Demeter

@inn0v8r You're quite welcome. I was a tour leader/admissions liaison for a few years, so I really enjoy talking with students as they make their choices. It's an exciting time. Hope you find the answers you seek.

I have a friend who went to BU and loved it. I also know someone who applied to GWU and loved a lot about it, but chose to go somewhere who had offered her more funding. BU is in Boston, and my friend loved that, and made a lot of connections in her subfield. GWU is in DC, which I think would be helpful for global interests, but, really, global health isn't my area. But if you have any questions about the program at BU, I'm happy to pass them along.

I'm not in your field, but I want to caution you to also very carefully consider other factors than the fit of your major in making your final choices. Things like living situation, weather, location, and the school(s) you could see yourself being happy also impact your success in your major and thus your graduate applications. For example, I had a friend who went to School X because it was objectively best in Y. They ended up being much happier at a different school, that while not as prestigious, was a better fit for her individual context. They got into a highly ranked grad school because they had been happy at their new school, had worked well with professors, and generally found the environment more suited to their needs. I know this post likely wasn't very helpful at all, but at the UG level, just as at the graduate level, there is a lot to consider. When you visit schools, get a feel for your own personal fit, how well you will work with a professor in your major and your advisor. Opportunities to engage in the community and on campus are key for graduate applications, too. Not that this is an endorsement, but I know someone who went to WashU for Engineering. They ended up with a lot of industry connections, but that was their goal. I personally like the area, and found it very suited to college living when I visited them. ETA: I know I wasn't much help, but good luck to you! College is a life changing adventure. Enjoy every second, even the stress laden ones.

Yes, it's very, very common. It's unfortunate, certainly. My UG university spent millions on a new building and the bathroom stall meant for persons with disabilities wasn't even large enough for a manual wheelchair. I wish they had sought the insight of someone with universal design or a committee of people with disabilities of all sorts when considering the designs. I'm glad your UG school is aware of their present limitations and is working to overcome them. My first graduate institution was pretty amazing, overall. They were pretty responsive to concerns. I think it would also surprise people how much little, relatively inexpensive modifications, can do so much for accessibility.

I'm not, but I have a friend who applied, and she got her letter a few days ago. I hope you hear something soon. She did say getting ahold of them took a while.

The university I was visiting wasn't very accessible, and I spent 90% of the visit trying to get to the places they were hosting things. Needless to say, I did not go there. I'm not sure if it was because of what I saw or didn't see.

Oh, and you might also check out the Public Health sub forum found on the menu here. There are lots of people there, too.

@cnkwoc2 I applied to a few MPH programs, just accepted an offer this week. I would just make sure your CV highlights your experience with your internship and your RA-ship. I would also make sure your SOP is tight and really says what you want it to say. If you are applying through SOPHAS, make sure you give yourself enough time for verification and their processes, too. I don't know about making yourself appealing. I'm of the school of thought that the best thing you can do is put as much of yourself on paper so that you feel as though you are presenting yourself as fully as you can. Of course, you want it be positive, but also you want to maintain your sense of authenticity and who you are as a scholar. Feel free to PM or ask any more questions. I'm happy to chat!

@SLPgradstudent My best friend is getting married and asked me to be her MOH. We're working on centerpieces. I think she regrets abandoning her plan to elope! That is to say, good luck with the wedding planning and very best wishes. Wedding mode goes by fast!

@Cat_Robutt The Bon-Ton is a department store like Macy's, or maybe Nordstrom's. It's a department store, you can generally expect them to be clean, and have decent stuff with pretty good sales. I have rarely been in one, but I understand it to be a step above JC Penny. I'm not sure how they rank. Also, thank you. I'm hopeful that whatever deity governs the government funding relating to public health looks favorably upon me. At the very least, I hope the paperwork goes in without glitches.

@The Interdisciplinarian I sent in the form just now. I checked it like five times to make sure I'd checked the correct box. I hope they'll reply that they've gotten my form.

@Neist Yes, it does approach! Thank you also for all of your support and encouragement over the last couple of weeks. It's an awesome community here, and I'm glad you're a part of it. @Pink Fuzzy Bunny Yes, it does. My funding is unofficial at this point, though, and requires some more forms because of the government, you know, and so I don't think I will feel done until that's a done deal. I'm getting there, though.

I got a letter today that I was offered a spot with some pretty decent funding at one of my top choices. I've decided to take the offer, even though admissions decisions have not yet come back for my other top choice, mostly because I think when it comes down to it, I'd still choose school A for a myriad of reasons. I'm excited, but I'm also terrified. I still have a bunch of hoops to jump through with paperwork and whatever until the whole thing is done deal especially related to funding, so is it cool with you guys if I still hang out here? Once this monitoring at work is done, I'm going to be on GC more. That's my reward as I keep focused on paperwork.

@nevermind So many congrats to you. That's outstanding, and very, very, awesome. There is so much good news on this thread that I can't even keep up.

In the gif-fy sprit of this thread, I spent my day looking at my mailbox like this, half afraid it would reveal a letter, and fairly anxious when it did not.

I guess I see this sort of conversation as pointless, given that I jumped through all those hoops as a kid. This is like some conversation kids who insecure in their intelligence have, or something. Worse yet, this is like some conversation parents of gifted kids have when they're sitting and stressing about how little Johnny or June will do in life, or in some forum where parents discuss how to best track their kids, for one reason or another, with some thing being understood intrinsically as "smarter" or something. I've heard enough of those conversations to fill a book, conversations between parents who somehow are both proud of their kids, and are terrified of their intellect and how out of step they are with little Susie on the playground. I'll say what I said as a teen who was so over stuff, and what I will continue to say until I'm blue in the face: do you. I'm saying it for a different reason now, but, seriously. Socialization can be hard for kids with higher than average intelligence, and sometimes the information found in an evaluation is useful for designing an education that will allow a kid to feel fulfilled and to help them find services they need. Beyond that, and, and perhaps a parent/person doing some research to better understand themselves, I strongly advocate letting fretting about intelligence go, and go on rocking your fascination with fundamentalism, or the rise of skiffle and its journey across the Atlantic, or the composition of various soils or how cool algebra really is. People with high IQs are still people. They still have interests and personal passions, often highly developed and refined interests and personal passions, personal struggles and issues. It's nearly impossible to list the factors that go into shaping one person into making the choices they make. These interests are likely to shape their choices as an adult. I chose what I chose because it was a field that enabled me to keep thinking, keep growing. I chose something I knew would keep challenging me no how quickly or slowly I mastered a topic. Why else do we choose the majors we choose, if not to seek a lens to answer the questions that plague us, if not to delve deeply into a subject that provides a foundation to think about broader issues that we will no doubt encounter in life? I think this is true for all/most/many people, but I can only speak for myself. So it's not about raw intelligence, at least in my understanding. I once had a psychologist tell me that a lot of highly intelligent people burn out very quickly in professions, and I've seen it happen. I'm just lucky that it hasn't happened to me, and I hope I will have the tools to cope if it does. I hope that I will continue to be able to create questions and develop answers along my professional life, and take time to develop parts of myself that I sometimes neglect, to continue to find a positive challenge in what I do. For me, the whole kit and caboodle is about what we do with processing power, about the way we direct energy, about what we do with the tools we have to address the questions that matter. In truth, I think about how much I don't know as opposed to what little I do know. Maybe now I'm getting into theories of multiple intelligences vs raw IQ, and that's a whole other post, and maybe that isn't what we're talking about when we say 'smart' in this context. But at this point in my life, I've accepted that it doesn't matter where the 'smartest' people happen to be, as long as I can do my research and carve out a place in which my interests can come together to allow me to contribute meaningfully with what I have to offer, which is, partly, my processing power, and the way I create and categorize information. Maybe I didn't answer your question. So, here, I'll try it: which major has the smartest students? Well, it depends on what you mean by smart. I'm not being flippant. For my part, I really don't care about how must prestige my field has (I actually can lay claim to a few, as I had multiple majors), or how much I make compared to some other field. I rarely think about things like that, and sometimes when my bills are due, I think it would have been smarter to consider those things. I will say that sometimes I envy a girl I knew growing up, who, while quantifiably smarter than I am, has a developed social life, and plenty of time to think and write, and works in a low pressure profession. Given some of the issues that tend to crop up in highly gifted and intelligent adults, I think she was one smart person. The truth is, highly intelligent people are everywhere, and taking on a narrow view of what intelligence looks like in society is a great folly on our parts. I learned a long time ago that if if I feel ill at ease with some topic, it doesn't mean that it's beneath me or worth dismissing, it means I need to work differently and look at it new ways. If I think a topic is really, really, easy, it means I haven't dug deeply enough into the subject, and I haven't yet found its nuance and its deeper meaning. For a question like this, there isn't just one answer. I'm going to think more on this. This is actually a topic I never thought I'd encounter as an adult in a professional context, and I'm almost enthused that I have, mostly because it makes me feel like that teenage girl inside of me is a little vindicated. I might be poor, stressed, constantly questioning everything, constantly thinking about things, out of step socially, and concerned about how little I actually contribute to the world, but at the very least I feel as though I can articulate what a positive that is for me, right now. *names changed to protect the fictional people I held up to use an example.

@Neist It isn't over until there's a letter in your inbox! Don't lose heart just yet. @rosali Pizza is the best. I love pizza. I hope it brightens your night and your in the morning, should you have leftovers. Pizza for breakfast cures many an ill.

@anthrostudentcyn I've got the same fear. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll hear something next week, but until I hear about funding, I have no clue if any of the schools to which I applied will pan out.

@rosali <3 <3 <3 <3 Wine and laughter is just the thing! Also, simple carbohydrates. I'm not picky, but when rejected, I like pasta and/or cake. Last time I was rejected for a big grant, I ate Chinese food and watched House.

I totally misread your thread, @tdm310, hence the edit! Anyway, if I had fifteen minutes, I would look over my CV, make sure I knew how to pronounce the interviewer's name, and breathe. I would also check that my computer was set up. Then I would likely do some voice warm ups. A few years of voice lessons did help with public speaking. I would likely have some notepaper beside me. Once I had a Skype interview and I simply wrote BREATHE and also a phonetic spelling of some technical words on the paper in sharpie. I am sure others will have better advice. I look forward to the thread.

@nevermind I took it more as in "having a vagina is awesome" vs it giving any kind of boost. Sort of like, Tina Fey's "Bitches get stuff done…" saying. Because it is, and mostly, we do get stuff done. Or Betty White's admonition that we should all grow vaginas because they're tough. At least in my opinion. Also, Betty White is amazing.

Thanks @raaawr! I think I'll believe it when there's a letter/packet in my hand, but for now I'm cautiously excited and tentatively thrilled.

@Neist I think you are totally correct. I really just want to know where my life is heading. As of now, it could go in five or six nearly divergent directions, and the program I end up attending will define the choices that I'm able to make in the future. You know what I'm really looking forward to? Making a degree plan checklist. I've made one based off of the plan for each degree I have, and keeping track of notes and grades and research progress is important for me. I just want to make one and stick it in the back of my planner. And it does sound odd! I wish that the emails were a bit more polished. I know it's a silly concern, but it shakes my confidence in what is a solid program.

I got an acceptance letter today. It's a form letter. It says " Surname" so essentially there is a giant blank followed by my last name. Given that my last name is not that common, I feel safe in continuing with the assumption that it's meant for me. It did come to my email address. If someone with the same last name and first initial applied and is using a Yahoo email address, well…. No takesy-backsies. Seriously, though I'm convinced that this feeling of waiting won't end until I'm sitting in a class or something. It's like I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I finally heard something from NYMC today! Acceptance! Now I just have to wait on a detailed letter with funding and other such information.