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I was rejected too! A bit surprised but maybe they don't deem there is a good 'fit' (I am genuinely interested in POI's research tho). I have a MSW and multiple years of both quantitative and qualitative research experiences, 4 peer-reviewed pubs (2 first auth/co-first auth) and 3 non peer-reviewed pubs (research report/brief).

Personally, I would try to find if other PIs could provide funding at that specific school/program to fund the tuition and stipend. If not, then I would not take on such an offer because no matter how certain or confident this PI is about next year's funding there is a lot of uncertainty. I have a friend who went to an unfunded anthropology program being told most students could take on funding 2nd or 3rd year, many anthropology programs are struggling with funding anyways so he went and guess who did not get any funding after years. He eventually transferred to a private uni and still hasn't graduated yet, it's been 10 years since he started the first phd. There is also another example of someone I knew who applied last season and got waitlisted, the PI reached out and offered a full-time RAship saying he would get in this year, and this year someone with close connections got the spot so this PI no longer has funding for him (yep after he quitted the old job and took on this RA with lower pay). Especially with that PI supervising so many people that would make me feel very uncomfortable. It is eventually your life and your choice. For me hell no. (Also for WES, if you requested, some programs might waive it. I did not take the WES and got it waived for UCSF and NYU Global Health, but one of the reason is that I graduated a decade ago and WES still requires a physical copy from one of the institution which makes it inconvenient and complicated)

I'm in a same situation. I also heard that someone got accepted to the biostats track this past Thursday. Given how small their population health cohort has been, I am assuming I am out.

Received acceptance via email to WUSTL Social Work (interview invite 1/14, interviewed 1/26-27). Annual stipend $30k (12 month basis) for 4 years.

Congrats! By the time I knew about this program it already passed the deadline ;-;. Otherwise I would have applied to it. It looks like a really exciting program.

Just received interview invite via email to NYU Social and Behavioral Sciences. Interview orientation day is Feb 14. (Do not know if they send out interviews in different batches)

I knew someone who got into USC health behavior without interview first week of Jan so interviews aren't required. Not sure about the epi program.

Yep the struggle is real but we'll survive ? It's a good sign that your POI said you guys should come up with a plan together!

This is sth to clarify with the POI. Usually the funding would be either a fellowship (which means no work requirement), TA/RAships at a certain % efforts that give you tuition waiver and a survivable stipend, or in more rare scenarios from external sources such as government scholarship. Sometimes the RAship will not be directly tied to your primary mentor, it is just a work exchange type of situation. This is very common for public health programs because many programs hope students to apply for a government training grant by year 3 to be more independent on funding, which international students do not qualify for. In many scenarios, students have to actively search for such RA/TAships and won't secure a position until close to the new semester. I am not sure how many would have to pay out of pocket. For UCLA, I knew someone who got admitted a few years ago with a clear funding mechanism because his POI had the money, he said not everyone was admitted with a funding package attached. It seems that you would need to figure it out with your POI/the department. I am an international student. This is my second season applying. UCSF Epi says they will not admit anyone they could not figure out a clear funding strategy. Then I was waitlisted ? . From past year stats, they would receive about half of applications from international students but enroll maybe one international student. I have a friend (international student) got admitted to UPitts Epi last season and they have to secure their own funding through searching for TA/RAships, he told me that his POI blatantly told him they were asked to prioritize US students so eventually he did not find any funding and deferred the admission. This season he reached out to a few professors at UPitts Epi and no one replied (but he got many interviews at private universities so I think he would be fine). Well I learned my lessons and this year I applied to more PhD programs housed at private university medical schools that will have more guaranteed funding.

Columbia doesn't do interviews. Last year decisions were released mid Feb. Also many people would turn down Columbia's offers (their stipend level is horrible compared to cost of living in NYC) so they might send out another rounds of admissions after that.

I applied last cycle and also got an interview invite. A few weeks after my invite there were a few folks posting 'interview' status on the results section, but it was hard to tell whether they received invites on that day. They only do one-on-one interviews so interviews might spread out a few weeks apart depending on faculty availability. The email I received this cycle says interview will take place by Feb 18 with early March decisions.

Just received an interview invite from UCSF epidemiology and translational sciences.

I had a program that wrote my last name wrong in an interview invite. Maybe it's nothing to some, but to me details really matter.

Received an interview invite for Northwestern University Health Sciences Integrated Program. I applied to the Health & Biomedical Informatics track. The program has been sending out invites in batches. I knew someone who already completed the interview last week, so the game is not over yet! It came with a little surprise that their interview invite is sent with some personal touches.

I’m pursuing a research career and I definitely see the dual degree as an asset. I feel the MSW training even benefits my soft skills collaborating with researchers and my research has a social justice lens at heart. I would say there are a variety of careers people pursue with their dual degrees. There isn’t as much a set career path prepared and folks tend to have to figure out themselves what’s the ‘sell’, for example if you want to pursue a heavy quant focused career then you might not be as competitive as someone who only specialized in biostats/epi unless you put additional intentional efforts into it (e.g. because the dual degree curriculum ‘eat’ some of your elections to count towards the other degree etc), but because of this peeps usually genuinely enjoy their work as far as I have seen

Hi I have a MSW/MPH dual degree. I think it depends on the review committee if they are separate and unaware that you are applying for a dual degree then separate them. I think you could try contacting the program admins and they will provide a better idea. These two degrees are indeed interrelated, especially with Covid and the growing awareness of social determinants of health, I don’t think your essays need to be that of a difference for these applications even they are separate

I chose organization and implementation science. In my statement I listed two faculty, one in IS and one in Economics, so the POI wanted some clarification and said the one in economics was too busy to be a primary mentor, I didn’t mean to choose him to be a primary mentor anyways, so I think this interview was mostly for clarifications and may not be the norm.

Had the meeting today and I guessed right. It was mostly for clarifying my interests and training needs. POI said it’s still early in the review process and usually would hear back in 5-6 weeks or more. If nominated and awarded a fellowship then will hear back 2 weeks

Received an email today to talk from POI at UNC Health Policy and Management. I am an international student and my research interests might or might not fit with the program, so this could be for clarifications etc. (especially given the challenging funding situation for international students?) I don't know if interview is a required component. Based on my understanding UNC tends to have a long stream of admissions etc.and different departments run differently. Last year I knew someone who didn't get interviews that get in UNC epi in March.

I think that's a very personal preference. I am ready to move to a big city with better food scenes, public transit, more cultural events to keep my mental health, especially in COVID. I got my masters from WashU and been working at WUSM since, I have met some amazing, amazing people and also worked in semi toxic environment, that's probably the case everywhere.

I could not speak for Mt Sinai. I applied for NYU Vilcek open program, three rotations & choosing tracks end of year 1. My statement is very targeted on that specific track. Based on convo with a current student (same track group, different track) and some prospective students (different track groups), different track groups do interviews on complete different days (different months). For the track group I choose, very occasionally students choose different tracks than what they proposed when applying. I also applied to WUSTL DBBS umbrella program which claims students can change program freeishly after 1 year as long as in good standing, both me and my friend got an interview for different sub-programs but again completely different admin and everything. I somehow feel that the open program is a trick - basically you can do whatever you'd like once you get in, but before you get in, let's see if you have focused interests. Maybe this is only my perception, because my research interests are in a very peripheral area of biomedical sciences. There is literally no other tracks other than the one I chose that is possible for me to be in. I am curious to hear from other's experiences.

Thanks! The admin did not reply my email and I hope my application didn't get stuck in the system for being incomplete. Geez. Should've just spent that $27 for a piece of mind. I can't testify for the two interviews but the timeline is about right.

I don't know about other programs, I graduated from WashU MSW and there were quite a few in my cohort that were in their 50s or 60s. I feel that if a MSW program has age discrimination then that's probably some program that you don't want to be associated with anyways. Also I don't think GPA matters that much for MSWs, the why matters more. Good luck with your applications!

different folks have a different definition of 'live welll'. NYU vilcek 2022 will be around $43,000 (I am not sure if there is tax obligation for domestic students, if there is then deduct the tax). With subsidized housing that would be enough for me to live independently, eat organic, and travel from time to time.