PhD in Public Health

[Gael]

i'm curious. does anyone know anything about tulane's reputation both domestically and internationally? i'm interested in attending, but I am not too familiar with it. this would be for global health systems. 

 

thanks!

 

Hi, in short, I loved this program. I sent you a longer message to your account. 

[acdelco]

MammaD I don't know if its persistence or me being crazy, I don't have children to consider to that makes it much easier on me. Thanks so much for your well wishes. July 1st is absurd to notify someone by and expect them to pack up and relocate, I'm hoping they don't do that to you. 

Yes, it would be great to know where everyone ends up if there is a good way to coordinate that--hoping for the best for everyone! 

[Mazaya]

I just found out that there is no funding with my offer, so it looks like my grad dreams are coming to an end. Good luck to everyone else!

[acdelco]

sorry to hear that Mazaya did they say there is no way they can fund you? Is it because you are international (I'm assuming because your location says UK)--or do they just not fund their students?

Could you get like a TA or GSR position that could help cover costs. I think it may come down to funding for a lot of us, hate to see it go down that way after all the hard work of applying and getting in

[Mazaya]

sorry to hear that Mazaya did they say there is no way they can fund you? Is it because you are international (I'm assuming because your location says UK)--or do they just not fund their students?

Could you get like a TA or GSR position that could help cover costs. I think it may come down to funding for a lot of us, hate to see it go down that way after all the hard work of applying and getting in

Thanks acdelco. Yes I am an international, but I think the issue here is that I am not highly ranked by the department. On their website they say that they consider and give merit-based funding to ALL admitted students, so there are int'l students who receive money from their department. I was told that only if fewer domestic students accept, might there be a chance for me to get something... but, I'm not holding my breath. Very depressing. Edited March 12, 2013 by Mazaya

[Sryahmay]

Mazaya ugh thats hard to hear! Why would you accept someone into your program and then not want to support them, and why would you  tell an accepted student that they aren't preferred or highly ranked?! That just doesn't make any sense to me--I'm really sorry that's a tough situation. Fingers crossed for you!

[Mazaya]

Mazaya ugh thats hard to hear! Why would you accept someone into your program and then not want to support them, and why would you  tell an accepted student that they aren't preferred or highly ranked?! That just doesn't make any sense to me--I'm really sorry that's a tough situation. Fingers crossed for you!

Thanks Sryahmay, yes I was struggling with those questions as well. Maybe it's just my bad luck.

[upatthestars]

I've been having a hard time weighing my options for next year and I was thinking maybe you guys have some insights. I've been accepted to the Berkeley DrPH program and Harvard SD with comparable funding at both (neither even remotely close to what I was hoping for, which was as close to fully funded as possible). I feel like the Berkeley program would be a stronger interdisciplinary training (and is 3 years as opposed to 4, which is nice) but Harvard would be a stronger methodological training (and...Harvard is Harvard. The ability to cross reg at the Kennedy School and School of Ed is also appealing to me). I want to choose a graduate program that will both leave me with a strong skill set but also make me a competitive candidate for jobs in the public health work force (preferably policy/advocacy or program implementation) in the long term. If you were choosing between these two programs, what would you lean towards? I'm trying to make a decision now because the Berkeley Open House is on Monday and it will cost way more than I can reasonably afford to fly across country and visit. Of course I'll bite the bullet and go if I really feel like I need to visit to make a decision, but part of me feels like it would be crazy to turn down Harvard and there's really no contest...

 

What do you all think? Does reputation really carry as much weight as pop culture makes us believe? 

[Sryahmay]

upatthestairs Both Harvard and Berkeley are "good names", and while having a good name on your CV isn't the be all end all I think its naive to think seeing 'Berkeley' or 'Harvard' on someone's CV doesn't help it stand out in a pile. But I think if you went to Harvard and were competing for a position against someone from RandomU you wouldn't get too much of a leg up if you didn't use the resources provided to you at Harvard compared to someone who went to RandomU but really put in the time to make connections, and get the experience that is appealing for a job. People know which programs are strong, so it may get you a foot in the door but it probably ends there. I think if you're thinking which name carries more weight Berkeley vs Harvard its probably a negligible difference especially within PH--Harvard probably has an edge because its Harvard but I don't think its enough of an edge to make or break your decision.

As to Harvard vs Berkeley I think it just depends on the training you want I'd imagine Berkeley's training would be much more community and practice based than Harvard's SD, so if you think to do whatever you'd like to in the future you would need to show an employer that you have those skills than maybe lean that way, however if you feel you already have some of those skills and a strong methodological foundation is what you need to advance your career I'd say lean to Harvard. 

 

Also the accepted student day at Cal tends to be geared towards Master's students , so if you can't go next week you probably wouldn't be missing out too much and you can always schedule a time to visit later--you won't get the whole experience but you'll still be able to talk with faculty, meet students and get a feel for the campus without having the shell out a ton of cash for a cross country flight. 

 

hope that helps!

[MammaD]

Hmm. For what you want to do, I'd think the DrPH would be better prep than the SD, but that's just me going on limited knowledge of that part of the field. Some advice I got was to look at the class requirements for both programs and choose the one that has the fewest that make you feel dread.

[VBD]

 or me being crazy

NO ಠ_ಠ,You're not crazy. If you are then we ALL are.  

Mazaya, that's such a horrible feeling. Can you ask whether you are on some waitlist for funding and approximately when you can hear about it? I hate how your dream is crashing due to money. Argh money. 

Up, I would recommend you visit the campus. NOT on the planned admitted students day, but on your own. If you arrange it with the office, they can plan for some tour or faculty talks, etc. Also, if you want, politely inquire if the program would be willing to partially reimburse for the cost of visiting. For me personally, I tend to lean toward methodological training since that might be a unique experience at the school/program, and not something that you can learn while on the job. But maybe you should look to see if Berkeley's DrPH provides you with methodological training if you take certain optional courses, etc. and vise versa for Harvard and interdisciplinary classes. 

 

 

[Mazaya]

NO ಠ_ಠ,You're not crazy. If you are then we ALL are.  

Mazaya, that's such a horrible feeling. Can you ask whether you are on some waitlist for funding and approximately when you can hear about it? I hate how your dream is crashing due to money. Argh money. 

Up, I would recommend you visit the campus. NOT on the planned admitted students day, but on your own. If you arrange it with the office, they can plan for some tour or faculty talks, etc. Also, if you want, politely inquire if the program would be willing to partially reimburse for the cost of visiting. For me personally, I tend to lean toward methodological training since that might be a unique experience at the school/program, and not something that you can learn while on the job. But maybe you should look to see if Berkeley's DrPH provides you with methodological training if you take certain optional courses, etc. and vise versa for Harvard and interdisciplinary classes. 

 

 

Hey VBD, I think any news will come after April 15, when they will have received all the notifications from students who accepted their offers. I'd like to stay positive, but it's difficult.

[chrispin]

I have a question for you experts out there, enough that I finally stopped lurking and made an account. I want to say I appreciate all of your support for each other through this insane time. I've profited from it even though I haven't participated until now. 

 

Anyway, I've been accepted to the University of Washington Epi PhD, but it's one of those programs where they accept you but don't fund you, so you have to find funding on your own. I'm going out there next week to interview for RA positions. They recommend you contact 20-60 faculty during the RA search, which is insane (the poor profs), but that's advice for the MPH students as well. They say that all PhD's get funded, but I'm sure it's only the ones that are funded who accept. And funding only lasts one year or one part-year, so I've heard of PhD students who were funded the first year and thought they had funding for more, but it fell through, so they had to take out loans. On the plus side, there is good research going on and a large number of faculty doing very interesting work, so I'm going to  see what happens.

 

So, I've been asked to provide a 2-page writing sample as part of the application for one RA position, but I don't know what to send. I have a journal article where I'm the first author, and am thinking of sending the first two pages of that or two pages from the middle. I did most of the writing though the other authors contributed some. It's been years since I did my MPH, so I don't have any 2-page academic papers lying around. I haven't dealt with writing samples in this process besides the personal statement, and I'm not sure what they're expecting. Has anyone else been asked to submit a sample like this?

 

Anyway, good luck to everyone who is still waiting. From talking to people, I get the impression that those who have gotten into multiple schools are sitting on their acceptances until the last minute, and then there will be a deluge of spots opening up. I mean, if 10 people are accepted to 6 schools each, when those 10 finally accept, 50 slots open up. And once you're in it doesn't matter if you got early acceptance or were the last one in the door, everyone will start fresh from zero. For full disclosure, I also got into Emory, which funds Epi students for the first two years, and I am still considering that acceptance until I find out about financials at UW. 

[acdelco]

That sounds crazy applying to 20-60 RA positions! A couple of schools I applied to asked for a writing sample, I sent in a portion of a published paper, you can just put a cover letter on it saying that its not the whole article, and just be sure to cut it off in a place that makes sense i.e. not the middle of a paragraph or section.

 

I am hoping decisions don't come down the the April 15th wire--ugh more waiting!

[jordanhina]

Mazaya - have you thought about/talked to the schools about deferring admission for a year? Going in, my plan was to pray for funding, and defer for a year if I didn't get it. That gives you time to get to know the professors, talk to them about their research, and generally suck up until they're begging you to work with them.

 

20-60 RA positions!?!? Jeez. Organization, organization, organization on that front, I guess. Good luck!

[juliajulia1020]

I think I will end up debating between the admission from my dream program VS admission + funding from a program that I don't really want to attend. That's the reality. 

[Burkis]

I think I will end up debating between the admission from my dream program VS admission + funding from a program that I don't really want to attend. That's the reality. 

That doesn't sound good Perhaps it's best to defer for a year (as was suggested to another poster), save up and go to your dream school (with loans in tow) rather than saddling up with a program you dislike. You may feel resentful throughout the program if you dislike it from the start.

[upatthestars]

Thanks for the feedback, Sryahmay, MammaD and VBD, it's definitely helped me reframe the decision-making process in my mind. It sounds like I still need to do some soul searching to figure out exactly what I want out of my degree, look at the course requirements/curriculum at both more closely, and talk to students about Berkeley's methods/quant training. 

[MammaD]

The person I want to work with (faculty) just got a NIH grant for $2.9M over 5 years. I am so excited for her and for our field! I want to get in even more now!

[juliajulia1020]

Hey everyone, I have a post-admission question:

 

So my dream school admitted me this past Tuesday but they are still discussing on allocating funding for each admitted PhD student. My adviser at the program currently is out of funding but she is waiting for an NIH grant coming out at the end of April. However, the deadline to accept the offer is April 15, so the timing is really bad for me. She said if she receives the grant, she will offer me research assistantship which cover tuition fee and living stipend. But do you think I should reach out to other professors at this moment to discuss funding with them? Will my adviser be upset about it? I can't just sit and wait.

 

Please let me know what you think. huge thanks!

[acdelco]

Congrats on the acceptance to your dream program! Can I ask which school/program is it (if you dont want to say publicly I understand) ? Do you have another acceptance you need to decide on before then? 

 

I think it would be ok to reach out to other faculty. First you should let your current advisor know the situation, I'm sure they would understand  and they may also be able to let you know how confident they feel about getting the NIH grant. You should also tell your current advisor because they might be able to put you in touch with faculty who already have money and who might be amenable to take you on, this may be more successful than cold contacting faculty who may not be familiar with your background interests . If you have another school you have to choose between you might be able to get an extension past the April 15th deadline, but its probably not very likely. 

[juliajulia1020]

Congrats on the acceptance to your dream program! Can I ask which school/program is it (if you dont want to say publicly I understand) ? Do you have another acceptance you need to decide on before then? 

 

I think it would be ok to reach out to other faculty. First you should let your current advisor know the situation, I'm sure they would understand  and they may also be able to let you know how confident they feel about getting the NIH grant. You should also tell your current advisor because they might be able to put you in touch with faculty who already have money and who might be amenable to take you on, this may be more successful than cold contacting faculty who may not be familiar with your background interests . If you have another school you have to choose between you might be able to get an extension past the April 15th deadline, but its probably not very likely. 

Thanks!  That is really helpful. 

[publichealther]

Has anyone heard back from the Brown epidemiology PhD program? 

[MammaD]

It's March 15. For the love of all things holy. It's March 15.

[VBD]

Beware the Ides of March!