TypeA

Based on the wording, that may be a department that is only seeking applicants who were designated GSI/GSSA positions as part of their funding package. But for what it's worth, I needed a similar letter for the psych department: Applicants not enrolled in the Psychology Department (or an affiliated program) must ALSO attach... Letter from a representative of your program of enrollment who can confirm that you are in good standing and that teaching will not interfere with progress towards your degree. I coordinated it through the School of Public Health (they admitted me sooner, rolling admissions), and the registrar provided me with a letter that reads as follows: Since I'm not actually enrolled yet, she couldn't confirm that I'm "in good standing" or that the position wouldn't be an "interference" so in the letter of recommendation that was also required for students outside the Psych department, I had my recommender touch on my success in my current full-time work/part-time student schedule. Method, that fellowship sounds like a heck of an opportunity! But right now I can't wrap my head around a 30-hour workweek and a full (daytime) courseload. I did set up a reminder for myself to check it out next year if I choose to defer, though. Thanks for the tip! ETA: Bahah. Thanks for the name catch.

I don't have any personal experience with getting between DET and Ann Arbor by bus, but you might want to check this out. I do believe that most cab rides have a standard one-way fare of about $50. Just applied for the Bohnett Fellowship, eep! Fingers crossed.

Another thing about Michigan in general that I didn't see mentioned here is that the university has a really good reputation for allowing cross-school enrollment--this is something I've read on this board, and heard from current students at both Ford and the School of Public Health. So if Ford didn't offer a course in a particular subject you're interested in, TCAUP might have something. There's also a MUP/MPP dual-degree that you could apply for during your first semester at Ford, if you were so inclined.

I'm not actually already there--I went there for undergrad and graduated last April, but am not currently in Ann Arbor. The way the "dual degree" works is that I applied independently to Ford and the School of Public Health, and now that I've been separately admitted to both, they'll allow me to combine the curriculum such that I can graduate in three years with both degrees instead of four. But! I will answer your questions as best I can: I applied for GSI positions once I got my acceptance to the School of Public Health, which was about a month ago. There's a listserv you can sign up for, and you'll get emails every time a department posts new availabilities. I don't know what proportion of MPP students take on GSI positions; I actually asked this at a prospective students day and didn't get a satisfactory answer. The GSI positions I applied to were through the psych department, which is where I did my undergrad. However, in pretty much all departments, MA/MS/PhD students are given preference over students outside the department, which puts students in the professional schools at a distinct disadvantage for securing GSI positions. Ford does have an undergraduate department, and Ford grad students often fill the GSI positions for those classes, as well as some first year grad classes (you'll see those listed in the listserv), but they're positions almost exclusively second-year students--this was something they did mention at the prospective students day. As far as compensation, I'm not 100% positive, but I think that all 0.5 FTE positions that are set at GEO (the grad student union) rates include a tuition waiver, stipend, and health insurance.

Not in social work, but for what it's worth, I'm another staunch Mac user, despite the price tags. However, I would agree that if you go with a Mac, it's imperative that you purchase the Applecare insurance. Mine paid for itself more than twice over during the three years I was covered under it (which I think is less of a reflection on the product quality, and more of a reflection of how clumsy I am). I had the hard drive replaced twice under Applecare and they fixed some issues to the tune of $800 that arose after I spilled a bit of tea into the machine (note: Applecare isn't supposed to cover liquid damage; there must not have been sufficient evidence of it). In addition to the tea, my Macbook Pro survived a Mountain Dew spill (I had to pay $200 to replace the keyboard) and the general wear-and-tear of my life as an undergrad (I took my computer everywhere with me). It's about five years old, and while the battery is totally shot (and replacing it doesn't help), it's still totally functional. To be fair, I did go through a number of expensive chargers, because the ends of the cords would start to pull away and wire would be exposed. But! Those are covered under your first year's warranty (and possibly under Applecare? I don't recall) and the new design seems to rectify the problem a bit. Also, I probably wouldn't have had the issue if I had wrapped the cord like you're supposed to, around the little "feet" that pop out of the power brick. A word of caution: if you do need to buy a new charger, do yourself a favor and spring for the real thing from Apple. I bought a knockoff from Amazon for about 1/3 the price, but then... it melted.

I'm not even going to try pretending not to be jealous. Seriously though, congratulations! Good to know for posterity that super important things like that can get caught in the spam folder.

No funding here, official word just came through: Unfortunately, because our fellowship funds are limited, we are unable to offer you fellowship support at this time. If we do find that some additional funding becomes available as we move through the admissions process, we will be in touch with you immediately. Bummer. Ah well, still waiting to hear on a few GSI applications.

I'm still toting around my 15" Macbook Pro from 2007 (it turns five next month, d'awww), but I plan to buy a new computer as soon as Apple releases a MBP line with a new form factor. I'm probably going to stick with the 15" screen... it never seemed like an undue burden during undergrad (and believe me, I took my laptop everywhere) and the 13" just seems so bitty--I've used my roommate's, and I just couldn't wrap my head around the lost space. Fingers crossed that the next MBP line is slimmer (but not Macbook Air thin, I firmly believe that I would manage to snap one of those in half).

I didn't actually vote in the poll, because I figure that my situation--I only applied to one program that offers interviews--isn't statistically significant. But I was offered an interview at UMich's School of Public Health for their MPH/MHSA in Health Management and Policy and was offered admission. Ford doesn't do interviews.

My fingers are still crossed for tomorrow. Seems Ford likes to send emails out after 4pm. But congratulations to everyone who got good news today! I just RSVP'd for the admitted students day... it was a bit odd, they ask you to provide a brief (3-4 sentences) bio in the third person.

Congrats on the funding award. As to your question, I only know the "official" university answer on the matter... I don't personally know anyone from out-of-state who managed to get residency. I do know that they're extraordinarily strict about it--I was flagged as a possible nonresident this cycle by Rackham because I spent four months in England in 2010 (study abroad), even though I paid in-state tuition to UMich for a full two semesters afterward. Anyone want to claim the full ride in the results survey?

Hmm. I didn't receive anything from Rackham (maybe because I'm alum and they already have whatever they need?) but I know from communicating with some of the staff that funding decisions should be released "early this week." However, I don't know if emails are sent out to people who don't receive funding. I haven't heard anything yet, but am keeping my eyes on this thread and the results survey--surely some GCers will be on the receiving end of those funding emails.

I’m not pursuing IR, but I do intend to go into government/NGO type work when I have my degrees, so I’m in a similar bind. Technically, I’m still waiting to hear from Ford about funding, but I’m not very optimistic—I did well enough on the GRE, but my GPA was less-than-stellar (3.35) and I’m only one year out of undergrad. I chose only to apply to U-M this year because it was one of few top programs I found that offered the accelerated MPP/MPH track, and because I’m a Michigan resident—the in-state sticker price is especially important to me, considering that I intend to take on a third year of tuition and living costs (which bumps me up to the ~100K range everyone here is talking about). Even so, I’m balking at the thought of committing to the costs. There’s a chance I could score an assistantship—I’ve actually already applied for GSI positions—but it’s unlikely that I’d know for certain before April 15. That’s just not a gamble I’m willing to take right now, while I’m fortunate enough to have a full-time job with some pretty great benefits, so I’m looking seriously at my option to defer enrollment for a year. Right now, I would need to be offered an assistantship with tuition + stiped, or aid in excess of what I can reasonably expect to earn/save over an additional 12 months at my current job to consider enrolling this fall. Ideally, I’d love to not take on any debt, but that hinges pretty heavily on securing some sort of assistantship (luckily, I’ve heard promising things about GSI/GSSA positions at Michigan). More practically, I’ve set an upper-limit of graduating with no more than $30-40k in loans. This should be less than my starting salary (I hope) and I feel it’d be manageable to pay back over 5-10 years.

There's no way to check online via SOPHAS or Wolverine Access--WA won't change until after the SPH has sent their decision via email (at least in my experience, there was about a week between those two events). Your best bet would probably be to email the department's Student Services Coordinator to explain your concerns and ask when you could reasonably expect to hear a decision.

Is anyone planning to go to the Spring Preview weekend?

It really depends on where (how close to campus) and how (studio/single/shared?) you want to live. Last year I had a double right next to campus for $550/person/month before utilities, but that's practically unheard of. I would ballpark $700-900/month before utilities for a nice but modest single, depending on location. The bad news is that leases in Ann Arbor become available in November, so prime locations are typically gone by now--but sometimes prices come down as landlords get desperate for residents. Here's the U's resource for off-campus housing: http://offcampus.hou...du/lt/index.cfm For what it's worth, I chatted with a former GSI of mine, and he said that a lot of grad students live in Kerrytown and the Old West Side, or very south of campus (near/moderately south of campus is glutted with undergrads).

Michigan operates with two main four-month terms (Fall and Winter). The remaining four months of the year are split into two two-month terms (Spring/Summer), but those are irrelevant to Ford, since students have summer internships. I don't believe Ford offers Spring/Summer classes. .. or what kelvinv said.

Also in! I attended UMich for undergrad, so I'm happy to answer any questions about Ann Arbor and such.

In at Ford as well! Ditto to the forthcoming funding info. Man, I've been a ball of neuroses all week, and deliberately avoiding the forum.

I sympathize with the difficulty of this, as a fellow Neuroscience major who shifted gears from pre-med to policy. And I second the question about your personal statement/SOP. Did you present defined academic interests and specifically describe the evolution of your passions from medicine to IR/policy/whatever? While medical school admission might be impressive on paper, it also seems like it could be a bit disjointed from whatever you're pursuing now. Adcomms likely need to see something in your statement that this isn't your "fallback" plan because medical school didn't work out.

One thing that you might want to consider when picking "safety" programs is accreditation. There are a lot of "public health" programs at schools that aren't CEPH-accredited, and it's my understanding the accreditation can be pretty important. I chose to only apply to my top-choice program this year, because I could work for an additional year if I wasn't admitted. But I did my research on other programs in Michigan (where I live), and there's only one school besides U-M that has a CEPH-accredited program in the state--Wayne State University, just accredited last year if anyone's curious. But there are other schools in the state that offer MPH degrees/certificates that don't have that accreditation (offhand, I recall MSU and EMU).

Sent you a PM!

I'm waiting on one more decision, and there's an untouched box of Thin Mints sitting on my dresser. I figure that'll work whether I'm accepted or rejected.

Over brunch my father asked, "Why can't you just call the school to see if they'll tell you (the admissions decision) early?"

University of Michigan has a PhD program in Health Services Organization and Policy: http://www.sph.umich...p/programs/phd/ If you're more interested in looking at the Master's level, they also offer a MS: http://www.sph.umich.edu/hmp/programs/masters/ms.html (more research-oriented than the MPH) I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for, but I've spoken with the HSOP director (actually interviewed with him as part of my MPH admissions) and he's very helpful/approachable.