katethekitcat

They seem a bit slower. I heard back from them 4 weeks ago saying they'd received my application and still haven't heard more than that even though their website says 2-4 weeks for an admission decision. I suppose we're heading into peak application season.

1. Yes, you do. Sorry 3. Yes, you will have to convert it. All my classes were in trimester, and even though trimester was an option SOPHAS let you select, they unsubmitted the application and made me convert all my credits to quarters. Convert them, or they will unsubmit your application and significiantly slow down the process.

Does anyone have any laptop recommendations for graduate school in public health? I'm aiming for epidemiology and will likely be running stats-heavy programs. I would have preferred to wait until I know where I'm attending and can check out the school specifications, but my laptop was recently destroyed and I'm hampered without it, so I need to purchase now. Looking for afforadble, high-processing power, don't particularly like Macs.

AHHHHHH!!! Which department did you apply to???

I just got an e-mail from University of Pittsburgh confirming my application was complete. They also said most departments won't begin reviewing applications until after the January deadline, but if you look at the results search on this website, it looks like some public health studetns have already been accepted at Pitt. So...could be two more weeks or four more months.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I know the feeling...it's such a relief to know you're going somewhere next year, no matter where. I'm getting kind of impatient for places that say they have rolling admissions

What TexasGuy said. Just apply. No one can estimate your chances of getting in except the programs themselves.

No, it will say "new" even if it's mailed. I use the SOPHAS mobile portal - it's often much clearer. I also had the same problem on 10/30; had stuff that was supposed to be mailed out and it didn't go until this week.

From looking at this thread and the Canada threads of the past years, it seems like public health is a lot more difficult to get into in Canada. For someone ignorant of the Canadian education system...is this true and, if so, why?

I think that is an estimate best left to the journalism program at Columbia. If it's a program you think you'd be happy at, apply, and let the admissions committee make the decision. It's hard to know what one factor can tip the scale.

Journalism covers so much more than "write for a newspaper." Yes, blogs are becoming huge, but the people who get into journalism (in my experience) do it because we love the in-depth research, interviewing people, chasing down a story. There's always, always going to be a need for that kind of information; always going to be a need for strong investigative journalism and the people who ask tough questions. Maybe the format will change, but newspapers 50 years ago were different from newspapers 50 years before that. Writing for NPR, Mother Jones, etc. is still journalism. Going into this field just means helping to re-shape it and decide on that new direction.

Out of curiosity, what you did end up deciding to do?

I applied to two departments, and one took several days to confirm. I think it depends what program within the univeristy you're applying to.

How hard is it to find housing as of 2013, and what is the usual price range? Is there much close to the campus?

SOPHAS verifies and mails our your application with only two letters of recommendation. Once they receive the third letter, it is uploaded immediately and schools are notified that the third letter has arrived.

Heard from BU (twice, once for each program I applied to), U of Minnesota (twice - once for each program), Tulane (they actually e-mailed me THREE TIMES confirming they'd received it, and spelled my name wrong twice) and Jefferson School of Population Health.

This is something I'm becoming increasingly worried about, especially as I read more and more about how even a lot of people with master's and PhD's, even in the sciences, are struggling to find jobs, pay off loans, etc. When I was all bright and starry eyed and deciding where to apply, I didn't even factor cost in. Now it's becoming a top-priority concern. And public health isn't necessarily a field that pays very well, and a lot of the jobs people want - with the CDC, etc - are government funding, and who can trust government funding these days? Does anyone follow Jonathan Eisen on Twitter? He's a biologist, not a public health person, but he posts a lot of stuff about the difficulty of finding a job these days. There was a CraigsList ad in New York a few weeks back looking for someone with a PhD and several years of post-doc experieince to work in a lab FOR FREE. And these aren't uncommon ads.

I was really only intrigued by their global health leadership program, but it required a master's, which I don't have, so I didn't apply - their tuition + cost of New York + plus underwhelming programs made it not worth it for me. But a full ride is worth some serious consideration.

Heard back from University of Iowa - accepted (by e-mail)!

Waiting is awful. I've been checking my e-mail three times an hour just in case "six weeks" actually means "zero to one weeks."

I would e-mail Columbia and check. I had that problem earlier and it was a problem on the program's end.

I'm sorry. I meant totally NOT behind!

You're totally behind! The peak of the application cycle is December/January; you'll actually still be ahead by submitting late November. I only applied so early since I was originally considering spring 2014 deadlines - I changed my mind, but all my apps were completed already.

Anyone going to any open houses/visit days? I'm going to U Iowa on Nov. 15 and Tulane Dec. 9 (pending acceptance).

Several different ones - epi at a few places, environmental science at a few others, one in agricultural health (which falls under the occupational health department), tropic disease and parasitology at Tulane . I'm also focusing on infectious disease, hopefully antibiotic resistance. You might want to consider environmental science at U of Minn - my cousin graduated from that program and says you get all of the epidemiology knowledge with a greater focus on infectious disease than in the actual epidemiology program, since they have to spend more time on biostats.