BCMPH2014

UofA Epi is 16 months minimum, with most students completing in 20months to have a better work/life balance. I think most of the other concentrations are the same, but if I recall correctly one is a 24 month program...

This is my biggest concern as well. There really aren't that many job postings online, but everything I hear says that the majority of people get jobs after graduation out of their practicums. I asked this question to each of the universities that I applied to, and most don't have any kind of data on it, but say that their students do find work. However, SFU says that it does collect data from their alumni, and said that they have a 95% employment rate. Obviously some students go on to do a PhD or a professional program such as medical school so I'm not sure exactly how that data works, but that's all I have been able to find out. It would be nice to hear from actual grads about this sort of thing.

I will be going to UAlberta in the Epi concentration. Are you going and if so what concentration? This is pretty disturbing. Even the dean of the School of Law won't comment on what is happening for fear of being fired. It certainly brings some doubt to the school and program. I also hadn't realized that their medical program is currently suspended.

Hey, so it looks like a lot of people aren't checking on the forum as much anymore since many have already been accepted, but I'm curious how everyone is planning on funding their studies. How many of you have money set aside?what can we expect in the way of student loans and grants? Are you getting a line of credit? I'm trying to get a financial plan ready but I just feel like there are so many unknowns.

Anyone who is on a wait list for SFU Population Health or USask, I will be declining offers soon. Congrats to everyone who got in! I see a lot of people super excited about the UofT Epi program and it is clearly many people's first choice. I didn't really consider UofT for moving and financial reasons so never really looked into it. Is the Epi program there really good?

I will most likely be going to UofA (have also accepted SFU until I decide), but my girlfriend and I are having a difficult time coming to to terms with moving to Edmonton. Most people say "after two Yeats you'll be ready to leave" haha. But two years isn't that much in the grand scheme of things.

I got my acceptance email from the Epi concentration about 2 weeks ago (although I actually never received the first email and they had to resend it). Due date to accept was Friday the 4th, so if anyone declined, it is possible more offers may go out soon (but don't quite me on that). They only accepted 5 people into Epi.

Congrats to MPH2014_Regina! I got the same email today. I am also in the running for the UofA recruitment scholarship ($13,000 + first term tuition and fees) but I have no idea when I will find out about that, and I have to let SFU know by Monday. Having a hell of a time making a decision. I also got into UofS but I haven't hears anything from them (emailed them Monday with a bunch of questions).

Same here, and I was also wondering about when they require your decision by. However, in the email it said "If you haven't received your official letter in the mail within 3 weeks, please contact us." So I imagine that you have at least that long, of not longer to decide. I need to make my decision about SFU and UofA pretty quickly though, they want to know by March 31st and April 4th, respectively.

Does anyone have any insight to the differences in the programs at UofA, UofS, and SFU (aside from SFU not having an Epidemiology concentration)? I know funding isn't particularly great anywhere for these programs, but how about aspects such as opportunities to get involved with various on campus programs, participating in research, overall school experience, etc.? Finding out this type of information is just so difficult, and deciding between the 3 is difficult, there are pros and cons to each.

I actually haven't received my official letter yet (they said it was sent out a few days ago). I just received an email to let me know that they nominated me for a scholarship. So yours may be on its way still!

For sure. I have a Bachelor of Kinesiology, minor in Biology, with a cGPA of 4.03/4.33 with my last 60 credits being about the same thing, maybe slightly higher. The last 3 years of my undergrad I worked at the university in a bit of a unique pilot program where I attended 1st year anatomy and physiology courses and ran free study sessions for students, and then went on to train and mentor new people working in that program. I volunteered in a lead student role on a research project with one of my professors and the health authority examining the effect of strength and balance training on seniors in nursing homes, and because of that experience spoke in front of the deans/provosts/presidents of the New Western Universities as part of a panel member on the benefits of community-based research. As part of a practicum I (and 2 others) created and ran workshops for recreation leaders and early childhood educators on physical literacy for children, as well as evaluated the effectiveness of current recreational programs in developing physical literacy. I also did 1 undergraduate thesis course where I examined the participation data from local communities' recreation programs as part of a first step in determining some of the influencing factors on recreation participation. However, I have no publications from it. I then took a couple years off from school and have been working in the recreation centre of a retirement home doing all sorts of stuff, but my main role being running the fitness programs (strength, balance, aqua classes, etc). So it is a bit of a hodgepodge of various experiences that I was lucky to get the opportunity to be a part of.

I have received an email today from both SFU and UofA that I have been accepted into their MPH Programs (Population Health and Epidemiology respectively)! I only applied to 1 other school, USask, which I have not heard from yet, though I saw that one person did hear from them today. I am stoked, as SFU and UofA were my top two choices. I still don't know which one I would prefer to go to.

After scouring the 2013 thread for when people began receiving acceptance (or rejection) letters and reading through the 2014 thread I finally decided to post. Congrats to those of you who have alredy recieved a letter of acceptance! The waiting is starting to get to me, and I know that it is still before most schools begin accepting people. I've applied to SFU, UofA, and UofS. UofA still says "decision pending," UofS says "complete and ready for review" (I didn't finish my application until end of February, so might take awhile), and the SFU website doesn't have a status that I can find. I received and email from them stating that they needed my official transcripts, which ended up just being filed under my first name by accident. However, their website says that they do not confirm whether or not they have recieved official transcripts, but that "successful applicants" will be notified of missing documents, so that got my hopes up for SFU a bit! One worry that I have though, is that an SFU MPH student posted some pretty bad things about the SFU program is last year's thread, trying to find it. But basically said that the class sizes are too big, many classe are taught by TAs and not PhD profs, lack of a connection with faculty, etc. Is anybody able to wiegh in with their experience at SFU? **EDIT** Found it: