Advice needed - PhD, MPH, or take a year off

[Belen91]

I recently graduated from UCLA, and I was accepted into the three schools that I applied to for an MPH in global/international health (NYU, USC, and Loma Linda U.). However, the cost of attending those schools is very overwhelming (e.g. I was offered $70,000 from NYU in loans just for 1 year). I ultimately want to get a PhD in public health, however, I have read that a majority of the applicants already have an MPH. Therefore, I am wondering if I should just pursue the MPH, or if I should take a year off and apply to some PhD programs for the following year. 

 

Here is some of my information:

 

School/Research

- BA in Sociology from UCLA (I also took all of the necessary premed classes and got mostly A's and two B's). 

-  3.8 GPA

- Graduated - departmental honors, cum laude

- GRE: Verbal (154), Quantitative (153), Writing (4)

- Honors sociology research program - (2 years) I conducted my own research study on stress and wrote a thesis

- 3 years - research assistant: worked on nanosomes for dermatology, and participated in osteoarthritis clinical trial.

 

Internships/Shadowing

- 2 year hospital internship

- 5 month documentary film internship: researching type II diabetes

- 2 years of physician shadowing: hospitalist, surgeon, gynecologist

- 4 months of shadowing a certified diabetes educator: assisted in training patients on insulin pump therapy.

 

Volunteer

- Volunteered at a medical clinic in Mexico

- 1 year - Soup Kitchen

- 1 year - Animal Shelter

- 2 years - produced art show and art instructor for young girls

- 3 years - Tutored HS and college students: chemistry, calculus, and physics.

 

I would like to go to school in California or New York (as I have family there). 

[Jokenberry]

I am always for people taking a year off. Get some additional work experience, build up a little savings, make sure you're confident in your future goals and plans. It sounds like a good idea in your situation. 

[themmases]

I think taking time off to work before doing public health school is a good choice. It's obviously a very practice-oriented field, so professional experience will help you get in and also get a job after.

 

It's really unlikely that you'll get funding for an MPH no matter what you do, because it is a professional degree. At the same time, you may need it or an MS to get into public health PhD programs (I looked into going straight to PhD too). If you have your heart set on going straight in, you should research places that are less strict about already having the masters, and also contact your schools of interest to see if they would encourage someone like you to still apply. Ask about the possibility of applying to the PhD program, but being admitted to the masters that cycle if they think you're not ready, rather than just rejected outright. If you do need to get the masters degree, MS/MA credits are often cheaper than MPH credits.

 

One way many people avoid borrowing for an MPH is that some employers pay for their employees' education credits in a related discipline. For example, I worked at a hospital that would reimburse ~$5000/year for accredited courses in health or medicine-related programs. You still might have to pay for some of it yourself, and many places that do this have service commitments where you need to keep working there for a year after, but if a job is related enough to an MPH to pay for it then the experience is probably valuable anyway. You could also seek work specifically in research universities or teaching hospitals, which will often make you eligible for a significant discount in their program-- in addition to, again, likely being related to your degree. Finally, you could focus on public programs-- many of the good public health programs are at public schools anyway-- near your family and live with them, borrowing only the cost of tuition and fees rather than the full cost of living. This last option is what I'm doing, taking out only Stafford loans and then living off of my partner's real job and my part-time research assistant job.

[juilletmercredi]

I think if you get an MPH you should count on funding most of it - but you may still be offered money.  I was offered a half-tuition scholarship with stats similar to yours (lower GPA, but higher GRE scores).  You don't want to be saddled with ridiculous untenable debt, especially if your goal is to work in public health research and/or as a professor.  You can reasonably expect to make probably somewhere between $60-80K when you graduate - decent, but not enough to repay $140K in loans.  I agree with the advice to focus on public programs.  Hunter College, for example, has an excellent MPH program and it's very cheap even for OOS students.  I think the OOS tuition is $10K a year, and if you have family here, then you could live with them and commute.  Lehman College also has an MPH program, as does SUNY-Downstate and SUNY - Stony Brook University.

 

I also agree with the advice to try to find a university job and get a degree that way - two of the lab managers in my current lab are pursuing MPH degrees part-time and getting it paid for as an employee benefit. 

 

Most PhD program applicants in public health do already have an MPH, but that doesn't mean you have to have one to get a PhD.  I am finishing my PhD at Columbia and not only did I not have a prior master's, I started right after I graduated from undergrad.  (You actually might be interested in my program; we have an emphasis in international health, you can study public health and sociology there, AND it's in New York.)

 

Still, personally I would advise taking some time "off" from school.