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

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Hi everyone I could really use some advice.
I am currently deciding between UC Berkeley 2-year MPH and UC Davis MBA/MPH which I would be able to complete in about 3 years. I know I want to eventually get both an MBA and MPH so therefore I am leaning towards Davis. I visited the campus and spoke with admissions from both departments and it sounds great. However, the Berkeley name and prestige is of course hard to overlook and I have never been to Berkeley so don't know what to expect.
What do you recommend I do? Also, I am from the East Coast so if someone from California could tell me whether Davis has a good name/reputation in your state (since I hope to end up working in CA) I'd really appreciate it!!! 🙂
 
daisy321 said:
Hi everyone I could really use some advice.
I am currently deciding between UC Berkeley 2-year MPH and UC Davis MBA/MPH which I would be able to complete in about 3 years. I know I want to eventually get both an MBA and MPH so therefore I am leaning towards Davis. I visited the campus and spoke with admissions from both departments and it sounds great. However, the Berkeley name and prestige is of course hard to overlook and I have never been to Berkeley so don't know what to expect.
What do you recommend I do? Also, I am from the East Coast so if someone from California could tell me whether Davis has a good name/reputation in your state (since I hope to end up working in CA) I'd really appreciate it!!! 🙂
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I graduated from my undergrad from Davis and it's a really well-respected school. Even with my B.S., I didn't struggle to find a full-time job in Sacramento because everyone in the area respects a Davis degree. Same with jobs in the Bay Area. It's also only a 15-20 min drive from Sacramento and the state capitol. If you are leaning towards working in health management, I would suggest the Davis program. Davis has a bit of a newer public health program (and it's only one year, the reason I didn't reply) but from my experience as a public health undergrad everyone was super helpful and dedicated to the field. There's plenty of community orgs you can get acquainted with as well! On the other hand, Berkeley is a great school and a two year program is great for research opportunities. I'm not sure if Davis makes you do a practicum? Just some stuff to consider. Feel free to PM me!
 
daisy321 said:
Hi everyone I could really use some advice.
I am currently deciding between UC Berkeley 2-year MPH and UC Davis MBA/MPH which I would be able to complete in about 3 years. I know I want to eventually get both an MBA and MPH so therefore I am leaning towards Davis. I visited the campus and spoke with admissions from both departments and it sounds great. However, the Berkeley name and prestige is of course hard to overlook and I have never been to Berkeley so don't know what to expect.
What do you recommend I do? Also, I am from the East Coast so if someone from California could tell me whether Davis has a good name/reputation in your state (since I hope to end up working in CA) I'd really appreciate it!!! 🙂
Click to expand...

As someone who has never stepped foot in California, everyone here seems to think highly of any UC school (I think a lot of it has to do with their undegraduate schools being super competivite and not allowing anyone less than a 3.5 in from what I remember from high school). Not sure if that helps in making your decision any easier but just wanted to say both schools are highly regarded from where I'm from!
 
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daisy321 said:
Hi everyone I could really use some advice.
I am currently deciding between UC Berkeley 2-year MPH and UC Davis MBA/MPH which I would be able to complete in about 3 years. I know I want to eventually get both an MBA and MPH so therefore I am leaning towards Davis. I visited the campus and spoke with admissions from both departments and it sounds great. However, the Berkeley name and prestige is of course hard to overlook and I have never been to Berkeley so don't know what to expect.
What do you recommend I do? Also, I am from the East Coast so if someone from California could tell me whether Davis has a good name/reputation in your state (since I hope to end up working in CA) I'd really appreciate it!!! 🙂
Click to expand...

I am from California, and I would say while both have a great name/reputation in California, the Berkeley/Cal name tends to command a bit more prestige. Berkeley as an undergraduate school is more competitive to get into than Davis- that being said, each school has their own specialties which make them better than each other in some respects. Unfortunately I cannot really speak to either school's reputation for public health as much. Hope that helped a little!
 
Hey PSA for anyone waiting on Berkeley. I’m working on a paper w a PH professor and they let me know that the reason the school is so slow to get back to people is because they just fired the Dean for the School of Public Health. So... yea they are dealing with some ****.
 
daisy321 said:
Hi everyone I could really use some advice.
I am currently deciding between UC Berkeley 2-year MPH and UC Davis MBA/MPH which I would be able to complete in about 3 years. I know I want to eventually get both an MBA and MPH so therefore I am leaning towards Davis. I visited the campus and spoke with admissions from both departments and it sounds great. However, the Berkeley name and prestige is of course hard to overlook and I have never been to Berkeley so don't know what to expect.
What do you recommend I do? Also, I am from the East Coast so if someone from California could tell me whether Davis has a good name/reputation in your state (since I hope to end up working in CA) I'd really appreciate it!!! 🙂
Click to expand...

From the MBA perspective Berkeley is far more prestigious. Whether that is important or not depends on what you ultimately want to do. Is MBA/MPH at Berkeley an option? I'd look on websites of both schools and ask questions to career services, current students etc.
 
spacewitch said:
Hey PSA for anyone waiting on Berkeley. I’m working on a paper w a PH professor and they let me know that the reason the school is so slow to get back to people is because they just fired the Dean for the School of Public Health. So... yea they are dealing with some ****.
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Thanks for letting us know about this! Really helps in my understanding of why they are taking a bit longer to get back to applicants. The wait still sucks, but nothing we can really do about that. I am sure they're dealing with a lot! Fully expecting to hear back closer to mid-March at this point.
 
For anyone who's been accepted to Yale, I just got a response back from Financial aid that we should have our packages in about 10 days.

Also, if anyone is going to the admitted students day on April 9th, I've added my username to the google doc.
 
For those who applied to MPH programs at Minnesota and Michigan, how long did it take for you to receive an admission decision once your SOPHAS application was verified?
 
daisy321 said:
Hi everyone I could really use some advice.
I am currently deciding between UC Berkeley 2-year MPH and UC Davis MBA/MPH which I would be able to complete in about 3 years. I know I want to eventually get both an MBA and MPH so therefore I am leaning towards Davis. I visited the campus and spoke with admissions from both departments and it sounds great. However, the Berkeley name and prestige is of course hard to overlook and I have never been to Berkeley so don't know what to expect.
What do you recommend I do? Also, I am from the East Coast so if someone from California could tell me whether Davis has a good name/reputation in your state (since I hope to end up working in CA) I'd really appreciate it!!! 🙂
Click to expand...
If you are 100% sure you want an MBA go for Davis. But overall there is no comparing Berkeley and Davis public health programs, Berkeley is more prestigious. I know Davis MPH is accelerated too.
 
daisy321 said:
Hi everyone I could really use some advice.
I am currently deciding between UC Berkeley 2-year MPH and UC Davis MBA/MPH which I would be able to complete in about 3 years. I know I want to eventually get both an MBA and MPH so therefore I am leaning towards Davis. I visited the campus and spoke with admissions from both departments and it sounds great. However, the Berkeley name and prestige is of course hard to overlook and I have never been to Berkeley so don't know what to expect.
What do you recommend I do? Also, I am from the East Coast so if someone from California could tell me whether Davis has a good name/reputation in your state (since I hope to end up working in CA) I'd really appreciate it!!! 🙂
Click to expand...

Hi! I currently go to the UC Davis for undergrad, I'm finishing up my senior year right now. Our MPH only has two concentration, biostatistics and epi. It is small, close knitted program as I recall. The classes are small but you do take some classes with the med students/undergrad. The MBA program is phenomenal. It is no Haas School of Business at Berkeley, but it is focused mostly on resource economics. If you are planning to go into agriculture/environmental science/health research this is more suited for you.

Go Ags! @spacewitch
 
Anyone else who applied to Harvard's MPH in Quantitative Methods still waiting to hear back?
 
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Epi_lady_in_training said:
BTW accepted to UC Irvine's MPH (Epi) + $4,000 summer scholarship, will hear about financial aid later they did not say when.
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Congrats!! I got the same offer too. Are you considering going to UCI? I've lived really close to the school all my life so I'm less inclined to go. Also have you heard anything about the school's reputation? I know that since it's a newer school, it's not talked about as much but wanted to hear what you think about the program from your research 🙂
 
graced16 said:
Hey guys,
I just got into Johns Hopkins Accelerated MPH, but am still thinking Yale makes more sense for me because I could cover the total attendance cost over 2 years with scholarship and direct loans, whereas I could not do that for JHU (mostly because its condensed into 1 year and there is a per year loan limit). What are people's thoughts are on the ability to get a job after Yale's MPH program vs. JHU. Yale is ranked so much lower but their faculty seems much more supportive and easy to work with. How much do the rankings really matter??




P.S. FYI, I emailed Hopkins after getting acceptance the other day inquiring about when we should hear about financial aid and they said I have "already been considered" and not offered anything. So if you're getting accepted now with no fin. aid info, I'd guess your award is $0 too.

P.P.S Columbia taking forever...seems like a lot of policy people having the same problem with them which is a little relieving
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WHY oh why did I forget about the per year loan limit when considering Hopkins full-time MPH. This... changes... everything??
 
Does anyone have any opinion on the reputation of the public health program versus the school itself?

I am currently deciding between Boston, obviously with a high ranked public health school, and USC which isn’t typically known for public health but as someone who has grown up in California, the name on its own tends to impress people.

I will be visiting both schools soon to get a better idea, but I still keep going so back and forth now even though I know I don’t have to decide yet!
 
I need some advice please. I have a phone appointment tomorrow with a potential advisor at one of the programs that I’ve been admitted and I’m wondering what kind of questions I should ask. I’m going to ask about their research and whether they could take me as an advisee, but do you have any other ideas? Also, would it be ok to ask if they would take me as a TA or RA? Thanks!
 
pusheen323 said:
I need some advice please. I have a phone appointment tomorrow with a potential advisor at one of the programs that I’ve been admitted and I’m wondering what kind of questions I should ask. I’m going to ask about their research and whether they could take me as an advisee, but do you have any other ideas? Also, would it be ok to ask if they would take me as a TA or RA? Thanks!
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Go for it! Just do a little research about their projects and courses before so you are well-informed. The worst thing they can so is no, but then you'll know the process for next time! 🙂
 
SJC1028 said:
For those who applied to MPH programs at Minnesota and Michigan, how long did it take for you to receive an admission decision once your SOPHAS application was verified?
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For Michigan, I submitted on 12/15, and got my application verification email from Michigan on 1/5. I heard back from them about my official admissions decision on 2/2.
 
I’m sorry if this post is redundant or something, but I just wanted to share my stats here again to help out/give hope to other low gpa applicants in the future. I lurked around SDN a lot while applying, and reading some of the success posts really helped me to persist past the growing doubts I was having. The admissions process is truly very holistic. Try to get a good GRE score, explain your grades/situation briefly, pour your heart into your SOP, apply broadly, and have faith in yourself. As of today, I can gratefully say that I’ve gotten into more than half of the programs I applied to when I thought I had no chance of any. I am super excited to be attending Emory in the fall!

Undergrad School: State University
Undergrad GPA/Major GPA: 2.8 (I faced a decent amount of medical problems in undergrad.)
Major/Minor: Molecular Biology (minor in Chem)
GRE: Took the GRE in September 2017, 158V 161Q 4W.
Experience/Research:
- 1.5 years of pediatric research regarding adolescents with depression and anxiety (published in an abstract here as well)
- 6 months of neuro research using PET scanning on drug addicts/PTSD patients
- 2ish months volunteering as study recruiter at a pediatric clinic (screening patients who come in, etc.)

LORS: 2 from my PI and supervisor from the pediatric research position, 1 from my molecular biology professor
Interested in: Epi

Applying: Pitt, Emory, Tulane, BU, GW, Columbia, Drexel
Accepted: Emory, Tulane, BU, Drexel
Rejected: GW, Columbia
Waitlisted: Pitt (sort of)
 
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confusedstudent19 said:
Congrats!! I got the same offer too. Are you considering going to UCI? I've lived really close to the school all my life so I'm less inclined to go. Also have you heard anything about the school's reputation? I know that since it's a newer school, it's not talked about as much but wanted to hear what you think about the program from your research 🙂
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Nice! I'm in a similar situation- I actually attended UCI 's undergrad program so feel free to ask me specific questions. THeir MPH is fairly new-ish and less developed. However, UCI does have a good public health program. They have a lot of research going on and great faculty. I did 2 years of research in the program of public health. They are expanding & transitioning to a school vs a program soon so that'll help them. It really think it depends on what you want to pursue. Orange County has limited Epi work (my concentration) other than the health department I already work at. I am interested in field work in addition to research. So I am deciding between Emory, Berkeley, and SDSU- def not going to UCI! Where are you leaning towards?
 
njudjr said:
Harvard just released its result. Waitlisted. Good luck everyone!
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did you check the portal or was it by email? I've been refreshing since 10am - still nothing 🙁
 
Sth1022 said:
did you check the portal or was it by email? I've been refreshing since 10am - still nothing 🙁
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No email yet. But according to the history, I knew most the decisions will be released on the last Thursday of Feb. and the first Thursday of March, around 11am.
 
Stara1535 said:
Thats a long time! I submitted for the deadline, but my LORs did get in till mid January. I applied for Global Health Epi. Its been almost 6 weeks for me, I'm getting nervous!
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I GOT IN TO GW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy crap I can't believe it! I didn't think I would get in. I went through a lot of crap with my career and academics in the past two years, but something is finally going right!!
 
Does anyone know what percentage of the candidates will be admitted from the Wait List in the past? The final decision will be released in late May, not sure if I should wait for it.
 
So this is a little strange, I was accepted to Harvard-- but to the MS-80 in Global Health rather than the MPH-65. Apparently admissions thought I was a better fit for that program. I'll have to look into it now! Haha
 
Accepted to Yale 1 year rejected from Harvard on the same day
Received all decisions:
Accepted: JHU, Columbia, Yale $$ , GwU $$, Wash u $$, Drexel $$, BU$$
Rejected: Harvard
 
Cassatrass said:
So this is a little strange, I was accepted to Harvard-- but to the MS-80 in Global Health rather than the MPH-65. Apparently admissions thought I was a better fit for that program. I'll have to look into it now! Haha
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I wonder why they would do that? Is your background all research?

I wish we could ask the committee these questions.
 
phclarinetist said:
I'm not sure what department you are in, but Health Services is on Friday, March 30th. Still waiting to hear back from UW for financial aid in order to decide if I want to go.
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Global health dept was said to be 1-2nd of march!!!!
 
Hi- long time observer first time poster...finally heard back from all of my options and currently trying to decide between a few programs and would appreciate any and all insight. I will be unable to attend admitted students days as I am currently in my last months of service in the Peace Corps, as such I would love any input from current students or other applicants. Amidst the acceptances and rejection I have narrowed down to choosing between Columbia (MPH in Environmental Health Sciences) and Brown (MPH). My interest really lies in environmental health, sustainability, and global health. Everything I've read has made me feel like I would be a fool to turn down the prestige of Columbia (every forum I've read indicates it as a top program, plus major networking opportunities) and I haven't been able to find much on Brown, yet I'm drawn to it for overall lifestyle reasons. Money aside, anyone out there have any insights as to how to compare these two programs or general pros and cons? Would appreciate any/all info here or via direct message!
 
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