Ty Moddelmog '08 was offered an $80,000 salary to work at an Atlanta-based consulting firm but decided he did not want to start at the bottom of the corporate ladder, he said. Instead, Moddelmog applied to Teach for America, an organization that recruits recent college graduates to teach in rural and urban schools, after a convincing conversation with a recruitment officer.
"It wasn't even something I was particularly interested in before I talked with the recruiters," Moddelmog said. "They were pretty aggressive in pursuing all Dartmouth seniors."
Teach for America's teachers' salaries range from $25,000 to $44,000, based on placement, according to the web site.
This year was the most competitive in Teach for America's 18-year history, with an acceptance rate of less than 14 percent, according to a Teach for America press release published Wednesday. This year's corps of 3,700 teachers, the largest in the program's history, were selected from a pool of 24,718 applicants. Members will spend two years teaching in low-income schools.
Teach for America attributed this year's success to increased recruitment efforts at more than 400 college campuses across the country. Eleven percent of Yale University's graduating class applied to the program along with nine percent of Harvard University's graduating class, according to a press release.
"It is heartening that so many of our country's future leaders are investing their skills and energy in improving education in the communities where they are most needed," Teach for America Founder and CEO Wendy Kopp said in the press release. "Thousands of talented young people see the potential to solve the problem of educational inequity and the role they can play in the effort."
Lindsay Deane '08 said the opportunity to teach students in disadvantaged communities prompted her to apply.
"I'm really interested in working with children who haven't been given as many resources as some of the students at Dartmouth," Deane said.
For Moddelmog, the ability to teach in a classroom, rather than taking orders from superiors, led him to choose Teach for America.
"It's really the opportunity to do, versus the opportunity to learn," Moddelmog said. "With Teach for America, I'll be actively leading a classroom. It was about doing something, rather than spending the next couple years learning a new trade."
Teach for America's recruitment process takes place four times between September and February every year, according to the organization's web site. After submitting an initial application online, selected applicants participate in a phone interview.
The organization then invites finalists to participate in a full-day interview, in which they teach a sample lesson, complete a problem-solving activity and participate in a group discussion. Once students are selected, the training process takes only five weeks, according to the program's web site -- significantly less time than a conventional teacher certification program, which normally takes a full year.
The program offers participants a number of incentives, including close partnerships with top graduate schools and employers, many of whom offer two-year employment deferrals, according to the web site.
Deane, a double major in environmental studies and engineering sciences modified with studio art, said she thought the level of competition this year enabled the program to select the best students for each position.
"I think they're trying to recruit the most able people, the people who are going to be the most successful in the teaching positions," she said.
