Judge my STATS please!! =)

[marcellabella21]

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Hey everyone!! I’m a newbie applying this Fall of 2010 but I am already trying to prepare now.

I know everybody posts a discussion like this but can you guys please judge my stats?

I am apprehensive because I have a terrible GPA, I am coming from a state school, I am applying right out of undergrad, and my major isn’t science based (however I have taken 3 statistics courses and received two As and one B in my statistics classes)

Can you guys pleaseeee judge my chances?

I’m interested in Berkeley, Columbia, Yale, Brown, GWU, Michigan, UCLA, BU, Emory, (In that order of my top to bottom choices).

The concentrations I’m interested in are: Behavioral/Social aspect of health; Migration/Population; Maternal & Child Health; Global Health


My STATS:

Undergraduate school: San Francisco State University

Major: B.A. in Psychology

GPA:
Cumulative: 3.52 (with community college + SFSU)
Upper Division: 3.68 (SFSU only GPA)

GRE: Haven’t taken it yet! This summer! Ahhh.

Experience:
· 1.3 year working at a nonprofit organization for medically fragile children/developmental disabilities
· 3 months internship at an applied behavioral analysis program for children with autism in Mexico City, MX
· 3 month internship at UC Berkeley School of Public Health – Health Initiative of the Americas doing research on low cost/multi lingual clinics
· 4 month internship at San Francisco City Hall doing health policy research at the Controller’s Office

Extra:
· Worked and facilitated Nuclear Policy campaign with Mexican and Japanese political leaders/United Nations…. travelled numerous times to Mexico for this being in workshops, conferences and political events.
· Tons of volunteer experience for Latinos with developmental disabilities cumulating about 8 years
· Participated in many health fairs
· Studied abroad in Mexico

Thanks so much for any feedback given!!! GREATLY WOULD BE APPRECIATED!🙂

 

[Stories]

You're fine (I'm not sure how you think a 3.5 is a "terrible" GPA), assuming you get a reasonable GRE score. You won't get accepted to all of the schools you listed (because who does?), but you'll get into some of them.

I don't know much about SFSU's reputation and don't know how these admissions committees would view that school, but I don't think it's a big deal overall. Your experience is a plus.

 

[aduff1]

1) study hard for the GRE and try to get nothing less that 1200
2) Start figuring out who you will be getting your letters of recs from and start getting to know them now so by the fall they will know enough about you to write a great letter of recommendations (especially professors, if you don't ask them now while you are still in school they may forget about the work you have done and might not be great sources for letters of recs).
3) relax you'll do fine🙂

 

[JMM051]

Personal statement.

Two words huge impact. Make sure you have a solid personal statement.

Also, I see you rate Brown quite high on your list and I was curious as to why. Most of the other schools you mention are extremely large schools of PH whereas Brown has programs. As Stories said you should be able to get into a good chuck. Keep in mind that Berkeley and UCLA were EXTREMELY hard to get into this year for people with stellar stats. Make sure you really nail the GRE's.

 

[Music333]

You will be fine--just make sure you write a good personal statement and get a decent GRE score.

 

[holalola]

I'm going to echo all the other commenters and say that you're a very good candidate. Get yourself solid recs (I'm sure youll be able to with all your activities), and focus on your personal statement.

That said, if you're hoping schools will throw you any cash, study HARD for that GRE.

Best of luck!

 

[lonemavericks]

great stats u won't have any problem.. just get good GRE scores. your experience is a big plus

 

[marcellabella21]

Personal statement.

Two words huge impact. Make sure you have a solid personal statement.

Also, I see you rate Brown quite high on your list and I was curious as to why. Most of the other schools you mention are extremely large schools of PH whereas Brown has programs. As Stories said you should be able to get into a good chuck. Keep in mind that Berkeley and UCLA were EXTREMELY hard to get into this year for people with stellar stats. Make sure you really nail the GRE's.

I never even considered Brown but after talking to someone who is there now I am really interested in their program and I think that they teach you skills that I'm not sure many get at other schools. Like they learn STATA to analyze data and everyone is required to complete a thesis and I get the imprestion you work really closely with professors. Also they have a global health scholars fellowship that pays for 50% of your tuition that I would have my eye on!🙂

And I know Berkeley and UCLA are so hard to get into! Ugh everyone loves the UCs! Damn, but I hope the fact that I worked at an organization sponsered by UCBerkeley school of public health that it will help me. Plus I live in Berkeley now so I am trying to chat up as many professors as I can so they know me.......Alsoooooo I like that Berkeley gives a personal story part of the application and really focus on multi-diversity of students...I hope that helps me!

 

[Stories]

And I know Berkeley and UCLA are so hard to get into! Ugh everyone loves the UCs! Damn, but I hope the fact that I worked at an organization sponsered by UCBerkeley school of public health that it will help me. Plus I live in Berkeley now so I am trying to chat up as many professors as I can so they know me.......Alsoooooo I like that Berkeley gives a personal story part of the application and really focus on multi-diversity of students...I hope that helps me!

Don't stress about getting into the UCs as much. They're about as competitive as other schools (UCB, in particular is the most selective school in the country). But here's a run down of the schools according to the 2008 ASPH report (http://www.asph.org/UserFiles/2008 Data Report.pdf).

Berkeley 31.4%
Columbia 57.6%
Yale 40.6%
Brown N/A
GWU 32.8%
Michigan 61.5%
UCLA 62.5%
BU 69.8%
Emory 54.4%

However, keep in mind that these percentages are as a total of ALL applications: this includes doctoral-level degrees. If you exclude doctoral level degrees and only consider MPH: the percentages go up (59% of all MPH applications were accepts versus only 30% for PhD: also, when you consider some schools like Yale (http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/academics/profiles/epidemiologypublichealth.pdf) and Emory (http://www.sph.emory.edu/cms/departments_centers/epi/degree_programs/phd.html) which are in the 5-10% admit rate in the PhD program, you can see that chances for MPH students are far better than it might seem).