PhD Applicants Fall 2017

[epi_08]

1 minute ago, Epi_2016 said:

It's spring break, so that might affect their availability.

ah good to know. Have you heard back yet?

[StillWaiting9999]

39 minutes ago, Epi_2016 said:

It's spring break, so that might affect their availability.

Typically staff still works through Spring Break--if anything they should have more time without student distractions.

[Teddy1024]

14 hours ago, MCEpi17 said:

Hello Teddy1024, I have been accepted to Tulane Epi PhD. I got a phone call in January, visited in early Feb but only just got the official acceptance letter on March 2. I don't have any information on whether they have selected other students. Sorry! Get in touch with me when you know more!

Edit: I will also say that the Chair has been out of the office so that is slowing some paperwork. I haven't received my financial offer in writing yet!

 

Hi, MCEpi17. Congratulations! I read about your acceptance on the "result" page. I got a Skype interview in late January too, but never heard back ever since. 

[joshre01]

Those accepted at UNC -- have you heard about funding/advisor? 

[etherealhav0c]

54 minutes ago, joshre01 said:

Those accepted at UNC -- have you heard about funding/advisor? 

I got a followup email with information on my academic advisor and some information on the training grant applications that are due tomorrow. Other than that, no concrete funding offer. 

[SocialPubHealth]

Turns out there was a small glitch in my UCLA application (I accidentally submitted it as a DrPH instead of PhD) which is why there was such a hold up for my decision. Anyways I didnt get in. I'm probably not going to follow through on any other offers that were made--I really wanted to go to UCLA as it was my top choice. Columbia and Harvard were other great choices but didnt get accepted there either. Hopkins has me placed first on their waitlist, Pitt's funding is nebulous, and CUNY may not be the right fit for me. It's a wrap! Going to focus my time on getting published now and retaking the GREs and hopefully even better recommenders next year. Looking forward to the next application cycle!

[MCEpi17]

14 hours ago, Teddy1024 said:

Hi, MCEpi17. Congratulations! I read about your acceptance on the "result" page. I got a Skype interview in late January too, but never heard back ever since. 

That is frustrating. Did you try following up? Therese Carter is the Program Manger. She would know what's up with decisions. I think I saw somewhere that there is a visit day on/around March 29.

[elephant11]

30 minutes ago, SocialPubHealth said:

Turns out there was a small glitch in my UCLA application (I accidentally submitted it as a DrPH instead of PhD) which is why there was such a hold up for my decision. Anyways I didnt get in. I'm probably not going to follow through on any other offers that were made--I really wanted to go to UCLA as it was my top choice. Columbia and Harvard were other great choices but didnt get accepted there either. Hopkins has me placed first on their waitlist, Pitt's funding is nebulous, and CUNY may not be the right fit for me. It's a wrap! Going to focus my time on getting published now and retaking the GREs and hopefully even better recommenders next year. Looking forward to the next application cycle!

Your optimism and perseverance inspires me! Did you email or call someone at UCLA about your admission decision?

[SocialPubHealth]

2 hours ago, elephant11 said:

Your optimism and perseverance inspires me! Did you email or call someone at UCLA about your admission decision?

Thank you! Yes I had emailed and called twice each week the past two weeks.

[mph2phd2017]

On 3/13/2017 at 2:20 PM, StillWaiting9999 said:

Typically staff still works through Spring Break--if anything they should have more time without student distractions.

Same thoughts here.

[mph2phd2017]

On 3/12/2017 at 0:09 PM, JSnow said:

"Mid-April" as in...around April 15th when we are supposed to make official acceptances? Political climate aside...it seems a bit unfair. 

EXACTLY.

Not only unfair to those who haven't heard, but those waitlisted. What if you are waiting to hear back from *one* school who hasn't made a decision, but are accepted to a dozen others? All those other schools and their waitlists are now affected because of poor planning and execution by one program.

This whole experience has just made me wonder if academia really is where I should be placing all of my chips. In the private sector, this would just NOT be acceptable nor tolerated. Why is it, in academia, we are just meant to deal with it?

I digress. Ugh. Fed up with waiting.

[melvina]

6 hours ago, mph2phd2017 said:

EXACTLY.

Not only unfair to those who haven't heard, but those waitlisted. What if you are waiting to hear back from *one* school who hasn't made a decision, but are accepted to a dozen others? All those other schools and their waitlists are now affected because of poor planning and execution by one program.

This whole experience has just made me wonder if academia really is where I should be placing all of my chips. In the private sector, this would just NOT be acceptable nor tolerated. Why is it, in academia, we are just meant to deal with it?

I digress. Ugh. Fed up with waiting.

With the "dozen" others, I suppose the argument would be that no one should have a dozen offers in hand.  I read that the rule of thumb is to never have more than one or two offers in hand while waiting for something else, which makes sense to me.  That being said, since the acceptance rate is SO low, i think there are VERY, VERY FEW candidates who got into all of their schools and are entertaining a dozen offers (like, who does that?!).

It's even worse for international students because they need to sort out their paperwork and visas, and with no decision or waiting-on-funding decision, that delays the whole process, putting in question the arrival to the US on time.

As for the private sector.... There were times when I've applied to (what feels like) a BILLION jobs, and i've had ALL sorts of responses and non-responses and half-responses, so in my experience this isn't waiting game isn't particularly different, and at least the universities have a responsibility to let us know that we are rejected.  I don't think companies need to do that at all, and while some are nice and let you know, others do not.  

I'm no particular fan of academia, but with some experience in NGOs, government, and the private sector, they are all filled with people supervised by one main (usually) man, who signs off on stuff, and as soon as one of the chain links is broken, things stop and....wait...wait...wait.

All that being said, the delay is still RIDICULOUS!

 

[policy2017]

Like, if you're accepted to a dozen schools and waiting on one, by this point, you should have made a decision on where'd you go if you don't get into that last one, so you - the hypothetical you - should have rejected 11 of the offers already.

Otherwise, it's on you, not that last school, that other people can't get off the waitlist.

[anthrostudentcyn]

still haven't heard from NYU, for all those interested! hopefully this week!

[AryaStark]

Did anyone else just get a rejection from UMich? Curious given that we interviewed >1.5 months ago.

[epi_08]

For those who have decided, where are you going / which program? 

[JHUHealthPublicPolicy]

For anyone else accepted to Hopkins HPM, have you heard anything about funding? I haven't heard, and I'm wondering whether some people were offered funding, whether some tracks already released and others haven't or if everyone is waiting. It's make me sweat that I only have a month to decide without funding information!

[Andrew_Y]

Do you think if it is necessary to contact with a faculty/director if I am waitlisted by the program? I am very upset about the final result...

[melvina]

50 minutes ago, Andrew_Y said:

Do you think if it is necessary to contact with a faculty/director if I am waitlisted by the program? I am very upset about the final result...

I suppose it depends what you hope to get out of contacting them....?  

I don't think necessary fits here, but if you want to receive any other information that they might be able to answer, why not?  As long as your email is polite (but perhaps don't mention that you're upset), you don't have anything to lose.

Maybe if you provide some more details of what you hope to gain from the contact, we might be able to provide more helpful comments.   

[SocialPubHealth]

sooo...it turns out that I didn't see any mistake on my UCLA app -- I did select PhD and not DrPH. What do folks think I should do??? She said that the committee reviews the SOPHAS app and that the SOPHAS app states PhD so it was sent to the right committee (plus there is no DrPH program at UCLA currently). I'm just so heartbroken about this decision but more so because I never got any official rejection! I don't feel like this is real?? She just informally emailed me that I was not admitted and that there was apparently an error on my app, which there wasn't. Does this sound weird to anyone at all? 

[SocialPubHealth]

1 hour ago, light10491 said:

I think you could reach out and perhaps get onto the waitlist if you are a top candidate. But overall, given the time right now and how folks already got offers, it's going to be tough. Sorry :(.

Thank you. The admin responded back and told me one of the other admins changed it back to PhD, so I guess thats why I saw it as PhD when I checked. Anywho I asked for feedback as UCLA was my absolute top choice in all aspects--research fit, mentorship, program, family, social support, alma mater, location, weather, everyyyything. Perhaps enough to make me consider reapplying next year--I'm gonna see what my feedback was. I have a hunch my topic may have been too narrow for their liking. Will try to share any feedback I get. 

Also, what do folks think about odds of getting accepted off of the Hopkins waitlist? I'm ranked first on the list but have no idea whether people would actually decline Hopkins, literally the top school in the world. Not setting my hopes high but I do know people who have rejected their offers from Hopkins and even Harvard to opt for schools like Columbia or others with better funding packages. Anyone with any insight on this matter would greatly help!

[Andrew_Y]

6 hours ago, melvina said:

I suppose it depends what you hope to get out of contacting them....?  

I don't think necessary fits here, but if you want to receive any other information that they might be able to answer, why not?  As long as your email is polite (but perhaps don't mention that you're upset), you don't have anything to lose.

Maybe if you provide some more details of what you hope to gain from the contact, we might be able to provide more helpful comments.   

Thank you for your reply, Melvina!

All I wanna do is to confirm if there is any possibility to get enrolled. The director emailed me last month, telling me that "We are enthusiastic about your application", and "We anticipate knowing more in mid-March after our initial admitted students day.  Please let us know if there are any competing offers with earlier deadlines, we want to be able to get you as much information possible about where things stand before you accept another offer". 

In this case, do I need to contact them? I'm just curious & upset about the result... Many thanks!

[melvina]

8 hours ago, Andrew_Y said:

Thank you for your reply, Melvina!

All I wanna do is to confirm if there is any possibility to get enrolled. The director emailed me last month, telling me that "We are enthusiastic about your application", and "We anticipate knowing more in mid-March after our initial admitted students day.  Please let us know if there are any competing offers with earlier deadlines, we want to be able to get you as much information possible about where things stand before you accept another offer". 

In this case, do I need to contact them? I'm just curious & upset about the result... Many thanks!

Ughh, i'm not a fan of that message from them at all...and it rightfully makes you anxious.  If the last time that you heard from them was last month promising that you would hear mid-march, then i would definitely email them.  Can you find out when the students day was?  (i would wait to email until after that day has passed, and maybe don't use "feeling" words like "curious" and "upset".  You are just asking a question politely because duh, they should be able to give you an answer). 

You could email them something like "I am following up regarding my waitlist status.  Now that the admitted students day has passed, do you have any other information?   Also, it would be helpful if you could tell me my ranking on the waitlist."  

I assume you don't have any other offers....?   If you do, then i would definitely mention it.  Even if their deadline to accept is not imminent.  Let them know that other schools also want you

Would you mind sharing what school this is?  (Im curious :p)

 

9 hours ago, SocialPubHealth said:

Thank you. The admin responded back and told me one of the other admins changed it back to PhD, so I guess thats why I saw it as PhD when I checked. Anywho I asked for feedback as UCLA was my absolute top choice in all aspects--research fit, mentorship, program, family, social support, alma mater, location, weather, everyyyything. Perhaps enough to make me consider reapplying next year--I'm gonna see what my feedback was. I have a hunch my topic may have been too narrow for their liking. Will try to share any feedback I get. 

Also, what do folks think about odds of getting accepted off of the Hopkins waitlist? I'm ranked first on the list but have no idea whether people would actually decline Hopkins, literally the top school in the world. Not setting my hopes high but I do know people who have rejected their offers from Hopkins and even Harvard to opt for schools like Columbia or others with better funding packages. Anyone with any insight on this matter would greatly help!

Honestly, i find this really bizarre.  If UCLA doesn't even offer DrPH how could you have accidentally chosen it on SOPHAS?  Makes absolutely no sense to me. 

As for reapplying, I hear different advice on this (some profs say they never take re-applicants, but i was accepted to my master's after i re-applied, so if the only difference is $50 and it's your dream school, it's really not a lot to risk, imo (unless the feedback you get is something that cannot be worked in the meantime).  What i did when i re-applied, was submitted all the docs that qualified me the year before (obviously), but i also included a section on what i had done in the one year gap---explaining what made my application better now compared to the year before). 

Since you're first on the waitlist, it's a total coin toss.  At the end of the day, people may reject Hopkins for a whole host of reasons.  Like you said, UCLA was your dream school, so would you have rejected Hopkins for UCLA?  I think you can remain cautiously optimistic, but on the whole, it doesn't really sound like Hopkins is YOUR dream school, and maybe the funding situation plays into your decision.  If you have the time, i would speak to current Hopkins students and find out more about the program, so that you can actually decide whether you even want to be offered Hopkins.  Like you said, it may be too good to refuse even if it's not your cup of tea.  

[thetemp]

1 hour ago, light10491 said:

What do you guys know about Michigan HPM waitlist, are folks likely to turn down Michigan and free up space on the waitlist? Or is Michigan in the same standing as Hopkins, UNC, Columbia?

I was told by the program director at Michigan HPM that there's about a 30% chance I could make it in off the waitlist. Don't know if that reflects my own position on the waitlist or a general likelihood of one or more of their admitted students turning them down.

Edited March 17, 2017 by thetemp

[joshre01]

Anyone heard from/waiting for decisions re: Colorado PhD in Epidemiology?