themmases

I don't normally drive in the city, so I can't say whether you would need to use an American driver's license to drive here long-term. However, you shouldn't need it as proof of address. My driver's license was last renewed when I was in undergrad, so it still has my parents' address on it. When I need to prove Chicago residency, I bring a copy of a bill or my lease. Most places I've been accept a lease, utility bill, paycheck mailed to your address, or voter registration card instead of or in addition to your picture ID as proof of residency, even if your picture ID has an old address on it. I've even had this accepted at City Colleges, where I would have had to pay higher tuition if I were still living outside the city. Despite my ID having a suburban address, my current voter registration card had a Chicago address, so I got the lower tuition. I think that's pretty common here. Your student ID card generally won't have your address on it. All the ones I've seen are issues at enrollment and good for 4+ years. They are not often accepted as proof of age/identity and are more useful for getting discounts.

It looks like Elmhurst College is a short walk from the Metra station (basically, Chicago-area commuter rail between the city and suburbs), so you could maybe reverse commute if you were going to live somewhere in the city that is convenient to the UP-W line. Some recent track construction notwithstanding, I generally find Metra pretty reliable. However, Metra schedules are heavily weighted towards getting people from the suburbs into the city in the morning, and out in the evening-- the train schedule isn't as robust in reverse. You might want to check Metra's website to see how often you'd be able to catch a train going Chicago-Elmhurst and back, and whether you're interested in living near any of the Chicago stations. Also, be aware that you wouldn't be eligible for Metra's student ticket prices, which only apply to grade school and high school students. If you'd need a discount, you'd have to hope your school offers something. Elmhurst isn't on the list of schools that offer a CTA U-Pass (unlimited CTA card for enrolled students), so you'd also need to pay for your own public transportation within the city if you lived there. Eventually Metra and CTA will have a unified fare system, but it won't save you any money-- it will just mean you only need to have one card. I can't recommend signing up for a regular commute, reverse or otherwise, between Chicago and the suburbs by car. Between permanent tolls, routine construction, insufficient capacity for demand, and of course the weather, it's just not a good bet. If a regular Metra commute won't work for you, I'd recommend living in Elmhurst and using your proximity to that Metra line to explore the city in your free time.

Thank you!

I agree with juilletmercredi-- grad school isn't work experience. However, an assistantship probably is. While some jobs treat education and experience similarly, it's more common to see an allowance made for people without a degree than without experience, i.e. "Requirements: MS in Field Y, Field X, or equivalent experience." This is often on top of stuff like "5 years experience with software Z and process A." At least in my field, I often see advice to get some kind of office or clinical setting experience (depending where you'll be working), even if it's not otherwise relevant. This is basically to show that you know how to behave as an employee, i.e. familiarity with being reliable, email etiquette, and realizing that a certain amount of boring bullshit is not beneath you. You might be surprised how many new grads don't know this stuff, and how much it can help you.

Wow, I'm really sorry this is happening to you. I'm also in a toxic workplace related to the field I'm going into, and decided to stay. One element of that workplace was also a boss who thought I wouldn't get in for a while, which was obviously wishful thinking on his part. A little over a year ago, my department tried to reorganize the research program, which included announcing a rule that my coworker and I would no longer be authors on anything. We had weekly meetings with our boss about exactly what we were working on, even though we were the most productive people to ever hold this job. We'd hear rumors that younger attendings were bitter about how much we'd grown the program (basically, how two 20-something ladies with BAs made a bunch of MDs look like slackers) and were claiming we agreed to help people more in exchange for authorship. One doctor I work with a lot pulled that exact thing of claiming that I never did work that I actually had, and went so far as to search her email for every minor thing she ever asked me that she could claim I hadn't responded to, to forward it all to my boss. I cried in my boss' office! I got acute bronchitis. I spent time at work trying to fix all this right after my dog died. Anywayyyy by the time I leave in July (I'm not crazy, I am taking some buffer time!) I'll have been here about 17 months since that happened. I job searched, but by the time I got responses I knew I would be leaving for grad school so I declined them. I'm kind of glad I did: There was time to repair the relationship, which is worth it even though I was wronged. You never know when you'll see people again, as reviewers or even people in a position to make another hiring decision about you. Since you just went though getting LORs, you know how precious a good, trustworthy reference from a convincing person really is. People, especially petty people, move on. Eventually the doctors with an axe to grind against me found other people they disliked more, or more interesting things to do than torture me. I even got authorship back and am named on some presentations with the people responsible. The primary person responsible loves me again now. If you're really in the right, other people notice and your relationships with them are important. All my grad school references were from other people in the department who were on my side, and I even got named to a hospital-wide steering committee late last year. It's not always up to you who future employers contact when they check your references. People could continue to contact your old boss to ask about you in the future, they don't need your permission. As a non-princess, food, rent, and healthcare are important to me. Most people can't just walk off a job, or get a reputation for doing so. You know your own situation best, but that's just some food for thought. In the end, I'm leaving on a higher note than I ever thought possible and will never have to feel conflicted about my experience here or worry who exactly future employers will contact. The last few months sucked, but I now see them as an investment.

SOP prompts typically don't change from year to year. An SOP is what it is-- a short essay about your qualifications, goals, and interest in the program. Individual schools or fields might have norms about length or specific information about your skills that you must include, but it's not like schools are assigning a unique essay topic each year-- this isn't the GRE. For example, this page describes the SOP for a masters degree in CS at Stanford: http://cs.stanford.edu/content/checklist Your Statement of Purpose should be concise, focused, and well written. It should describe succinctly your reasons for applying to the proposed program at Stanford, your preparation for this field of study, research interests, future career plans, and other aspects of your background and interests which may aid the admissions committee in evaluating your aptitude and motivation for graduate study. The Statement of Purpose must be no more than 8000 characters in length. This includes spaces in between words. it will be submitted as part of the online application. That's a really standard description of an SOP, and it's generally all the prompt you get. The rest of the content and topic is supposed to be about you, and supplied by you.

In general, I think it's OK to mention just family reasons (or whatever reason puts you in the best light without getting too personal). I'd only allude to other stuff if you were specific enough about it to your POIs that you think leaving it out of your SOP could confuse people or make you look dishonest. Even then, I personally think it's better to mention it only briefly in favor of talking about your qualifictions and your future, e.g. "After leaving the program for family reasons, I worked on X and Y".

My IRB is considered faster than average, and I can't think of very many edits I could make, submit, and count on them documenting approval of in 1 week-- that might be a reason for your advisor's skepticism, and that doesn't really reflect on you. You might want to talk to your advisor to see what specific parts of your timeline are problematic. I don't see any reason not to try to finish things quickly if you can do them well, though. Even if you are unsuccessful, you'll still have the best possible head start, right?

I think not being able to relate to other people might have more to do with going through a consuming change in your life and trying to assimilate to academic culture. Being a grad student who can't stop talking about your field is a lot like being a non-academic who can't find anything to talk about other than your job, or your kid. I think it's OK to be that person for a while-- it's incredibly common-- as long as you bring some self-awareness to it and work on having other things to talk to people about (for your own mental health, too). That can be through finding some outside hobbies, or through recognizing that grad school is a job and people with jobs actually have a lot in common. You can also just focus on getting to know people. I used to believe people expected me to always contribute some original reaction or thought to whatever they were saying, which of course made small talk and getting to know people difficult. But actually you don't always have to relate to people or add something special to every conversation-- people will also just appreciate your sincere interest and you'll gain perspective by knowing them.

Work experience is very important in public health, especially for the MPH because it is a professional degree. Volunteer experience or internships in a public health setting can also help you if you're lacking in this area, and practical qualifictions will also help you so you're not coming out of grad school with a fancy degree and no work experience. In addition to reading the application pages of schools you're considering, I recommend the decision threads here and on the public health forum at Student Doctor. As you can see from this forum, it's not at all uncommon for people with sub-3.0 GPAs or unrelated majors to get into MPH programs because they are demonstrating interest and aptitude in the field elsewhere. Also, there are very few undergrad programs in public health so the applicant pool almost has to be diverse. Personally, I got in most places I applied with a history degree, basic math, and no relevant science courses (my favorite science in college was geology). I said in my application that I planned to take some that spring at a city college, but I was accepted to my schools before those grades ever came back and without even confirming what classes I ended up in. The reason is that I've coordinated clinical research for 4 years. So I'd advise you that, if you feel you lack prerequisites for an MPH, don't take classes-- take a gap year. Be a research assistant or volunteer at a hospital or public health agency while working a less relevant job or do AmeriCorps. Public health schools love that. As you're choosing your schools, while you still have time to take a couple of courses, contact their admissions departments and just ask if they would be interested in an applicant like you. In general an MPH will qualify you for both of the jobs you listed. Biostatistics is probably the best MPH concentration if you want to work for pharma (biostatisticians help a lot with the design of giant multi-site research protocols), and it wouldn't hurt you in you policy jobs either. Some schools offer health administration or health policy concentrations as well. An MPH will often involve an internship or capstone project, as well as core courses in all major public health sub-fields, so my personal advice is, if you go this route, to choose the concentration with the strongest quantitative focus they'll let you into. Those skills are very marketable. I haven't been able to find data on this, but my reading suggests that people working in the field consider epi and biostats the most marketable concentrations. However, if you need to gain knowledge in a specific content area where you want to work, there are a lot of other specializations that might be right for you.

There is no difference between the two, unless your school asks for both. If you need to write both, the distinction is that a "statement of purpose" is generally a short essay (1-2 pages is common) describing your interest and qualifications in the field, what program you're applying for and why (including your interest in that specific school or department), and what you plan to do with the degree if you are successful. It's basically a description of you as a (future-) professional. A "personal statement" is generally shorter and more, well, personal. It's a description of you, your background, and may be integrated with a question about how you would foster diversity or add an important perspective to your cohort. If a school only asks you for one essay, what you need to send them is the statement of purpose, whatever they're calling it, unless their specific instructions are very different from the above. For this reason, it's not a good idea to send the exact same SOP to every school. Large parts of your SOPs may be the same or similar because they describe your academic background and strengths. However, a good SOP should also demonstrate "fit" with the school and indicate that you know about and are interested in that specific program. Some people submit essentially the same SOP but rewrite a "fit paragraph" for each school that they insert, however I don't recommend it. Even in your description of yourself, there may be elements of projects or your background that you want to emphasize for specific schools once you learn about them. This was true for me, so much so that it affected the structure of my essays and which accomplishments I chose to share. Different schools may also have different length and content guidlines. Researching schools well enough to write a strong SOP can also help you select programs. I ruled some schools out when I was looking for specific programs or projects to express enthusiasm for, and couldn't really find any or didn't like the way they were structured on closer analysis.

The MPH is like many other professional masters degrees in that funding is rare. Accredited schools of public health generally have PhD students to support, so their money will go there first. Accredited programs (where the MPH only is accredited by CEPH, and is usually housed in some other department like a school of medicine rather than a dedicated school of public health) often aren't large enough to have a lot of funding for students. Also, for professional degrees there is more of an expectation that you will go back into the job market after the degree (thus paying off the debt with your new better salary), or that you are still working and your employer is helping pay for the degree. Professional masters degrees are also money makers for schools-- they aren't going around discounting them. You can do what the professionals in these programs do, finding a related job that will reimburse part of your tuition (and if the job is related, it may also improve your qualifications itself) or working for a couple of years between MPH and PhD. Many excellent MPH programs are public, for example University of Minnesota - Twin Cities is a top program and claims to have one of the lowest differentials between in-state and out-of-state tuition rates. I haven't started my program yet, so I can't confirm this, but I was also told by people I reached out to when applying that it is possible to network into research and teaching assistant jobs once you arrive-- perhaps by getting to know a professor well your first year and arranging to help them in your second year. You may also be able to TA in a related department or the area you did your undergrad degree in. If you do decide to borrow to do an MPH, a job that supports you to live frugally may make it possible for you to borrow only tuition (rather than tuition + cost of livinig estimate). There is a good thread on earning extra income going right now on the "Officially Grads" board. You could also look into paying off your student loan interest as it accrues monthly, so it can't capitalize and you will only owe the principal once you start working. Both of these approaches, plus looking at affordable public schools, will help limit your debt if you decide to do an MPH.

I'd actually consider child care one of the most problematic parts of an arrangement like this. Especially in a field where you will be reading a lot (rather than having to go to a lab), I would foresee conflict when you need to concentrate in your room and aren't actually available to babysit, yet your landlord knows that you are home. Or questions about why you can't work from home instead of the library, so a child won't be home alone. Pets and chores seem more reasonable in comparison. But since being expected to care for others' pets is a major complaint of people with roommates, I'd expect similar problems in a situation where you've actually agreed to provide some of their care.

I withdrew from a previous masters program, didn't mention it, and it was fine. The transcript from that program was in my application, but I just focused on my strengths otherwise. I wrote generally about switching fields, and how my interests and skills from the old field informed my approach to the new field. I left because of a combination of health problems (severe anxiety and depression) and having a job to go to instead that was less of a trigger than school. My interests didn't actually evolve until later when I was immersed in my job. I think if you've left a previous program, the question you need to answer for anyone reviewing your application is why you're right about wanting to go this time, when you were wrong before. Dwelling on how wrong you were before and why doesn't really help your case; demonstrating that you're now qualified to make a decision you've considered carefully does. If I were you, I would briefly mention leaving a previous program for family reasons, then shift focus to how your activities during your time away made you a better candidate and reinforced to you that the PhD program is where you belong.

Just contact them, apologize and say you mistakenly sent them the wrong application materials, and ask the person you contact to replace the materials they received with the correct ones you're sending now. Since you've been doing this by mail, I'd recommend calling the office and explaining to a person that you'll be sending corrected versions of your materials. If you call them promptly, you could even prevent your irrelevant SOP from being sent to your department at all. I don't think you need to stress about this too much. If you have to make a mistake, it's better to make it with the university admissions office, which is facilitating the process for the whole school, than with the department where people you want to work with will be evaluating your personally. Both groups are busy, and busy people are unlikely to spend extra time reading an irrelevant SOP in addition to your correct one.

I work in research and contribute to lots of projects I'm not an author on (although I do have publications so my situation is not exactly the same as yours). I don't use an acknowledgements section. Instead, one of the bullet points for my job is a count of all the completed, peer-reviewed projects that used my assistance. The other bullet points can give a sense of the type of assistance your job entailed. Here is my description of my current job: Screened and enrolled over 300 subjects in [technique] research Collected and coded medical data for 16 research studies Managed projects resulting in 6 papers, 10 presentations, and 4 posters accepted to academic journals and conferences, many by first-time investigators Assisted the authors and editors of 8 book chapters in [field] My reasoning is that people who will see your CV generally know what types of tasks research assistants help with in their field, but what they need to know is how much responsibility you had and whether you were a net contributor to the program. Acknowledgements kind of get at this (and if someone making admissions decisions at a school you want to attend wants it, definitely put it on the version of your CV you give them), but they're an imperfect measure and there aren't really clear norms about their use like with authorship. I've seen admin assistants acknowledged for proofreading; but in my department people mostly use the acknowledgements section for their colleagues they discussed the idea with, and they either give me authorship or not-- rarely an acknowledgement. If you're worried about this, format a CV for this school the way the person asked and give a more conventional one to other schools that haven't expressed a preference. Your SOP will add extra detail about your contributions, which can be significant even if they didn't result in authorship.

A lot of people here seem to have tablets, and there are a few good discussions about what people chose if you search. I have an iPad and use it a lot to read PDFs, borrow library books, and I just rented a textbook on it last semester. I like it a lot for that purpose-- it's much lighter than any of those physical books or my laptop would have been, and I am much better at keeping digital files organized than physical ones. I'm also not stuck carrying around books the day I borrow or return them when I don't need them. In Overdrive, my (Chicago Public Library) books just stop working when they're due so I never incur fines. In my experience working on it is less great. The iPad version of Google Drive is fine for reading files and basic word processing, but not much more in my opinion. I can't speak to other office applications so perhaps there's a better one out there, but in my experience if you find yourself a little limited by the full browser version of this type of app, then you'll hate the iPad version. If you think you'll want to create documents often on whatever you buy, you're better off getting a laptop that is portable enough for your needs or perhaps investigating something like the Surface that can run the full versions of those applications.

I wouldn't do it. This sounds the same as a roommate situation (reduced rent, own room, shared chores), but instead of living with people in your own age group and life stage, you'd be living with a family whose ideal situation seems to be to not have boundaries. Live-in domestic workers are very vulnerable to getting pulled into family drama, in addition to all the problems that come with having your downtime and personal life in the home of someone who could consider themselves in some sense your employer. I could maybe see this being acceptable if one or more of the family members were also a grad student or recent grad. Otherwise I agree with mockingjay that these families are pretty much looking for the most advantageous situation for themselves based on a stereotype of graduate students.

1. Quantitative - I haven't spent a lot of time analyzing it, so I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I have heard that earlier questions in math are important because they'll determine the difficulty of questions you'll get later on (and your score does take into account the difficulty of the questions you got right/wrong). Personally, time management was a big problem for me on this part of the test-- if I saw something I couldn't quite get, I'd dwell on it trying to get an answer by brute force. If this happens to you, my advice is to do as much of the problem you're confident in, eliminate all the answers you can, choose an educated guess from the remaining options, and move on so you have a chance to answer the other questions. And the single best piece of advice I got about this section was that if something looks too hard for you to do in the time limit, with only the basic GRE calculator, it probably is-- there must be a simple way. 2. Verbal - I got questions wrong in my practice because, according to Manhattan Prep, GRE authors aren't biased-- so an answer option that says the author strongly favors this or is trying to convince you of that can't be the right one. I disagree with them about that, but following it worked out for me on the test. My approach to these was basically to read the passage, then take the answers one at a time, skimming the passage to try to disprove them. I would do this even if I was pretty sure an option was right or wrong, just because some of the answers are deliberately written confusingly or hinge on technicalities. I was always able to narrow down the options to one or two by doing this. 3. AWA - I got a 5.5 once and a 4.0 the next time, so I have no idea about this section! Based on others' experiences, the most effective approach seems to just be to write a 5 paragraph essay (intro, 3 supporting paragraphs with a point each, conclusion). I've heard that many admissions committees don't take it very seriously, and they will have better evidence of your writing abilities from your statement of purpose and writing sample, if applicable. Don't stress about this one. 3a. Write naturally, and go for a mix of quoting the source material and just referencing their point. It also can help you to reference outside material that you think is relevant, so if the topic reminds you of a quote you remember well and can attribute, definitely use it. 3b. The terms memo/publication/letter aren't synonymous in most contexts, so if you're not sure what else to call the source text then I'd stick to one term even at the risk of sounding repetitive. You can also use other phrases to refer to what the author wants or claims, to save you from referring to "the letter" in every sentence. 3c. I found a good explanation of this rule (which I definitely could not articulate myself!) here in rules 4 and 5: http://www.eslcafe.com/grammar/simple_past_tense02.html However, according to ETS "Although an occasional spelling or grammatical error will not affect your score, severe and persistent errors will detract from the overall effectiveness of your writing and lower your score accordingly." Based on your post, your spelling is otherwise good, so you might want to review this but definitely don't stress out about it. 3d. The Purdue OWL pages have some good general advice about varying sentence structure: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/573/ However, in the interest of time management the best thing you can do is outline (just do a quick one with your thesis as the intro and a point or two per paragraph), write your essay based on the outline in the way that seems natural to you, and use your remaining time to revise and improve any style elements that jump out at you. That way you will at least have a finished, organized essay even if some sentence structures are repetitive. I hope this all helps! bsharpe is correct that relaxing will also help you out a lot. Get to the neighborhood early, get coffee, read a book, and use the time waiting to be called back to your testing room to sit quietly and clear your head. Best of luck!

I don't think you really have to fake passion with this background. If you truly want to work in a field, you pick up the skills that will get you there even if they're not all your favorite. Caring about your work doesn't have to mean that you have a passion for the methodology that you're using to answer your one ultimate burning question in the field that resonates with your soul. Sometimes a method is just a method, and you use it because it fits best with what you want to do. The possibility that you will actually get a job and get to spend time on that topic certainly counts as part of "fit". You might turn some people off if you said that the only reason you're in your field instead of the non-computational version is money-- but is that really true? In my experience the money also goes along with other things, like job security and (at least a chance at) autonomy and respect. People who care about a topic and want to spend time on it have to care about those things. And even when it comes to money, most adults who have held a job understand that if an activity doesn't pay, you will have to stop it or curtail it so you can spend time on things that keep a roof over your head. There will always be some people who think that valuing anything connected to your work in addition to the work itself indicates insufficient passion; but they are mistaken, naive, and in the minority. As an aside, we're all witnessing the adjunctification of higher ed and a research model that depends heavily on trainee labor with relatively less meaningful career work for graduates. I don't think it serves any of us well, and certainly not academic researchers as a group, to claim that passion should sustain us and money, respect, and security are beneath us. This expectation is false and it is harmful to our professions.

My laptop is 15-ish inches and I feel like I could have gone smaller. (I always use my laptop on my lap because I don't like to sit at a desk, so the 15-ish" situation is my all the time monitor.) Although the screen measurement is similar, the dimensions of my current laptop are noticeably wider than my last computer in that size range. However, it was very important to me to have a keyboard with a number pad and that's easier to find in larger computers. My last computer didn't have a separate number pad, and it was annoying even for some pretty general work in Excel. Personally, if I were docking my laptop or using a desktop frequently, I'd try to get the smallest computer that met my needs. Since I will be looking at it and typing on it all the time, I set a weight limit and then got the biggest thing I was comfortable carrying. Look into the relative weights of both sizes-- with charger-- and see how your bag will feel every day with each. That should clarify things.

I have depression/anxiety and would love to see it be treated more like other illnesses. I don't share the details of other illnesses with people I don't know well. Unless knowing that you are in counseling specifically would add to someone's ability to help or supervise you, there's no reason to share that detail any more than you would tell someone that you had the stomach flu last week rather than that you were "not feeling well". When I was in counseling, I would often feel that having a set weekly appointment for something was a dead giveaway-- it's not. Or that people who asked "oh what's wrong" to be nice after I missed a day expected a specific answer-- they don't. Don't give out details about your personal health unless it helps you in some way. No one seriously expects you to do otherwise.

Get a lot of socks in a variety of weights so you can layer them, including inside your apartment. Socks have always made the biggest difference for me. Have a plan for your coat-skin interfaces. Arm warmers so wind doesn't whistle up your sleeves and into your gloves, scarf you can wrap around a few times and tuck into your collar, some kind of undershirt you can tuck in if your top layer will be untucked. Tights make a big difference under pants (and are thin enough that you can layer them). And go ahead and get more than one pair of boots so you can rotate them, especially if you will be getting around at all by walking. Every winter that I've owned only one pair, even nice ones, they have been destroyed by the end of the winter because they just got so much use. These all kept me really comfortable this (absolutely terrible) winter in Chicago, where I regularly waited for a bus at 7 a.m. within sight of the lake.

I think academica attracts and rewards people who seriously over-identify with their work, and that attitude can magnify trivial individual choices into huge affronts to our worldviews. Sometimes our choices of things to get mad about can also be incredibly self-serving, which is my own personal favorite thing to dislike about others! Like most major life decisions, attending grad school is both useful for several possible goals and poorly thought out by many of the people who make it. This accounts for the irritating diversity of experiences and approaches plaguing seminars everywhere.

I live in Lakeview and will be staying because my apartment is a unicorn, but there are definitely cheaper places. In Chicago, there are lots of apartment services where the landlord pays the company for showing the apartment, and the potential renter pays nothing for the service. I really recommend using one (I used Elan Leasing), telling them what you need, and letting them do the work. I found a studio this way a few years ago and liked it so much that I moved to a one-bedroom in the same building the next year and have been there ever since. Lots of people will recommend Craigslist too, but it's a bit more work for you if you'll be searching from out of state. In terms of what you want, look for a place where at least heat is included in your rent. Especially don't pay to heat a place with radiators-- it's stupid expensive and you might not even have much control over turning them up and down. Some places will also include other utilities like cooking gas. I have no idea if those extras save money, but they will keep your budget predictable. The School of Public Health is at 1603 W Taylor, really close to Ashland, and the Ashland (north/south) bus runs pretty much all night-- it's a very useful bus. Living near Halsted (almost as good north/south bus) would also be good. The SPH is a 15 minute walk from the blue line-- I use the Illinois Medical District stop all the time right now to go to Malcolm X College and have never had any problems there. Even at night there are usually other students coming and going. I've never lived in them, but I've had friends who really love living in Pilsen and Logan Square. I'd consider them myself if I were moving.