MPH MPH-Epidemiology at Boston University

[MKSh]

Hi,

I am an international student. I got an admit for MPH-Epidemiology at Boston University.
It would be great if someone can help me over few questions

• Professors and culture at BU
• Scope of program
• Fees is too high. Are there any chances for assistant ship/scholarship?
• Career prospects after completion of course.

Thanks.

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[Solara]

Read this
http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/32457-is-the-debt-worth-it-for-boston-universitys-mph/

But this is just one viewpoint, so be critical and don't just assume this is the only way it should be looked at.

Honestly, you don't want to be burdened with that much debt. If you can go to another program and get similar experience, I would say go that route. Public health is more about who you know, rather than what you know or where you went to school. Of course, where you go to school can help you meet important people, but I'm not really convinced that BU is worth the money..

 

[MKSh]

Hi Solara,

Thanks for your reply.
I am not able to open the the link, is it possible for you to copy paste the contents here.

Thanks.

 

[Stories]

I loved my time at BU. I enjoyed the professors as they were all incredibly warm and inviting and gave me the time of day to work with them and get to know them. They've also written me great letters of recommendation that helped me get into my next position (PhD program). I think this was one of the best things I can say. There's definitely a focus on teaching at BU, and many of the professors there really do enjoy teaching. Something I didn't run into at my PhD institute.

To accommodate working professionals, they offer many of the core classes at night time.

I worked as a RA during my time which helped with tuition. I was very aggressive about pursing a research job, though, as I knew research was in my path down the line. Most private universities in the US have pretty high fees, so this will be a problem anywhere you go in the US for a private school. I don't think getting a work visa will be a hindrance, however, as a fellow RA I knew was German.

You have lots of flexibility to pursue several different areas of interest. I focused on environment and cancer. Many people concentrate in several areas, and it's a very feasible option to do so.

I had two job offers after school ended, but I decided on pursuing a PhD instead (of which I several offers, as well). The couple of friends I've had, several went on to consulting, research, and PhDs (and some MDs).

Boston itself is an okay city. It's a bit old and sometimes can be a bit hectic. I've been told it has some European-ish charms. The subway system is okay, but not great. The food scene is pretty decent. The weather is awful.

 

[MKSh]

Hi Stories,

Thanks for your reply.
Do you know about procedure to get an RA job? Also, I am planning to work into hospitals later on. Any idea about scope.

 

[Stories]

Hi Stories,

Thanks for your reply.
Do you know about procedure to get an RA job? Also, I am planning to work into hospitals later on. Any idea about scope.

Just like any job--just network as much as possible and then you have to apply through the jobs application website.

 

[Bolingbroke]

Hi,

I am an international student. I got an admit for MPH-Epidemiology at Boston University.
It would be great if someone can help me over few questions

• Professors and culture at BU
• Scope of program
• Fees is too high. Are there any chances for assistant ship/scholarship?
• Career prospects after completion of course.

Thanks.

I think that if you work for a university, like BU, then you get a tuition waiver, or substantial reduction in tuition, Stories probably paid very little, if any tuition, so his or her perspective might well be overly biased when compared to somebody who paid the full tuition. More power to Stories, but adding an expensive college tuition to an expensive tuition for an MPH sounds nonsensical for applicants who are looking at charity work or PhD studies, it just too much debt for a lot of folks.

For a lot of applicants, especially stellar applicants with a broad range of choices, BU doesn't make much sense. Yes, there are the Chelsea Clintons of the world, more than you'd realize, who have the resources to go to any public health school and not worry about the tuition, but do you really want to be worrying about the tuition while you study at BU?

If you're an international student, and you don't want to work in the US for the foreseeable future in the US paying off said tuition, then I'd go to a school that has a much lower tuition. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, for example, a world class institution, specifically prepares international students for careers in their home countries, and the tuition is a fraction of BU's, and many top public health schools in the U.S. have lower tuition than BU's.

I've heard a lot of different viewpoints concerning BU, and it is true that the faculty to student ratio at BU isn't conducive to positive faculty interactions, it is a lot higher at BU than at other schools, that's sadly a disadvantage even before you even set foot in the door. The faculty to student ratio might have worsened in the time since Stories was a student there, as well.

There have been horror stories of folks being treated very poorly when applying to BUSPH, in this thread that has popped-up on our student listserv, maybe a cautionary tale for all applying to public health schools:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/bu-additional-information-requested.797974/page-4

A couple of months ago, I stumbled across a YouTube video of the BUSPH graduation ceremony, listened to it for the heck of it, and amazingly, the apparent dean of BUSPH never seemed to smile, and the two professors on either side of him fell asleep at different points during the speech!



I'm sure some folks have a great time at BU, many others a mediocre or worse, but I think that going to a school with a more reasonable tuition makes sense for most folks. I'm sure most BUSPH students are nice folks, but you have to feel sorry for them given the tuition situation. Some students feel exploited, and the tuition dollars go to fund research at the school, instead of other schools that get more funding from research grants.

 

[Bolingbroke]

Hi Solara,

Thanks for your reply.
I am not able to open the the link, is it possible for you to copy paste the contents here.

Thanks.

Ask and you shall receive:

From Grad Cafe:

I don't think so but you decide for yourself. For 1.5 years of tuition not including anything else you will have $60,000 of loans to pay off. The cost of living in Boston is really high and if you get lucky and find something cheap and try to cook at home and not drink you would probably spend around $20,000 for a year and a half. The school has almost no money for student orgs, so little scholarships that you should bet on not having a chance at getting them, and no work-study jobs unless you want to become a full time employee. There is a drop in the bucket merit scholarship given to students when accepted which is usually around $10,000.

So all together the most minimum cost you are looking at is $80,000 and if you subtract the scholarship you will be in $70,000 of debt.

Is that worth it? Is Boston offering some extraordinary education that just can’t be offered at a lower tuition or compensated with more scholarships?

Absolutely not!!!

Just to let you know something like 40% of the tuition from the MPH goes to the medical school. It's like the MPH is the med-school's side business. And the education structure at BUSPH does not favor students. In fact the way the classes are scheduled is detrimental to student education. The classes meet once a week for 3 hours for a 4 unit class. I never adjusted to a 3 hour class in the evenings where the teacher kept skipping through slides because she was more tired than the students. By the way there are almost no classes in the mornings. Most classes are at night. Making your way home on foot or public transport at 8 or 9pm during wenter temperatures less than 20F is torture. It is much warmer in the day during the winter. The school isn't thinking about the students.

Take note that a 4 unit class costs $5,000. If you are planning on studying international health and working in Africa... you should not tell any of the people you will be working with how much you paid for school. They will call you a hypocrite and question your ability to set priorities. In the most health deprived areas of Africa a family struggles to make annually just a forth of the money you pay for one class at BU. If you want to help Africa why spend the rest of your life making a salary off of the disparity there while paying $70,000 (not including interest) to banks. I think it would be better if you skip the MPH and donate even a small fraction of that would be loan money (even if it is on credit) to send African students to school!

The education at BUSPH is nothing you couldn't get by reading on your own, finding a mentor in public health, and volunteering/working for a public health oriented institution.

What you learn in school is not comparable to what you will have to teach yourself while working. An MPH is a professional skill building degree. It's not like you will focus on one topic and learn everything you need to know about it. Not even 2 years of is not enough time for that in an MPH especially when the quality of education for public health students is an afterthought to the institution.

Anyway you decide what is best for you. But as someone who has gone to BUSPH, who is working in public health, and who has several friends from all the major schools of public health.... I say you are a fool to think the $70,000 at BU is worth it.

You are much better off working in a restaurant to pay your bills, working hard for no pay at a public health institution, and reading as much as you can about public health (there are tons of information and books out there that courses at BU don't even talk about). After you do this for a year you will have $0 debt, a whole year of work experience, and probably a more real and genuine understanding of public health than an MPH at BU will give you. If you did this with dedication and discipline, you would be equally or more employable than someone with a MPH. Also remember some employers will pay for you to take classes they think you might need.

Don't get exploited! Only go to school if it's free or almost free!

 

[jj2014]

I am an international student as well who is considering MPH. I talked to the Admissions at BU right after the SOPHAS Fair and well, she was not the friendliest AD officer I've talked to. When I asked about the employment outlook after an MPH at BU, the response I got was "don't bank on it, most of our international students return to their home country and they have a hard time looking for sponsorship." When I asked if I could talk to other AD officers for a different concentration in MPH, the response I got was "the answers are gonna be the same no matter which one of us you talk to."

 

[Bolingbroke]

I am an international student as well who is considering MPH. I talked to the Admissions at BU right after the SOPHAS Fair and well, she was not the friendliest AD officer I've talked to. When I asked about the employment outlook after an MPH at BU, the response I got was "don't bank on it, most of our international students return to their home country and they have a hard time looking for sponsorship." When I asked if I could talk to other AD officers for a different concentration in MPH, the response I got was "the answers are gonna be the same no matter which one of us you talk to."

At the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a lot of the grads find employment in their home country, maybe this is because LSHTM is well known internationally (much more so than BU), or maybe because LSHTM's tuition is more reasonable and is is easier for grads to pursue such opportunities. If you want to return to your home country, you'd ideally want:

1. Reasonable tuition so that you can afford to work in countries outside the US.
2. Good international reputation.
3. Prepares you for work in an international setting.

I think that schools like JHU, Harvard, UNC, Tulane and LSHTM are much better choices. I don't get the sense that BU actually specifically prepares people to work in an international setting, but just to have an awareness of international issues.

BU's goal isn't to help educate MPH'ers who will return to their countries (this is the explicit goal of schools like LSHTM and Harvard), but to bring in tuition dollars, and justify tuition prices, so that means staying in the US for the vast majority of graduates, I would guess.

Personally, I think it's kinda a red flag if an AdCom official of a school is rude/curt with an applicant. Though this might be a sensitive area/weakness for BU, I don't see why it is skin of this person's teeth to let you talk to somebody else as the "most of our international students have a real hard time" isn't quantitative, and perhaps not field specific, though this person seemed to indicate that this effects all concentrations.

 

[NeurosciTMS]

At the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a lot of the grads find employment in their home country, maybe this is because LSHTM is well known internationally (much more so than BU), or maybe because LSHTM's tuition is more reasonable and is is easier for grads to pursue such opportunities. If you want to return to your home country, you'd ideally want:

1. Reasonable tuition so that you can afford to work in countries outside the US.
2. Good international reputation.
3. Prepares you for work in an international setting.

I think that schools like JHU, Harvard, UNC, Tulane and LSHTM are much better choices. I don't get the sense that BU actually specifically prepares people to work in an international setting, but just to have an awareness of international issues.

BU's goal isn't to help educate MPH'ers who will return to their countries (this is the explicit goal of schools like LSHTM and Harvard), but to bring in tuition dollars, and justify tuition prices, so that means staying in the US for the vast majority of graduates, I would guess.

Personally, I think it's kinda a red flag if an AdCom official of a school is rude/curt with an applicant. Though this might be a sensitive area/weakness for BU, I don't see why it is skin of this person's teeth to let you talk to somebody else as the "most of our international students have a real hard time" isn't quantitative, and perhaps not field specific, though this person seemed to indicate that this effects all concentrations.

Do you have something against BU? I'm confused by your constant bashing on SDN. Did you even go there? If not, then I think you are giving a misguided picture of the school and tarnishing it's reputation for those who may be interested in applying.

 

[Bolingbroke]

Do you have something against BU? I'm confused by your constant bashing on SDN. Did you even go there? If not, then I think you are giving a misguided picture of the school and tarnishing it's reputation for those who may be interested in applying.

I certainly didn't write the post on grad cafe concerning BU, but have known people who are acquainted with BUSPH's application process, and regardless, the point of this thread is to educate people about the difference between schools, that's a public service. There is useful information for international students applying for BU's mph in this thread.

It is as close to a fact as possible, (in my mind at least) that LSHTM does an excellent job and is a feeder school for international applicants who want to go back and serve in their country, certainly a lot of their grads do this. LSHTM is a world class institution and it is important for folks to know this, and they work to keep their tuition low so that students can return to their own countries if they so choose, though obviously LSHTM is one of the world's top public health schools and they could charge more.

 

[Stories]

Do you have something against BU? I'm confused by your constant bashing on SDN. Did you even go there? If not, then I think you are giving a misguided picture of the school and tarnishing it's reputation for those who may be interested in applying.

Don't bother. I've tried. He/she only intent is to make as few people go to BU as possible. It doesn't matter if other people had positive experiences as he/she believes that those experiences are outliers or lies with buyers remorse.

 

[NeurosciTMS]

Don't bother. I've tried. He/she only intent is to make as few people go to BU as possible. It doesn't matter if other people had positive experiences as he/she believes that those experiences are outliers or lies with buyers remorse.

It's pretty ridiculous, but to each his own. I just hope other applicants who are interested in BU are not deterred from attending because of the opinions of an individual who did not attend the institution.

 

[moonwave89]

Because Boston is such a small city, the people I know who attended BUSPH went there with the intention of landing an internship that will lead to a FT position in Boston. BU has great connections to the city and many of its researchers work with community organizations, state departments, and area hospitals. That was the case for my friends and former colleagues who went there. So if you intend to stay in Boston, I think BU would be a great school. I'm not sure how it would work as an international student though...

 

[FutureKDEpi]

It's pretty ridiculous, but to each his own. I just hope other applicants who are interested in BU are not deterred from attending because of the opinions of an individual who did not attend the institution.

I agree with you and @Stories. I don't think that he/she is being completely fair in their evaluations of BU. I also wonder why they participate in every conversation about the school. There's definitely some anti-BU bias in there.

As a BU MPH grad myself, I will say that while it is a very expensive program, it led me to a very satisfying career. I worked part-time in a lab while completing the program and had a job set up in my hometown (not near Boston) several months before I graduated at a top hospital. I now work in another top hospital in a job that I love. Overall, I felt that BU was a very good experience. Almost all of the professors were approachable. I was able to get involved in some research that one of my professors was working on.

There were numerous ways decrease the expense of the program. It ended up being more reasonable for me to attend BU than an in-state institution plus I was able to gain working experience while completing the program. I know this was my case, but I wouldn't just write-off BU based on the full tuition.