katethekitcat

Hey everyone! I stalk the "Results Search" nearly every day, and I've noticed people are far more likely to post positive admissions results rather than negative. This makes sense (it's obviously easier to do when you're excited about something), but, if you can, please remember even to post rejections with your stats because that information is INCREDIBLY helpful to other users. There are a million topics on these forums of "do I have a shot," and with both acceptances and rejections in the Results Search, users can better assess for themselves whether their stats make a school a safety, a reach, or somewhere in between. Plus I just like stats. Thanks!!!

It's so hard to tell a person, "yes, you have a chance, apply," or "no, you have no chance." So much depends on how well your research interests match a department, how many PhD students they can fund that year...factors no one else has any control over. Only the admissions committee can really tell you if you have a chance and, sadly, none of us are the admissions committees (if only we were!) If this is what you want to do with your life, then apply, because the worst that happens is that you lose your application fees. It sounds like you're being realistic and planning for back-up options, so as long as you have those, go for what you want. You never know what "reach" school might actually think you're a perfect fit for one of their faculty members.

Are they both funded programs?

I'd be willing to look at your SoP (although I don't need to swap since I've already submitted). Send me a message.

Is this a practice essay? People providing pros/cons here won't help you in the actual GRE. If you have trouble brainstorming, that's a skill you can work on prior to the GRE. Try to think of a specific example you've encountered in your own life - that's often a good place to start.

They're not looking for an excerpt - they're looking from the abstract. This is quite common in biology - they don't have time to read a full paper from everyone, so conferences ask for an abstract; only if you're accepted or they need more information do they want the whole article. Since an abstract summarizes your hypothesis, your methods, and your results, it's a good way for them to see the type of work you did. Sounds like you just need to send in the abstract for a paper you've already written.

At this point, you need to look at the research currently being conducted by faculty at each of those programs. You sound like you already know exactly what your research area is, so find schools with multiple faculty working in that area (there's no guarantee any you want to work with will be taking grad students, so having one is just risky.) Look up a few faculty members at each university and actually read their papers to make sure their interests align with yours. Once you've identified strong problem, it's the people working there who matter, and no one can decide that but you. Factor in, too - where do you want to live for five years? If you think you'd absolutely loathe a city, don't apply there - you're going to miserable for five years and perhaps longer, since all your professional connections will be in that geographic area. Location is a perfectly valid thing to affect your grad school decisions.

For a higher score, make this longer. Companies like Princeton Review and Kaplan have broken this down time and time again and, invariably, there is a strong correlation between length and score. A reader only has 1-2 minutes to read an essay; the more you write, the more it appears you wrote an amazing essay. Make sure you start off with a strong thesis statement. Right now, your opening paragraph says "sometimes this is true, sometimes this isn't" - that's exactly what the prompt said. Pick a side and then argue it - don't waffle. A strong position will also make it easier to think of concrete, specific supporting examples. You were making a lot of broad, vague statements - "Surely a fraction of us has interacted with different cultures all over the globe," "One cannot deny that major cities are where many people choose to reside." You're much better off with specific examples. You did mention Vietnam a few times, but make sure your examples aren't identical - using one example from Vietnam, one from Paris, and one from Mexico City would be much stronger than essentially the same example over and over again. I have taken the GRE once and scored a 6.

Hi mphct - I would be willing to read it. Send me a message.

I'm guessing you'll have to interview at most of these places? - and interview offers for PhD students usually don't go out any earlier than January.

I WANT TO HEAR BACK FROM MICHIGAN....urgh...I also applied by the end of October and not a peep out of them except a "We didn't get your application fee" e-mail (they did - now cleared up). Suppose that might have slowed down my application. Sorry about the rejection though I've been noticing most of us applied to a large number of schools - I applied to nine, now I'm seeing ten, eleven, thirteen from others. Just curious: what are people's thoughts as to why they applied to so many? Now that I've been accepted to two places that were in my top choices, I already regret at least four other applications, since not one of them stand a chance of me attending as long as I got in anywhere else. Are people worried about not being accepted anywhere? Are you just very excited by all of the programs you're applying to? Or is it worth having a large number of options so you have a large number of options when it comes down to what you want to pay in tuition?

Hi Rocio - I'd be glad to send you feedback. Send me a message with your SoP (preferably as a document so I can use track changes).

Epidemiology Night School - has some great explanations of the math in epidemiology.

Accepted at University of Pittsburgh - MPH in Infectious Disease and Microbiology, specializing in Infectious Disease Pathogenesis, Eradication and Laboratory Practice. E-mail notification with mail to follow.

I think it matters why you're applying to each of the programs - is it because you absolutely love their program, or because you think you'll be admitted? In paranoia of not being accepted anywhere, I applied to ten schools. However, after recieving my first acceptance and thinking with a clearer head, I can take a step back and say there was never any chance of my attending at least 3/10 of those schools, even if it meant I had to wait another year and re-apply. I was just tacking them on to my applications because it was easy and I wanted to hear back from a university quickly. Personally, I don't think you can have too many "dream programs" - even if they're a stretch for your applicant profile, take the shot. The worst that happens is you lose an application fee. What you can have too many of is safety schools. You really only need two, maybe three - there's a reason they're safety. In the end, you can only go to one place - so unless you're truly passionate about every one of those 12 schools, is it worth the time? Are there any you'd be pretty apathetic about, regardless of what the acceptance/rejection e-mail says? Drop them.

I looked for a while at the MPH - it's the only program I found that only lasted a year. It looked pretty cool, but it was also going to run about $60K for that one year, living expenses not included. Also wondering if a year is really enough time if you want to get research experience in.

There's a lot of helpful threads in the other, more general forums (non-public health) about whether or not it's even a good idea even to try to explain a low GPA. If you have strong letters of recomemndation, a great personal statement, internships, work experience, research, etc., often explaining grades can just detract from what's positive. If you do feel it's important for you application, make sure it gets tied into a larger narrative: "Because of my low GPA, I was inspired to...", etc.

You can message me yours if you'd like a read. I am applying for public health programs, but I have a biology degree.

Yes - probably better there than the personal statement.

Offered an interview with the Thomas Jefferson School of Public Health, but they aren't actually doing interviews themselves until January.

Like everyone else, I’m tired of waiting and of refreshing my e-mail twenty times in a workday to see there’s any admissions news, despite the fact schools have been transparent about the fact there’s a long wait left. So, instead, here is a thread devoted to discussing cool topics in the thing we all care about: public health! Post any articles, findings, public health ramblings you have here. To start off with: The Public Health Schools Annual Data Report (alas, from 2010 – can’t find a newer one) that lists, among other things, the number of applicants and the percentage accepted at each school of public health. Hunger Games Survival Analysis – just in case anyone hasn’t seen this. A public health blogger applied epidemiology methods to the Hunger Games to analyze rates of survival and found a bunch of cool patterns in the book.

Congrats! Which program did you apply to?

For anyone else who applied to the University of Iowa - I went to visit this past weekend and the college of public health is BEAUTIFUL - right on the river, and the building itself is less than two years old, very modern. Also had tons of graduate research assistantships available - every student I talked to had one and said they are always available for those to do research.

ThinkPad X230 - customized it to give it more processing power and additioanl memory (with the option of adding more memory later for extra $). Ran about $1,000, but that includes the Microsoft Office suite, which I would have had to install myself AND still pay $150 for. If you're a student, use their chat function to talk to a sales rep - she gave me a great student discount.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! Ended up going with Lenovo - they were also very helpful on the customer service side and helped me specify exactly what I needed for the programs I want to run.