Pennk
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Posts posted by Pennk
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I just did this yesterday actually. School A accepted me with 3 years of funding, but only gave me 5 work days to accept or decline the offer. As it was my only funded offer at the time, I accepted it within their timeline. I had been accepted to School B and was in the process of interviewing for 1 year of funding. After I decided that I could not say no to full funding, I contacted School B to regretfully decline, and they whipped up a full funding package that was more competitive than School A. On a side note, all of my interactions with School B were so warm, welcoming, accommodating, and transparent whereas School A felt very cloistered to me.
I accepted School B's offer and emailed School A to let them know that after careful consideration I would be accepting another offer. An admin asked what school I would be attending (I did not answer) and my advisor wished me success in my career. I wasn't happy to do it, but they seemed to not be terribly mystified that it happened.
Also, I have applied for even more competitive funding at School C (my dream location) and if that comes through, I may once again belatedly decline my offer to School B. I don't feel particularly great about this strategy, but I feel like the whole process is just messed up with schools releasing acceptances and funding offers at such divergent points on the calendar. This is my career, my future, and I don't feel like I am beholden to any University (besides the one I choose to attend).
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21 hours ago, hccgrl said:
Did you guys send thank you emails the same day or the next day?
I sent out thank you emails within an hour of the end of my interviews. I figure no need to be shy or calculated. Just thank them for the awesome opportunity when it was still fresh in all our minds. Granted, I felt fairly confident that my interviews were successful (they were!) so I didn't feel any awkwardness that I might have felt if I thought it went badly.
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5 hours ago, hpm2018_1 said:
Congratulations on the acceptances! Memphis is a good school and a musical city so yay!
Did you post the rejection for NYU on the portal? Did you interview with them?
Yep, I posted the rejection on the results page. And no I did not interview with them.
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I'm out at NYU (whatever the general public health thread was). That's my application cycle done-zo! I'm in at 3 out of the 8 schools I applied for. One with guaranteed funding and two with funding I am waiting to hear back about!
1. U of Memphis - full funding for 3 years
2. U of Wisconsin-Milwaukee - interviewed for funding for first year
3. UT Health - I applied for a fellowship that would cover 4 years
- ianmleavitt and pbcup
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57 minutes ago, B_behavioral_11 said:
Me too. Any good news from other programs?
I got in at UTHealth but really put off by their communication! Also got accepted to UW-Milwaukee and will likely to attending tho funding is touch & go. Still waiting for NYU and U of Memphis. I have heard nothing from them since I applied! All Social behavioral health concentrations.
You?
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40 minutes ago, eek_ said:
Sorry to hear that! Did it come through an email? Or did you check the portal?
Email to check the portal.
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Just rejected from Columbia Sociomedical Sciences (sociology sub-concentration)! Oh well....expected! Good luck y'all!
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10 minutes ago, FrozenFreshMeat said:
Thank you for the information! Just curious if you've interviewed with them?
I wish, but no!
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Re: Columbia SMS and maybe all doctoral stuff. Emailed the Assistant Director of Admissions (she had previously emailed me months ago to clarify something on my app) last week for a status update. She just got back to me and said that "doctoral decisions will be released shortly." Hopefully that means this coming week. I highly doubt I will be getting anything other than a rejection, but I would really like this admissions cycle to be over already!
- eek_ and FrozenFreshMeat
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39 minutes ago, pkv said:
I applied to SMS/Sociology and talked on the phone with POI at the end of January.
Thanks for the info! That is what I applied under and I am assuming radio silence on my end can only mean one thing....
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I did an online program (University of New England's MPH) but I am an employee of the University and got my degree for a severely reduced cost. That being said, I would definitely not recommend UNE for anyone who wasn't getting a steep discount, but I cannot speak to any other program. I will say that community building was extremely limited in my online MPH. The most sense of community was in a Facebook group. I do not know how GWU's courses are structured, but in my program each course had a course designer and several adjunct instructors who basically were graders. There was very little consistency across adjunct instructors. Some were stellar, gave detailed, personalized feedback, and helped facilitate discussions. Others were radio silent and basically just graded assignments (at one point I thought a professor had died or been arrested because he stopped grading assignments totally). If there were discrepancies between the course syllabus and that week's module, often my instructor had to ask the course designer for clarification. To me this speaks volumes about the fact that these courses were delivered by graders as opposed to instructors.
I would really look into how courses are delivered. Find the Facebook page and see what students are saying. Ask to be connected with current students and instructors in the program. See if you can find any accreditation documentation (not sure if these are made public). Right as I was graduating, my program's accreditation totally went down the pooper and now they are in a process of amending some serious issues - lack of student governance being one of them.
I totally understand the merit of online programs. I would not have gotten an MPH and be interviewing with PhD programs today without online graduate programs. I think if you do some more background research and really look into what you are hoping to get out of the program - a degree vs. strong community, research options, networking options - you will be able to make a good decision for you.
P.S. I found it really difficult to get strong LORs from faculty in my program. When I would ask for them the response was "I don't know if I know enough about you..." and I was like "I took two courses with you which is the most faculty consistency for me in this whole program!" If there are a lot of adjunct faculty, expect a lot of one-off professors which once again limits your ability to make meaningful connections with faculty.
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7 hours ago, pkv said:
Thanks for the heads up, guys! Confirming also that JHU decisions are up on the portal, without any email sent.
Luckily, I was accepted to HBS. Still no information on funding, so I don't know if I'll accept.
Good luck everybody.
Congrats! Is your interview with Columbia for Sociomedical Sciences or a different program? If it is sociomedical sciences, which sub-field did you apply under and when did you get invited to interview?
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14 minutes ago, emjayco said:
I know. I was really beginning to resent that poor smiling student who thought she was just posing for promotional pictures and they put her on the WORST PAGE EVER. Poor lady.
Definite silver lining lol!!!! Best of luck with the rest of your apps. Let us all pray this agonizing journey ends soon!
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9 minutes ago, emjayco said:
Was just denied from John Hopkins Health Behavior and Society. No email yet, just in the portal. At least I know.
Same here! Thanks for the heads up (I have been checking practically on the hour). Disappointing but it was definitely a reach!
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30 minutes ago, JenJen1 said:
I got accepted as well. I was told during the interview that since it's a state university, they don't have full funding available but if you get a fellowship/TAship, you will be qualified for in-state tuition. I agree that it's fishy and I think they will miss many great candidates due to this specific reason. Maybe you can find out more from current students.
I was accepted without an interview, so I didn't get to ask the question myself, but did they indicate a timeline for finding out about fellowships? I applied for the Scholarship deadline, but have received no information about what that even means. Yeah, this school is my failsafe at this point. I love Austin so much that I am willing to work full/part-time and take evening classes where available until I can learn more about funding. That is if everything else falls through!
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1 hour ago, CatDog1122 said:
Anyone accepted/considering UT Houston? I got my acceptance today but was interested in chatting about other people’s experiences with the acceptance process. Did people have interviews? Did anyone receive funding? They say you have to commit before they’ll tell you about funding, which seems fishy. Anyone know if they’re typically able to provide funding to most students?
Hi, I got accepted there and like you I am very confused and disheartened by their communication and funding options. I actually accepted just so I could learn about funding, but the answers was "you will learn more about funding during orientation." Feel free to PM me to discuss further!
I was also told that GA/TAs for incoming students are very limited as faculty want to work with established students.
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8 minutes ago, west_k said:
Congrats on the interview! Good luck!
I'm not sure what "typical" questions are, but I can tell you the ones I've gotten. I also applied to social/behavioral programs.
- What do you think will be the most challenging part of pursuing a PhD for you?
- What are you looking to learn in the program?
- Is there a specific methodology you're interested in?
- What are you research interests?
- List a few research questions
- What are some structural barriers related to your research interests that you can identify?
- If you could do your dissertation tomorrow what would your question be and why?
- Design your dissertation survey/intervention- What methodology would you use?
- What type of intervention would you do to address issues you've identified?
I also always have two groups of questions on hand. One group about the program itself and another related to POIs interests and past research. I've had good response to the questions "what makes a doctoral student successful in your program?" and "what is something unique to your program I can't find on your website?". Also- always ask about funding! One of my interviews it was my last question and the interviewer goes: "I always think something is off when students don't ask about funding."
Thanks! I will definitely come up with some easily retrievable answers to some of the questions above. Also, thanks for the ideas for questions. I always find that is the most difficult part for me and I will definitely ask about funding!
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Hi,
I've been quiet on this board but lurking. Anyway, I have an interview this Friday with UW-Milwaukee (I think I am the only person on this board who applied there) and was looking for any interview advice (dos/donts, typical questions, things you wish you had known before your interview). I am scheduled for 90 minutes with 3 different professors (30 minutes each) via Skype...so kinda anxious!
Also, I noticed Columbia's Sociomedical Sciences has been sending out decisions (rejections) since last Friday at least. I am wondering if anyone here wants to claim those and if so, which sub-specialty did you apply under? I am hoping to get in under the Sociology umbrella. Also not so patiently awaiting word from JHU Health, Behavior & Society!
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6 minutes ago, TakeruK said:
Yeah, I agree with @Eigen that this isn't something you'd want to accept unless you had no other options that worked for you and you think the risk is worth it.
The least-secure type of funding offer for a PhD that is still somewhat "normal" is something like: "You will be funded through TAships or RAships which you will apply for each year, subsequent to available funding". Many schools have policies that do not allow them to automatically grant students a job (TA or RA), especially if the school is unionized. So, you have to apply each year so that the school can demonstrate that only qualified students are appointed etc. In a situation like this, you will have to talk to students and professors to find out the funding environment. If they know they usually have X positions and always ensure their student population is below X, then you should be okay. But if only some fraction of their students gets these jobs, then it's not great. Note that in this example, I'm just saying that it's the least-secure scenario that is "typical", not that it's even a good offer to have.
Thanks for the advice! I am going to reach out to current students for clarification. It definitely raised red flags and was a disappointing turn of events to receive the TA/GA info from the program and no clarity when I asked a follow up question. Here is to hoping another program accepts me!
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Thanks for the point of view! I guess I am a little nervous that this will be my only offer (just turned down yesterday from a more competitive program) and I want to get a head start on understanding whether I can actually attend/pursue a PhD. I will be leaving full-time employment and I guess I feel like waiting until closer to deadline might leave me with a lot of loose ends in a short time frame. I think I will sit on this a bit and see what happens with the other programs. I should likely know within the next 4-6ish weeks what my prospects are. I still haven't received my official acceptance via mail which my original acceptance email stipulated was headed my way, so perhaps that will have more information but I have been waiting nearly 8 weeks for that!
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2 minutes ago, Eigen said:
How normal this is depends on the type of program. Is this an MPH?
It's a PhD.
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I was recently accepted to a program with no word on funding. Received a follow-up email with the following wording:
Financing Graduate Education at UTHealth School of Public Health
TA/GA positions: Once an applicant has been admitted and they have elected to accept our admissions offer, they may request access to our JobOps portal through our Career Coordinator at sphcareerservices@uth.tmc.edu to view what positions are available and they can apply. Feel free to review the attached link on Financial Assistance. Lastly, once you are a student for a semester, you are able to apply to our current student scholarships to help fund your education.
Please note: Being awarded a New Student Scholarship of $1,000 or more and/or a GA/TA position within UTHealth, may make a student eligible for in resident tuition.
Me again: So basically, I have to accept their offer to get access to a list of open TA/GA positions. I emailed for further clarification about basics of the TA/GA positions - tuition waiver, stipends, etc. - but I just got another email with the same information above.
I feel a bit like I am being forced to accept prior to knowing if I can afford to actually join the program. If that is how the program wants to run things, that is fine, but is this a normal process/procedure? I am planning to accept just so I can find out if I can even afford to attend, but it feels disingenuous as I am still waiting for responses from six other programs.
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First rejection: WashU Public Health Sciences! Less painful than I thought it would be (not in my top 3 schools). Just a generic email. Anyway, 1 admit, 1 reject...6 to go!
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18 hours ago, CatDog1122 said:
Did UT give you funding? Parts of their website indicates that they don't offer funding for Fall semester, but then other parts of their website make it seem like they do.
No word on funding yet. I did apply by December 1st which was called the Scholarship deadline. It said that if you applied for the March deadline that funding would only be offered if still available, so I assume there will be some funding offer. I just received an informal email about my acceptance and my UTH applicant portal reflects that I was accepted. I was told that I would receive more information in "coming weeks." It has been over a month now.
HELP! I formally accepted an offer at university A but just received a last minute offer from university B
in Decisions, Decisions
Posted
Good point. Perhaps I will let them know as a courtesy. In my mind I envision them using it against me somehow. Perhaps I am just paranoid since I feel uneasy about all the accepting/rejecting I have been (will be) doing. Mind you, School C would not disclose any funding opportunities to admitted students who hadn't accepted, so for one brief moment in time I had accepted admission to 3 schools.