gnarls_barkley
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Posts posted by gnarls_barkley
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So where is everyone going? I'm going to post my stats for next year's cohort.
UG: Public Health Education. GPA: 3.0
Masters in Public Health (Epidemiology) from low/mid range school of public health. GPA: ~3.8
GRE: Verbal:160; Quant:156; AW: 4.0
Conference presentations: None
Publications: 1 as second author. 1 as first author, but not accepted by time of application. Name on a couple of white papers/technical reports.
Work experience: 1.5 years (and counting) working for research center.
LoRs: 1 from faculty advisor, 1 from faculty/work supervisor, 1 from county health department manager.
Research interests: Cancer epidemiology, chronic disease epidemiology, nutritional sciences/nutritional epidemiology.
Applied: UIC, Minnesota, South Carolina, Texas, and Pitt
Accepted: UIC, Minnesota, and South Carolina
Attending: UIC
I liked Minnesota's program, but the funding offer was not viable for me. Headed to UIC this fall!
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I'll be going for Hispanic Linguistics. Any luck finding something? I am considering the university's housing options but still not sure.
I'm not sure about the grad student housing. I think it's a bit early to look for August openings. What areas (if not around UIC) are people thinking about?
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Depends heavily on what school you're going to. U of C? NU downtown or NU Evanston? Loyola?
UIC, but I'm open to living outside that area. ex. along the blue line anywhere or Lakeview area
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Anyone have advice for apartment searching from distance? Either in general or specific to Chicago?
Ideally, I'd like my own studio or 1br but it looks like I may need to get a couple roommates. I'm planning to visit once before moving in August but I would have a very short window to meet roommates and look at places.
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Those are both mid to low tier schools in the public health world, but solid universities overall.
If you're planning to go into industry, pick the one that will cost the least and have the best connections to employers. You may have to do some digging - ask their career services office, search Linkedin, ask current students, etc.
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Assistantships are usually 25% (10 hours/week) or 50% (20 hours/week). 50% positions will typically cover full tuition and a livable stipend. This doesn't have to be the only project/work you do, but some people may fall into as it's just easier. Your life as an RA completely depends on the project/professor.
Of course, you need to ask the department these questions, as everything I mentioned varies by country, university, department, etc.
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If you're willing to have a roommate, it seems like $700-800 is the range for a decent place in University Village/Little Italy. At least from what I've seen on Padmapper and the UIC off campus housing site.
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Hey all. Just accepted an offer to the School of Public Health (west campus) for epidemiology.
Any thoughts on housing/places to live? I'm considering the on-campus grad housing, but it's a bit pricey! Moving from a pretty low cost of living city, so housing in Chicago is definitely one thing that I'm not very excited about.
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I may be going to UIC this fall, so I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for relatively safe places to live that are not too far away from UIC's campus? Trying to get an idea about the cost of living, so I wanted to look at rental prices, but don't know how to tell the good locations from the not so good.
I would be interested about what people think too.
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I've got the following that I'm trying to decide on:This has been discussed a bit, but would you all mind posting what funding packages you have received specifically from Epi programs? From what I can see, these are the most popular programs in all PH tracks, so I am not too surprised to see schools being stingy.
Like above, I too have 20K + tuition but there are issues with this school
- Top choice (top 10 program). TA position, 8k and half tuition coverage
- Top 20 program. 10k fellowship and full tuition for 2 years.
-Top ~25 program. Full funding, 20k plus tuition for 4 years
In a tough, but enviable spot. Would love to go to my top choice, but I don't think I can justify having to take loans out when I have better offers on the table.
How about you?
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Thanks for the response! I think it's pretty clear now that accepting 2 offers would be a huge no-no.Yeah, so definitely don't accept two offers.
Sure, a higher ranking helps, but in a field like engineering (where good academic jobs are in large supply because engineers can make more money in non-academic jobs) a top 25 department is going to do pretty well in placing their students in top jobs. Even in fields where there aren't many non-academic options, top 25 departments tend to do okay.
Personally, I don't think you should borrow to go to a PhD program at all. Over 5 years that's $75,000. And is that $15,000 of loans just to cover the tuition shortfall? Because if that doesn't including living expenses, then you will need to borrow for that, too.
You have an excellent program that wants you and is willing to pay you. I would take that.
My field is actually public health (epidemiology), so top 25 here may not mean as much when thinking about other fields that have dozens or more programs.
Do you have any insight on how the non-academic market is for public health?
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Do I have to accept admission, send in the deposit, etc. before the school notifies me of a Fin Aid award, if any? Or does the offer come after admission?
Ask them. Financial aid is different at every school, program, degree, etc.
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Thanks for the responses, all. The mix has been pretty similar to what I've heard from faculty and students I've asked.
My field doesn't have as many industry options as other STEM fields, so academia is probably the first choice. I am leaning a bit toward the top 5 school, but I definitely see the drawbacks (financial and non-financial). I'm going to speak with them and see what is the likelihood of additional funding after the deadline and beyond.
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So, this is the time of year that everyone has (hopefully) tough choices. My top choice, a top 5 program, just accepted me off the wait list, but their funding offer is pretty weak (I would need ~15k in loans the first year). They mentioned that more funding may become available after the 4/15 deadline.
Another school offered me a very generous funding package several weeks ago. This school has a solid program, ~top 25, but it just doesn't carry the same weight as my top choice.
My question: Does anyone have experience/insight with accepting two offers, in the hope of receiving additional funding after the 4/15 deadline?
In this hypothetical situation, I would obviously lose a deposit and likely burn a bridge with one of the schools. Not exactly the way I envisioned things, but I'm feeling pretty disappointed with getting off the wait list yet still coming up short at the finish line (financially). Thoughts?
*This is for a PhD in a health/biomedical sciences field.
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Anyone have experience/luck with leveraging other funding offers (without coming off as tacky/ungrateful)?
My top choice offered me 8k/year and full tuition, but it's in a very expensive city. I also have a fully funded (20k + tuition) offer from a good program, but I just don't think my heart is in it.
I feel like I'm being greedy, but I've been able to avoid significant debt by working throughout my undergrad and master's degrees. I would hate to start racking up debt now, in order to cover living expenses.
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^^^
Agreed.
Unless they've told you a specific date you'll hear, it's find to email/call at this point.
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Stomping Grounds is pretty good and only 3 blocks from campus - http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/62/671437/restaurant/Des-Moines/Stomping-Grounds-Ames
Hoping I can breathe some life back into this thread..
Does anyone know which are the best coffee shops in town and which is the best yoga studio (preferably hot yoga).
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Sounds like you've got some good options, it's definitely nice to have a fully funded offer on the table.
I've been a bit surprised by the variance in funding offers. Pretty much every faculty member I've spoken with at my current school has advised against taking out anything but very minimal loans for a PhD. Not sure if it's due to the recent NIH cuts or just overall competition for doctoral funding, but it's been rough.
Yeah, funding has been a mixed bag. UW offered full tuition and a $1900/mo RA stipend. Johns Hopkins offered 60% tuition over 5 years and a $12k stipend. Berkeley offered one year tuition and a $6k stipend. UNC didn't offer anything with the acceptance and made me apply for school- and department-specific funding opportunities (still haven't heard back).
I was split between UW and Hopkins in terms of program fit. Funding tipped the balance in favor of UW's PhD in global health metrics and implementation science. I'm pretty happy with the idea of living in Seattle, too.
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Anyone here back on funding yet?
I've gotten a pretty broad range - from amazing funding to "meh" -
hmm, yeah that makes sense. let me know if you hear back from andrea. i've e-mailed her twice in the past month and haven't gotten a response.
Called and left a voicemail a couple days ago. Haven't heard anything since.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Yeah I have no idea what I'm going to do. Columbia and BU are best for what I want to do, and I got a scholarship from BU but even so the difference in cost is not really a big enough deal for it to matter. And then there's WashU which has been so friendly and forthcoming with scholarships and fellowship opportunities but I have no idea about their reputation in the real world compared to the other programs i got into.
What do you want to do with the degree? Work, PhD, MD, etc.?
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I'll probably give her a call if I don't hear anything in the next few days. I also emailed in early Feb, but never heard anything back.
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I agree that you should ask for details. Given the you said it's a GA, and not specifically RA/TA, that could mean any number of things. I've heard of GAs being assigned to do general admin/office work. Nothing wrong with that, as it pays the bills, but you gain more relevant experience if you're an RA/TA.
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That's odd, but MN does admissions differently that other schools I've interacted with. Seems like they place a lot of emphasis on ensuring a faculty match before they offer admission. I haven't heard anything from them (Epi department) since being notified my application passed the admissions committee in January....might be time to reach out to the coordinator. I've gotten that impression that once you pass that stage, they place a lot of the admissions 'power' in the hands of potential mentors.
got a weird e-mail from the admissions coordinator for the environmental health sciences program at minnesota. he basically said they had a lot of applicants to my particular track and that I should contact faculty and adjunct faculty i'm interested in, introduce myself, and inquire if they are admitting students for the fall.
has anyone else had a similar situation? isn't that the point of the admissions committee?
advice?
West Virgnia University School of Public Health
in Public Health Forum
Posted
Personally, I would absolutely not consider a PhD program that doesn't at least cover tuition. But, maybe your personal circumstances are different.
Regarding WVU, I think you should be directing that question to them. Specifically ask where graduates have ended up. They (hopefully) realize the program is new and you have a legitimate concern.
Have you considered applying again next year? It's not worth spending 4-5 years in a program you're not fully committed to.