MPH Fall 2018: Applied, Accepted, Waitlisted, Rejected!

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The wait is making me paranoid haha

Which MPH program did you apply to?!

I applied to Sociomedical sciences (SMS) at Columbia, the certificate in health policy and law at BU, Behavioral Sciences and Health Education (BSHE) at Emory, the Health and Social Behavior (HSB) field of study at Harvard, and the generalist track at Brown! How about you?
 
I applied to Sociomedical sciences (SMS) at Columbia, the certificate in health policy and law at BU, Behavioral Sciences and Health Education (BSHE) at Emory, the Health and Social Behavior (HSB) field of study at Harvard, and the generalist track at Brown! How about you?
Congrats on all your acceptances/I hope you hear from Harvard soon!!!!!
I applied to health policy for all my programs.
 
Got an email from Michigan to invite me for the school visit day, and there are words at the beginning of the letter "Congratulations on your admission to the department of Health Management and Policy for Fall 2018". Until now I haven't received any formal admission letter or a application status change. Has anyone received that too, and can I consider it an informal admission letter? So thrilling right now! And really hope it won't be a mis-sending email, since such thing happened years before haha


Oh god this happened to me as well! I have no idea...really hoping it wasnt accidental.
 
Meanwhile I'm reading Emory's Cost of Living guide in awe of how much loans I'll have to pile on top of undergrad. 😛 I'm trying not to let the expense deter me from my dream school...that's why I'm also looking up loan forgiveness programs. lol
Same! I'm planning on doing the Public Services Loan Forgiveness Program and doing income-based repayment. My older sister is in this process already, so she's been able to give me some guidance.
 
Does anyone know if Tulane gives good financial aid packages? I haven't seen anyone talk about that in here.
 
Hey y'all. I spoke to USF & Drexel about financial aid. USF said we may not hear back until April (😵) if this is our first time applying to USF. If you graduated from USF, then you would hear back first. Sometimes people hear back earlier. I'm personally not waiting around until April to make a decision.

Drexel said that the Dornsife fellowships haven't been sent out yet and should be sent out in the middle of the month.
 
Another thing people often forget about the loan forgiveness program is that it’s taxed as income. So even after $120K debt is forgiven, you’ll still owe tens of thousands to the IRS.

There is a story about a veteran who got his $200K+ law school debt forgiven...and then was hit with a massive bill from the IRS that he simply can’t afford to ever pay in his lifetime. Just something to consider while we decide on how much debt is too much
 
Another thing people often forget about the loan forgiveness program is that it’s taxed as income. So even after $120K debt is forgiven, you’ll still owe tens of thousands to the IRS.

There is a story about a veteran who got his $200K+ law school debt forgiven...and then was hit with a massive bill from the IRS that he simply can’t afford to ever pay in his lifetime. Just something to consider while we decide on how much debt is too much

Does anyone know how much debt is too much for an MPH?
A mentor told me it's not worth going into more than $15k but I feel like that's so unrealistic, especially considering the yearly costs for some of these schools.
Thoughts?
 
Another thing people often forget about the loan forgiveness program is that it’s taxed as income. So even after $120K debt is forgiven, you’ll still owe tens of thousands to the IRS.

There is a story about a veteran who got his $200K+ law school debt forgiven...and then was hit with a massive bill from the IRS that he simply can’t afford to ever pay in his lifetime. Just something to consider while we decide on how much debt is too much

Just to clarify, loans forgiven under the Federally-administered Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program are not taxable. However, you are spot-on in saying that other income-based repayment and forgiveness programs may result in unexpected tax liability.
 
So Harvard and Johns Hopkins most likely will release their bulk of decisions next week based on past years -- does anyone have any idea what day of the week and when in the day they typically release?
 
Does anyone know how much debt is too much for an MPH?
A mentor told me it's not worth going into more than $15k but I feel like that's so unrealistic, especially considering the yearly costs for some of these schools.
Thoughts?
Everyone is going to have their own personal line for this. It depends on so much-- Do you have undergrad/previous debt? Can you count on an inheritance/gift from family coming later? Do you expect to pool your debt with any your current/future partner (if that's a thing for you) has? Do you plan to go onto a higher salary position requiring a PhD/MD/etc? What's the cost of living going to be like wherever you plan to live, and are you planning for other big expenses (house/car/kids/etc.) while you're repaying your debt?

$15k is indeed not very realistic. I would love to see stats on average loan amount taken for a 4-semester MPH, but my guess is it's $30-$50k, which would be difficult but not impossible to manage (assuming no previous debt) on a typical terminal-MPH salary. I could be totally off base with this, though.
 
I go back and forth between being excited for grad school and horrified about the costs of the programs I like. Hoping Emory comes through with something magical as I am slowly warming up to going there. Even though I hate the heat I ultimately want to end up at the CDC and there is no program that beats Emory in that aspect. Now there's another open house day to go to.... Yay for all the flights... 😱
 
Does anyone know how much debt is too much for an MPH?
A mentor told me it's not worth going into more than $15k but I feel like that's so unrealistic, especially considering the yearly costs for some of these schools.
Thoughts?

I think “how much is too much” ultimately depends on you, your concentration, and where you’d like to work . Biostatisticians can expect different starting salaries compared to us non-biostats. So they may set different loan limits.

I talked to someone who did MPH at Hopkins. His total debt after graduation is $80K. If that figure makes you nauseous, you might want to avoid private schools like JHU/Columbia/Yale.
 
I just want to praise Tulane for their quick communication regarding financial aid/just general questions. They have always responded to me within an hour of my email. I think this is because they are split into various department that cover all aspects (financial aid,admissions - so they take care of a smaller cohort)...rather than dealing with the WHOLE FINANCIAL AID office which is always messy.
 
Oh shoot...I applied Epi and have heard nothing-- dang. Congrats to you though!
I applied to Global Epi, which I am assuming is funded with the game pool of money as general. I also haven't heard anything, but I went ahead and emailed the department to ask them about timeline for notification of the remaining scholarship funds. I'll post an update once they get back to me, so we know whether to hold out hope or give up on receiving any scholarship money.
 
No, but a professor told me "early February" (and last year it was the 1st), so I was really hoping to hear this week. Patience is a virtue and I apparently don't have it! :arghh:
I was also told by a current student there (that works in the admissions) that eligible students would receive them early Feb. Don't worry, I think we are all impatient here 😀
 
When do you think is a good time to start looking at housing? I was planning on waiting until late April once everything was said and done. Also, when are you guys planning on moving to your new areas for programs that start, say in a August? Thanks!
 
When do you think is a good time to start looking at housing? I was planning on waiting until late April once everything was said and done. Also, when are you guys planning on moving to your new areas for programs that start, say in a August? Thanks!

July, only because I like interior decorating and need to acclimate myself and my cat :whistle:
 
When do you think is a good time to start looking at housing? I was planning on waiting until late April once everything was said and done. Also, when are you guys planning on moving to your new areas for programs that start, say in a August? Thanks!

I think April is a good time to start looking. I suggest adding yourself to the Facebook housing pages that are specific to that school because a lot of times, there are graduating students that are leaving, students that need to find someone to take over their spot in a contract, or people that are willing to hand over their lease to you. Plus, since those pages are mostly students, they are more likely to hand you off a good deal because they were probably also looking for affordable housing. 🙂
 
YAAAS. SAME. HERE. LIKE, I NEED TIME TO DECORATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And get a puppy 🙂

Actually the thought of getting a puppy is making me feel a little better about all of this. Maybe my dreams tonight won't be filled with thoughts about student loans and instead be about a new puppy.. 😍
 
Actually the thought of getting a puppy is making me feel a little better about all of this. Maybe my dreams tonight won't be filled with thoughts about student loans and instead be about a new puppy.. 😍
I've been wanting a second dog for so long and was disappointed grad school was probably going to put that on hold, but I like your attitude and am totally going to distract myself with PetFinder tonight instead of Zillow/Craigslist/Apartments.com
 
So Harvard and Johns Hopkins most likely will release their bulk of decisions next week based on past years -- does anyone have any idea what day of the week and when in the day they typically release?
I think I saw on one of the threads from 2017/2016 that Harvard tends to release decisions on Thursdays/Fridays! Not sure about JHU.
 
I can't speak for all JHU departments. For MSPH in HPM, the interviewer told me that the decisions will be sent out by Feb 16th.
 
For anyone that is thinking about going to visit Emory for the admitted students day, I believe they offer travel grants. I went to the Open House in October and received a grant that ended up pretty much covering my flight cost.
How do I go about that? I'm from California, is there a travel grant form I have to submit?
 
When do you think is a good time to start looking at housing? I was planning on waiting until late April once everything was said and done. Also, when are you guys planning on moving to your new areas for programs that start, say in a August? Thanks!
It depends on where I'm going. I'll start searching seriously for housing after I send in my deposit to my program of choice. If I choose Emory (90% sure that I will 😛) then I might make plans to have my place chosen by early August and/or late July and hopefully be able to fly/drive cross country by mid Aug! 😀
 
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