Inside Advice For Those Interested In UT

[nietzsche754]

For those who are interested in UT Houston at the MPH level I thought you should know that if you have a GPA of 3.5 or higher and an overall GRE score of over 1200 you automatically qualify if accepted for a New Student Scholarship (the ones heavily publicized on the website). These scholarships provide in state tuition to out of state students plus $500 per semester for the first three semesters of the program. This was shared at the Fall Open House and I felt it might be a factor for some people in choosing schools.

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[milosavljevic]

Hi nietzsche754,

I spent this weekend in Houston (I'm leaving for the airport in a few hours though) due to an event unrelated to the UT MPH program. I really enjoy the people/city. Do you have any more information about UT Houston programs? I haven't applied yet, but after this weekend I'm really considering it.

Thanks!

 

[nietzsche754]

I will be starting my MPH in January there in Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences. I know that some scholarships there are only awarded in the fall but we were told we can still apply if we come in January for additional fall funds. Also on-campus housing is managed through a third party company the school contracts with and I do not recommend it at all. The faculty especially the administration though were very approachable and helpful. UT Houston is attached to the best cancer research center in the US (MD Anderson) so they do a lot of research in anti-smoking campaigns and they also focus heavily on obesity and nutrition. The MPH program is designed to be flexible with a large number of elective hours. They offer optional concentrations in fields such as health disparities you can obtain by focusing your electives without taking additional courses. The concentrations were a major factor for me since I'm interested in African American health and the school is currently creating a new student led organization in that field as we speak. I expect the program will take me 16 months or four full semesters to finish. The summer semester unlike many schools is 12 weeks long so you can take almost as many courses as you would in a regular semester. The school highly values diversity they have about 100 Nigerian students and a larger Indian and Chinese student population. Dozens of nationalities are represented. I was able to attend the annual diversity fair when I visited and it was a great experience. They have joint MD/MPH programs as well as joint programs in nursing and other fields. You can temporarily transfer to another campus of UT (Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Brownsville or El Paso) for a semester by simply filling out a form if you want to work with a program available at another location. This covers some basics I hope it's helpful and good luck!

 

[swaffles]

Do you know if this same offer is available for UT-Austin or if it's specifically for UT-Houston? Thanks!

 

[nietzsche754]

Do you know if this same offer is available for UT-Austin or if it's specifically for UT-Houston? Thanks!

If you are a student of the Austin regional campus of UT Houston you should be covered. However the ITV courses are a pain if you aren't in Houston. The professors seem to hate the system as much as the students.

 

[swaffles]

If you are a student of the Austin regional campus of UT Houston you should be covered. However the ITV courses are a pain if you aren't in Houston. The professors seem to hate the system as much as the students.

Thanks! I've never had ITV courses before (I had to look up what they were, haha) but I can imagine that they'd be really annoying! I would go to UT-Houston but I applied for a dual degree that's only available at Austin. However, I hear that Austin is just one large college town so I'm excited in any case =)

 

[nietzsche754]

Well good luck I just moved here to Houston and I was surprised how a city this large can be so boring. I don't blame you for preferring Austin I may transfer to another campus myself when my lease expires. That's the cool thing with us is if you hate the city you are in you actually can just fill out a form and change cities. For those not aware UT has campuses in San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Houston, El Paso and Brownsville.