Dreams

I am curious Alan. Are you an American student or a foreign student? If American, did you not complete it while in undergrad? If so then you can renew it annually and the basic info will carry over. The only thing essentially needing updating would be the tax information. Or did you not get need based assistance in undergrad?

They get smarter and smarter don't they! Furthermore, the OP lists Bachelors in the program; and this is a grad forum after all :shock:

As the University of Arizona of a member of the Council of Graduate Schools, it has to hold you to the April 15 deadline. You may want to respond with something like "thank you for the generous offer. I am still carefully weighing my options and will provide a response very soon." Or something similar. If they actually then try to coerce you to make a decision now, then you could accept the offer and then technically withdraw if you get a better offer before April 15. It would upset them yes, but then again by joining the CGS, they should be held to the same standard as the other members. But I think the suggested response would work fine. Many schools are just in a hurry to finalize their cohorts because of the large number of applicants this year.

Not at all. But I also did not see any results in general from the department either. So they may be getting around to reviewing apps late this year.

That is outstanding! Assuming comparative support from all 3, where do you suppose you would be more inclined to go?

Right HKS only allows you to do a joint/concurrent degree with the programs specified on its page.

Why did you switch over to nonprofits?

I think I will keep that and my interests to myself for the immediate time being. Because then it would be very easy to identify the potential professors at the school. My interests are very interdisciplinary in nature, and will require a lot of coordination with several schools and programs, so they contacted me early. And while CUSSW has been very accommodating with me and my interests in the past, I don't think they will be so much this time I guess time will tell!

You should take the lead here and share any numbers about yourself that you asking us to share. And you are correct, the most energy should be put into creating a top notch resume, personal statement, and essay (if required by the program) Many social work programs are willing to take a risk on a person with a gpa lower than 3.0 if there is a sign of promise. And the best way you can demonstrate that is by building up a solid background of service, either paid or volunteer.

A plus to add: Given the number of partnerships GWU has with foreign universities, it is easy for someone who wants to stud abroad for a semester and transfer the credits back to do so.

lowly huh? Such a poor attitude. Anyway, I have only one preference for rejection: for it to be done quickly and not dragged out.

Not too sure what my chances are, but I will wager on not too good. I am in a strange situation, and whether I get in will depend on whether this particular advisor will take me on. So it is a waiting game, but I think I will have an answer soon. I was contacted in February and so am just waiting for the answer. As far as preferences, I do not rank schools. I only applied to schools I actually really wanted to attend. So it all boils down to financial and advisory support I would say don't worry to much. Seeing as you are a product of CUSSW, assuming you did very well they should take you. The other schools on your list are also top notch. The people at UC are phenomenal. I have been in contact with them for years and they have produced some great scholarship. Brandeis is also a fine choice.

I got dibs on those fingers But seriously, I second linden. Those of us here doing the worrying are likely the ones who will end up where we want to be because we have the experiences and backgrounds that the programs are looking for. They will be able to quickly spot those who applied due to the recession because their applications will bare it all. Fifteen more days folks. Fifteen more days.

Yeah unless you can secure some significant fellowship or scholarship, you will likely come out with quite some debt from Columbia. A friend of mine and I got in the MSW program there. When he graduated, he was about over 60k in debt. He pays a small mortgage in student loans monthly and I do not envy him at all. After going back and forth with CUSSW for a year, I decided to go else where when I realized that even with the slight increase in aid they gave me, I would still be in significant debt. There are plenty of major scholarships and loan forgiveness programs out there though. You might want to look into them, as well as employer paid studies in exchange for a small commitment to that organization.

I am also waiting for Columbia. PhD Social Admin track. Hopefully will hear something soon.

Just a little longer. I say we are down to the final two weeks. The applicant who has not ripped out all hair, gouged both eyes out, and fallen into a coma from anxiety and shock is the winner

There appears to be two SIPA posts in the response section. Can anyone claim them?

Yeah it seems like Columbia sends out admissions blog updates every other day. If they spent more time looking over applications instead of updating the blog, we would have a decision already :roll:

Goodness bursting into tears at work? I heard the process can make a person emotional, but wow!!

Email for me

Just to add on to t_ruth's response, it is a lot easier to coordinate gathering reference letters now since the majority of them can be submitted online. That it will save both postage and lag time due to overseas shipping of the letters.

Welcome to the board. I guess the first thing I would advise you to consider is the field of PH you would be interested in. There are many choices: Epi, Biostat, Social/behavioral, Policy, and so on. Once you identify your desired field, shore up the prep courses and experiences you would need to be a competitive candidate for whatever programs you are interested in. Research would definitely help for the PhD, and relevant work experience will definitely help for the masters, as well as the PhD. Keep in mind though that at some schools, like Harvard and Hopkins, the MPH is a degree for people either many years of relevant experience, or for people who already hold other relevant professional degrees like social work or medicine. Those schools have cognate degrees for people fresh out of undergrad (MHS, ScM, etc). Other places will offer the MPH for undergrads who wish to continue directly into grad school like Yale and University of Pittsburgh. Despite the varying titles, the degrees are equivalent in terms of recognition and preparation for the field. Naturally your academic preparation should be solid, including test scores. But please do not go into this tirade if you don't score 1600 on the GRE :roll: We have enough of that here already The interning at your local PH department sounds like a good start, and the people there can also give you tips on good schools.

I am a bit behind on everything tv related, not watching any tv for the past 5 years. Late last year though I saw the premier of season 2 of Heroes on video. I was interested, but left thoroughly confused not having the back story. So I finally began watching it from the start last week. I am on episode 3 of season and like it so far. I have a lot of catching up to do and think this will do well as my Charmed replacement

Not a Slavicist here but I am interested in your background and your planned focus at your schools. I assume it has to do with literature and not linguistics since Princeton is strictly literature?

Left work 3 hours early to come home and check mailbox. Well that and I was just browsing the forums at work anyway Nothing except for a chinese food menu so there is still some hope