The University of New Mexico

I did an M.A. in Teaching ESL through evening and summer classes. THere is no funding available through the department for MA students, although a professor wrote a grant to get scholarships (which has since been dissolved by the federal government). The faculty is wonderful-- kind, approachable, helpful. They're really there for the students. However, the program/department is too philosophical and not practical enough. There was not enough methodology. I do not, having graduated, really feel ready to teach an ESL class (particularly to adults). Looking at other ESL programs at other universities, it seems there are many that are more oriented towards actually training you to be a successful teacher. However, the tuition was affordable (everyone gets in-state if they take only 1-2 classes, and summer classes are 2 for the price of 1). It was a fairly easy program to take full time while teaching in the public schools, except for the annoying fact that many of the evening classes started at 4 pm, and one can generally not teach in the public elementary schools and make it to 4 pm classes. (This is not the department's fault, but rather the universities building policies). PS. From what I've noticed the CDP program to train teachers who already have BA's but no licensure is a STRONG program that DOES really prepare people to be teachers, as much as any program can.