2016Epi

Hey! I have some friends doing PhDs right now. Packages are almost always 20 hours a week, and I've heard of earning between 16,000 and 30,000 per year on top of tuition remission. All schools I've applied to I've been able to look up exactly how much funding I could receive for RA or TA positions by googling graduate RA stipend and the school name. They usually list the minimum they're allowed to offer, and it doesn't include fellowships and stuff but that could help you figure out your baseline. I wish the schools that are going to help with funding would let us know already- all of them say you'll get an email about funding in the next few weeks and I've heard nothing so far!

I still have no real idea; there was a lot of confusion and awkwardness in all my emails! I forgot to attach my CV in one initial email to a PI then in my 'whoops I forgot the CV' email I also forgot to attach it so I had to email a third time. Horrifying. I'm sure your POI was very glad you reached out- and if not, then maybe they wouldn't even be a good person to work for for the next five years

Congratulations!! No I'm panicking a significant amount at this time. Definitely torn between SF and Seattle. Would love to hear your thoughts as well- happy to discuss more in the direct messaging thing.

Yeah totally! I'm sure it's different for everyone but I'll share what the professor told me last Spring and hopefully it helps. Basically, he said they get a lot of applications and it helps a LOT if they know your name by the time your application hits their desk. I hadn't talked to any POIs before applying last year. I just listed whose research I admired from afar in my statements of purpose. So in the late summer/fall this cycle, I emailed every professor I thought had cool research and asked if I could discuss their work and the program. Some of them said they're not looking for new PhD students, but most of them agreed to talk with me over the phone or meet in person. Individually some of them gave me even more feedback, like to emphasize that the projects I'd been on were specific to epidemiology on my CV. I've also submitted my thesis since then, and while it's not published they could at least see that I have done something with heavy stats so I'm sure that helped. I went to a conference which probably didn't hurt. I think most of it came down to talking to POIs beforehand though. One at UCLA actually even said that it was because I emailed her persistently and seemed excited about her work that she thought I'd be a good fit. So it was like a double bonus piece of advice because meeting with people helped form a relationship with people at the school, and in turn they gave me more feedback specific to my application. It's like a mini practice application, and you can revise your strategy/ideas before the real thing. Plus, if a POI is not interested, at least it's a mini rejection instead of a big no thank you from the entire school. I wish I'd shared this advice earlier but I didn't know until recently that it was going to work for me. Too long; didn't read: meet POIs Best of luck!!!

Thanks UCSF sent an official email from the admissions director saying I was accepted, then an automatic email to check the website (which was the same email they sent when I was rejected last year, just saying the status had changed).

UCSF definitely does waitlist folks, so depending on what the accepted people do you could have a solid chance. I'm into infectious disease epi- spatial/mathematical modeling of transmission dynamics.

It's nearby to yours if your name was really Jon Snow

Yep UCSF was this morning. How about you?

Hi, everyone! First post this year. I applied to Stanford, Berkeley, UCSF, WashU, UCLA, and Oregon State Got interviews for UCLA, Stanford, UCSF, and OSU so far. Accepted into OSU and WashU, UCSF, and an unofficial yes from UCLA POI. Since I'm seeing some folks get rejections and worrying about silence from schools, I wanted to share to anyone interested where I was last year. As you can see from my profile name, I applied last year for the Fall 2016 cycle, to pretty much all the same schools as this year (replace Stanford with UMich). I got interviews at Michigan but ultimately was rejected from there and each of the other schools. It was a HUGE bummer. Don't worry this cycle is definitely not over for those of you who haven't been accepted somewhere yet! You can find out all they way in April. But if you DO get rejected from all the schools you applied to, like I did last year, please know that things can turn around. I tried again, and have heard good things from every school except Berkeley which is radio silence (and I didn't have a good research fit there). WashU is my dream school and I got in on the second try. Y'all can too. Last Spring I met with someone I would have loved to work with at one of the schools and asked what I could have done differently. I changed those things, and voila! Get feedback, talk to people, you got this. Stay positive! No rejection is a death sentence!

I know it's so quiet here and in the Results section! Congrats on your acceptances! And good luck with Stanford, such a pretty school. I'm still waiting on UCLA, the last of my six. Actually heard rejections from the other five so I'm rethinking my goals and figuring out how to approach this in the future, because at this point I'm not banking on UCLA turning out. Would be great if it did though!

Thanks that helps! I just got up the guts to ask so we'll see how it goes. Congratulations on the acceptance!

I think they usually give you until April 15th to decide, but there are a few exceptions. I know Canadian schools are on a different timeline altogether and London School of Tropical Medicine gives you a month to decide from the time they notify you.

It seems like in previous years people sometimes had to ask UNC their decision to find out they got rejected, does any one know if that's the case? Also, I'm sure it's very tense being on a waitlist; I just got rejected from UCSF myself but it would be good not to rush anyone who got accepted. It's out of our hands entirely and everything will all be figured out in April.

Thanks @Jade355 and @AlphacentauriC! Yeah UCSF is such a small program, and so new; I don't know what to expect! We'll see. Fingers crossed!

Hey everyone! I'm interested in Epi PhDs for infectious disease work and applied Public Health. Have an application update so I thought I'd make a post if it helps anyone out. I applied to: UW, UCSF, UCLA, UCBerkeley, UMichigan UNC Chapel Hill Just got invited via email to UofM's doctoral day at the end of January (not admitted to school, just the doctoral day). Will update if I hear anything about the other schools. Good luck!!