program (Human Development and Psychology) at Harvard Graduate School Education. Yesterday, I sent my “passionate” message about my future plan to the chair of my program. She respected my passion and plan, I believe so.

Needless to say, the admission of Harvard is really competitive. Even anyone who lives under a rock knows the fact. Especially, doctorate program is amazingly competitive.

I checked the requirements of the admission, and I found that “GRE test” was required…I thought “What is GRE?” Immediately, I checked it out on Google and took a sample test. In a word, the result was disastrous…in particular verbal section. It seems very difficult for non-native people (especially Japanese) to solve verbal problems. I suppose the hurdle to clear average score of enrolled student (2011) is really high for me.

Ed.D: verbal 670/800,quantitative (math) 720/800, AWA 5.3

Ed.M: verbal 600/800, quantitative 660/800, AWA 4.7

My sample score was: verbal 360/800, quantitative 760/800…I laughed at my score. What’s the gap of my score between verbal and quantitative? I think I don’t need to study math but I definitely have to plan a well-formulated strategy about verbal section soon. For your information, HGSE admission web page says “If your GRE scores are significantly low (i.e., below 460 V, 580 Q, and 3.5 AW), your chances for admission will be greatly reduced.” Oops, I don’t meet even the minimum score of verbal. It’s time to show my ability of type 3, 7, and 8 in the Enneagram. (achiever, enthusiast, challenger) It is said that it is almost impossible for Japanese to get over 600 about verbal section. I’m very lucky because I’m Japanese, and I can enjoy this process.