teabunny
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Posts
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Joined
Everything posted by teabunny
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Not yet! My plan is to keep narrowing things down one school at a time, and hopefully when April rolls around I'll have a decision!
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Human Nutrition!
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Adding my two cents: The funding situation within the IH department at Hopkins is much more precarious than the Epi/Health Policy departments (at least that's what I gathered from chats with current students) since they don't guarantee stipends. For Human Nutrition within IH, they have made nice-ish strides to implement a TA requirement that pays a small (tiny) stipend at the start of year 1 and year 2. You do have to TA 4 classes through that requirement before you can TA for full pay, though... There are other opportunities to get larger awards, but they're crazy competitive so most students cobble together RA hours. I ended up declining my offer because of this. Many students I talked to said that funding was the number one stressor they had, especially during the first year when they were swamped with coursework (so unless you had someone else supporting you to cover living expenses, be prepared to squeeze in 20 hrs/wk of RA work). The Center for a Livable Future, which I was hoping to be a funding mechanism during years 2-4, unfortunately has frozen its funds to new fellow applicants. Only one cohort has been eligible for re-funding for the past 3 years, and it's still unclear if they can re-open applications to new students even in 2022. At the end of the day, students agreed that they had awesome research opportunities and it was worth the burden. Personally for me, I didn't want to burn out in year 1 in addition to the dissertation years. Plus with better financial support at other schools with equally compelling research landscapes, I felt that the overall PhD experience would be better elsewhere if I at least had peace of mind about funding. It's a little sad, since I definitely went into this cycle expecting to accept an offer from Hopkins if I got one. But my interests and values don't quite align as well as I thought they did, so here we are ?
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Adding to this based on what I've heard: NYU: 30k for 5 years, split among the 9-month academic year (health insurance coverage lasts the full year) UW: similar to UNC (I think?) in how funding isn't guaranteed upon admission but a package is put together for you by the time you start; 30-40k depending on how you're funded (RA/TA-ships and/or NIH training grants) for the first 2 years UConn: 35k guaranteed for 2 years, plus university-wide scholarships (20k, service-free) for highly competitive admitted students Tufts: 30k guaranteed for 5 years, I don't think there's a TA requirement
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I got an email from the dept's program manager that included the official letter (also detailed funding, which historically has been a pretty sore point for prospective students I think). I'm thinking that the next week-ish will be when they send out decisions? The letter did mention that virtual visit days are Feb 26 or Mar 26, so I'd guess that you'll get clarity very, very soon. Best of luck to you, friend!
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Got a yes from Hopkins (International Health, Human Nutrition) and I'm in SHOCK. It took me so long to even admit to myself that I liked the program (to avoid getting disappointed lol) so hearing back so positively is absolutely mind boggling. Eek!
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I got a super vague email from the program director (Brown BSHS) that said they were in the process of finalizing their list of offers with the Graduate School. They asked to keep in touch with questions about the program, so I asked about what the final approval process entailed. Turns out, the Corporation had met that week to give info about budgets and they were still expecting to hear about financial details that would allow the committee to make final decisions. I got my "official" you are recommended for admission email this morning! Personally, I don't know if I would have preferred to just get the last email that spelled out the good news for me or to have that additional/vague update email...
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I did, around three weeks ago! I think they're planning on releasing all decisions this week.
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Just got a phone call from UW Health Services letting me know I got in! Details about funding and logistics are forthcoming via email.
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I did hear back and was accepted to Tufts! But still no word from both Hopkins and UNC since the first week of January.
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Woohoo! Looks like they figured out all the logistics
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I got an email yesterday about an interview invite (I applied to SBS) -- they said they're still finalizing the timing and format of the interviews, but wanted to confirm time zones.
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The nerves are sooo real. Don't feel too down! There's still lots of time until things are "finalized" in April, plus until you get a "no" in writing you're still in consideration. Hmm I was too stressed to count the number of participants during the call LOL but I'd guess there were 1-2 faculty representing each of the 5 core interests. Funding was the question no one knew how to answer, since grants likely aren't approved until later in the spring.
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Re: UNC -- I think it was to match prospective students to PIs with funding? I got an email from the department coordinator (JE) in the few days after the priority deadline closed, and that contained the info for their "Virtual Doctoral Event." The cited reason for how early the events were held (1/6, 1/7) was because the university has some available funding, but nominations have to go out the week of 1/11. My guess is that the department is spending this month tinkering with budgets to best allocate resources to applicants. I also applied to Hopkins! So far, I've had two (very informal) calls with faculty on the committee (I think). Their decision timeline seems to be on pace with UNC (end of January). They also mentioned that UNC is their direct competitor for recruitment (lolol).
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Thanks! Still reeling, tbh. And it was just for prospective Nutrition students (all the panels were specific to their faculty and research groups).
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I did! UNC's doctoral event was this week, and the committee chair said that they'll be making decisions over the next few weeks so... at best we'll hear about decisions in late January? The program coordinator did clarify that all offers will be made with funding attached.
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I have the same question! My assumption is that I can (reasonably) start panicking 2-3 weeks post-event without any news, but... What do I know haha.
