Common Questions on Application Form and Admissions

Fellow References:

Please be sure to download the reference form (a word document) on Page 3, the “References” portion of the application.  Forward this to one of your references, and have them complete this form and mail it to fellowreferences@teachforindia.org.  Your application will be considered complete even if your reference has not mailed in this form by the application deadline; However, if you make it to the Assessment Centre stage, you will not be able to sign-up until we receive the form (Those invited to Assessment Centres will be able to sign-up in mid-October).  Therefore, we HIGHLY recommend your reference submits the recommendation forms by 11 October.

All applicants (college students, working professionals and others) are required to fill-out this section and ask one reference to send the completed form to us. We will accept references from teachers, mentors, professors, managers, advisors and supervisors.  We will not accept references from friends or family members.

In case you forget to download the recommendation form on  Page 3, it also appears once you submit the application.

GPA/percentage/cumulative average

We have gotten many questions about the GPA sections of our application.  GPA stands for “Grade Point Average” and is the average of the final grades of ALL of the coursework you have completed in undergraduate or post-graduate studies up to this point.   Some institutions will calculate this for you; in other cases, you may have to calculate this yourself using your marksheets or transcripts from your completed coursework.  Please note that if you attend an Assessment Centre, we will ask for copies of your marksheets or transcripts to confirm your GPA.

When will I hear back?

You will either be invited to an Assessment Centre or phone interview approximately 4 weeks after you submit your application.  Please reach out to us at admissions@teachforindia.org if you have not heard back from us during that time.

Essays:

Essays are your chance to tell Teach For India about yourself in your own words. Please spend time thinking about how you will answer your questions, and learn about Teach For India—by talking to staff members, reading our website, watching our video and reading media articles—before answering the essay questions.

Please ensure that you have checked your essays for spelling and grammar, and answered each question fully. We recommend that you show your essays to someone who can help you proofread to make sure that you submit a polished copy

Technical Issues: Post-Grad Section

Due to a glitch in our application, some applicants were not able to complete Page 2 of the Application  if they did not enter information in about their postgraduate studies.  Of course, many of our applicants have not studied in a postgraduate course, and therefore did not have information to enter in this field.  We have fixed this problem, and encourage you to go back to Page 2 and complete the form if you were not able to due to this glitch.  However, if you start filling out the post-grad section, you will be required to fill out the entire section. (the same goes for the Extra-curricular section)

Saving application changes
The online application is designed to let you complete various sections on your own time before you submit the final version. At the bottom of each Page (1-4) you will see a button that says “Save and proceed.” You must click this button for changes to be saved to your application.

• If you have not filled all required sections on a page, you will get an error message that tells you which required sections you have not completed when you click ‘save and proceed.” Do not worry—your changes have still been saved—but you must fill out these required sections before you can submit the application (Page 5).
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you click submit, you will NOT be able to go back and see or alter your application.  For this reason, we recommend that you save information from the application on a Word document for your own reference.

The Admissions team will only review your application once you submit “submit” on
page 5.  They will NOT look at your application while you are still working on it.

What is the Admissions Criteria?

We are looking for people who have demonstrated ambitious results in leadership roles, and have the commitment to take on the challenge of obtaining unprecedented academic goals in low-resource schools.   Most of our current Fellows have held leadership positions in college or at work. Additionally, we are looking for people who have great communication skills and problem solving abilities.

The minimum qualification is a Bachelor's degree, although most of our Fellows have work experience and many have post-graduate degrees as well. Applicants must be fluent in English, as we place solely in English-medium schools, and also should be born on or after 1 January 1970. We accept people of diverse backgrounds, as we truly believe that all types of leaders will be excellent in the classroom.

What is Teach For India’s admissions process?

Teach For India is looking for the country’s best young leaders to tackle the immense problem of educational inequity.  Our admissions process is rigorous and selective at every stage to ensure that our admitted Fellows are up to the challenge of teaching in a low-resourced school for two years.

The first step of the admissions process is an online application. The Fellowship application is now available on our website, visit our Apply Now section. You will be able to access the application at any time using your unique Username (e-mail ID) and password. The application will be open until 17 January, 2010, but we encourage applicants to apply before one of our deadlines: 11 October, 2009 (early), 22 November, 2009 (regular), 17 January, 2009 (final).

After we receive your application, our admissions team will review it and, within 4 weeks of submission, tell you whether you have been selected to attend an Assessment Centre or phone interview.  The first set of Assessment Centres will occur  during the week of 9 November, 2009 and will occur approximately every six weeks until mid February, 2010. We will hold Assessment Centres in the following cities:   Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkatta.  We may also hold Assessment Centres in a limited number of US cities.

Assessment Centres are the final stage of the admissions process, and our chance to really learn about you and your interest in Teach For India.  During the full-day Assessment Centre, applicants will teach a 5-minute lesson, participate in a group discussion, complete a case study, and undergo a one-on-one interview.

Can foreign citizens in apply?

Teach For India welcomes applications from people around the world.  We apply the same admissions criteria to all applicants, regardless of country of origin.  If you are not an Indian citizen, or are not currently living in India, please take note of three important facts.  First, we will only hold Assessment Centres in India and, depending on the applicant pool, may also hold them in one or two U.S. Cities and London. If invited to an Assessment Centre, you will be informed of the exact dates and locations of non-Indian Assessment Centres. People residing outside of those areas will need to travel to an Assessment Centre location. Second, if accepted into the program, foreign citizens will need to apply for and receive a valid visa to work in India before the Fellowship starts in May/June, 2010. Finally, successful applicants not based in India will be asked to undergo a short, additional phone interview to discuss their fit for this program.