pulpoperdida42

Hi all, would love feedback on my SOP for Columbia MPH/MIA, but feel a little weird about doing the post it directly to the thread thing. I'd be happy to give feedback on anyone's MPH and or MPA/MIA essay, if they would be willing to read mine as well. Direct message me or just respond telling me how I can contact you, and we can set something up

Thought I would try posting this here in an effort to cover my bases...I'm a current Georgetown RA whose job is ending earlier than expected for funding reasons. My landlord, has agreed to let me out of the lease early if I can find someone else to take my room. It's a good spot for a grad student. Small, furnished room in a shared house in Dupont for 1075 all inclusive. Here is the rundown which I'm c/ping from other ads. The apartment is in Dupont 17th and R (1629 R). Its really an incredible neighborhood with lots of bars and shops and restaurants all within a block or so. Extremely safe, with lots of things to do. There are 3 different metro stops that are all within a 10-15 minute walk from the house (U Street, Farragut North, and Dupont Circle). Of these the closest is the Dupont Circle metro stop which is about a 10 minute walk away (4 blocks, roughly). It's a 3 story row house with a total of 8 bedrooms/roommates. You would be taking one of the rooms on the third floor. There are bathrooms on each floor, so you would share the third floor bathroom with 2 other people. On the first floor there is also a large kitchen with a washer/dryer and a common space with couches and a tv, which everyone shares. Everyone is a student or a young professional in their mid-twenties. A few people are international (from Pakistan, Colombia, and France, respectively) so that makes for the occasional fun conversation. The house actually stays surprisingly quiet most of the time, since people often keep to their rooms. But everyone is definitely friendly and open. Available Aug 1 with some flexibility. Let me know i you are interested. Email threadofgrace@gmail.com.

Thanks! I just made a date to talk with someone there!

I'll look, thanks!

Thanks this is very helpful! I've definitely thought a lot about an MPH. I think I started drifting away from it because I realized I am more interested in the socio-cultural aspects of health (the "squishy" side of health research, as my current boss likes to say, i.e. how do you design a public health campaign for recent immigrants, how do people coming from x country understand the role of doctors, etc. ) and it seemed like most MPH programs I saw were more geared to giving you technical skills etc. I can do the quantitative thing if necessary, and if its getting me towards a greater goal, but its not really where I want to spend my professional life. Frankly, I know the subject area I want to work on: the intersection of health, gender, and immigration issues, but I am still not really clear where I want to work and that's what's making my choice of programs difficult. I don't think this is a matter of not having enough work experience-I'm over 3 years out and have worked in a variety of different environments, I think I'm just flexible and could imagine myself in a lot of different environments, so I think its unlikely that I would have a big revelation if I worked a little longer. Plus I'm really ready to go back to school and I'm also sick of only qualifying for entry level jobs in most places! Ideally, sure I would love to be proactive and have an impact on the world, but I also am coming to realize that my strengths are definitely academia, and specifically the social sciences. I've definitely thought about different kinds of provider licenses, I was thinking seriously about midwifery for awhile, but I don't know that I have the self confidence to make potentially life threatening decisions for people! I've been fantasizing about some kind of a joint anth/ir degree, but I have yet to quite find one!

Hi All, Thought I'd throw my hat into the ring and see what you all think. I'm looking at programs for fall 2014. I have a lot of health related work experience at the moment, and for a while I was strongly considering an MPH, but I've come to the conclusion that I'm actually more interested in coming at health issues from an IR/human rights perspective and I'd like to eventually develop a focus around the intersection of health, gender, and immigration/refugee issues. Any programs you would suggest? Thoughts about my background? (As a side note, I'm considering NYU in large part because my father is on staff there, so I could get free tuition, which is a serious draw. However, I suspect I have a chance to get into a slightly better ranked program. Although maybe I'm wrong there? Also, because I'm currently working, in an related capacity, at Georgetown, I'm crossing my fingers that might help me with SFS) Program Applied To (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.): MIA/MIR (Possibly MPP at HKS?) Schools Applying To: (All a very prelim. list) HKS, Fletcher, Georgetown, GW, AU New School, NYU, SIPA, SAIS, Harris Undergraduate institution: Mount Holyoke College Undergraduate GPA: 3.89 PBK Undergraduate Majors: Politics GRE Quantitative Score: 166 GRE Verbal Score: 156 GRE AW Score: 5 Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 3 (+ a gap year before college) Years of Work Experience: 4 Describe Relevant Work Experience: 1 year as a case worker at an immigrant health clinic, (the case worker job plus my gap year position were both part of 2 different AmeriCorps programs) 1 year teaching english in Spain as a Fulbright Scholar, 1 year working in health policy research at georgetown, UG internship at a refugee organization in Ecuador, Semester Abroad in Mexico (with research experience) Languages: Fluent Spanish, intermediate Arabic Quant: 1 semester of stats (A) and 2 semesters of Econ (pass fail) Strength of SOP: Nothing written yet, but I am a very strong writer, so I feel good about my chances for making my case here Strength of LOR (be honest, describe the process, etc): I definitely have a UG politics professor who loves me and who would write me a great reference and I feel pretty confident that I could get good references from my recent bosses.

So, on paper the MIA at the New School looks really attractive to me. Its exactly the kind of program I am looking for, and I really love the idea of being New York City. However, it doesn't seem to be affiliated with APSIA, and in general I can't find too much information about the program outside of the program website. Anyone know much about it? Should I stay far away from anything not APSIA affiliated, or is that not necessarily a deal breaker?

Hi, I'm in the early stages of looking at grad programs, and lately I've been more and more intrigued by the idea of Medical Anthropology, but I have some really basic questions about the field/and the degree that I would love to clarify before I start looking more seriously. A little bit about me: I'm in my mid twenties and have bounced around a bit between different fields during the years since undergrad. My BA is in Poly Sci and I spent a lot of my college years exploring the intersections between immigration and gender in Latin America and the Middle East. (I speak fluent Spanish and intermediate Arabic). During my semester abroad, I researched indigenous midwifery in Mexico, and began to think about cultural paradigms of health and disease. After college I spent a year working as a case worker in a spanish speaking health clinic, where I I discovered I really loved working on health issues relating to disenfranchised populations, and I was especially interested in how conflicting cultural notions of health and healthcare affected the kind of care my patients were getting. After going abroad to teach English, I came back and worked for a year as a research assistant at Medicaid focused health policy institute. I had thought at the time, that I was probably interested in going to either an MPH program or a public policy program, but after having spent a year at this job and having done extensive research on those kinds of programs, I think they're not quite what I'm looking for. Those seem to tend to be very quantitative, based around learning technical skills, etc. and while I can handle that if necessary, its not where I want to spend my time. I'm still thinking very seriously about an IR masters, which would give me the background and skills to work on cross cultural issues in a lot of difficult contexts. I think it will ultimately come down to either IR or medanth, a decision which I am currently envisioning as being between developing a more broad set of skills, or developing a speciality focus.... So, I have a few questions. First, after poking around some medanth related programs and websites, I'm starting to worry that this would be a difficult focus for someone who doesn't have a provider's license of some kind. It looks like Harvard's program, for example, is explicitly only for providers...But is that a valid worry? I can't tell for sure. Second, what can you do with a medanth degree? Academia, sure. My father is an academic and I think I can say, without having many illusions about what that life would entail, that I would be pretty happy doing research at a university somewhere. However, it would be pretty nice to know if there are any other plausible career options. Do any health orgs/ NGOs/etc. hire medical anthropologists? Third (and this is more of a corollary to the second point) is a Phd an absolute necessity? I know it is if I want to go into academia, but can you do anything with a medanth masters? Fourth: Any other suggestions for resources to look for/people to talk to/etc. to learn more? I've mostly been trolling the medanth society website, and looking at programs at individual schools, but if anyone out there can point me towards a more concrete source of information, that would be great! Thanks again!