Yale MPH stats (acceptance rate, average GPA/GRE)

[chriskyk]

Does anyone know any STATS for Yale's MPH program? By that I mean acceptance rate, average GRE and GPA for accepted applicants.

Here's my profile:

GPA: 3.36
GRE: 460 (verbal), 760 (quantitative), 4.0 (analytical)

Did research for 2 years and had a few jobs (teaching assistant and going to have an internship at UN)

What's my chance of getting into Yale's MPH?

Feel free to comment

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Regression]

http://publichealth.yale.edu/admissions/about/profile.aspx

 

[chriskyk]

Thanks so what do you think about my chances of getting in?

 

[Deem23]

You're a good candidate. I'm not gunna say ur definitely going to get in because i can't really say that about anyone but I think you could be competitive. Those stats definitely don't preclude you from applying.

P.S. I'm at Yale now. If ur curious, my stats as well as those of others from last year who went to/got into Yale are bouncing around the boards somewhere so feel free to check them out.

 

[chriskyk]

Do you mind sharing some of the accepted students' stats? I couldn't find them.

 

[werd814]

Hey Chriskyk,

I'm another current MPH student at YSPH who's spent some time schmoozing with the directors of admissions, other masters students, and PhD students. So, I figured I'd weigh in.

Apparently Yale's MPH program has become increasingly selective over the past few years-- most notably in 2008 (for the begin-class-in-Fall-2009-cycle) when they switched from a private application to SOPHAS, and applications purportedly increased dramatically.

That said, the greatest thing about Yale's admissions process is the (very) heavy weighting it places on experience and perceived-motivation (i.e. CV, the personal statement and minglings during prospy visits). They don't just want smarty-pants or pre-meds. Instead, they hope to enroll those who feel compelled for one reason or another to make a difference in the field of public health. Looking at your "stats" (a decent GPA, run-of-the-mill GREs [with a decent math score], and an internship with the UN[?!]), I'd say you've got a very decent shot. But, because I know it eases the sufferings of uncertainty, here's the link Deem was referencing (I think):

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=680704&page=1


Cheers, and best of luck!


werd814


P.S. Take my advice with a grain of salt... I'm no adcom

 

[chriskyk]

Thanks werd814!

Another 2 questions:

1. Are interviews required for Yale's MPH program?

2. If I hand in my applications within these 2 weeks will I get a reply before December (the admission office claimed they started sending out replies by late November)?

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Deem23]

Thanks werd814!

Another 2 questions:

1. Are interviews required for Yale's MPH program?

2. If I hand in my applications within these 2 weeks will I get a reply before December (the admission office claimed they started sending out replies by late November)?

Cheers,
Chris

Yep, thats the thread. Quite a few Yale acceptances throughout that thread.

Nope. No interviews for Yale. That doesn't mean you can' smooze but no official thing.

I'm not sure what the universal turnaround is. I'm sent mine in right before christmas last year and heard back like the first week of February. I know some people heard back a bit before me though. That thread with the stats also has a lot of people saying when the designated their apps and when they heard back (plus u can kinda tell when people joyously reveal their acceptances when most people heard)

 

[chriskyk]

Thanks man.

So I'm actually appplying for the social and behavioral track as 1st choice, environmental health as 2nd choice. Are these less competitive than the others? Because I always hear people applying for Chronic Disease Epidemiology or Biostatistics

 

[Deem23]

Thanks man.

So I'm actually appplying for the social and behavioral track as 1st choice, environmental health as 2nd choice. Are these less competitive than the others? Because I always hear people applying for Chronic Disease Epidemiology or Biostatistics

That i honestly don't know. I'm Health Policy.

None of the departments are all that big and I know SBS and Enviro are 2 of the smallest so I would imagine they are pretty competitive but then again I also bet they don't get as many applicants as the others.

 

[guriel]

- The only division that requires an interview is health management, which is similar to other MHA/MHSA programs.

- From what I remember, the deadline for apps is ~Jan 15th and the admitted student's open house was in late March. So expect to hear back somewhere in between.

- Periodically, the admissions office hosts a webchat for prospective students. If you're super keen on attending Yale, I'd recommend checking that out and asking any other questions.

Good luck with the apps and feel free to pm me if you have any other questions

 

[chriskyk]

Is my GPA qualified for Yale? It seems like many applicants have much higher GPAs than I do...

I hope my research and work experience would make up for it

 

[Deem23]

Is my GPA qualified for Yale? It seems like many applicants have much higher GPAs than I do...

I hope my research and work experience would make up for it

No one can really answer this question for sure but the adcom. Applicants, however, are judged on the whole package. Nothing short of a disastrous, without justification GPA would really preclude you from "qualifying."

 

[chriskyk]

Right I figured it's a tough question to answer haha.

So does that mean not all accepeted Yale MPH students have high GPAs but instead are all special to some extent?

In other words, since I have quite a lot of work and research experience. My application would make me stand out of the crowd?

 

[Deem23]

Ok here. Let me put it this way. I don't think you will be wasting your application fee applying to Yale with what you have told us, i think you would be competitive but logic dictates that its never too smart to put all your eggs in one basket. I don't know what your competing against and I don't know exactly what Yale is looking for...so its really tough to answer questions like that.

Be honest about your passion for public health and motives for entering the field in your application and hope for the best.

 

[chriskyk]

Thanks for the advice!

I hope they will accept me in any of my 2 concentrations.

 

[djtiesto14]

I applied with a 3.6, double major and with honors, 2.5 years research, multiple jobs over 5 years, tons and tons of EC, had 680Q, 340V, 3.5A, and didn't get in. I got into Columbia and UMich though. Take it how you will.

If you have any questions about Columbia, let me know.

 

[chriskyk]

Wow, yeah looks like Yale's selection is much more than academics. They pick special students instead of smart students only.

I was going to apply for Columbia but I don't think I'll get in. I heard people say it's more competitive than Yale

 

[Deem23]

Wow, yeah looks like Yale's selection is much more than academics. They pick special students instead of smart students only.

I was going to apply for Columbia but I don't think I'll get in. I heard people say it's more competitive than Yale

Eh. Its a bigger class size too.

I got into both. And Michigan.

I still say aim for the stars. Other then an application fee...what do you have to loose?

 

[chriskyk]

Yeah so I'm applying Yale, Emory, USC, NYU and Tufts. What do you think?

 

[chriskyk]

Hey so who are applying for Yale and mind sharing your stats (GPA,GRE, expereience)?

My stats are found at the very top of this post for reference.

 

[Epi2013]

Hi!

I'm also applying to Yale.

GPA:3.3
GRE: 540V 680Q 4.5AW

2 years research experience, 700 hours of volunteer experience, a summer internship, tutoring athletes in my major, and graduating in December and hoping to have a related job for 8 months.

I don't know what our chances are of getting in, but your experience looks slightly better than mine.

Good luck!

P.S. How soon are you submitting your apps?

 

[chriskyk]

Hi!

I'm also applying to Yale.

GPA:3.3
GRE: 540V 680Q 4.5AW

2 years research experience, 700 hours of volunteer experience, a summer internship, tutoring athletes in my major, and graduating in December and hoping to have a related job for 8 months.

I don't know what our chances are of getting in, but your experience looks slightly better than mine.

Good luck!

P.S. How soon are you submitting your apps?

I just started filling out my application and working on my personal statement. Got all 3 of my recommendation letters though. Hopefully I'll submit it by the end of this month. And you?

 

[Epi2013]

I actually just submitted my app tonight, but the GRE score and transcripts are still in the mail. I'm hoping they get there soon, but I haven't heard anything about Columbia making any decisions before March. oh well! I still have 5 more personal statements to go and jobs to apply for so I've got lots of stuff to keep my mind off waiting.

 

[chriskyk]

I actually just submitted my app tonight, but the GRE score and transcripts are still in the mail. I'm hoping they get there soon, but I haven't heard anything about Columbia making any decisions before March. oh well! I still have 5 more personal statements to go and jobs to apply for so I've got lots of stuff to keep my mind off waiting.

Well good luck to both of us then!

Is Yale on rolling admission? I checked the website and it said the school would start sending out decisions as soon as late November.

 

[Epi2013]

I'm not sure if they have rolling admissions or not. I just like to get things done early.

 

[werd814]

-----------

 

[chriskyk]

Chrskyk, I think you have a very good shot, though one can rarely be certain-- surely don't let your stats keep you from applying... I mean, it is public health, heh. Here's me in a nutshell:


I went down for what turned out to be a very personal info session in November (loved it), mailed my app in mid December, heard back mid January, but I also know people who submitted and didn't hear back until April.

GRE: 710v (99%), 760q (... I don't remember the %ile), 4.0w (50ish%ile I think)

GPA: 3.39 (3.5 science/math) in Environmental Bio, Chemistry from a "top ranked" liberal arts college in New England

Experience: lots of public health research in the mountains, a bit in Maine, some in Boston; study-abroad in Tanzania; taught kiddos at an ashram in India; some college extracurriculars (nothing spectacular)

Recs: I think they were pretty decent (but who really knows)

Cross-admit: Harvard (ScM), and I was flown out to UW for an interview (MS), but withdrew my app before I heard a decision

Rejection: "Final Round" (whatever that means) rejection from Berkeley (MS)


ASPH lists MPH application admission rates by school. Though it says nothing about the "quality" of the students applying (I can only assume people apply to schools that cater to their clinical/research interests), the ASPH list should help to ease your concerns .
http://www.asph.org/document.cfm?page=749

2009 Acceptance Rates:

Yale: 39.7% (505/1271)
Emory: 59.3% (1365/2300)
Columbia: 62.3% (1237/1987)
Tufts: no ASPH data
NYU: no ASPH data
USC: no ASPH data


Don't fret it; you'll be fine =).

Hey werd814,

Thanks for the great advice and details! So where you end up studying now and how do you like the campus?

I'm also applying for Dartmouth's MPH, do you know anything about it?

Cheers,
Chriskyk

 

[Dissertator]

Hey werd814,

Thanks for the great advice and details! So where you end up studying now and how do you like the campus?

I'm also applying for Dartmouth's MPH, do you know anything about it?

Cheers,
Chriskyk

I'm also applying to Dartmouth and would be interested in any information about their program. In particular, since I have an advanced degree (and will have a PhD by the time I enter) I'm thinking about not sending them my GREs, but would this be a mistake? They are 600V, 610Q and 5.5W. I'm afraid I won't be considered for funding if I don't send them.

 

[chriskyk]

I'm also applying to Dartmouth and would be interested in any information about their program. In particular, since I have an advanced degree (and will have a PhD by the time I enter) I'm thinking about not sending them my GREs, but would this be a mistake? They are 600V, 610Q and 5.5W. I'm afraid I won't be considered for funding if I don't send them.

I just copied and pasted what is on Dartmouth's MPH website:

"Applicants without an advanced or professional degree must submit official standardized test scores with their application. Students may self report the GRE or MCAT scores through the online application. However, your application is not complete until we receive the official score report (or receive your MCAT verification code for us to verify your test score)."

That may imply that applicants with prior advanced degree (like you) could get a waiver? You may want to confirm by calling them directly:

http://tdi.dartmouth.edu/about/contact


By the way, do you know if schools look at your final semester's GPA (fall 2010 is my final semester)?

 

[citrusguy2010]

don't worry about the stats too much. I got into Yale with a 3.4 and 1300 (720, 680, 4.5W) and also into Columbia.

 

[chriskyk]

don't worry about the stats too much. I got into Yale with a 3.4 and 1300 (720, 680, 4.5W) and also into Columbia.

Hey, but you still have a better stats than I do (3.36 GPA, 1220 GRE score). I hope I could stand out from the crowd through my work and research experience.

Any thoughts?

 

[chriskyk]

Yo any Yale MPH applicants here? Have you submitted your applications? How long should we expect to get a reply from the school (starting from the time the school receives the entire application)?

 

[parapluie]

Yo any Yale MPH applicants here? Have you submitted your applications? How long should we expect to get a reply from the school (starting from the time the school receives the entire application)?

chriskyk, I am considering Yale but still trying to pull my SOPHAS app together. I'm also interested in the social & behavioral stream.

I'm just wondering: what is it about Yale that makes you so drawn to it? I'm a Canadian student from University of Toronto and I'm still trying to research into which schools are strong in health promotion and behavioral MPH streams, so at this point I don't know much about this for Yale at all and I'd love to hear some input from you or anyone else interested. Thanks!

 

[chriskyk]

chriskyk, I am considering Yale but still trying to pull my SOPHAS app together. I'm also interested in the social & behavioral stream.

I'm just wondering: what is it about Yale that makes you so drawn to it? I'm a Canadian student from University of Toronto and I'm still trying to research into which schools are strong in health promotion and behavioral MPH streams, so at this point I don't know much about this for Yale at all and I'd love to hear some input from you or anyone else interested. Thanks!

Hey, what draws me so much to Yale's MPH program is that they have a good connection of organizations/companies for its students to have their internships. If you go to its website and search for the possible internship sites, you'll know what I mean. Because of Yale's reputation around the world, it's no surprise that it hooks up with many international well-known organizations. I believe this connection would allow us to earn hands-on experience at those organizations and eventually future career opportunities.

Are you interested in the global health concentration provided by the school too? I'm actually from Hong Kong but studies in University of Illinois in the states. My goal is to take away knowledge from studying health care systems around different parts of the world.

 

[parapluie]

Hey, what draws me so much to Yale's MPH program is that they have a good connection of organizations/companies for its students to have their internships. If you go to its website and search for the possible internship sites, you'll know what I mean. Because of Yale's reputation around the world, it's no surprise that it hooks up with many international well-known organizations. I believe this connection would allow us to earn hands-on experience at those organizations and eventually future career opportunities.

Are you interested in the global health concentration provided by the school too? I'm actually from Hong Kong but studies in University of Illinois in the states. My goal is to take away knowledge from studying health care systems around different parts of the world.

Thanks for the reply! Yes that does make sense...I was just wondering if big names in academia in general would mean as much in the field of public health...because I know Yale isn't ranked exceptionally high (16th last time I checked) as far as public health schools are concerned. But I do agree with you regarding the internships.

Sadly I don't think I have the emotional capacity to work in global health--it seems like an overwhelming area to go into with an equally overwhelming number of problems, and I know for a fact that as of now, at least, my experiences don't justify the choice to go into the field. The only thing I REALLY want is the SBS stream And maybe chronic disease epi.

 

[chriskyk]

Thanks for the reply! Yes that does make sense...I was just wondering if big names in academia in general would mean as much in the field of public health...because I know Yale isn't ranked exceptionally high (16th last time I checked) as far as public health schools are concerned. But I do agree with you regarding the internships.

Sadly I don't think I have the emotional capacity to work in global health--it seems like an overwhelming area to go into with an equally overwhelming number of problems, and I know for a fact that as of now, at least, my experiences don't justify the choice to go into the field. The only thing I REALLY want is the SBS stream And maybe chronic disease epi.

Cool. I also applied for SBS as my track since global health is just a concentration. We can do it with any tracks.

Have you started your app yet? You may want to act quickly since more and more applications are piling up at the SOPHAS office, which means it takes longer for each entry to be reviewed and sent to your designated schools. I sent mine 3 weeks ago.

Feel free to ask more questions

 

[hisris]

hey there...so i also plan to aplly to yale for the health policy and management course...
i have an ok gre score (verbal 570 and quantitative 650) and my gpa is 3.9...its ok i suppose but is it good enough to get me to yale?

 

[RAMPA]

hey there...so i also plan to aplly to yale for the health policy and management course...
i have an ok gre score (verbal 570 and quantitative 650) and my gpa is 3.9...its ok i suppose but is it good enough to get me to yale?

health policy & admin or health management?

I'm applying to the HMP and my GRE is lower than yours. Have you spoken to Dr Busch? I also have 7yrs of health care experience and some involvement in performance improvement projects at work. My overall GPA is around 3.74.

 

[chriskyk]

Wow you guys are really good. Makes me feel my chance is slim...

My GPA is 3.36, with 460 and 760 on verbal and math respectively for GRE.
Had a few part-time on campus jobs, volunteering abroad experiences and having an internship with UN this spring.

I hope Yale is not just focusing on applicants' academics

 

[hisris]

Wow you guys are really good. Makes me feel my chance is slim...

My GPA is 3.36, with 460 and 760 on verbal and math respectively for GRE.
Had a few part-time on campus jobs, volunteering abroad experiences and having an internship with UN this spring.

I hope Yale is not just focusing on applicants' academics

well chris..i'm sure they will not focus on the acedemics only...thats what makes them good schools right??
Good luck to all...

 

[intlhealth2010]

Hey Everyone,

I'm applying to Yale's MPH program as I'm very interested in combining their Health Policy & Administration Track with the Global Health Concentration. Are there any current YSPH MPH students who could give me any insight about the program? (Especially the Global Health Concentration)

Since I do not hold a medical degree or PhD, I will be applying for the traditional 2-year MPH. I am a bit confused about their Global Health Concentration; they make it seem as if you can only qualify for it once you are already in the program. IF this is true, it seems like quite a turn off. I will be taking out loans to pay for what seems to be a rather expensive program, and I'd like to know I will be doing Global Health upon admittance, not after completing one year of the MPH.


Also, I am a bit miffed by Yale's low ranking on the current US News List. For a school like Yale, I was actually quite surprised. Doesn't small class size and excellent internship/job placement usually translate to high rankings? Does Yale lack any resources that one might find at some of the higher ranked Public Health Programs? There must be some reason that it's so low.

And Finally, does anyone know if there is any scholarship or funding available for YSPH MPH students?

If anyone could answer some of these questions I would be very grateful!

 

[werd814]

Let me jump on this-- people have a tendency to hate on Yale, without non-Ranking-based data or information to back up their points... so be wary. Also, keep in mind that I'm a current student. So, though I try not to be, I'm certainly biased, but I'm also decently informed on Yale's strengths and weaknesses.

I think it's also important to note that Yale was ranked as the 3rd best PhD program in public health by the National Research Council (http://chronicle.com/article/An-Elaborate-Ranking-of/124633/).



There are many theories as to why Yale is ranked so poorly in US News. I'm a fan of Stories' (a fellow Yalie) school of thought, which attributes our low rank to the size of our graduating classes. As you probably know, US News' PH rankings are based solely on reputation. So, large schools pumping out graduates have the advantage of high exposure (the more graduates, the more PH professionals with the "School X" brand). Yale, however, has a very small chance of having their students interact with every professional/academician polled for the US News ranking, and, thereby, have no reason to rat Yale positively or negatively. Stories made a graph, once, correlating USNews rank directly with school size... I can't remember where (s)he posted it, though.

Rank aside, Yale has so many strengths. Small class-sizes for one. Collaborations with the medical school, business school, and law school, which are among the best in the world. World class research faculty (The Chronicle of Higher Education puts Yale as the most productive public health faculty in the US [http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/page.php?year=2007&institution=702&byinst=Go] ). Yale students really care about what they're doing; Yale University as a whole provides an environment of passion, activism, intellectualism, and opportunity that is second to very few (I recently joined a club of PH, Med, Law, and College students geared toward improving global access to essential medicines, and an HIV/AIDS activism group that has gotten the attention of the President, John Kerry, the NYTimes, NY Mag, the Associated Press, Boston Globe, etc.). Money, money money: grant funds are AMPLY available for studies and internships domestic or abroad.

Yale also certainly has weaknesses. The most important weakness is probably its most important strength: small class-size. Yale caters (very well) to many research topics and areas of public health expertise/concern, but not as vastly or diversely as larger universities. If a Yale professor's research floats your boat, you're golden (and in a good position to work with them... accessing most professors here is small-liberal-arts-school kind of easy). Unfortunately, if they don't, you're likely to be out of luck. HOWEVER, if you're not really interested in research, the MPH program certainly provides a strong foundation in the broad fundamentals of public health. Yale also doesn't allot copious amounts of money to PH facilities (like it does to, say, LAW or the school of management). Maintenance is certainly good here (in fact, they're currently remodeling the PH building), but we haven't had a new building since the 60's. While Yale is a certified school of public health (and the oldest department of public health in the nation), it is still a department within the school of medicine. So, much of the facilities funding that should go to us, gets usurped by YSM (yale med).

Here are some other threads that may be helpful:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=495438&highlight=yale

(My internal struggle between Harvard and Yale)
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=712715&highlight=yale

 

[werd814]

I think I can also answer your question about the global health concentration (GHC), as I'm currently applying for it myself.

So, GHC is an additional concentration-- it's more of a supplement to a concentration than a concentration itself. Yale had one of the first global health programs in the nation, but did away with it in the early 2000s because they felt it was a somewhat hollow/disjointed concentration. They felt that global health was too much to teach in a two-year MPH, and that, insofar as it pertains to an MPH degree, a GHC should be more of a nuance of one of the 6 concentrations it already offered (Chronic disease epi, environmental health, etc.) than a concentration offering itself. So, GHC is now a sub-concentration. Because of this, you must be accepted to Yale MPH for one of the six core concentrations (CDE, EHS, etc.) before you can be considered for GHC. As far as I know, though, you don't have to enroll to be considered for the concentration. I think they're trying to make it more selective this year, because last year they accepted everyone who applied (and was accepted to YSPH) and now the cohort of GHCers is a bit too large for their liking. I actually had a discussion with one of the GHC admins the other day about keeping GHC open to all who are interested (forget selectivity... the more who are informed about global health, the better I think)... we'll see how that goes, though.

I think they'll pretty much accept those who apply, are accepted to YSPH, and have an already-established background in global health. But, non-GHC YSPH students are always able to take the GHC classes/seminars and attend GHC events, and once non-GHCers demonstrate an effort to get involved in these activities, they are almost certainly guaranteed acceptance to the concentration. In sum, I wouldn't much fret it.


Grants of ~ 5,000/year are pretty common, and scholarship funding is certainly not too hard to come by for internships/research during the MPH summer. Full-tuition scholarships, however, are rarer (and aren't announced until March-ish). I know a few people here who've gotten them, but, again, they're not super common.

Best of luck intlhealth!

 

[intlhealth2010]

Thank you so much for your answering my questions werd814. It is great to hear from a current YSPH Student!

Your explanation of the GHC concentration is very reassuring. Focusing on Global Health is an essential reason as to why I'm pursuing an MPH degree; in fact, I'm only applying to schools that offer an International/Global Health Track as part of their MPH curriculum.

Can I ask you about the variety/availability of placement options within Yale's practicum/internship component of the MPH? Do you feel like as an MPH student at YSPH, you have a leg up in acquiring an internship placement at some of the world's leading public health organizations?

Working for an international NGO such as WHO, World Bank or the UN is my ultimate career goal. Seeing these agencies listed as internship placements on Yale's website made me light up inside!

 

[Stories]

There are many theories as to why Yale is ranked so poorly in US News. I'm a fan of Stories' (a fellow Yalie) school of thought, which attributes our low rank to the size of our graduating classes. As you probably know, US News' PH rankings are based solely on reputation. So, large schools pumping out graduates have the advantage of high exposure (the more graduates, the more PH professionals with the "School X" brand). Yale, however, has a very small chance of having their students interact with every professional/academician polled for the US News ranking, and, thereby, have no reason to rat Yale positively or negatively. Stories made a graph, once, correlating USNews rank directly with school size... I can't remember where (s)he posted it, though.

Thanks for the plug, werd. Here's that post from a while back:

US News Rank / School / New Students in 2007
1.) Johns Hopkins - 654
2.) Harvard - 481
3.) North Carolina - 415
4.) Washington - 265
5.) Michigan - 386
6.) Columbia - 385
7.) Emory - 382
8.) UC-Berkeley - 195
8.) UC-LA - 264
10.) Minnesota - 338
11.) Pittsburgh - 176
12.) Texas - 179
13.) Boston - 261
13.) Tulane - 208
15.) Illinois-Chicago - 173
16.) Alabama-Birmingham - 149
16.) Yale - 102
18.) Iowa - 101
19.) George Washington - 279
20.) Southern Florida - 119
21.) Ohio State - 161
21.) Saint Louis - 129
21.) Arizona - 88
24.) Texas A&M - 80
24.) South Carolina - 160

 

[espre]

Thanks for the plug, werd. Here's that post from a while back:

A similar plot would be obtained if any of the following were substituted on the y axis: annual budget, number of research grants, annual research funding, number of grants per faculty member, annual number of peer-reviewed publications, size of faculty, or endowment. These are all factors which would predict reputation rather strongly, and would also have an influence on the number of students. A more productive school overall is likely to have more students. I would hesitate to ascribe reputation primarily to size of student body, since there are multiple powerful confounders. Note that this is not saying anything about the true quality of a school of any given size, but reputation will be roughly proportional to net academic productivity which, in turn, relates to size and resources. Any other interpretations?

 

[Stories]

A similar plot would be obtained if any of the following were substituted on the y axis: annual budget, number of research grants, annual research funding, number of grants per faculty member, annual number of peer-reviewed publications, size of faculty, or endowment. These are all factors which would predict reputation rather strongly, and would also have an influence on the number of students. A more productive school overall is likely to have more students. I would hesitate to ascribe reputation primarily to size of student body, since there are multiple powerful confounders. Note that this is not saying anything about the true quality of a school of any given size, but reputation will be roughly proportional to net academic productivity which, in turn, relates to size and resources. Any other interpretations?

Those factors you mentioned are a function of the size of the school/size of the faculty except for grants per faculty member and publications per faculty member, which are rates rather than raw numbers. So it's not necessarily the same comparison. Although, as werd pointed out, the problem that small schools have is that with a smaller faculty size, there are areas of research which are simply not covered--which would lead to reduction in the umbrella in which a school's reach would impact. But if you look at it on a per-faculty or pre-student basis, I think the picture does change a bit.

From this previous post: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=767416&highlight=doctoral+ranking, where *all* the doctoral programs (aka PhD) in the country were put into a scale, information was ranked according to rates rather than raw numbers within each discipline. Included are faculty productivity, funding options for students, and student opinions which tabulate the final score that has been assigned. In true statistical fashion (rather than pure rank like US News), they give a range of the rank, but for all intents and purposes, the 5% I think is a fair assessment.

EDIT: A good thing to point out is that US News uses a lot of these same data points for calculating their rankings for other programs (but not the PH rankings).

There's some interesting info in that spreadsheet which can be downloaded for free, and they rank based on research outcomes and then on student outcomes, but they're both pretty much the same. If enough people request it, I can definitely post some excerpts from the spreadsheet.

Of course, all these metrics are just metrics. I don't put *that* much credence into rankings anyway. It's just kind of interesting to see.

 

[werd814]

A similar plot would be obtained if any of the following were substituted on the y axis: annual budget, number of research grants, annual research funding, number of grants per faculty member, annual number of peer-reviewed publications, size of faculty, or endowment.

Cool. I could certainly believe that, and I really shouldn't just be pointing to size/exposure-- I agree that most of the numbers you mentioned are likely to be related to school size and seem natural predictors of reputation. I'm not sure I necessarily believe that the number of grants per faculty member would pan out the same way after seeing the Chronicle's "faculty productivity rankings" for public health (http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/page.php?year=2007&primary=6&secondary=59&bycat=Go). But the Chronicle only shows the top 10, which isn't really a large enough sample to get a good feeling for the trend of the data-- I wouldn't be too surprised if for the most part the trend of the productivity plot were similar to that of the size plot.

The other data, in combo with faculty sizes (for rate's sake), would definitely be fun numbers to play with.

 

[chriskyk]

Wow, I'm impressed that there are many current students from Yale who are sharing their experiences. Thanks!

Can anyone tell me the approximate class size of the 6 different concentrations? I'm applying for Social and Behavioral track and Environmental Health track with a global health concentration.

Do I get a higher chance of acceptance if I apply for a concentration that has few students in it?