I stumbled upon the online MESA certificate because I needed a program that was fully asynchronous due to my full-time job. Since this was my first foray into online instruction, I was a bit hesitant. I’m happy to report that I couldn’t have made a better choice! In fact, the courses were so thorough that I decided to enroll in the MEd program after completing the certificate. The faculty were knowledgeable, approachable, and quite skillful at leveraging the online nature of the program. I can honestly say that MESA changed my career path completely: in a few months, I’ll be starting a PhD program in educational measurement at UC Berkeley. Two years ago, that never would have been an option!