aca105

Just got notified for my Berkeley acceptance.

Population and Data Science - did my interview the week of January 31. I don't really know anymore beyond that tbh. You could try calling the Health Policy PhD contact number I guess? Idk I'm sort of prepared to just wait.

Not with anyone in the admissions office but I did have a short interview as part of the process a few weeks back by now.

I applied for Health Policy, but I asked the admissions office last week and it seems they're in the process of submitting their recommendations for admission to the Graduate School and said I could hear back anytime from now to mid-March.

Uh, a bit awkward, but I got told I was also second on their waitlist (and I heard something similar about the stats you mentioned).

They sent an email where you go to a web portal and they have a decision letter posted.

Confirmed!

There are so many risks to this approach that would make this an immensely risky/downright bad decision compared to just waiting for the rest of the cycle to pass and seeing what other schools get back to you/reapplying next year at worst (which would cost another ~1K USD if applying to 7-8 schools): In the best case scenario, you actually do get the funding next year from the PI, but then you're saddled with a 40-50k loan with four years of interest accrued to pay off immediately after you graduate. Given slim chances of anyone getting a tenure track position immediately after graduating, you're going to have to start making payments on your loan as a postdoc, reducing your already slim earnings at that point. Filed under "horrible but realistic", we have a scenario where you do get the funding next year from the PI, but something happens to you and you're unable to finish the PhD. This means that you will have taken out 40-50k in debt to receive, at best, some skills training but no real credentials, which also limits you from various job opportunities. This is an immense burden on your future. In the worst case scenario, you start your PhD but your PI doesn't actually have funding to give you next year. This means that you either a) have to take out another loan of 40-50k or b) withdraw from the program because you just simply do not have the capacity to take on further risk. This is a tremendous drain on your future finances. I don't really know what your current life status is, but saying yes to this opportunity is very much a shot in the dark hoping it all works out when there is a tremendous amount of harm that could occur to your future livelihood. It sucks to potentially have to go through another PhD cycle, but that level of pain is nowhere near as bad as the potential financial impact that going into an unfunded PhD in one of the most expensive cities in the country could have on your life.

People in this thread / forum also tend to think of this process as far more systematic/formalized than it actually is. A lot of programs screen out applications based on GPA/GRE/work experience, etc. in an initial round, but, beyond that, it really is a game of qualitative considerations about fit as well as faculty capacity and funding. You could be a great candidate on paper but if you're a worse fit working with the faculty at a program than someone with comparable statistics, you just simply will not get accepted in that cycle. Alternatively, you could get into a program from which you've been rejected the prior year. There's a ton of randomness and soft considerations that factor into how programs choose their candidates but also how they handle the process. And COVID and figuring out how to manage instruction of classes has only added to these challenges.

Current schedule (in EST) looks like the following across programs: 9-9:30: General Welcome 9:30-10: Why Brown/Providence? then breakout activities per specific program to follow - an hourlong program-specific breakout, a panel with current students, then some sort of interview portion depending on availability. You should probably hear back by EOD.

https://www.phdstipends.com/results

Yes I did - don't think it was particularly impactful as part of my application, but I had strong scores across each section.

This made me immediately protect my tweets lol. The duality of man.

Saw some interest in UCLA HPM PhD earlier in the thread, so wanted to update that I got the recommendation for acceptance this evening, with further information to come in the next two weeks.

>25 papers, including 10 first authors and pubs in major public health/health policy journals. Undergrad and MPH at a major public health school. National and university awards. 2.5 years in an industry position.