shaketheshock

Nice! Congrats

I was told by the person who wrote me that the coruse based degree is preferred by employers because it apparently prepares graduates with more broad public health knowledge. I e-mailed back to ask about my career goals and if it would still be a fit and I haven't heard back yet. Neither school has said a thing to me about funding and apparently nobody will know for months - yet we are supposed to accept or decline right now. What worries me is that there is no capstone project (and not sure about doing an independent research study??) for the course based MPH either. I think in order to keep myself as specialized in mental health as possible I will stick with my mental health-based thesis. What do you guys think? Is everyone else doing a thesis??

Thanks for responding, yeah I would also be pretty bummed not being able to do the research I am interested in - in addition to the course-based MPH being at a lesser-ranked school (though the applicability of the rankings is questionable if you ask me). Hrmm..

Which one are you doing, and why? What is your career goal? I've been offered a spot at the second place I applied to, but they don't have anyone that could supervise my thesis so I am going through some pretty hefty pros and cons at the moment. I have to admit, part of wanting to do a thesis is for the ego boost. What I'd like to do is go into public mental health/mental health policy analysis.

I am most interested in stigma as well, along with discourse. My specific interest at the moment is the stigma and discourse associated with certain mental health diagnoses more than others. I'd love to have a hand in creating policy that abolished this stigma and discourse. Policy that honoured those with lived experience rather than discriminating against them.

That sounds awesome, and along the lines of what I would like to do. Will you be looking at self-stigma and how that affects people's access to mental health care? Like, designing communications to combat that?

Is there a particular area of healthcare you're looking at?

I think I might do the same thing, e-mail and ask lakehead when they'll have decisions for applications submitted early March. Do you think that would be bothersome?

I am currently in the UVic BSW program (finishing in August), and I know this probably won't help but I remember finding out near the end of April in 2012 when I was accepted. I found out much earlier from TRU but UVic was my first choice. I also wanted to pitch in that I absolutely love the program Good luck!

I wanted to say thanks to both of you for the encouraging words - when I feel like I've lost hope it makes such a huge difference to hear that others have not. Thank you for reminding me that there are still some rays of sunshine left - and that I should be noticing them!

I'm still interested in what other folks are planning to go into once they get their degrees - come on, there's lots of us on these forums! What are you planning on doing for a job with your MPH? Like I said above, I'm very interested in public mental health and how to reduce unecessary suffering (specifically due to the stigma and self-stigma related to mental health diagnoses).

Wow you guys sure have your sh*t together, well done! Definitely more prepared than I am.. I have a solid GPA and solid references, but I'm just finishing my first degree in social work. I worked in healthcare for 4 years but I'm not sure if that's the kind of work they are looking for (I was a care aide with the elderly in the hospitals here). I guess we'll see!

Those that got accepted into Lakehead - could you please share your stats?

Ok, thanks guys

I sent my official (and uploaded my unofficial) transcripts - I just don't think this is what they mean by proof of degree?

My application to Lakehead was not exactly timely because I made the decision to apply after all at the last minute - however, that's not my question. What I'm wondering is for those that have applied (including those that have already been accepted) do you have your proof of degree already uploaded? I won't finish my degree until much after the application deadline (August) so it's not possible for me to submit one. I was able to submit all my transcripts, however, and I did ask if this lack of proof of degree would stall my application and the fellow that responded said it wouldn't be a problem ... but I'm worried they only said that because my application won't be considered? Am I just being paranoid?

I sent an e-mail off this morning as respectful as possible, they responded fairly quickly (and nicely) to say that the school doesn't make funding decisions until June!! So much for that helping me make a decision between schools - or planning my next year. Sigh.

Anybody have any recommendations for netflix Canada? Dexter is my all time favourite show - in fact I've watched just about everything by Showtime (the L word, the big C, etcetera). Also Dollhouse, OISTNB, The Killing, Cracked, Dead Like Me, The IT Crowd, Firefly, The Guild ... and the list goes on. And if anyone is looking for an interesting documentary, I highly recommend Generation Rx - just be prepared for them to be a tad biased.

I am only just accepted into grad school for this September, but I do have plenty of experience being an undergrad with mental health diagnoses (including depression). I'm not sure what it's like at your school, but at mine I am able to register as a student with a disability because I have mental health diagnoses and this can help take some pressure off about completing things at the exact right time when I cannot even contemplate cooking myself food. I would suggest seeing someone at your school first though, to see what they think about what is going on with you, and if that is even necessary. Good luck, I'm in a horrible depression myself right now (and I'm getting ECT), hope we both feel better soon.

I just feel uncomfortable asking about funding directly, is that something that students do on a regular basis (i.e. it wouldn't be considered inappropriate)? I know for sure I will ask before the deadline to accept or reject their offer, I just feel uneasy about it I guess..

I wish I knew, I know up until hearing this past week I was beside myself with anxiety about it. I am just assuming that they do the offers in waves as people accept/reject because of the dates that people got accepted in the 'results search' up at the top of this page for last year. What I do know is that in my offer (and I'm assuming the few others) that it gave me until April 2nd to accept/reject - so maybe another round will go out after that? I'm not positive though. Sorry, wish I could be more help

A few of us have heard from UVic, I believe the first round of offers have gone out..

I got an admit offer to do my MPH at UVic yesterday (very excited!), but I also live in Victoria and I am finishing my social work undergrad at UVic right now. It truly is a beautiful campus and you honestly could say that it's in the middle of the forest. I personally like my professors in the social work program, but I don't know about other programs. There's lots of huge, open spaces outside to sit and read/catch up on things as long as the weather permits (Victoria likes to rain in the winter). BC transit also has many buses that come to the campus and go off in different directions to get you home. I don't know about housing because I chose to live on one of the bus routes to campus. I'm a fairly socially anxious person and I find myself quite comfortable at the UVic campus, if that makes a difference I find the people friendly and generally non-judgemental (as opposed to when I did my associate's at Camosun College).

I have gained so much in my last year of my undergrad that I actually started the Ideal Protein diet this morning ... can't even think about grad school in the fall, oy.

I have to say I use my Macbook pro for everything - even though I built my own custom desktop PC (I just don't game anymore so it collects dust for the most part - never thought I'd be saying that!). I wouldn't have bought the Mac for roughly $1200 though because of the quality of ultrabook or laptop pc you can get for that same price, I got it as a student with a disability. I also agree that microsoft office is not as good on the Mac and confusing at times, for ex. even though I have excel and office on my Mac, I was not able to do my stats work on it and had to borrow someone's netbook. Anyway ... it seems you've already chosen a pc rather than a Mac so I'll stop blathering - I just wanted to let you know some very good websites to order computers/computer parts from (I use the Canadian versions of their sites, but I've linked the American ones): http://www.newegg.com and http://www.ncixus.com - I have custom built multiple pcs using their parts. Also if you're getting a pre-built laptop that you're not planning on replacing the HD or anything, I would suggest an Asus. Cheers and good luck Let us know what you choose! Also just for reference, these are the prerequisites for playing SimCity: What will my Windows PC need to get SimCity running so I can build the best city in the world? SimCity on PC will run on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Intel players will need, minimally, a 2.0 GHz Core2Duo, while our AMD players will need at least an Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ At least 2GB of RAM 10 GB of hard drive space A DVD-ROM drive At least a 512 MB video card featuring either an NVIDIA 7800 or better, an AMD chipset of at least an ATI Radeon HD 2x00 or better, or Intel Series 4 integrated graphics or better.