How important is experience?

[Dan18u9at0]

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I am about to graduate with a BA from a state school, and I am looking to pursue an MPH. The problem is that although my GPA is very good (3.8) I don't have any prior experience in the field and my undergrad was totally unrelated. I'm planning on taking the GRE this summer and I am hoping for a good score based on practice tests I have been taking.
I know that there are some programs that don't require previous experience, however the best programs usually do. The question is.... can a good GPA and GRE score outweigh lack of experience? is it better to work /volunteer for a couple of years before applying, or to just apply to programs that don't have that requirement? Seeing as how I have about 9 months before applications are due, I could use that time to build up some experience but I'm afraid that's not enough.
I feel like I really don't wanna lose my momentum and I just want to keep going to school, but at the same time, some of the schools that I've been looking at seem completely out of my reach at this point.
thanks for any advice!

 

[ImPublicHealthy]

I am about to graduate with a BA from a state school, and I am looking to pursue an MPH. The problem is that although my GPA is very good (3.8) I don't have any prior experience in the field and my undergrad was totally unrelated. I'm planning on taking the GRE this summer and I am hoping for a good score based on practice tests I have been taking.
I know that there are some programs that don't require previous experience, however the best programs usually do. The question is.... can a good GPA and GRE score outweigh lack of experience? is it better to work /volunteer for a couple of years before applying, or to just apply to programs that don't have that requirement? Seeing as how I have about 9 months before applications are due, I could use that time to build up some experience but I'm afraid that's not enough.
I feel like I really don't wanna lose my momentum and I just want to keep going to school, but at the same time, some of the schools that I've been looking at seem completely out of my reach at this point.
thanks for any advice!

So, I'm currently an undergraduate senior myself so I just thought I'd share that it's definitely possible to go directly into an MPH program. I was accepted by 7 of the 8 programs I applied to (BU, Tufts, Brown, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, NYU Wagner...rejected by Harvard [they want professional experience]). I have a similar GPA to yours (3.89) and had decent GRE scores.
While I have no professional experience, I have had public health-related internships, jobs, research positions, abroad experience, etc. I've also been involved in health-related community activities and was a Public Health major. Through my experiences, I developed very specific interests within public health.

I would say that if you've had public health experiences but no professional experience...and you have specific topics that you're interested in...then you don't necessarily need to work for a few years. Just be sure to research the experience requirements of individual programs (for example, some MPH divisions at Columbia require work experience while others do not).
However, if you have no public health-related experience and you're not certain of your specific interests, then working a few years may be useful. I've noticed that with MPH programs, work experience is a huge admissions factor. Although, you can compensate for lack of work experience in other ways (internships, voltuneering, GPA, GRE, letters of rec, personal statement, etc.).

Hope that helps!

 

[Stories]

The question is.... can a good GPA and GRE score outweigh lack of experience? is it better to work /volunteer for a couple of years before applying, or to just apply to programs that don't have that requirement?

Just as IPH has mentioned, more and more students are going in SPHs directly out of undergrad. The big thing you'll have going for you is that public health is a field which there is a fair amount of demand, and there will always be spots for more and more students. I went directly out of undergrad and had a phenomenal experience.

If you know that public health is where you want to end up, you should most definitely be applying to schools come the fall time. Having a good idea of where you'd like to end up is also a good idea. If you're not sure where you want to be professionally, I'd recommend you wait until you're sure and then go to school. It'd be a shame to waste however amount of money on schooling to find out you don't want to be in that discipline.