Sarah FR

Like any school, there are pros and cons, and my experience differs from that of my classmates. PROS -Small program (~36 of us), so we've grown close -Lots of involvement (PHSA, work-study, intramurals, clubs, research, conferences, events) -Some faculty are very transparent with and openly offer support to students -Our practicum coordinator has worked over time to accommodate everyone whose practicum was either cancelled or changed due to COVID-19 -Epi core courses cover a diverse set of topics and prepare us for hand-on work CONS -Some faculty don't seem as supportive; they're focused on their work more so than their teaching (but you'll find this at any school) -Some classes in term 2 didn't assess us in an accurate manner (circumstantial; new prof teaching the course) -Fewer practicum opportunities in Ontario, compared to the previous year (due to the provincial gov's funding cuts) -The university itself is big, so navigating UofT services can be difficult or overwhelming (but the graduate population is much smaller than the undergraduate population) I hope that helps!

Congrats to all of you who have been accepted to MPH programs in Canada! For anyone who has accepted their offer to U of T (or is considering it), on behalf of the Public Health Students' Association, I'd like you all to know that along with the faculty & staff, we're currently putting in lots of time and thought on how to best adapt courses and orientation/events, given the current pandemic. We're hoping to make a Facebook group or Slack in the coming weeks for everyone to connect. If you have any questions re: U of T, or MPH in Canada & the USA in general (I was also accepted to Columbia & UW last year), send me a message here on Grad Cafe, and I'll pass along my email :)

Yay! I was accepted back in March, but am excited to finally see some future classmates on here ?

Since Columbia is private, tuition cost is the same for everyone! I think another reason I wouldn't go to UBC is because they're not CEPH accredited, but I've been accepted to the one program at U of T that is (Epi requires the GRE to meet the accreditation).

Probably not... I love UBC and they have some incredible faculty here in SPPH, but nothing about the program particularly stands out to me, other than the fact that UBC has a strong presence of health work in northern/rural & indigenous communities.

I heard from them Wed. March 13! I wouldn't lose hope those as I only have 2 weeks to accept the offer, and from looking at last year's forum, some people didn't receive formal rejections until June. I think they keep the offer window small so they can get the waitlist moving quickly.

I'm torn as tuition is approximately 3-4 times what it costs at U of T... The exchange rate isn't really helping these days. I went to visit on Admitted Students Day on March 1, and loved learning how interdisciplinary their curriculum is, despite the fact that we're in departments. As well, the faculty are more than willing to go out of their way to support you, offer you research opportunities, and refer you to colleagues. That, and the NYC Department of Health is the world's biggest department of health (bigger than all of BC's health authorities combined I'm assuming...), they have multiple career fairs, and employers go out of their way to ask Columbia to send them grads for work! BUT that's just a private school trying to really convince us to attend.

Has anyone heard back from UBC SPPH for the MPH? I'm surprised it's taken this long considering some of their graduate programs that require interviews have already sent out acceptance/rejection notice... I'm a 2017 BKin grad from UBC and have so far been accepted to the MPH in Epi at U of T and the MPH in Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University (NYC- not Canada, I know...) with a certificate in chronic disease prevention through the epi department. I would hope that based on where I've been accepted that UBC has good news to come my way, but who knows when we'll hear ?‍♀️...