PhDhopeful2022

@Kompetent OH gotcha - I totally misinterpreted what they said!! That gives me a lot more hope. I know at the school I am currently working, they reduced the PhD admissions by abt 20% this year so glad to see that the HSGE PhD Program is still accepting quite a number of people!

Hey all - sorry for posting so much but I attended the HGSE PhD Q&A session today and got a ton of clarity on the whole post-covid questions that I had initially posted and thought I would share. They are accepting 25 people this year for their PhD program and Ed.D program (that means a total of 25 people for admission into both their PhD and Ed.D programs so I'm guessing around 12-17 people will be admitted into their PhD program depending on how many people apply this year). They said they wouldn't necessarily try to split it half and half for the PhD and Ed.D program but wanted to distribute pretty proportionally across the three concentrations. They also said COVID was not affecting their fully funded program so students who get accepted into the program are guaranteed coverage for their tuition and stipend for Y1-5 and will get additional from the TA / RA opportunities. I don't think they've released the recording yet but can access it here (https://www.gse.harvard.edu/admissions/recorded-webinars) when it's up!

@EverythingAHH I'm also applying for the CIS PhD program this year. I'm making a huge shift from the medical field (epidemiology and sexual reproductive health research) into education and super nervous about this. Spent the past 7 years learning about biostatistics and infectious diseases but realized my heart was way more in the community health education and teaching side of things from my work experience and schooling. But yes! Definitely feels like a lottery after looking at all the past people who got in and honestly, I'm especially worried that due to covid, they are reducing the acceptance pool due to funding issues. I currently work at Harvard (at the medical school) and our dept. is already facing lots of budget cuts even though a lot of the work we are doing is front facing and covid-related. Seeing how last year the education dept. couldn't take in any new PhD students...wish there was a little bit more clarity on all of the schools that are more of the social sciences / humanities and what they're planning to do since app fees are not cheap and the application process is pretty lengthy, involving multiple parties. A few articles I found about the doctoral admissions that are making me super nervous. I know they were written ~a year ago so don't know how much things will change but just wanted to share in case any one had any other input. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/9/16/ed-school-pauses-doctoral-admissions/ https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/10/30/harvard-coronavirus-gsas-admissions-pause/

Hi everyone, I hope you're all hanging in there while you work on these dang applications. Just needed a bit of advice from a nonbiased perspective - I recently graduated from a MSPH program @ Hopkins with a 3.75 GPA, where my GPA fell significantly from 2 of the 3 biostats courses I had to take there. Got A's in all of the other classes I took including EPI and other quant courses. The format of the Hopkins system is quarter based so I struggled learning all the concepts in biostats within a 8 week window. I really want to apply for a PhD program to continue some of the research I am doing now (specifically the Social Behavioral Sciences dept) and was wondering if my chances of getting into a PhD program are slim because of my less than stellar biostats grades. I know quant skills are super important for doctoral programs. Wondering if it's even worth applying? Dont know if any of this additional info is important but I'm working very closely in the department I am planning to apply for right now and have 4 publications and very good GRE scores (even though I know these are optional this year). Just need a bit of advice and so bummed about my biostats scores D:. Any advice is welcome and thank you all for reading this - just so much anxiety building up!!!

Hi everyone! I'm hoping to apply to the HGSE PhD program this year. I know they weren't accepting PhD applications last cycle due to COVID and budget cuts. Does anyone have insight into whether they are reducing the PhD cohort size (hopefully they will keep it the same size as previous years!!) - just trying to figure out if it's worth applying this year or to another program. I know this is already a very competitive doctoral program to get into and scared that budget cuts will lead to additional cuts in the acceptance rate.