PhD Admissions Chances

[Sydney'sPH]

Hello this is my first post on the board. I would your input on my chances of admissions to programs that are frequently discussed on the board. Hopefully you can offer some advice and thoughts of my chances of admissions to Health Policy/Health Services Research PhD Programs. Thank you!

Program Applying To: Health Policy/Health Services Research PhD or DrPH – Health Care, Aging, Disaster/Emergency Policy

Schools Thinking of Applying To:

University of Washington - Seattle

University of North Carolina

University of Arizona

University of Colorado at Denver

University of Georgia

University of Wisconsin

Brown University

University of South Carolina

Undergraduate institution: Top 20 Public University

Undergraduate GPA: 3.2

Last 60 hours of Undergraduate GPA (if applicable): 3.8

Undergraduate Major: Psychology/Communications

Graduate institution: Top 10 School of Public Health

GPA: 3.4 – worked full time

Degree: Masters of Public Health – Health Policy

GRE Quantitative Score: 720

GRE Verbal Score: 680

GRE AW Score: 5.5

*Scores older than 5 years; need to retake

Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 8

Years of Work Experience: 8

Describe Relevant Work Experience: Entire work experience has been with two Universities either in Schools of Medicine or Public Health. I have managed pediatric clinics, large graduate medical education training programs and large research programs focused on health services research and policy.

Strength of LOR's: Will have strong LORs from prominent professors and researchers with whom I have taken class with and worked with.<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">

[varekai1018]

Hi there, and welcome to the public health boards! (From a relative newbie. )

You sound incredibly qualified for either the PhD or DrPH. The one piece of advice that I got, and that I found to be extremely true, is that at the doctoral level - given you have strong grades, LORs, GRE scores, etc (which you do) - it's about program and faculty fit. I'm not sure about your specific interests within health policy, but once you start looking at the research that's being done at various programs, it never hurts to email professors you might want to work with. (Once I had a feel for the faculty, I was also able to narrow down the list of schools I wanted to visit - and the visit was, in turn, tremendously helpful in deciding on programs to which to apply. I ended up only applying to one program - DrPH in HPM at U of Arizona - because I feel in love with the faculty/research/current doctoral students there.)

Good luck with the process, and don't hesitate to PM me if you have any questions!

P.S. Depending on how long ago you took the GREs, some schools might let you have older scores faxed via your last graduate institution. I had taken mine five years and three months before applying for the DrPH program, and the faculty gave me a pass on having to retake since my initial scores were acceptable...and I think they took pity on me that I they were only three months expired!