katethekitcat

Hi Razan - I've just sent you a private message answering your questions.

Hi ChemEnthusiast, To live in the house, you commit to: 30 hours of community service per semester (our house designs their own service projects each year; individual service projects you choose to do in the community also count) Give one, 1-hour talk to the house each year about whatever topic you like (we've had talks about the secret service, water and drought, fashion, particle physics, everything!) Help run the house: serve on a committee, attend house meetings, etc. On average, the workload comes to be about 8-10 hours a week. Overall, I think it's definitely saved me time though: for example, not having to cook or go to the grocery stone alone saves me that 8-10 hours a week, and it's made graduate school a lot more affordable for me (I am a master's student, not a funded PhD, alas). It should be noted this type of community is not for everyone. Living here can be intense at times! But if you enjoy exchanging ideas and are willing to invest time and ideas to the place you live, it's really a great place (one of my best experiences of graduate school). Check out our website or message me for more details!

The MPH program goes VERY fast. I would caution against keeping transferring as a backup plan. If you end up transferring, you wasted that whole first year you spent making connections with professors, networking, and essentially have to start all over again the next year. Many programs require an internship between the first and second year, but that might not transfer, leading you to have to do a third, expensive third year. Grad school is what you make of it. You can tailor it to your needs and wants. Dive in and make the most of it instead of holding out for something else in case it might be better.

I am not an admissions committee, so take this with a grain of salt. In the vast, vast majority of cases, you need a master's degree in epidemiology to get into a good PhD program. There are exceptions to this, mainly people who have EXTENSIVE statistics background as well as coding experience in a few specific languages (R, Python, SAS, or STATA; preferably all of the above.) Unfortunately, none of the experiences you have described are going to matter much to a PhD admissions committee. What they care about is your demonstrated ability to do research and perform epidemiological studies. There are programs that allow you to get a PhD right away. Most of these are very low ranked or are working on getting institutional accreditation and use this as a way to lure in students. If you're set on a PhD - and I will say, probably 60% of my incoming class said they were "set on" a PhD, and now, a few months away from graduation, only about 15% of us want PhDs - apply to a program that will let you continue straight on to a PhD program and count the work you did as a master's student. The University of Michigan does this - you spend 2 years getting your master's, but if you are accepted into their PhD program, you can earn it with only 3 additional years of working, rather than starting over entirely at a new school. (Bias: I attend UM.)

Hi everyone! If you're looking for housing at UMich next year: please consider Telluride House! We're a living community made up of graduate students, undergraduate students, and faculty members. Room and board is FREE! (Yes, this sounds too good to be true, but I assure you, it IS true.) You can find out more about the house and find the application here. (The website still reflects our fall application cycle - the new one should be posted within a week, but it will be identical except for deadlines). The essays can take quite a while, so the earlier you get started, the better! You can apply even if you haven't heard back on an admissions decision yet.

Hi everyone! If you're looking for housing at UMich next year: please consider Telluride House! We're a living community made up of graduate students, undergraduate students, and faculty members. Room and board is FREE! (Yes, this sounds too good to be true, but I assure you, it IS true.) You can find out more about the house and find the application here. (The website still reflects our fall application cycle - the new one should be posted within a week, but it will be identical except for deadlines). The essays can take quite a while, so the earlier you get started, the better! You can apply even if you haven't heard back on an admissions decision yet. Our house truly values academic diversity, and we are currently underrepresented in social work, so I'd highly encourage you to apply. Feel free to e-mail the address on the website with any questions!

AREAS of Pilsen are a bit unsafe, but they're moving in the right direction in terms of that. If you look at a map, generally the further out you go on the pink L line, the sketchier it gets. However, it's also quite affordable. I lived in Logan Square for two years and absolutely loved it; it's also right off the blue line which goes directly to UIC. Lots of bars, coffee shops, resturaunts, easy access to other places in the city, etc. It's the cool place to be right now, however, which means rents are likely about to skyrocket. If you're going to live there, get in now. In terms of rent, don't even bother looking at Wicker Park.

Don't do it. Terribly written book.

Stole this off the philosophy chat boards - I believe it's geared more towards humanities students, but all of these sound like great standards in general. How to be a positive presence/graduate student at academic conferences: http://melissaridleyelmes.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/its-not-on-the-syllabus-cultivating-collegiality-as-a-graduate-student/

I decided not to attend UIC, but I currently live in Chicago, so let me know if you have questions about the city in general!

There are some other, more extensive threads on this forum regarding low GPAs (under 3.0). Check them out for some great advice - there's one specifically for people interested in public health. But the overall consensus is, for a professional degree like an MPH, it's things like volunteer work, employment, and research that mean a lot more.

Well, if you come to UMichigan, we can cry over exams together.

Now that we're actually all attending graduate school: If anyone is interested in continuing to chat over the next few years, and hopefully network, please feel free to PM me your e-mail address, and I'll send you mine. There's so many of us headed to such a diversity of public health programs, it seems like it would be only beneficial to maintain contacts with one another and keep exchanging news about programs, try to meet up at conferences, etc. Two years down the road, we'll probably be each others' best resources for PhD programs as well! Public health networking for the win.

I'm headed to Michigan in August as well - so, if you end up choosing UM, we'll be classmates next fall! I'm taking on loans to pay tuition, but to me it's still the best option. I've found what you did as well - they were super friendly and helpful during the admissions process. Were you able to visit any admitted student days?

Forgive me if this has already been answered or the question is obvious. Money and finances are NOT my strengths. So I filled out my FAFSA and just received my financial aid package from the university I'm attending. However, even with the loans they're giving me, I'm still about $10,000 short on tuition for the year (yes, I know. I'm going to be in debt until I'm 60.) How do I go about finding loans to cover the rest of the tuition? Does this mean I go to private lenders? How do I start that process? I technically have enough in my savings to cover the gap, but that would completely wipe me out, and I don't want to be left with nothing in the event of emergencies, having to move to a new city, if my internship between year 1 and year 2 is unpaid, etc.

Hi current MPH students, I'm REALLY hoping to get a GRA my second year in my MPH program. I'm already going into massive debt, and a tuition waiver would be quite nice. However, I'm aware it's incredibly competitive, especially since in my program the PhD students are interviewing for the same GRA positions. Keeping that in mind: do you have any advice for securing a GRA? Obviously doing well in the class is important, but lots of people will do well in the class. Are there stats programs you'd suggest learning beforehand? Any other advice/tips/suggestions?

Sounds time to contact them. Most admissions deposits are due two weeks from now, and you don't even have an admissions decision? Weird.

I'm pretty biased, since I'm likely ATTENDING Minnesota (originally thought Michigan, but $$$), but - Minnesota! I did an REU there three summers ago and the university is investing HEAVILY in research. Lots of new buildings, new labs, great funding, and a well-ranked public health program. Plus, they've got one of the best health departments in the country - it's a great place to do internships.

This is just from memory from when I applied a few years back...I heard from all places by the third week of March (most were by the end of February). Rejections were e-mailed; all the places I was accepted, called.

Is it possible, rather than scores or GPAs or the quality of writing samples, it's actually your area of personal interest that's hurting you? I am currently employed at major research university, one that many people on this forum have expressed great desire to be admitted to. Through my job, I've come into contact with current graduate students, professors, and deans, etc, all who have a connection to the philosophy department. One professor who sits on the admissions committee told me about an applicant they'd had who had applied with an AOI of the French existentialists. He had a perfect GPA, perfect GRE scores, he had a letter of recommendation written by the field's leading philosopher, who basically told the committee, "This student will be as good as or better than me someday." They turned him down two years in a row simply because neither they - nor any other program in the country - had room for that area of interest. It was too popular, too tapped out, and the scholarly community just already had researchers in the area. This professor also told me that's not uncommon. "Not meeting the minimum threshold" can translate to, "This year, we need one philosophy of science student and one person studying this particular chapter of Wittgenstein." An academic department at the University of Toronto know they're going to be looking for a professor of religion, so they've already started looking at candidates among the nation's PhD students. Oh, by the way, they're going to need this professor in five years. The same thing happens in math and science. My best friend is in the mathematics PhD program at the University of Iowa. Last year, they extended 10 offers, expecting 4 students to accept; by fluke chance, all 10 accepted and about 70% were focusing in linear algebra. Although the department would never tell you this, it means, no matter who applied this year, maybe 1 or 2 would receive offers, and if you said you wanted to study linear algebra, you had no chance. But they obviously can't put that on their website - it would ruin their reputation for all future years. Whatever the big fad in philosophy is today: do they really need any more people to study it? Since it's currently "hot," that means there's already PhD students studying it, and the ones already in the department are certainly enough - far more than enough - to fill any future teaching jobs. Once someone becomes a professor, they can hold on to that job for thirty, forty, fifty years. Is it in a school's best interests to continue taking PhD students in that area, or is in their interests - for their placement rates, to keep unique publications flowing - to take PhD students in areas that might become big in the future? Yet, meanwhile, a lot of people are still applying in this area since it's suddenly become so popular. Just some thoughts - and I'm not actually working in the field of philosophy. But the field of philosophy can only have so many scholars in so many areas, and whether or not that area is already full seems more relevant than if you got 2 additional points on the quantitative section of your GRE. I read these forums often, and I haven't seen a single person (well, among the people who haven't been, er, forcibly ejected) who had less than what they considered "a stellar application." If they're all stellar, the only thing that separates you is: who chose an area of study in which universities are short on scholars?

ME TOO (UMich, although not the MHSA). This may even affect where I attend - may have to switch in favor of Minnesota, where I get in-state tuition. I e-mailed the epi department directly last week with a ton of departmental questions and finance questions and still haven't heard back.

Oops, I lied - I heard back November 1. I applied mid-September and my application was actually mailed by SOPHAS early October, I believe.

I heard from Iowa back in October.

Was talking to my friend this morning who's currently in a PhD mathematics program - he just pulled an all-nighter (second this week) because his TA work includes grading 500 proofs per week.

I applied for the master's epi at UIC and heard back about three weeks ago, but I applied back in October/November.