Looking at MPH Programs (EPI/Biostats) Fall 2018

[ninjahitsawall]

Greetings *waves* I'm new to the forum and just wanted to introduce myself, and maybe get some feedback about my graduate school pursuits. I am currently enrolled in a public health certificate program, completing the core competencies and would like to transfer these credits into an MPH program. My main concern is the employment outlook, both for supporting myself through grad school, and after completing the degree. 

So before pursuing public health, I got a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Biology. I was always interested in neuroscience but iffy about the kind of career it would entail (i.e. getting a PhD and taking more biology and chemistry classes when I didn't like half the ones I'd already taken; and biology courses keeping by GPA down). 

I am from NYC (Queens) and the job market is supersaturated and ultra-competitive. Maybe that goes without saying, but being in the eye of the storm I don't know what it looks like from the outside so maybe that isn't common knowledge.  Dramatic relocation is on my agenda. It's been fairly evident that my economic worth here is virtually 0. Bit of a catch-22: I was raised here and want to get out, but need the financial means to do so, which seem to lie elsewhere...

After graduating, I looked for research assistant jobs (or something similar in the realm of health/medicine) for upwards of a year. Since graduating the only actual job (as in $$) I've had was at the end of 2015, when I worked on two research projects on a temp assignment. Since spring of 2014, I've interned as an online consultant for a company that specializes in health IT. At the advice of others last summer to find something that will give me credentials beyond a Bachelors, in fitting that to my own career goals I decided an MPH might be a good option. I've always been curious about bioinformatics and enjoyed my stats classes (and I'm not math-phobic). Leaning biostats or epidemiology, and also something mental health-related would be cool. I should mention I have other internships now as well that are more public health-relevant, but still leave me part-time availability (in the event I ever find employment before starting an MPH program..)

I will be completing the certificate program this spring, basically it's all the core/general competency coursework for an MPH (part-time@15 credits). For fall of next year, I'm looking at the Colorado School of Public Health. It is my first choice given that I fell in love with Colorado when I went there before, and the job market both in general and for PH, health, and biotech fields in particular seem promising. Supposedly it is not at all saturated either (or so I just read on another forum, though I think that was said 2-3 years ago).

Other programs I'm considering are Rutgers, Drexel, SUNY Buffalo, U. Pittsburgh, and U. Michigan. Don't know if that's too many schools to apply to (I know for PhD programs, that's not a large number of prospects). My primary concern aside from getting into CSPH is being able to find work there to support myself. I know housing is getting pricey there, probably not on par with NYC but still. Is it reasonable to expect I will be able to find work more easily there compared to where I am now? Or am I completely screwed if I don't find anything before next fall? 

As far as academic stats:

Undergrad GPA 3.27 (higher in later semesters, mostly Biology classes kept it down as I got a few C's)

Grad courses completed so far: 2 A's; Enrolled this semester: biostats and epidemiology core 

Undergrad mathy/sciencey courses: 1 year of calculus, 1 year of statistics within the psychology dept, 1 semester being upper division, 1 year of chemistry (yes, my school required this amt of "hard science" for a Psych BS), and the biology minor. i.e. minimum requirements met for many MPH-biostats programs. If I have to go back and take linear alegbra, retake calculus so it's more recent, or whatever else before actually starting the Master's, at this point I don't think it's worth it. I mean I do have to eat and pay rent..

2 professional conference presentations and 3 publication co-authorships w/ the company mentioned above

GRE: N/A, will be taking in a few months most likely

Edited September 14, 2017 by ninjahitsawall

[Cassatrass]

On 9/14/2017 at 3:40 AM, ninjahitsawall said:

Greetings *waves* I'm new to the forum and just wanted to introduce myself, and maybe get some feedback about my graduate school pursuits. I am currently enrolled in a public health certificate program, completing the core competencies and would like to transfer these credits into an MPH program. My main concern is the employment outlook, both for supporting myself through grad school, and after completing the degree. 

So before pursuing public health, I got a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Biology. I was always interested in neuroscience but iffy about the kind of career it would entail (i.e. getting a PhD and taking more biology and chemistry classes when I didn't like half the ones I'd already taken; and biology courses keeping by GPA down). 

I am from NYC (Queens) and the job market is supersaturated and ultra-competitive. Maybe that goes without saying, but being in the eye of the storm I don't know what it looks like from the outside so maybe that isn't common knowledge.  Dramatic relocation is on my agenda. It's been fairly evident that my economic worth here is virtually 0. Bit of a catch-22: I was raised here and want to get out, but need the financial means to do so, which seem to lie elsewhere...

After graduating, I looked for research assistant jobs (or something similar in the realm of health/medicine) for upwards of a year. Since graduating the only actual job (as in $$) I've had was at the end of 2015, when I worked on two research projects on a temp assignment. Since spring of 2014, I've interned as an online consultant for a company that specializes in health IT. At the advice of others last summer to find something that will give me credentials beyond a Bachelors, in fitting that to my own career goals I decided an MPH might be a good option. I've always been curious about bioinformatics and enjoyed my stats classes (and I'm not math-phobic). Leaning biostats or epidemiology, and also something mental health-related would be cool. I should mention I have other internships now as well that are more public health-relevant, but still leave me part-time availability (in the event I ever find employment before starting an MPH program..)

I will be completing the certificate program this spring, basically it's all the core/general competency coursework for an MPH (part-time@15 credits). For fall of next year, I'm looking at the Colorado School of Public Health. It is my first choice given that I fell in love with Colorado when I went there before, and the job market both in general and for PH, health, and biotech fields in particular seem promising. Supposedly it is not at all saturated either (or so I just read on another forum, though I think that was said 2-3 years ago).

Other programs I'm considering are Rutgers, Drexel, SUNY Buffalo, U. Pittsburgh, and U. Michigan. Don't know if that's too many schools to apply to (I know for PhD programs, that's not a large number of prospects). My primary concern aside from getting into CSPH is being able to find work there to support myself. I know housing is getting pricey there, probably not on par with NYC but still. Is it reasonable to expect I will be able to find work more easily there compared to where I am now? Or am I completely screwed if I don't find anything before next fall? 

As far as academic stats:

Undergrad GPA 3.27 (higher in later semesters, mostly Biology classes kept it down as I got a few C's)

Grad courses completed so far: 2 A's; Enrolled this semester: biostats and epidemiology core 

Undergrad mathy/sciencey courses: 1 year of calculus, 1 year of statistics within the psychology dept, 1 semester being upper division, 1 year of chemistry (yes, my school required this amt of "hard science" for a Psych BS), and the biology minor. i.e. minimum requirements met for many MPH-biostats programs. If I have to go back and take linear alegbra, retake calculus so it's more recent, or whatever else before actually starting the Master's, at this point I don't think it's worth it. I mean I do have to eat and pay rent..

2 professional conference presentations and 3 publication co-authorships w/ the company mentioned above

GRE: N/A, will be taking in a few months most likely

Not sure if it's too late for you to care about a response, but I'm applying to epi MPH programs with a similar background. I applied to 12 and have already been accepted to 5 of them. MPH has super high admissions, even at the best schools. All the ones you're considering would be considered safety schools and you'd have a good chance at admittance.

[ninjahitsawall]

On 1/10/2018 at 11:43 AM, Cassatrass said:

Not sure if it's too late for you to care about a response, but I'm applying to epi MPH programs with a similar background. I applied to 12 and have already been accepted to 5 of them. MPH has super high admissions, even at the best schools. All the ones you're considering would be considered safety schools and you'd have a good chance at admittance.

Hi, thanks for the response!

I'm honestly more concerned about location and grad career prospects than school prestige per se. I ended up applying to CSPH, Rutgers (biostat w/ epi as a 2nd choice), and Pitt (epi only) so far, as they all had the Jan 15th deadline/priority deadline. If I don't hear back from anyone by March, I'll apply to Drexel since they're priority is 3/15. Buffalo is in the summer, but it's kinda my last choice because they only take up to 9 transfer creds (CSPH takes up to 15) and don't even offer scholarships-- the reasoning is because they're a state school (weird, so is the CU system..). I learned all this at a TIPH fair back in October.  

To amend my first post, I got 160V/159Q on the GRE, and A+'s in both epi and biostat.

I am also working part-time for basically nothing (If I'm not mistaken, NYC's new minimum wage this year is my hourly wage, lol), for an environmental consulting group. Staring at databases all day  Still concerned about the "how will I pay rent?" question if I don't get any scholarship/stipend offers.