saheckler

Which program at UCSF? I'm also applying to public health PhD programs without my master's (so far I think Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Washington, Minnesota, UIC, Boston University, and maybe Johns Hopkins; as a backup I'm applying to nursing PhD programs at Columbia, UCSF, and UIC). I may try to find a safety school or two (for public health), but it's possible that any schools that would be in the safety category for me are not as highly ranked as I'd like, in which case I might opt to do a nursing PhD program instead. I just hired a GRE tutor hoping to get my quant scores up, hoping that if I do extremely well it will help my case. What's your background? It seems like if you have excellent GRE scores, 1-2 years of research experience (especially if you have any publications), strong letters of rec, a good fit in terms of your research interests, and a well written SOP with a solid narrative about your experience and your research interests, that you can get in without a master's.

Does anyone have any thoughts on a PhD in Public Health vs. Nursing? Any nurses out there who chose one over the other? Do they provide similarly rigorous preparation and open up comparable opportunities? Are they similarly respected? It seems there aren't a ton of nurses who go on to get a PhD in anything because of both the pay cut and the love of being with patients, so it's been really hard to find any info. My interests align well with public health and nursing (social determinants of health, health equity and disparities), so the choice is difficult. I'd really appreciate any thoughts or insight anyone has about this! Thank you!!!

Thanks for your input! I don't think I have a preference yet on a program that leans more toward quantitative or qualitative as long as the program is a really good fit for my research interests (health equity, social determinants of health, and policy approaches to improve health, especially related to the LGBTQ+ community and to sexual minority women in particular). I think that I could do well in quantitative courses; I just likely need to better demonstrate that before applying... Does anyone have any insight on what percentile I should be aiming for in quant on my retake in order to have a reasonable chance? If I am able to write a statement of purpose that really shows my research interests are a great fit, then what kind of numbers would I need on the GRE to be seriously considered?

Thanks for sharing your insight! I just bought 16 hours of tutoring to start in the end of August (two-hour sessions, twice a week, four weeks in a row) and will try to retake in the end of September. I'm just worried I'll spend all that money and put in all that time and will only gain a few points! My goal is at least 80th percentile, which should be about 162. Someone from admissions at Johns Hopkins told me that accepted applicants without a master's usually have GRE scores in the 90th percentile range. But I think that admissions staff are often quick to play up how competitive their admissions process is, so maybe I should take that with a grain of salt! I"m hoping that nursing experience is highly regarded by admissions and that it helps my case!

Hi everyone, I just took the GRE and I got 97th percentile verbal but only 67th percentile in quant (I don't have my writing score back yet). When I took calc and stats in college (almost 15 years ago now) I got a C+ and a C because I blew them off, but I retook stats at the local community college and got an A last fall and am doing the same with Calc this fall, hopefully also for an A. I realize that all together this really makes me look weak in quantitative skills. I also do not have a master's degree, but I have several years of clinical nursing experience, experience in health education program planning and implementation, and will have two years of experience doing research with a faculty member at a prominent school of public health. I'll have a book chapter as first author under my belt (on LGBTQ+ health policy within nursing), a couple of articles where I'm one of many authors, and an oral presentation at a conference. Is it ridiculous for me to even consider applying to PhD programs at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Washington, Berkeley, Yale, BU, etc. without a master's and with a low GRE quant score and my poor initial grade in calc and stats? I know that applicants without a master's have to be highly qualified to get in. I'm planning to do a few weeks of working with a GRE tutor on quant to boost my score as much as possible, but I don't know if it's realistic to think I"ll go from 67th percentile up to 90th percentile. Thank you for your input!