- Joined
- Sep 29, 2017
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- 4
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I am in this program now, currently in Accra, Ghana. I gave up other more established programs to be here because I wanted the experience of living abroad for a year. However I believe I was severely misled about the program and want to warn anyone who is starting to think about their applications for 2018. Had I been fully informed, I would not have enrolled.
I'll try to put personal feelings aside and make this as factual as possible, which admittedly is difficult.
General info:
To summarize, I feel that I was led to believe I'd be learning, thinking, doing, and have not been. There are students here who gave up Yale, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, etc to be here and have not received an education that is on par with those universities, though NYU administrators still claim it to be.
Tl;dr: If you'd like to get a Master's degree abroad while partying constantly and not working, choose NYU CCMPH. If you actually want to be a trained professional, look to other programs instead.
I'll try to put personal feelings aside and make this as factual as possible, which admittedly is difficult.
General info:
- This is only the second year this program has existed, and that means there are a lot of administrative and organizational failings that you will not encounter at another school. You will not find this fact in print anywhere; they do not advertise it.
- The summer semester consisted of 6 courses. 4 of them were online. We paid over $40K for that.
- If you request a tuition breakdown, you will not be provided with one. Tuition, housing, food, etc is all "bundled," so they are able to mask what they pay for individual items. Yes it's a new program and we understand they need to make money to improve it, but from what we are able to discern the difference between what we are charged and what NYU is actually paying is exorbitant. For example, tuition at the University of Ghana (where we are enrolled this semester) is $1,750 USD per semester. We are paying about $35K.
- This bundling of fees also means that if you would like to find your own housing to save money (as many grad students are wont to do), you will be unable to do so, as NYU will apply any scholarship or financial aid you receive to their "tuition" package and will not provide you with a refund of any fees for NYU housing that you are not using.
- Students were accepted to the program well beyond the official admission deadline. I was told by NYU staff that this is because they had fewer students accept than they expected. This resulted in students being in the program that fall far short of the academic caliber one might expect of other NYU graduate programs.
- The summer semester this year was in DC instead of NYC, yet there appeared to be no real reason for this. The program did not plan any DC-related activities. No public health policy seminars, no poli-sci class, no capitol visits or government internships. We had a few speakers come to give some seminars on campus, but they could have done that in NYC. And had the semester been in NYC instead, classes would have been in person rather than online.
- We are taking classes at the University of Ghana this semester. I'm reluctant to make comparisons to universities in the western world...but I can tell you that these classes will not prepare you to work as a public health professional in the US. The topics we have covered thus far are remedial. It is not a graduate level education. It would be infinitely better if the subjects were taught at NYU Accra, but they are either unwilling or unable to provide the faculty and funding to do so. Yet NYU touted this semester as a "world class" and "world renowned" education.
- The fall semester also includes 180 hours of field work in the form of a practicum, or internship. Do not be fooled -- these are not internships as you understand them to be. NYU and UG are laughably unorganized in their orchestration of these practicums. We have been here for 7 weeks and there are students who still have not started, students whose internships cancelled on them, students who were not allowed to use the restroom or eat while at work, students who sit for 5-8 hours a day doing nothing because their internship sites do not have work for them to do. I understand this might even be a violation of the CEPH Accreditation standards. The organizations are ill prepared for and/or unable to accommodate interns, but NYU will attempt to sell you on what an "incredible opportunity" they are, and the "insight" you will gain at work.
To summarize, I feel that I was led to believe I'd be learning, thinking, doing, and have not been. There are students here who gave up Yale, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, etc to be here and have not received an education that is on par with those universities, though NYU administrators still claim it to be.
Tl;dr: If you'd like to get a Master's degree abroad while partying constantly and not working, choose NYU CCMPH. If you actually want to be a trained professional, look to other programs instead.