I was accepted to both Drexel and Pittsburgh. I'm interested in the social and behavioral sciences track at both. Ideally I'd like to have a lot of fieldwork experience during my grad school years at a place with many good opportunities.
I've heard Drexel requires community-based learning during the first year as well as a field placement during the second year.
Pittsburgh also requires a field placement.
I've also heard Pittsburgh isn't that great of a city.. more for "raising a family" and not so exiting for people in their 20's who aren't looking to build a family right now.
But Pittsburgh is higher ranked(#11) there Drexel is # 21. Both claim to have top-tier research which is also important to me.
Does anyone have any input or advice.. does it make sense to learn towards one school just because you like the location better and MAYBE the academics won't be as strong according to a ranking system?
I might be able to give you a better perspective. I received my MPH at Drexel and I'm doing my PhD at Pitt in Health Services Research and Policy. I'm only in my first year at Pitt so I don't have complete knowledge of the school, but I can give you a good idea.
Drexel is definitely a rising School of Public Health and there Community Health and Prevention (CHP) department is very strong. There is no shortage of fieldwork you can do at Drexel. Your spring quarter has a Practicum portion which may or may not be related to the Community-Based Master's Project you do in your second year (this is the equivalent of a Master's thesis). For example, for my practicum, I worked for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health doing Patient Satisfaction surveys in the public health centers . Another person I knew interviewed prison inmates about their health status (not sure what specifically... maybe HIV or another STD). So there's various projects you could do in your first year. Ultimately, I ended up with a master's project that was more related to my interests (I was in the Dept of Health Management and Policy (HMP)). In any case, with your interests, Drexel is a good fit... especially with a whole lot of community opportunities in the Philadelphia area.
Pittsburgh is a very solid School of Public Health. In my opinion, the academic rigor is slightly heavier than Drexel, but that's from what I've experienced so far. I believe Pitt is more focused on chronic disease prevention, but both schools do place heavy emphasis on that. Pitt also has a practicum and a master's essay in the 2nd year. I can't comment too much on the Behavioral and Community Health Sciences (BCHS... equivalent to Drexel's CHP dept) department since I'm in a different department, but I believe the programs are very similar. Check out the faculty pages and project pages in both schools to get an idea of their research.
The biggest difference between the schools is that you do not commit to a department in your first year at Drexel. You take classes in all of the departments in your first year and decide on your concentration the 2nd year. With that said, the first year Practicum in the Spring is more CHP-based since it is a CHP class, but you can gear it more towards your own interest. On the other hand, the departments in Pittsburgh accept you into their department in the first year. So the only way to switch departments is through transferring in-school. In my experience, I actually started out Epidemiology at Drexel (you have to state your interest but you do not commit at all) and ended up in the HMP department because I fell in love with Health Policy.
For the cities, I can tell you that Philadelphia is a more vibrant city to live in. The drawback of course is the higher cost of living, but obviously not as bad as NYC. Pittsburgh definitely does have a young crowd, but you have to travel a bit further. Just think of Pittsburgh as a city with a downtown area (with no social scene) and a bunch of suburb-like districts surrounding it (of course some areas with a social scene such as Southside and Shadyside). Also, getting a cab is impossible in Pittsburgh which is a pain since you would like to have the piece of mind of drinking and not having to drive back home or elsewhere.
In conclusion (haha I know this is a bit long to read), both schools are great, and the social scene is a bit better in Philly. Ultimately, you should base your decision on what is better for you in the future so definitely check out each school's research and interests and see which one best matches yours. Good luck and hope this helps!
