TypeA

"Wait, what? I thought you were going to medical school."

"Wait, what? I thought you were going to medical school."

"Wait, what? I thought you were going to medical school."

"Wait, what? I thought you were going to medical school."

Man, this article misses the mark on so many levels. I've never gotten vibes from this forum that people are trying to avoid the "workaday world"... quite the contrary, we seem to love discussing our various motivations (almost ad nauseam). Also, focusing so heavily on the results survey is inane.

"Wait, what? I thought you were going to medical school."

"Wait, what? I thought you were going to medical school."

"Wait, what? I thought you were going to medical school."

"Wait, what? I thought you were going to medical school."

"Wait, what? I thought you were going to medical school."

Streaming the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Copying and pasting a bit from a post in the government affairs subforum:

Program Applied To: Health Management and Policy (MPH and MHSA tracks; I also applied for the MPP program at the Ford School of Public Policy, because I'd like to do the joint-degree).
Schools Applied To: University of Michigan. I was offered an interview (via email) with the SPH on 12/20, that's scheduled for 1/23.

Undergraduate institution: University of Michigan
Undergraduate GPA: 3.35
Undergraduate Major: Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Science. Minors in Political Science and History (American)

GRE Quantitative Score: 710 (72nd)
GRE Verbal Score: 720 (98th)
GRE AW Score: 6.0 (99th)

Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 0.5? I graduated last April.
Years of Work Experience: Worked part-time in a biomedical lab for two years, worked full-time for two summers and part-time for two semesters in an autism clinic, and am currently working full-time. However you choose to quantify that.
Describe Relevant Work Experience: Although the autism clinic work itself was mostly administrative in nature, it did give me a firsthand knowledge of how pediatric mental health coverage works (or—more to the point—doesn’t work). The clinic served two very disparate populations: those covered by Medicaid, and those who could afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars per year out-of-pocket for therapy. Mental health/substance abuse policy is one of my areas of interest. Currently, I'm working as a regulatory coordinator in clinical research, which means I'm responsible for ensuring that the studies I oversee comply with human investigation policy.

Hilarious!

Here is my wallpaper for the day:
http://tinyurl.com/cu3wlko

Streaming the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

I am "regularizing" with a Red Bull and Monster Drink regimen to compensate for my general lack of sleep. This along with pencil pushing, mental gymnastics, math exercises and occasional recreational sex.

I hate to be a big B about this but you are frighteningly wrong on just about every point:
I am not aware of government grants for professional graduate programs. Individual schools might offer limited partial scholarships, though you will have trouble qualifying for those with a 3.2 GPA.
You will most likely qualify for government loans (Stafford, Grad PLUS) but you will probably find yourself needing to take out private loans as well and having a balance of about $350K between law school in NYC and a private business school unless you get serious tuition discounts.
As mentioned above by Spore and pinkrobot, you don't leave law school with a master's. You leave with a JD, the D of which stands for 'doctor'. Know what you're getting into!
The JD is an interesting degree in that receiving it can actually make you less employable in all other fields besides legal work if you don't have serious work experience. I think you might be thinking of this simplistically as BA + JD > BA (okay, well maybe you were mistakenly thinking BA + legal MA > BA) which is not usually true. I would be shocked if a JD were viewed as an meaningful asset in broadcast journalism hiring.
Good (and even most not-good) MBA programs require several years of full-time work experience. You are extremely unlikely to get in with only some internships from undergrad and law school. The JD won't give you an edge over people who have actual experience.

If your goal is to work in broadcast journalism, I think your current plan is a really bad idea. The fact that you wouldn't be able to pay off all this debt on a broadcast journalism salary should be a huge red flag, for starters. Talk to alumni from your program who are working in your dream positions and find out how they got there. I'm going to guess it involved many years of working in the field, not taking on staggering amounts of non-dischargeable student loan debt for unrelated professional degrees.

Interesting post, and you make some valid arguments. I am not in public health, but I am getting a Masters too at BU and my gf graduated from Harvard last year with a MPH. I agree that BU is extremely expensive and I am sure the school is profitting from you expenses. However, why is this so different from any other school? You should realize that your cost is not just paying an hourly rate for somebody to teach you material. You are paying for resources, networks, recruitment events, a grad experience, access to profs in your field, and most importantly a degree with a school's name attached to it. I don't think you realize the value of having that piece of paper. I know there are successful people without fancy degrees, but that is not the norm and there are plenty of employers that won't even consider you without that degree. Now, I am not saying this is the way life should be, but I recognize that is how it is at this time.

You should also realize that you are doing a professional degree and for the majority, these are always non-funded and quite expensive. Think of MBAs, law school, med school, etc. They accumulate A LOT more debt than you and they aren't complaining. They realize this is the way it works and what you are paying so much for has value.

If you are upset with BU and their program, that is one thing. But to be surprised that you are doing a professional Masters that is expensive and be mad about that is your own fault. Most people spend lots of time thinking about costs and benefits and decide beforehand if it is worth it to them. If you didn't do this planning and just jumped into $60k+ debt, that was your responsibility.

Thousands of people make this choice each year and accept what that means and are fine with it. I have the same amount of debt as you from my Masters but I am not worried about it as I know the degree will pay for itself. My gf has that same amount of debt too, but got a consulting job after getting her MPH and she makes well over $100k salary and now she will pay that off in like 2 years. I can guarantee you she would not have gotten her job without paying for that expensive degree. She even told me that her company ONLY goes to recruiting events that aren't opened to the public and therefore you can only access them if you goto top institutions. This is the type of thing you are paying for. Of course anyone can read books and teach themselves the material for really ANY degree if you are bright enough. But to tell people there is no value in a degree because of the cost is misleading.

Well, first off -- your decision not to pursue medicine further won't hurt you in the slightest but should you get called before an Admissions Committee (don't count on it, unless you're up for a presitigous scholarship, it's unlikely to happen) it's likely to come up so have something ready for that just in case.

What classification of liberal are you using here? The political spectrum is considerably different from the theological one. There are theological conservatives who support equal (homosexual) rights and pro-choice and vice versa, so having an idea of what you mean by "Yale/Harvard might be too liberal" would help.

I graduated from Yale in 2011 and I'd say most of the students were liberal in a Jeffersonian sort of way, while still supporting marriage equality and minority/women's rights (a professor pounded it into a bunch of our heads that it's important for the Church to be pro-life but also pro-women's rights and that it's possible to be both so I always catch myself trying to be careful with word choice here) but realizing the importance of scripture without throwing the baby out with the bathwater (unlike places like Harvard - I kid, sort of).

Most of the places on your list are solid choices, I would make some alterations though if you're headed down the path with the UMC (especially if your intention really is on mainstream theology) though - drop the following:

Fuller
Regent (I assume you mean the one founded by Pat Robertson?)
Notre Dame (their MDiv, I believe, is Roman Catholic only)
Gordon-Conwell
Wheaton (The UMC is moving more and more to an inclusive state with the LGBT community, which Wheaton, as I recall, is considered the most unfriendly college for. I would imagine that despite its Methodist past, Wheaton is to the Methodist what Nashotah is to the Episcopalians)

Your current background in theology/religious studies is perfectly fine as is - I had several professors and my advisor who suggested I take Intro to OT/NT and change my Religious Studies major to something else. Why? For the sole purpose that you'll still be required to take those courses in seminary. Plenty of my fellow students had little to no background in theology/RS and excelled at Yale and I know my close UG friends reported the same from Vanderbilt and PTS.

Helping you narrow down the list more will require us knowing where you stand (currently) with regards to your own theology. Now, we don't need a list of positions you support and oppose but we do need more information. All of the schools you have listed (minus Harvard - sorry again) will prepare you for practical ministry and give you a solid base in academic theology to make you a better minister and leave the door open for academic theology should that bug bite.

Also, the ideal seminary will be one that isn't in your comfort zone. Should you attend a place that is exactly where you theologically, you won't grow and your church (and you) will suffer for it. You need to make sure there is enough balance across the entire theological spectrum.

You said it all man. You said it all.

Man, this article misses the mark on so many levels. I've never gotten vibes from this forum that people are trying to avoid the "workaday world"... quite the contrary, we seem to love discussing our various motivations (almost ad nauseam). Also, focusing so heavily on the results survey is inane.

So a school is weak because they don't have a thesis requirement?

I didn't apply to Ford, but I got into Indiana and they don't have a thesis requirement either.

Personally, as someone who is in the workforce now and plans to be in the workforce permanently after I finish my MPA and who has absolutely no interest whatsoever in getting a PhD, I am SO GLAD they aren't gonna waste my time with a thesis. :roll: They instead have a capstone project that you do with another group of students, and I prefer that WAY more. I purposely did not apply to schools that have thesis requirements. A thesis is completely irrelevant to my life plans post graduate school. Give me something practical I can take into the workplace, thanks.

What is a thesis going to do for me in a job interview? Absolutely nothing.

I am a recent graduate of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, having received my MPP last year. I was also admitted to the Harris School at the University of Chicago and GWU.
First of all, DO NOT make the mistake of relying on the U.S. News rankings to make your decision. I conducted significant research into MPP programs on my own behalf, and I assure you that the U.S. News rankings for schools of public affairs are absolute garbage. For example, I'm originally from the Midwest, and so began my search for a grad school in that region. The U.S. News rankings place both Indiana and the Ford School at the University of Michigan in the top 5 for public affairs - both Georgetown and Harris are in the teens (13th and 15th, approximately). Insane! Both Georgetown and Harris-UC are dramatically better programs than Indiana and Michigan. While both GU and Harris are more selective than UM and Indiana, that's not really the basis for my argument. It's more that Georgetown and Harris really focus on offering intimate learning environments with absolute top-notch faculty and lecturers - perhaps this is where reputation and location really do make a difference. Indiana is at best average.....they don't really offer many intangibles. The Ford School is weak......no thesis requirement, average faculty, and they just don't seem too invested in their students. (I had a difficult time just trying to arrange to speak to some of their administrators and faculty)
Regarding the question of selectivity raised by several posters - Georgetown has an acceptance rate of about 20% for its full-time MPP program. I believe that only the Kennedy School, the Wilson School, and possibly Berkeley have lower acceptance rates(can't speak to Columbia - which is a little different). Harris-UC accepts about a third of applicants, and GW takes about half. Hope this is helpful for some of you out there......best of luck (and of course, I highly recommend Georgetown )

When I check "My Content," it says There is no information to show. Dunno if it's just me.

When I check "My Content," it says There is no information to show. Dunno if it's just me.

This kind of statement bothers me. I have seen it on many forums, not just this one.

Why would you ask someone to rush their own process, just to suit your needs? You were wait-listed for a reason. That reason being that you were not good enough to be offered the first time around. So don't take your frustration out on those that were initially accepted. If you've been accepted somewhere, you probably understand the feeling that you would like plenty of time to make your decision. Those that have been accepted deserve to have all of the allotted time to make their decision. You would demand the same, don't act like you wouldn't.

In my opinion, it is extremely selfish and unprofessional to partake in such behavior. Wait your turn; it is a wait-list, after all.

Just my two cents. Carry on.