PhD Applicants Fall 2017

[joshre01]

12 hours ago, SBS_HB_phds2017 said:

I applied to Health Behavior, and they gave the "leap of faith" plug as well! If only that leap weren't so risky. In fact, I wish I had more information on the risk! If somewhere between 1 to 3 students in each cohort do not receive funding (based on stats provided), and most of the cohort has already received funding, then I am almost certain to be someone who will not receive funding. Just looking at the staggering amounts of loans they are offering in my financial aid account is making me queasy. And, that's just for the first year. Considering the talk of NIH and other budget cuts in future, even later years in the program may not be funded. 

Congrats on your funded offer!!

Exactly! My UNC advisor said that in recent years, it's become harder to find funding for all students so the current situation will definitely have an impact on that as well. It's a huge commitment to make! 

Do you have other schools you're debating on? 

[zalidina]

On 3/27/2017 at 11:26 AM, light10491 said:

What schools are people still waiting to hear back from?

Columbia - Environmental Health Sciences

Minnesota - HSRPA

Also waiting on Minnesota HSRPA, that emailed a while back saying they're waiting on a grant before they make decisions because they don't offer spots without funding. 

I'm not counting on hearing back before April 15th from them.

[SocialPubHealth]

Wow, are the funding situations really that bad all across the board? I also have nothing to show for my admission(s).

[zalidina]

26 minutes ago, SocialPubHealth said:

Wow, are the funding situations really that bad all across the board? I also have nothing to show for my admission(s).

I got 3 acceptances, only one is fully funded (tuition, health and good stipend). One was no funding whatsoever. One was partial funding ( in state tuition waiver and a low stipend that wouldn't even cover rent in that city).

The fully funded offer is one year, but they said no one goes unfunded there because of the amount of TA positions available. 

So yeah it's pretty bad out there right now.

[thetemp]

3 hours ago, light10491 said:

Anyone waiting for waitlist decisions?

Are people planning to send in decisions April 15 or before? 

Still on the waitlist at JHU and Michigan (both for HPM). I plan to make my final decision before April 15.... hoping to decide by the 12th. My final visit day is this week (Minnesota) so hoping I can take this weekend and early next week to figure things out!

Edited April 5, 2017 by thetemp

[Hopeful17]

On 4/5/2017 at 9:17 AM, light10491 said:

Anyone waiting for waitlist decisions?

Are people planning to send in decisions April 15 or before? 

Yeah, I'm waiting closer to April 15 (probably the 13th) before sending my decision. On the waitlist for one school & haven't heard a decision from the other.

[SocialPubHealth]

On 4/5/2017 at 9:17 AM, light10491 said:

Anyone waiting for waitlist decisions?

Are people planning to send in decisions April 15 or before? 

I just heard back from Hopkins today! Off the waitlist! I was first on their list, so perhaps that's why I heard before April 15?? In any case, THERE IS HOPE!!!

[SBS_HB_phds2017]

On 3/30/2017 at 0:57 PM, joshre01 said:

Exactly! My UNC advisor said that in recent years, it's become harder to find funding for all students so the current situation will definitely have an impact on that as well. It's a huge commitment to make! 

Do you have other schools you're debating on? 

I do have another offer that I am very strongly considering... the programs are quite different, but both have elements that I am really excited about. So much time pressure to decide which direction to go!

[Equipoise17]

5 hours ago, SBS_HB_phds2017 said:

I do have another offer that I am very strongly considering... the programs are quite different, but both have elements that I am really excited about. So much time pressure to decide which direction to go!

I know someone in the UNC Health Behavior program that told me that everyone is able to secure funding due to the opportunities of a big school like UNC. She secured funding during the summer before beginning. In the end I didn't apply to UNC because of my research interests, but it sounds like a great program with many opportunities due to the location. What other program are you considering 

[Hopeful17]

On 4/7/2017 at 2:45 PM, SocialPubHealth said:

I just heard back from Hopkins today! Off the waitlist! I was first on their list, so perhaps that's why I heard before April 15?? In any case, THERE IS HOPE!!!

Congrats!

[SocialPubHealth]

On 4/9/2017 at 0:33 AM, Hopeful17 said:

Congrats!

 

2 hours ago, light10491 said:

Congrats! And it's warm there too.

 

Thank you all!! YES! IT IS WARM. HUUUUUGE factor. I'm in New York so its a 10-15 degree difference on average. I visited the campus a few weekends ago and really liked it there. I accepted their offer I sincerely wish everyone the best of luck with their applications.

[JSnow]

2 minutes ago, SocialPubHealth said:

 

 

Thank you all!! YES! IT IS WARM. HUUUUUGE factor. I'm in New York so its a 10-15 degree difference on average. I visited the campus a few weekends ago and really liked it there. I accepted their offer I sincerely wish everyone the best of luck with their applications.

YASSS! Congrats!

[SDOHEpi]

23 hours ago, SocialPubHealth said:

 

 

Thank you all!! YES! IT IS WARM. HUUUUUGE factor. I'm in New York so its a 10-15 degree difference on average. I visited the campus a few weekends ago and really liked it there. I accepted their offer I sincerely wish everyone the best of luck with their applications.

Congrats!!! So incredible

[PHNutr]

On 4/7/2017 at 2:45 PM, SocialPubHealth said:

I just heard back from Hopkins today! Off the waitlist! I was first on their list, so perhaps that's why I heard before April 15?? In any case, THERE IS HOPE!!!

Ah!! This is such great news! Huge congrats - so happy for you!

[HRS2017app]

Sorry to bother. I just got a offer from my dream school. It's ranked high and perfectly matched my interests. However, I've already accepted an offer from another program which is not a typical public health program and I might need to switch to other topics for research.  is it legal to withdraw my acceptance? Thank you very much!

[light10491]

Of course, people at the moment are getting off waitlists.

And because it's after April 15, they're declining PhD spots they had already accepted.

That's just how it works. And then there's a trickling effect.

Edited April 20, 2017 by light10491

[HRS2017app]

16 hours ago, light10491 said:

Of course, people at the moment are getting off waitlists.

And because it's after April 15, they're declining PhD spots they had already accepted.

That's just how it works. And then there's a trickling effect.

Thanks for reply. I sent emails to decline an accepted offer yesterday but didn't get any response... can I just take this as acquiescence？ Or I need to wait for their confirm? Thanks.

[melvina]

16 hours ago, HRS2017app said:

Thanks for reply. I sent emails to decline an accepted offer yesterday but didn't get any response... can I just take this as acquiescence？ Or I need to wait for their confirm? Thanks.

I guess it depends how you accepted the offer.  If you accepted via email, then I think you could count it as acquiescence.  If you accepted more "officially" through their website, then I think you would need to reject equally "officially".

Personally, for my own peace of mind, I would make sure to hear back from them either way.  Even if it's a bit more uncomfortable for you to email or call, at least you would know that this way your spot is going to someone on the waitlist for sure (rather than you potentially being counted as an admit in the system by mistake).  At least for me, that would make me feel less bad about the late rejection.

The Admission people deal with this kind of thing ALL the time, so I if you're apologetic, there is no reason to stress

 

 

[HRS2017app]

2 hours ago, melvina said:

I guess it depends how you accepted the offer.  If you accepted via email, then I think you could count it as acquiescence.  If you accepted more "officially" through their website, then I think you would need to reject equally "officially".

Personally, for my own peace of mind, I would make sure to hear back from them either way.  Even if it's a bit more uncomfortable for you to email or call, at least you would know that this way your spot is going to someone on the waitlist for sure (rather than you potentially being counted as an admit in the system by mistake).  At least for me, that would make me feel less bad about the late rejection.

The Admission people deal with this kind of thing ALL the time, so I if you're apologetic, there is no reason to stress

 

 

Hi Melvina, thank you so much for your detailed reply. That makes me feel better. I felt sooooo anxiety and stressed in the past two days. I will not accept the new offer until get confirmation from the previous school. Thanks again and have a great weekend!

[melvina]

On 4/21/2017 at 3:46 PM, HRS2017app said:

Hi Melvina, thank you so much for your detailed reply. That makes me feel better. I felt sooooo anxiety and stressed in the past two days. I will not accept the new offer until get confirmation from the previous school. Thanks again and have a great weekend!

I'm so sorry you've been so stressed about it   I didn't mean to say that you shouldn't accept the new offer until you get confirmation, but more that it would be great if you could just bug the first school until you get a confirmation.  I would definitely accept your preferred school ASAP (unless you have a different reason to not accept immediately, regardless of your status with the first school), and make it official ASAP (it's good to get the ball rolling on all that admissions/orientations/registration/apartmentsearching stuff anyway).  

So back to your original question about the first school rejection---if there's no way that you're getting a response, I would then call the Admissions office and just apologize for calling (etc, etc), but that you just want to make sure that they have recorded your rejection because you want to make sure that they have received your request since you want the next waitlisted candidate to get accepted ASAP.  If you're really polite and nice about it, there is no reason for them to not be civil back to you on the phone   (but i totally sympathize with your stress, it's an uncomfrotable situation for you, but trust me, it's an everyday situation for them. kind of like Disneyland visitors and Disneyland employees :p).

Good luck!

 

Edited April 23, 2017 by melvina

[xyzpsych]

On 4/19/2017 at 11:35 PM, HRS2017app said:

Sorry to bother. I just got a offer from my dream school. It's ranked high and perfectly matched my interests. However, I've already accepted an offer from another program which is not a typical public health program and I might need to switch to other topics for research.  is it legal to withdraw my acceptance? Thank you very much!

I'm a bit late to commenting. My understanding is that you have to have confirmation from the first school to let go of your acceptance before you can accept the other one, if the new offer was received after April 15? I think this is in the Graduate Council Resolution. How did it go, if you don't mind sharing?