themmases

Good topic! I love hearing about people's plans. I'll be attending UIC for an MS in Epi. I'm interested in health literacy, access, and disparities in urban populations, and I think I'd like to go on to a PhD but I'll decide for sure during this program. Even though public health is growing, I'm skeptical of the academic job market regardless of field and I think I would fit better (and more realistically) in a hospital reseach center and consulting as a co-investigator or sub-investigator on clinical research. I coordinate that type of research now, so even though I've seen the uglier side I know I would be good at it and that having more responsibility would ameliorate some of the problems I have with it. I'd love to have a job pursuing my own research agenda, but I also just enjoy research methods. And the type of job where I have a permanent position paid out of a research center and then offset by the grants of whoever I work with is very appealing to me. (This type of job exists where I work now, I didn't just dream it.)

I wouldn't mention it unless this position is for a fixed term that would end in time for you to start grad school. It's common for grant-funded or contract positions to be guaranteed for a year only, but one year is actually quite a short time to stay in a permanent position unless it's entry-level or a position with high turnover anyway. A year and a half is the kind of time range where employers shouldn't be mad if you move on, but they also might not hire you if they know that's the timeline. (I had this problem myself job searching while applying to grad school, and other friends did too.) You should be proud of getting into a good program, of course, but from the employer's perspective this isn't that great: they won't benefit from your quality education because you won't have it yet, but they will guarantee that they'll be looking for a new Program Specialist in a year. If you want to be transparent about your school plans, research assistant type jobs are the better way to go. You aren't expected to have as long a resume, so getting into a good school counts for more, and being available for more than just a summer is considered an upgrade. My department enthusiastically hires med and premed students taking a gap year, for example, but probably wouldn't hire them for anything higher than that unless we were desperate, they were amazing, and someone with longer tenure would also still be there.

Also, people caught plagiarizing frequently claim that they mistakenly omitted citations, mixed up their notes, didn't do a very thorough literature review, or other excuses from laziness. If those excuses were acceptable, we would have academic communities rife with plagiarism that couldn't be seriously addressed because there's no way to know for sure what was in Professor Smith's mind when they submitted someone else's words as their own. IME journals (and my instructors before them) don't accept papers or images that are incorrectly formatted and merely inconvenience the editors and printer, regardless of the reason. Motivation is at least as relevant to incorrect citation, which harms others if accepted. It certainly doesn't help an academic's editors, coauthors, colleagues, or the people they steal from if they "only" made a decision to write lazily, knowing the consequences could be serious. Academic norms about acknowledging others' contributions are superior to those in many non-academic fields and far, far superior to what I've seen in the quasi-academic area of clinical research-- so much so that it's a major reason I'm leaving. Researchers should unapologetically defend those norms against stealing work and even find areas to improve (as in authorship disputes), not quibble over whether they're OK if the person's excuse is hard enough to disprove.

I also have a Brother laser printer that I love. I think the "starter cartridge" it came with was good for 750 sheets, and definitely lasted me over a year.

You really need to change your perspective on this going forward too. It is not distracting to read referenced work; it's distracting to read work that isn't cited at the location of the reference or factual claim (e.g. in mainstream media) because then as a reader you have to wonder when and how the writer will acknowledge the source of the information. A document that is missing references is essentially a document full of mistakes-- at best-- your idea that references are somehow distracting is like saying that reading through a paper that has already been proofread is distracting. How can you correct anything about a paper if you are reading it through in the mindset that you will ignore half the mistakes you see, with no reference for yourself to even check your own work? Find a new way of working that involves putting some form of reference into your paper as you write. Many people don't properly format references until the end, but there is no excuse to not put them in at all. Not only do you run the risk of plagiarism, you just increase the work for yourself later to try to remember what you were referencing. Popular choices: Just type the references yourself as you go, it's really not that hard. By the end of a well-referenced paper, you should have the major points of the style memorized and it will no longer be difficult. Pick your favorite reference manager, put your references in it as you find them (not as some separate step you can procrastinate on) and use it as your primary reference organizer. Use it to cite as you go. It should update the reference order for you if you do a lot of reorganizing; if it doesn't, your reference manager sucks, get a new one. Build your reference library in a citation manager before you start writing. Write references and notes to yourself in brackets or comments as you go. As you do your final proofread, use your reference manager to replace the comments with citations.

I personally wouldn't try to switch unless I were losing sleep over my relationship with them, or they were holding me back in some way. You really can't know that based on not liking how someone writes their emails. Also, whatever you do as a job after your masters degree, you won't be able to just switch bosses and you will be expected to communicate with people above you in whatever way they prefer, whether it's your favorite or not. Lots of people don't like the phone or Skype, and it's really none of your business why. If you strongly prefer it, insist on it with people who need something from you. That's pretty much how it works. PIs send weird emails-- it's just what they do. Mine sends me stream of consciousness emails about stuff she wants me to do, in clusters of 3-4, in the middle of the night, on weekends and on her own vacations. Another one sends me emails with smiley faces warning me when her academic days are, and she'll be showing up in my office unannounced wanting me to Photoshop arrows onto defective child hearts. It can be very difficult to read tone in these emails, even when you've known someone for a long time and especially when you've never actually met them. Also, many people remain pretty formal in email until they do meet the person they're writing to. Not getting worked up about these emails-- or at least finding a way to respond to them that calms you down, rather than having you re-plan the next 2 years of your life-- is a life skill you might as well develop now.

You should contact the school directly and ask them about your specific situation. If the program is geared towards professionals, they probably have had other people with very similar backgrounds and can tell you what would reflect well on you. I did this, ended up going with all professional references, and got in at 3/4 places I applied. But, my job experience is closely related to my degree [ed. to add: the degree I was applying to] and my application basically rested on it (my [undergrad] degree was also 4+ years ago and not relevant). And I spoke to people at those schools first. The answer will probably be field dependent, and maybe program dependent as well. If you're applying multiple places, you may also be able to hedge by getting more than 3 LORs, sending the strongest (presumably all professional) to the programs that don't mind that, and only sending the academic LOR to the programs that insist on it. As for getting the LOR, give your former professor lots of information about you, the program, and what about you specifically you're hoping they can attest to (good student? can handle research? works well independently?). If you don't have an old professor who is willing to write a strong recommendation about that after all this time/in a different field, wait a year and get class, work, or volunteer experience with someone who can.

This depends on a few things: whether the pay you were quoted already includes any deductions for taxes, benefits, etc.; where you're looking for an apartment; and what you're looking for in an apartment. If $870 is really what your paycheck will say week to week and any taxes will have already been withheld, then you can just budget based on that amount. If you may owe taxes the next year, it would be smart to just withhold that money from yourself so you know you can pay it later. In my market (Chicago), 30-33% of your monthly income is considered a reasonable amount to spend on rent. (The person who showed me my apartment actually asked me multiple times if I made "three times the rent" before letting my apply.) If utilities are included, especially expensive ones like heat, it could be reasonable to spend more like 35%. However, in markets that are very expensive or very inexpensive this might be different. You can find out what's reasonable in your area by contacting landlords whose property you're interested in and asking, looking for a tenant union in the area and asking them, or asking a contact in the financial aid office how they estimate cost of living. You can also look at apartment and roommate ads in the area-- many of them will specifically be looking for students and grad students-- and see what the going rate is for someone in your situation. Landlords in areas around universities are usually used to renting to grad students, and will spell out what arrangements they want (e.g. deposit) in their ad or when you contact them.

I don't use the child free label, but I don't want/don't plan on having kids. For personal and political reasons, I'm just not interested in ever sharing my body that way (I share it in other ways like by being a research subject a lot), and I need more time alone than being a parent of a small child allows. People who know me well also know that my partner's only sibling has physical and intellectual disabilities, and we will be her caregivers later in life, at a level of involvement that's impossible to know right now. I consider all those reasons too private to share with someone who would just assume I want kids. I only tell friends. If someone incorrectly references my future kids, I pretend they made the equivalent statement about how fun/how cute/what a handful my friends' future kids will be and go with it. If people ask me why, I just say I'm looking forward to being an aunt (probably to kids' friends, I don't think my sister will ever reproduce either) but don't want to personally be a parent. I have the Mirena IUD and I love it. It fits my self-image somehow as a person who can't/won't get pregnant, not to have to take action every day to thwart my body thwarting me. It hurt to put in but I was fine by later in the day, and the cramps are worse but since I was on the pill from age 18 until it was put in, it's impossible to know if the cramps are bad because of the physical object, or just because my cramps would have been a lot worse without the pill.

This sounds like something very field dependent, but in my experience you need to submit a full manuscript to a journal to be considered, and submission of abstracts only is for conferences. Different journals will have different weird requirements, such as formatting, style, and even word count. They'll also have different perspectives and types of work that they tend to publish. IME it's a good idea to pick a journal you think would be interested in your work and write the manuscript with your audience in mind. This will determine, for example, how much background you need to give in your introduction and where to focus your discussion. In my department, it's common to submit a paper to a "reach" journal first, so even if you don't get in you'll get reviewer comments from the top journal in the field as a consolation prize. Other faculty that you and your advisor know are a good audience for just your abstract, to help you decide where to submit the manuscript and give advice on the framing of your problem.

I get the impression that that's very common for professional degrees-- I'm not as familiar with the MPA but you'll see a lot of the same advice given to people considering the MPH. These degrees are useful, but they're not a substitute for work experience and they won't automatically turn a new graduate into a professional with their pick of jobs. It's common for employers to feel that job candidates don't merit better titles, responsibilities, or pay based on a professional degree alone-- but that young people with these degrees will come in already feeling "overqualified" even if they've never held a job. (I'm not saying that's true, just that it seems to be a common perception of job candidates.) Also, enrollment in these programs is soaring due to several factors that can be summed up as "the crappy economy", so although people with masters degrees are a small percentage of the total population, unfortunately none of them are as rare as they probably bargained on being when they entered their programs. If you have your heart set on attending in the fall, you should aggressively go after internships or part-time work that resembles your goal job as much as possible. Even unrelated general office experience is valuable in showing that you'll be reliable and get how career-type jobs work in a field that is full of people who only have school on their resumes. Otherwise, I'd strongly recommend that you wait and work for a couple of years. It will help you make sure that you want the MPA, set you apart once you're out, and allow you to identify related skills that you should try to pick up while you're in school. It's smart of you to be reading job ads now (lots of people don't do that, you'd be surprised), but job ads are wishlists-- it doesn't mean the employer is really inundated with unicorns who have that incredibly specific experience. Working will help you learn what is on every job ad because everyone has it, and what is on every ad because everyone wants it (spoiler: it's probably math).

I'm attending! I'll be starting the Epi MS program in the fall.

Thank you emails are very common in my job. I coordinate research and work with a lot of other people who do, too, so basically we are always contacting people all over the organization asking them or each other to do stuff. We send a thank you at what we think will be the end of the exchange, so it could be after one message or after two weeks of back and forth. The longer the exchange, the longer my email. If I sent them one question and they sent me one answer, I just write back "thank you!" with no salutation, etc. If we've collaborated with them on something, they get complete sentences thanking them for their help and letting them know I'll be in touch, or whatever. I did the same thing with all my contacts at the school I'll be attending (before I was admitted and after), and it seemed to be appreciated. Normal professionals don't usually respond to an email that just says "Thank you!" unless you're friendly... Sometimes to say "you're welcome" and the conversation ends there. Also, if someone's job is to be helpful and handle details for people, your "thank you" can serve as a read receipt so they know they handled your problem and this thread is over. Personally I keep all emails so if someone asks me about the topic months later, I can go back and see what my solution was and that it did help whoever I was talking to. If you feel they went above and beyond, an email that says so is actually really helpful for them to keep for their annual review.

I agree with St Andrews Lynx-- you should leave or at least take a leave of absence. I left a masters program a few years ago this way, and honestly it's one of the best decisions I ever made. My anxiety and depression were so severe I used to hope I'd get hit by a car on the way to the el just so I wouldn't have to go to school. At the same time, like you, I continued to go to my job and be good at it. Seriously, paying your bills freelancing is hard, let alone doing that while going to school, and you should be proud. If you're already able to handle that, you might be surprised how good you are at it and how manageable it seems when you take worry about school off your plate. If your counseling is through school, please look into whether/how you could continue to use it during a leave of absence, or referrals to a low-cost provider in your community. You may also need other guidance and support from your school if you are an international student. I'm sorry this is happening to you. This isn't your fault, and it isn't just burnout-- it reflects on the multiple people in your life who have obviously been cruel to you during a time in your life that would already have been stressful. I hope you get the help with this that you deserve.

I use a structured tote with a laptop pocket. I used to use a backpack in undergrad, but I found that not only was it ugly it didn't really help my shoulders-- in fact it encouraged me to overpack. I assigned a category of stuff to each pocket of my current tote, and I just make sure to empty them out at the end of the day. For example, the section closest to my body is only for books too tall to fit in the laptop pocket and my lunch, and I keep it empty at all other times. It's actually been an upgrade for my shoulders and for just being able to find things when I need them (for a while I was using my existing purse, which happened to be huge but wasn't intended for books). It's great to hear from this thread that I don't care about my spine and look ridiculous, though! As long as we're discussing the personal decisions of people we don't know, let's talk about high heels and everyone's plans for work/life balance next.

With regard to your insurance, your mom should also check the terms of her own policy. Many employer-provided health plans have three tiers of coverage: employee only, employee + spouse, and employee + family. If your mother's plan is like this and she's also paying to cover other family members, you may be covered on her plan even if you get your own through the school, because there would be no way to remove you. It's especially important to avoid the school health insurance if that's the case for your family, because you'd essentially be paying to get double covered. I know because I did this in my first job, mistakenly believing I could save my parents money by getting my own insurance. I have never heard of a school that forced students to use their insurance if students had their own, unless perhaps it was considered part of the compensation for a fellowship or assistantship. Since you were told you'd need to budget to pay for it, it sounds like that's not the case here. I can certainly relate to feeling you need to move out, and I think some things about managing your own household, like setting up and planning to pay rent/bills, are an important part of growing up. They also help you get a realistic idea of what you need to live when you are job searching. However, one big benefit of doing this stuff yourself is it helps you learn to avoid unneccesary debt. I wouldn't borrow to move out unless I had some reason to believe I could do it very cheaply-- a roommate could be that reason. And if you'll still need a car even if you move, I wouldn't do it at all.

I am working up to telling my boss too. The Ask a Manager blog has tons of good advice about this, both on giving notice generally and on telling your boss you're leaving for graduate school specifically. It's better to give your boss plenty of notice, because some bosses will definitely be annoyed at getting two weeks when you knew for months that you were leaving. However, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. If you know your boss has gotten mad at other people who were leaving, even for something like school rather than for another job with a competitor or something, then they made their own bed. No one can reasonably expect you to give extra notice that you think won't be appreciated or that you could even be punished for. If you think your boss will be mad, cover yourself by being generally on top of things and maybe having documentation of some of your jobs written up already for a new person. Pick a specific last day and tell them when it will be-- don't leave it open or say you need to be done by x date. Tomorrow is by x date. If you want any time off or to use other benefits that require manager approval during your remaining time, get them approved before you tell people you're leaving. As for what to say, go with graduation-style platitudes. Tell them you've enjoyed your time there (or that it was a great opportunity or you learned a lot or whatever the most positive thing is you can honestly say), how it's influenced your future direction, and ask what you can do to help make the transition smooth. If your manager sounds like they would have wanted to know sooner, say that the process is competitive and you didn't want to worry them or make them work on replacing you until you knew it was a done deal.

Yes, definitely. My second and third choices accepted me earlier and were much friendlier and more communicative than the school I chose, where the staff are great but the university and the process are disorganized. I was prepared for that after going to undergrad in the same system, but I still felt bad holding onto acceptances and getting chirpy emails from these schools, knowing that only bad news from another admissions committee could change my mind.

Depends. I forward them if I really know someone looking for a job. I'm not asking coworkers if they're looking just to forward this stranger's email, though. Otherwise, I only respond if they have all three of the following: actually recruit in an area/company I want to work; actually know what I do/seem to have read my profile; generally seem non-sketchy. I have a stupid job title that usually means something else in my industry, so it's not hard to figure out who was interested enough to read my CV and who was just sending as many messages as they could afford to strangers with my job title. I just thank the good ones for getting in touch and say I'll forward their offer to anyone in my circle who seems appropriate (which sometimes could be no one).

I work with a lot of MPHs and it does not seem to matter. The degree is useful in health-related fields but, like many professional credentials, it's very common to earn it while working rather than by being immersed in a particular school. IMO quantitative skills, language skills, and work experience are the most important. Focus on going to an accredited program you can afford, in an area you want to work, that will give you good preparation in biostatistics and is likely to involve an internship or capstone project relevant to your goal job. This is an interesting post about being marketable with an MPH that someone posted recent in the public health forum: http://www.bdkeller.com/2014/02/is-there-a-global-health-bubble-or-should-you-get-an-mph/ It focuses specifically on global health, which is growing and competitive. From the perspective of someone working in clinical research, school reputation can matter but nowhere near as much as stats knowledge. And smaller schools with no particular national reputation can still be very well thought of in the city or region where they're located, which is perfect for you as long as you pick a school in the region where you want to work. Seriously though, avoid debt. MPHs generally don't get rich. Use the Bureau of Labor Statistics and job sites like Glassdoor and Indeed to get an idea of your likely salary as a new grad, and refuse to take on debt that a realistic salary for you couldn't service.

Well, environment affects my research because I'm interested in urban health disparities and access specifically. Rural areas have their own, quite different, public health problems which are interesting and important, but not what I want to work on. I could compromise on a small city/large college town if the school had a great research fit otherwise, or tons of health data to analyze. So I love living in Chicago and I'm excited to stay, but sometimes I feel a tiny bit disappointed that I'm not using this opportunity to try somewhere totally new without committing to it forever. I loved living in Champaign-Urbana (I still miss my awesome house there), and part of me also really wanted to move back to a college town whether it helped my research or not.

In some fields, a person who has been out of school for 5 years can submit all professional references if they're relevant. I did that on my applications after being out 4 years, and it worked out fine-- with the caveat that not only was my work relevant, my undergrad degree was irrelevant. You should look at the admissions requirements for the types of programs you'll be interested in, and see what they want. If programs in your field will want academic references even from 5-year-old relationships, then you should use a service like InterFolio or a similar offering from your school to just get a recommendation now. If you want to keep in touch with your professors, I recommend keeping them up to date on your career progress. One of my professors is also a job reference, so whenever I contact him to tell him I'm looking I also let him know what I was up to at the last job, what I'm looking for now, and whether I think it would be a good opportunity for any of his current students. People who helped you generally want to know how that worked out for you, and your information can help them with the students they're mentoring now.

I have an iPad that I rented textbooks on this semester, and I ended up liking it a lot-- so much so that I scanned a course binder I had because it suddenly felt intolerable compared to just carrying a tablet. It's also really nice for reading PDFs, although I think I'd replace it with an Android tablet if it ever died because I dislike iOS. Pros: - Light - Always having your book (as long as you were going to use the tablet for other stuff) - On tablets, the book fills the screen so you're not distracted by other apps - Eye strain isn't really a problem because the brightness is easy to control and it's easy to zoom - No worries about a new edition coming out and the book becoming worthless-- I already paid for the rental only - Every ebook app is on iOS and Android, so I was able to pick the store with the lowest price Cons: - Not natural to type on if you're taking notes in the book - Not natural to just flip to reference material at the front of the book-- you'll need to bookmark the material and your new page and then go into menus - Long, image-heavy books can be resource hogs, especially if you're buying a model behind to save money - IME, DRM has been more restrictive than for other books. I can't just log in and read the book in a browser the way I could with an epub of a novel or something. This probably depends on the publisher and the rental agreement, though.

At many schools, this is not totally up to you. For example, in college towns many leases follow the school year, leases all start a week or two before classes, and your apartment is simply not available before then. If you get campus housing, move-in day is often very close to mandatory orientation/registration events. If you're moving to a place less dominated by student housing, 1-2 weeks is still a good bet. Plan on a couple of days to move, recover, and maybe explore before you're required to be at any campus events. The schools I went to all had another couple of buffer days between orientation and the actual first day of class, which was plenty. There's not much point in arriving sooner unless you want to take advantage of a lease that starts that early, and your visa allows it.

I would and did compromise my school choices for my partner. I wouldn't give up on going altogether. I've done what I can/am willing do in my chosen career path without at least an MPH, and I'm not interested in spending my career meandering down the slow track to being top research coordinator. When I first knew it was time to leave my job, I looked at everything. I considered leaving the country for my degree, and looked into fellowships where I'd move for just a year. Ultimately I promised my partner we wouldn't leave the Midwest unless it was for something really special, and that the goal would be to come back to the Chicago area. My partner has a portable job, so his continuing to work remotely for his employer or finding a new job wherever we moved were options. It's obviously better for my partner's career to keep working on site for the employer that likes him enough to keep him if we'd moved-- otherwise my first and second choice would have been flipped. He's my family, so that's what's best for me too. His goals are no less important than mine for involving a less specific path. Sometimes I wonder what I would have done if my partner just couldn't or wouldn't support me in this, but it's kind of a nonsense question because that's not what he's like.