joshre01

Exactly! My UNC advisor said that in recent years, it's become harder to find funding for all students so the current situation will definitely have an impact on that as well. It's a huge commitment to make! Do you have other schools you're debating on?

Hope your trip to Columbia goes well, and that you find something worthwhile! I have decided to stay at my current program. The call with my UNC advisor was pretty useless. She did not have a position, neither did she advice on another professor who may have opportunities. Basically, just told me the same thing other admins/students said. So, I decided not to take that chance

I was accepted to the Epi department and was told the same exact thing. I was actually pretty disappointed that UNC did not have a concrete funding package for most students and that you'd have to take a 'leap of faith' that you'd get funding somehow. I'm an international student so that risk is even more for me, since I don't qualify for most of the training grants either. I spoke to my advisor (after some other intl student told me they got their funding through their advisor). But she told me the same thing - that students wouldn't find out about RA positions until April/May and there is no guarantee that they would get this. And even if they did, who knows what happens the year after? It's pretty ridiculous that a PhD program at a program that highly ranked won't guarantee any funding at all. Anyway, I have another great funded offer somewhere else where I have to respond by end of March (ranked much lower than UNC) but there's no way I am going to take a chance and put myself through a PhD program where there's additional stress about trying to find funding. Some current students at UNC told me that they don't regret making that decision, but I just can't do it! Which dept did you apply to?

Definitely stopped posting here because most decisions have come through. But haven't made my decision yet, so still lurking around

Anyone heard from/waiting for decisions re: Colorado PhD in Epidemiology?

It was! She was really honest about everything, and said that as an international student, the only reason she took the UNC offer was because her advisor had an RA position for her right away. I am hoping that this is the case for me when I speak to the advisor, but I guess we'll see! Is there a timeline for when you will hear from Columbia? It seems like there's a possibility of finding funding there. I would reach out and ask about the fellowship (when you will find out, what it's going to look like) and let them know that you need to know soon. How about your advisor at Columbia? It's tough to make a decision, if you don't have full information on your different options. I also may have missed this info, but do you have a preference for one school over another (without looking at funding)?

Thanks for your feedback! As far as I know, Drexel has many international students and is committed to supporting us any way they can, although supporting diversity of intl students is a completely different thing than being able to support them financially. But I'm speaking to an international student from UNC today so will find out today! The benefit to staying at Drexel is that it's already a shorter program and the fact that I've taken a bunch of the required doctoral classes means I can get started on my research earlier. I still have to fulfill the credit requirements so I think it will take me as long as it does any one else, but will have less restrictions on what classes I can take to fulfill that. Haha, that's true about the hiring manager! Did you figure out where you may be going yet?

I'm on a similar boat, trying to decide between a fully-funded guaranteed 3-year program at Drexel Epi vs. UNC Epi with no word on funding (except words from students/admin folks who say that 99% students get funding and are super happy with the program). The Drexel program comes with 20 hrs of work requirement but my advisor is super nice and said this will be around my own dissertation work and will benefit me the most! Plus I've been here for 2 years and have taken doctoral level classes while working 20 hrs while being on a quarter system so I know I can do it! I know that everyone raves about the program at UNC, but it's such a tough decision to make. This is especially true for international students like me (since we would never qualify for in-state tuition) and considering the current political circumstances, who knows what it will be like next year even if I find an RA position this year. I'm really not sure how to decline a perfectly good offer, not knowing what it will be like at UNC later! Is the name/quality of the program worth the risk?

Those accepted at UNC -- have you heard about funding/advisor?

Hey light10491, I'm not sure about the specific program but the person I contacted (who told me decisions would be out this week) is the general administrative director for the school of public health. So it's possible she meant for all programs in the school?

Yale Epi said decisions will be out this week, if any one is still waiting for this. Although I'm almost certain I didn't get in, since I didn't even get an interview!

I applied to the Epi PhD program and no word from them still. Hope you get good news!

I haven't heard from Colorado at all, but I only applied on 1/27. I sent an email to them today, so hopefully they'll get back with something.

Hi Epi_17, I completely agree with Melvina. Some of these top-ranked school Master's degrees tend to be vanity degrees, especially if you already have one! Unless your goal is to add another Hopkin's Masters degree on your cv, I think this will add way more debt than anybody really needs. If you've found your passion in epi, I think you should look for a fellowship/job/internship for a year that will help you publish in epi and then apply to the PhD programs again. Obviously if you end up getting in to those other programs you listed, then great! But honestly, spending 2 more years and lots of $ on another master's that isn't even that relevant to Epi may not be worth it. MHS program is the general Master of Health Science program, right?. You should definitely look at the required classes for this program, I barely see any epi/biostat type of courses anyway. Just my two cents!

Hey, which dept in Colorado did you interview ? I applied late Jan and haven't heard anything since!