Hello SDN!! I'm a senior this year in college and I'm applying to MPH Programs for Fall 2017. Here's just a little bit about myself:
Major: Chemistry
GPA: 3.58
Career Interests: When I started college I was really interested in biomedical research, but after some research experience and taking more chemistry courses I realized that I don't have much passion left for pursuing higher level education in Chemistry and I'm more interested in social determinants of health. I decided not to change my major because I was a junior when I realized this, so it was a little late. I'm really interested in health disparities that exist especially in cancer. As a career I would like to work in planning interventions/programs for cancer patients and survivors in particular targeting minorities, to help reduce health disparities. I will probably end up getting a PhD after the MPH in Population Health,Epidemiology, or maybe even Sociology( I haven't decide yet).
Research Experience:3 summers of research experience, two at Vanderbilt and one at Rutgers. The experience at Vanderbilt was biomedical, I cultured breast cancer cells in a lab, learned how to image them. After realizing that this type of research was not what I wanted to do I got a summer internship at Rutgers. The experience at Rutgers was more public health/social science oriented. We learned about health disparities, we learned tons of statistics, including multivariate analysis (which I've heard many people don't learn until grad school), and we also had to write about a 20 paper by the end of the summer. This research was also cancer research as well. My mentor and I are going to try and send in the abstract to a conference, so that I can present it before I apply to programs. We also had poster presentations as well as oral presentations in all of the summer programs.
Other Experiences: Because of my research experience I've been able to present posters at 2 NIH Conferences, a state conference, and also present research at my school.
I've made a list of schools that I'm planning on applying to for public health(most of the schools are in the southeast, because that's where I am from I would like to stay there, but I don't have to):
Vanderbilt
Emory
University of Alabama Birmingham
George Washington University
University of Tennessee Knoxville
UNC Chapel Hill
University of Washington
Even though I have a lot of research experience for an undergrad I don't know how competitive MPH programs are. Another issue I'm having is that professors have been pushing me to apply for the "best" programs, but I know those can be expensive.
Do you have any recommendations of programs, or things I should highlight in my application? Do you think I would have a good chance of getting into a top program? How much does the name/ranking of the school matter? Any advice you have would be beneficial because since I have been in basic science my whole college career it has been a challenge trying to figure out where to apply, who has better programs, what public health programs value in an applicant.
Thanks!!
Major: Chemistry
GPA: 3.58
Career Interests: When I started college I was really interested in biomedical research, but after some research experience and taking more chemistry courses I realized that I don't have much passion left for pursuing higher level education in Chemistry and I'm more interested in social determinants of health. I decided not to change my major because I was a junior when I realized this, so it was a little late. I'm really interested in health disparities that exist especially in cancer. As a career I would like to work in planning interventions/programs for cancer patients and survivors in particular targeting minorities, to help reduce health disparities. I will probably end up getting a PhD after the MPH in Population Health,Epidemiology, or maybe even Sociology( I haven't decide yet).
Research Experience:3 summers of research experience, two at Vanderbilt and one at Rutgers. The experience at Vanderbilt was biomedical, I cultured breast cancer cells in a lab, learned how to image them. After realizing that this type of research was not what I wanted to do I got a summer internship at Rutgers. The experience at Rutgers was more public health/social science oriented. We learned about health disparities, we learned tons of statistics, including multivariate analysis (which I've heard many people don't learn until grad school), and we also had to write about a 20 paper by the end of the summer. This research was also cancer research as well. My mentor and I are going to try and send in the abstract to a conference, so that I can present it before I apply to programs. We also had poster presentations as well as oral presentations in all of the summer programs.
Other Experiences: Because of my research experience I've been able to present posters at 2 NIH Conferences, a state conference, and also present research at my school.
I've made a list of schools that I'm planning on applying to for public health(most of the schools are in the southeast, because that's where I am from I would like to stay there, but I don't have to):
Vanderbilt
Emory
University of Alabama Birmingham
George Washington University
University of Tennessee Knoxville
UNC Chapel Hill
University of Washington
Even though I have a lot of research experience for an undergrad I don't know how competitive MPH programs are. Another issue I'm having is that professors have been pushing me to apply for the "best" programs, but I know those can be expensive.
Do you have any recommendations of programs, or things I should highlight in my application? Do you think I would have a good chance of getting into a top program? How much does the name/ranking of the school matter? Any advice you have would be beneficial because since I have been in basic science my whole college career it has been a challenge trying to figure out where to apply, who has better programs, what public health programs value in an applicant.
Thanks!!
