FreeRadical

I've heard from a few people that, in practice, there aren't many jobs that allow public health nurses to combine their two skill sets very easily. You either end up working as a nurse or a public health professional, although I'm sure there are exceptions. If you choose to go the public health route (I personally chose epidemiology), I highly recommend developing your data analysis skills and learning at least one programming language well (like R, which is free, unlike SAS, SPSS and Stata). If you're worried about job competition, I think this is the best way to set yourself apart. Programming skills are in high demand right now, not only in public health. It's hard for young people to compete through work experience because people who have been in the field for decades have an inherent advantage. If you're really not into programming and statistics, I'd probably recommend a career in nursing with a strong background in public health. There's always a shortage of nurses, and it sounds like you would enjoy the human interaction more. The health behavior/education track of a MPH program might be a good match, or even health policy given your background in political science. If you're interested in global health (again, my field), you would do well to get as much international experience as possible. A more health care oriented approach (rather than statistical) means you would be spending a lot of time abroad throughout your career. My wife is doing that, and she travels internationally about 40% time for work. For coursework, I would rely on your nursing degree to adequately prepare you in the basic sciences. I'd minimize the biology courses in favor of something like a foreign language or statistics.

Yeah, funding has been a mixed bag. UW offered full tuition and a $1900/mo RA stipend. Johns Hopkins offered 60% tuition over 5 years and a $12k stipend. Berkeley offered one year tuition and a $6k stipend. UNC didn't offer anything with the acceptance and made me apply for school- and department-specific funding opportunities (still haven't heard back). I was split between UW and Hopkins in terms of program fit. Funding tipped the balance in favor of UW's PhD in global health metrics and implementation science. I'm pretty happy with the idea of living in Seattle, too.

I'd get any laptop you like with Windows 7. It's cheaper now that Windows 8 is out, and frankly I like 7 better.

DrPH. But after getting wait listed, I actually asked to be considered for the epidemiology program too. Good luck to all! Hopefully KB8 is right that we'll hear back next week.

Thanks! I got an email to check the website.

Holy crap, I was accepted at Johns Hopkins for DrPH in International Health. That's nuts. I have no idea how I'm going to choose between Hopkins, UW global health and UNC epidemiology. Still waiting on Michigan epidemiology. Wait listed at Berkeley. What's your impression about these programs? I did my MPH at Michigan, but I don't know much about UW, Hopkins and UNC.

Yeah, actually. I heard this morning that I was accepted at UNC! Nothing from Michigan so far. I think they sent out offers to the applicants they knew they'd have funding for, because there are full scholarships for applicants with top GPA and GRE scores. Otherwise, they really try to provide funding with an offer (based on what my POI told me), so my guess is that they're still trying to piece together funding sources for the rest of us.

This thread has gotten busy! Congrats all on your acceptances and interviews. @seaturtles and @kang6789, what program at UW did you apply to? @KB8, I heard that I was wait listed for the DrPH program at Berkeley yesterday. It is weird that someone posted an acceptance date of February 2nd, especially considering that last year's acceptances didn't come out until March. @gnarls_barkley, my impression is that 'prestige' matters more in academia than public health practice. I'm applying to a lot of DrPH programs, and I personally would take better fit/funding over a big-name school (within reason). Money also matters, so if you're going to be in debt for 10 years in the more expensive program, that might be a reason to avoid it. Otherwise, unfortunately, a school's reputation matters a lot in the research world. It's probably more likely to open doors for you later, compared to having had more research freedom during your PhD program. JMTC (if this isn't an acronym already, I'm coining it right now)

I applied to the metrics track at UW. There were seven people invited for interviews, and I think three received offers. At Michigan, I counted about 30 people at Doctoral Program Day for epidemiology. One professor said they usually take 10-12 each year depending on funding. I don't know much about the applicant pool for DrPH in International Health at Johns Hopkins. It's a phone interview, so I won't get to meet the other applicants. I also applied to Berkeley and UNC, and I think they don't do interviews.

My POI at Michigan said on February 3rd that it would take "a few weeks" for the epidemiology department to work through the details. Also, I was accepted at University of Washington for PhD in Global Health (Feb 6th) and just got an interview for DrPH in International Health at Hopkins (Feb 15th). It's a big relief to get the first acceptance!

I'm waiting on both of those programs too, but for DrPH instead of PhD.

I did epidemiology/international health when I was there during 2009-2011. One of the weirdest things about UMich is that the university is really big compared to the city of Ann Arbor. That's a great thing for students, because the shops and restaurants are usually geared toward 20-somethings. There's a lot of fun stuff to do. My wife and I were members of a folk music venue called The Ark and we spent a lot of time in the Arboretum. Like anything else, your amount of free time depends on your ability to manage time well. I tried to treat school like a 9-to-5 job, so I could have the evenings free. That wasn't always possible, but I do feel like I was able to have some free time outside of my coursework and working as a research assistant.

University of Michigan is a good place for health management and policy. The program itself is good, but really the whole school is strong in business/management/policy. The different grad schools support each other well in that sense. I can't speak for the other schools.

Hey, I'll see you at Michigan. I also applied to UNC; do you know if they even do interviews? For UW, I got an email on Jan 14th. The interviews are taking place today (Jan 22nd) and Feb 4th.

I keep having these fantasies that I've gotten accepted or rejected from a school, and I get legitimately happy or sad about it. It's really exhausting If anyone figures out how not to lose it, please call me immediately.

This is still an interesting question for PhD applicants. For my part... - University of Michigan PhD Epi has a Doctoral Program Day in late January / early February. All of their top applicants come at the same time for a sort of speed-dating session with professors. - University of Washington PhD in Global Health does in-person interviews in January/February - Boston University PhD Epi does phone interviews with the particular professor(s) who is interested in your application - UIC PhD Epi doesn't do interviews - Johns Hopkins DrPH in International Health doesn't do interviews

I was accepted at Boston University with full funding, but they wanted me to accept or decline the funding by March 4th (effectively forcing me to make a decision way before April 15th). I hadn't heard from three schools at that point, so I asked for an extension... which the committee denied. I withdrew my application because I don't like being manipulated like that. As it turns out, if they had waited just three days I would have enrolled. I was also accepted at UIC. I liked the program, but they weren't able to offer much funding and Chicago isn't a great place for my wife to find a job in global health.

Hey, good luck to everyone. I thought I'd weigh in here and list my schools: UC Berkeley, DrPH University of Michigan, PhD in Epidemiologic Science UNC, PhD in Epidemiology University of Washington, PhD in Global Health Harvard, DrPH Johns Hopkins, DrPH in International Health So far, I've gotten interviews at Michigan and UW, and I got an email from Hopkins saying my application was passed along to the department. @gnarls_barkley I was actually the person who made that chart last year. I'm glad someone found it useful! I'm still bumming around this website because I ultimately declined my only two acceptances. Hopefully things will work out better this year.

Yeah, good point. The invitation was sent "on behalf of the Epidemiology Doctoral Committee."

I got an invitation today. They probably just waited until after the holidays this year. Best of luck to all!

I heard that the University of Michigan usually sends out invitations to Doctoral Program Day (their way to do PhD interviews) in December. Has anybody gotten an invitation yet?

Hey, the forum is pretty slow now that admissions seasons has died down. I don't have any special knowledge but I thought I'd respond anyway... I'd say cumulative GPA is obviously important, so get that up if you can. From what I understand, though, admissions committees do take into consideration whether you've improved over time in a certain topic. For example, I was a Spanish major in college without much background in statistics. I had a slow start in my biostats courses, but I was able to show consistent improvement over time. By the end I could legitimately claim that statistics is a strength rather than a weakness. If you have any future courses in the same topic in which you got low grades, I'd give them some extra attention. All thing considered, one bad semester isn't going to make or break your application. I think the single best thing you can do is have a coherent plan for your career and be able to show that you're making progress on that plan.

I hear ethanol has scholarships for all types of programs. It won't help you pay for the whole thing, but it certainly takes the edge off.

Yes, for the right program. If I were overly concerned about money, I wouldn't have chosen a career in public health!

Anybody else waiting on a wait list acceptance? University of Washington's Epi PhD program said they'd let me know between June and September. Naturally, it's the first week of June and I'm back on TheGradCafe.com.....