Applying for a Ph.D program from Undergrad (graduated early, too!)

[aikah]

Hi everyone, I was hoping to get some feedback and suggestions on applying to Ph.D programs for Epidemiology straight out of undergrad.

 

I am currently a B.A. in Health Administration and Policy (studying on Public Health concentration). I am currently a sophomore but I have the choice to graduate early with my bachelors degree next year (spending only 3 years in undergrad) because I had a lot of AP credits transferred in for my general education requirements. Theoretically, by the end of next year if I choose to graduate early, I would have:

--> 11 MATH credits (Precalculus, Calculus I, and Finite Mathematics)

--> 8 STAT credits (Statistics for Social Sciences and Statistics with Application to Biological Sciences)

--> 12 ENGLISH credits credits (including a course in technical communication)

--> 9 ARTS/HUMANITIES credits

--> 6 CULTURE credits (including an Intercultural Communications class)

--> 9 BIOLOGY credits (Intro Bio for Bio Majors with Honors, Microbiology and Microbiology Lab)

--> 4 CHEM credits (intro chem class)

--> 15 SOCIAL SCIENCE credits (including Psychology and Human Geography)

--> 27 Core Major credits (Public Health concentrated) including: Global issues in health & disease, geography of health & disease, research methods in health, and epidemiology

--> Language proficiency in Spanish, Japanese, and Vietnamese.

 

I do not have any research experience but by early graduation next year I will have 2.5 years of direct public health experience in developing, planning, and implementing public health programs, and at least 1 year of clinical experience as a medical scribe. 

 

My GPA is currently a 4.0. If my GPA stays above a 3.8 by the end of my junior year, and my GRE scores are at least average, what would my chances of being accepted straight into a Ph.D program for epidemiology be?

 

Do you think I should apply to a Ph.D program right away or take more bio/chem classes for undergrad and not graduate undergrad early?

 

I'm looking in to the Public Health/Epidemiology programs at University of Maryland, Baltimore. I am deciding between 3 choices, an MPH in epidemiology, MS in epidemiology, and of course, the Ph.D in epidemiology. I would really love some suggestions and advice!

[IntriguedStudent]

Without research experience, I feel that it will be difficult to get accepted into a PhD program straight from undergrad. However, with your grades and experiences, you would have a very good shot at an MS or MPH program. By going into one of those first, you would be able to gain some research experience and begin to get an idea of what interests you specifically within epidemiology (something that a PhD program is going to want you to know). 

[juilletmercredi]

There are few PhD programs in epidemiology that don't require a master's.  I'm pretty sure Yale's PhD program in chronic disease epidemiology doesn't require one.

 

If you have no research experience, I think it's unlikely you will be admitted.  The public health experience is nice, but a PhD is a research degree - PhD programs want students with some research experience who know what they are getting themselves into professionally.  (The clinical experience is more or less meaningless.  Epidemiologists don't do clinical work.)  Given that even in programs where the master's is not required most students nonetheless have one, I think you will be at a disadvantage lacking both a master's AND research experience.  You can make up for the lack of a master's by being an otherwise really superb candidate, but without the experience, you're not outstanding as a candidate.

 

The classes that you take are not so much relevant.  If you decide to delay graduating for a year, it should be to get more research experience.  But you can do that post-college - either in a full-time research position (given your degree, try a policy institute like Mathematica, RTI, RAND, Advisory Board, etc.) or a post-bac program like the NIH IRTA.  The CDC also has some research programs for post-baccalaureate students, I think.

 

You don't have to decide, also.  You can apply to MPH programs, MS programs, and PhD programs at the same time and see where the chips fall.  (This is what I did, and I got into a PhD program.)  MPH programs are generally more professionally/practice-focused, but you can certainly do research in an MPH program and many MPHs go on to get a PhD in epi.  The MS is pretty much designed to be a research degree and a feeder into a PhD; the difference is usually more theoretical coursework.