Lean

I would have a look at how many professors are in the program, or affiliated with it, that have published qualitative research. Have you applied to a thesis-based MPH? I'm not familiar with the schools personally. It might also be more important to find professors with mixed methods/qualitative research experience in your area/population of interest if you have one. They would be able to connect you with others who focus on that area/have helped them in their work. Getting support for a mixed methods thesis can be very hit/miss as you'd need a professor experienced in that or a supervisory team willing to help with both parts. It can take longer to pass ethics as well. I won't say it's impossible, but unless you're familiar with qualitative research, I don't think the single qualitative course that most MPH programs I've seen offer will set you up very well. If it's your first foray, qualitative research can be a lot to learn (multiple epistemological/ontological approaches to choose from) You will definitely want to supplement that with a lot of your own reading. I took a qualitative course during my MSc., but personally spent months learning theory and methodology before I was comfortable submitting my study design to ethics.

Okay for those who will be going to Queen's, feel free to direct message me for a link to a Facebook group I've made. I see there's some interest. If you know of anyone else going into the program feel free to share the link I send you.

Any group chats for Queen's MPH?

I'm just going to write a list of ways not specific to any situation. There's family loans/gifts, student bank loans, working as a teaching assistant, research assistant, work-study, summer jobs, paid co-op rather than an internship, school jobs like events, cafeteria work, tutoring, working outside of school part-time, scholarships, tons of internal/external bursaries out there you may be eligible for based on financial need, merit, equity (check multiple university scholarship pages), taking a year off to work if a school offers deferred acceptance, having work fund part/all of the schooling (probably rare), applying/dropping down to part time status to work, choosing OSAP eligible programs (I think thesis-based MPH programs are?), choosing low cost schools/low cost of living areas if you have options.

My offer through uoZone states: Deadline to accept your offer: by 2022-05-23 Deposit: Amount: $250 Due date: 2022-06-01

I don't know your situation, but I just want to say GPA isn't everything when applying for MPH programs. For example Western specifically stated they prioritize the letter of intent. It's great you're looking to improve your GPA and I'm sure it will help, but it could be worth it to get some research/work/volunteer experience to help round out your next application depending on what you've done previously. When I first applied to two MPH programs back in 2018, my GPA for the last 2 academic years just barely reached the 75% minimum to apply. My final semester grades hadn't come in yet, which were my best grades. I had a rough first two years at university so my grades were in the upper 60s first year and in the lower 70s second year. I was rejected by McMaster and waitlisted at Western, never to hear back. I got a late acceptance into a thesis-based MSc. program based on my full final 2 years. After my MSc., I worked some contract jobs the next year while applying for full time work in health policy which never realized. This time when I applied I only had an 81.1% avg over the last two years of undergrad, with a cumulative average of 75.9%. I also averaged 88.33% over 3 courses during my MSc, which increased my average over the last 20 courses by maybe 1 percent. I was very happy to be accepted at 3/4 schools that I applied to this round. Since school wasn't my forte, some things that I feel helped me the most when applying this round was a combination of research/work/volunteer experience. If you go the route of taking any further schooling like a graduate diploma, do your best to be as involved as possible. Join a student council since they have a low weekly hourly requirement and depending on your role can give you experience in leadership, project management, communication, etc. Join a lab! My lab connections are how I got my contract work experience after graduation, some volunteer hours, and one of my reference letters. I felt that networking with professors was extremely valuable.

Just checked my portal for uOttawa MPH and saw I was admitted! No email yet so might be worth checking your portals.

Oh I actually got into an MSc. program after I didn't get into the two MPH programs I applied to 3 years ago. So those courses were the required courses for that degree on top of my thesis. You can take masters-level courses during a post-graduate certificate though. For example, at Western you can get an Applied Health Science Graduate Diploma or Masters Degree. The students take the exact same same classes, the diploma students just take fewer courses. I'm sure it's similar at other schools too.

I'm pretty sure all university level courses (undergrad, post-grad certificate, masters, etc.) would be accepted to count towards your GPA. My MPH applications were rejected 3 years ago likely due to not great anything (grades, experience, letter of interest). Getting some experience in research through my masters and some contract work experience in the last year definitely helped me when applying this round! My average from the last 20 courses/2 years probably only went up 5% from a 76-81ish from when I last applied because of better final semester grades and my 3 masters level courses.

Mine still says "Status: under evaluation. Last update: 2022-03-14". Hopefully we all hear back soon! For those of you who heard back did any of you apply to a specific stream?

Not your quotee, but I got that email this week before my rejection.

Rejection was via email, with the letter stating they will be updating the portal in the coming days.

I just got my rejection letter from McMaster MPH. Congrats to all those who got in!

If you go back a page or two I have a post where they responded with Mid May as their timeline to hear back, but it is subject to change (as always).

The deadline to accept is May 14th.