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

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Hi!

I've been accepted to the Health Policy Programs at George Washington (one time $7500 scholarship), Emory (not notified of aid yet), and Yale (not notified of aid yet). I've also been accepted to Boston's MPH program (one time $18,000 scholarship).

I was wondering if I could get some advice on these schools? Which has the best HPM program and which would I benefit most from after graduation? I'll be visiting each school next month to get a feel of the campus, students, and faculty. I've really liked Emory's program for a while now but am starting to consider Yale. Please help a girl out!

Hi! I just got into BU and Yale as well but I'm biting my nails waiting to hear back about $$! Did BU send you their scholarship offer with your acceptance email? Or separately? I don't want to hold my breath if nothing is going to come. I got in almost a week ago and I feel like their aid should have sent something along by now.
 
Just heard back from BU about financial aid-- got a lot more than I expected.. I was pretty set on Hopkins but this for sure puts BU back in the running
I got into BU too! When you filled out their extra financial aid application where did you find your BU ID? I couldn't find mine in any email and I'm nervous to ask them directly in case I'm missing something obvious. Thanks!
 
Tickets book to Atlanta and Housing from Emory confirmed!

See some of ya'll on Visit Day.
Did Emory send you an email confirming your student housing match? I haven't received anything but they supposedly signed me up for a Wednesday host.
 
Hi! I just got into BU and Yale as well but I'm biting my nails waiting to hear back about $$! Did BU send you their scholarship offer with your acceptance email? Or separately? I don't want to hold my breath if nothing is going to come. I got in almost a week ago and I feel like their aid should have sent something along by now.

In terms of merit scholarships, when I got my acceptance into BU, there was a line in my acceptance email that said that I had been selected for one of their merit scholarships. The actual scholarship offer came in snail mail with the rest of my acceptance package (roughly 10+ days after the acceptance email). I have not heard back from them about financial aid though.
 
Right?! Good luck with hearing back from UNC! Are You going to Visit Emory?
I'm not going to Visit Emory, I have to work and I live in New York. I also went to accepted students day there for undergrad so while it wasn't for Rollins at least I have seen Emory in general.
 
I went to Berkeley for my undergrad. Hated it so much. Think carefully before u decide to move here
Yup, same. Feel like I'm the only person still waiting on Hopkins lol. Wish they would hurry up and make a decision!
Really? What did you two hate about Berkley, if you don’t mind me asking?
 
Not sure if this is already commonly known, but I spoke with a person currently in the Global Health certificate program at Columbia who has found it has some serious flaws. The 6 month practicum, while good that you're abroad for a longer period of time, makes it so that you have to overload credits during the other 3 semesters making it nearly impossible to do research or hold a part time job during these semesters. You're also paying tuition during your practicum for 3 online courses. Just wanted to make people aware. Apparently many people in the global health certificate feel negatively about it, and wouldn't recommend it to others.
 
Have any Umich HMP admits heard anything about scholarships yet?
 
Not sure if this is already commonly known, but I spoke with a person currently in the Global Health certificate program at Columbia who has found it has some serious flaws. The 6 month practicum, while good that you're abroad for a longer period of time, makes it so that you have to overload credits during the other 3 semesters making it nearly impossible to do research or hold a part time job during these semesters. You're also paying tuition during your practicum for 3 online courses. Just wanted to make people aware. Apparently many people in the global health certificate feel negatively about it, and wouldn't recommend it to others.

Oh wow. Do you know if all practicums at Columbia are like this? Or is this just for Global Health?
 
Oh wow. Do you know if all practicums at Columbia are like this? Or is this just for Global Health?
I can speak to this! Only the Global Health certificate requires the 6 month practicum. The others are done within the summer between Year 1 and Year 2, so call it 3 months.
 
Given that it’s a public school, Cal doesn’t really care about its students. And plus, students on campus are selfish af and hella competitive. They ready to bring other classmates down to be the best.

Berkeley might not be the best place for undergrad, but I think grad school is a different story. Compared to other top-ranked public scholls, Berkeley SPH has a low student-faculty ratio and I heard its faculty members are accessible and friendly. Do you have any insights on the SPH, not the entire university?
 
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Got informal acceptance to UNC MSPH In HPM. :soexcited: I love the program because it has Yale’s small class size minus the crazy price tag. It’s now UNC vs. JHU. UNC has upper hand in terms of cost because second year I’ll get in-state tuition.
What's this about second year in-state tuition at UNC? Do you live in North Carolina now?
 
Oh wow. Do you know if all practicums at Columbia are like this? Or is this just for Global Health?
Just for Global Health. And to clarify, you don't *have* to overload on credits, but it would be a waste of tuition money to not max out on credits for your other 3 semesters since you're taking so few credits during your practicum. Luckily for Columbia, because of the common core you can transfer out of Global Health relatively easy during the first semester, which is what I'm now planning on doing if I attend there.
 
Berkeley might not be the best place for undergrad, but I think grad school is a different story. Compared to other top-ranked public scholls, Berkeley SPH has a low student-faculty ratio and I heard its faculty members are accessible and friendly. Do you have any insights on the SPH, not the entire university?

I'd agree with OneDown here. I feel like undergrad and grad school are two completely different stories. I went to school at SFSU on the other side of the Bay and heard horror stories about undergrad at Berkeley, but I work with a few people who have gotten their MPH, PhD, DrPH who have said wonderful things about their experiences!

I would want to make sure that I felt good about the faculty and other admitted students, if admitted at Berkeley though. I want to be around faculty and students who are supportive and helpful, versus competitive and only looking out for themselves. I mean cmon, we are all working towards the same goal of improved health outcomes and reducing health disparities, right?
 
Hello again,

I got accepted in Yale SBS, but the cost seems overwhelming to me. I have gotten 22,00 off bat, but I feel it would still be a lot of money. My second choice was UW, but I have heard nothing from them regarding financial aid, and I was also rejected by the Dean Fellowship. I also know that for state programs RA/TAs can get tuition exceptions, but my program didn't qualify, which I didn't know initially. I would have applied to more than one UW program if I knew this.

I was also looking at price breakdown for Yale, and as some of you were saying I was surprised there wasn't more loan information. I was also looking at price breakdown, and living and personal expenses seemed incredibly high. Do graduate students really live on campus? I feel like that is so weird, because I went to Berkeley and everyone moved into apartments after the first year...and fed themselves.

Also, compared to other schools regarding TA/RA positions it is really unclear how much you really get paid. Like minimum wage is 12.50...okay so, what are you paying graduate students? How much would that actually help my life? Because it seems students really only work like 10 hours or so. A lot of schools seem to support students that work about 15-20 hours a week.

I also got this great really intense diversity pitch email from an Epi student, but I don't know how much I believe in it.

I am not ungrateful, I am excited, but I am currently living outside of the US, and I can't really visit any of these schools. More information is appreciated. Porfis.
 
Just got off the phone with Columbia who was missing my SSN to process my financial aid. 😵 If you haven't gotten your package, I'd call and make sure they have everything.
I think you are being very proactive and generous to other students letting schools know, and letting this group know about your outreach experiences to different offices
 
Berkeley might not be the best place for undergrad, but I think grad school is a different story. Compared to other top-ranked public scholls, Berkeley SPH has a low student-faculty ratio and I heard its faculty members are accessible and friendly. Do you have any insights on the SPH, not the entire university?

I don't know about UCB but I wouldn't worry about competition in public health grad programs in general. The environment is different because 1) A's aren't as hard to come by, 2) Classes are not graded on a curve so everyone can get an A, 3) Teamwork is usually encouraged on assignments; no one, including profs, cares to find out who's the most impressive compared to classmates, but rather how much we can learn from each other, and 4) Most of your classmates won't care about the grades because they are either irrelevant or of minor weight to their careers (I'm a med student and will never even submit these grades to anything I apply for in the future).
 
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Hello all!

I am new to this thread (I didn't even realize it existed)! I started the application game kind of late this cycle. I got my first unofficial acceptance for UIC's MPH in Epidemiology yesterday, which I am super excited about! I submitted a few other school's apps last week, but it's been a while since I needed to apply for financial aid. I wanted to ask, is it better to just fill out FAFSA and send it to the schools, even though I haven't heard a decision from most of them yet?

Thank you!
 
Hello all!

I am new to this thread (I didn't even realize it existed)! I started the application game kind of late this cycle. I got my first unofficial acceptance for UIC's MPH in Epidemiology yesterday, which I am super excited about! I submitted a few other school's apps last week, but it's been a while since I needed to apply for financial aid. I wanted to ask, is it better to just fill out FAFSA and send it to the schools, even though I haven't heard a decision from most of them yet?

Thank you!
YES! Definitely get that in ASAP-- some schools it is already past the priority deadline for getting aid. You can select up to 10 schools when you fill it out!
 
Berkeley might not be the best place for undergrad, but I think grad school is a different story. Compared to other top-ranked public scholls, Berkeley SPH has a low student-faculty ratio and I heard its faculty members are accessible and friendly. Do you have any insights on the SPH, not the entire university?

No idea tbh. As much as I hated my undergrad yrs at Cal, the education was excellent. The school is most definitely challenging. My IQ went up after I graduated from Cal. If you the type of student who likes tough challenges, Cal is for you. But if you care about the study environment around you, hmmm
 
No idea tbh. As much as I hated my undergrad yrs at Cal, the education was excellent. The school is most definitely challenging. My IQ went up after I graduated from Cal. If you the type of student who likes tough challenges, Cal is for you. But if you care about the study environment around you, hmmm
I think this type of environment is super common in large public universities. I went to UW Seattle and even though our competitiveness might not measure up to Cal (I don't know much about UW's reputation outside of our state), STEM classes were super duper competitive. People got weeded out of STEM classes all the time and everyone was just trying to beat the 'curve'. For my biochem classes I literally had to memorize every slide in the power point but learned almost nothing... There were tons of research positions but 100+ people would compete for one position. It was challenging, and a lot of my friends were competitive but being in that environment definitely made me comfortable with challenges.
 
I believe the priority deadline was March 2nd but it doesn't hurt to try. 🙂

This might vary by school. I see on Hopkins page it says the filing date is March 15 for new students and May 15 for returning students.
 
I don't know about UCB but I wouldn't worry about competition in grad school in general. The environment is different because 1) A's aren't as hard to come by, 2) Classes are not graded on a curve so everyone can get an A, 3) Teamwork is usually encouraged on assignments; no one, including profs, cares to find out who's the most impressive compared to classmates, but rather how much we can learn from each other, and 4) Most of your classmates won't care about the grades because they are either irrelevant or of minor weight to their careers (I'm a med student and will never even submit these grades to anything I apply for in the future).

This might be true for public health, but I wouldn't say all of these are true for all grad programs. For my grad degree, 1 & 2 are not true. All classes were graded on a curve so getting the top grade was challenging. I remember one class the average was like a 92 so the curve was super tight. However, the teamwork is very true. I also agree with the last point for the most part. There are some employers like investment banks or consulting firms that do really care about grades so if that's your goal you need to get top grades.
 
What's this about second year in-state tuition at UNC? Do you live in North Carolina now?

No I’m not from NC. I visited and talked to faculty and students from HPM department. If you’ve lived in NC for 12 consecutive months , have NC license, utilities bills....etc, you get in-state tuition your second year! Every OOS student I talked to confirmed they received in state for their second year. Just be proactive and keep those documents throughout the year. Someone got TAship and their second year was completely free. TA positions are rare but possible
 
Hello again,

I got accepted in Yale SBS, but the cost seems overwhelming to me. I have gotten 22,00 off bat, but I feel it would still be a lot of money. My second choice was UW, but I have heard nothing from them regarding financial aid, and I was also rejected by the Dean Fellowship. I also know that for state programs RA/TAs can get tuition exceptions, but my program didn't qualify, which I didn't know initially. I would have applied to more than one UW program if I knew this.

I was also looking at price breakdown for Yale, and as some of you were saying I was surprised there wasn't more loan information. I was also looking at price breakdown, and living and personal expenses seemed incredibly high. Do graduate students really live on campus? I feel like that is so weird, because I went to Berkeley and everyone moved into apartments after the first year...and fed themselves.

Also, compared to other schools regarding TA/RA positions it is really unclear how much you really get paid. Like minimum wage is 12.50...okay so, what are you paying graduate students? How much would that actually help my life? Because it seems students really only work like 10 hours or so. A lot of schools seem to support students that work about 15-20 hours a week.

I also got this great really intense diversity pitch email from an Epi student, but I don't know how much I believe in it.

I am not ungrateful, I am excited, but I am currently living outside of the US, and I can't really visit any of these schools. More information is appreciated. Porfis.
Yale offers "on campus housing," but that really just means "Yale Owned." It is just like saying Yale University is your landlord. There are Yale owned apartments and Yale owned graduate dorms.

At Yale, RA position pay is based entirely on how much funding that project has. Some students make no money in their RA positions, while some make a lot more than others. Our teaching fellow positions (what we call TA positions) are decently paid, making a stipend of thousands of dollars (I believe around 8k) for certain semester long courses. You can find some Yale Teaching Fellow position info online...what you find online for GSAS is similar to what you will see at YSPH.
 
Still waiting on Yale and Michigan at this point, but pretty much deciding between Columbia and Hopkins. Definitely need to get on the ball and make some sort of spreadsheet comparing and contrasting the programs. Also will be visiting Hopkins April 6th (which means, unfortunately, that I will have to miss Columbia's admitted student day). Has anyone been able to visit Columbia, attend classes, etc. on another day?
 
PSA to everyone who received financial aid from Yale!

A bunch students are JUST NOW finding out they had work study positions are part of their financial aid packages for the entire time they've been here. It was NOT INCLUDED in their emailed financial aid packages that they received when they got admitted. It was hidden away on a Yale student financial page they we do not have access to until we get here. At that point, they had already paid tuition and nobody was really checking it. Some students were checking on there to see if their financial aid for next year was posted yet, and realized they had thousands of dollars a year in federal work study that they had not been claiming. I am seeing a lot of people talking about it on social media right now. Apparently, this happened to a lot of people. If you qualified for some aid, it might be worthwhile to reach out to financial aid to see if you also qualified for a work study as knowing if extra money is available to you may help. RA and TF positions are not eligible for work study money, but it will still be nice to know if you have this if you end up wanting a little campus job to make money. It's at least good to know if you have the option!
 
I had posted that some Harvard decisions were coming out yesterday after talking to the admissions chair. FALSE. Checked the portal like 400 times at work yesterday/today and am just getting more desperate for ANY news. For those who have been accepted to Harvard, is there any indicator on my.harvard.edu (i.e change in financial aid portal) that signifies your acceptance?
 
Gotcha! Thank you so much for the information. I might call the departmental contact for HSB to see if we get the same info. I'll update here as I learn more!
Yikes well... It's been 48 hours... I'm hoping they will send by Friday :/ I haven't heard anyone post about getting into Berkeley recently.
 
Was just awarded a $5000 grant from UNC. It's not much but it's something! Does anyone know where one could look for grants, fellowships, assistantships, scholarships, etc? I wanted to apply to the NSF but the deadline passed.
 
I had posted that some Harvard decisions were coming out yesterday after talking to the admissions chair. FALSE. Checked the portal like 400 times at work yesterday/today and am just getting more desperate for ANY news. For those who have been accepted to Harvard, is there any indicator on my.harvard.edu (i.e change in financial aid portal) that signifies your acceptance?

Maybe the person you talked to meant that decisions were being made yesterday, but not necessarily being posted right away? So far this year it seems like decisions are posted on Mondays and Thursdays. Hoping we all have some answers tomorrow!
 
Maybe the person you talked to meant that decisions were being made yesterday, but not necessarily being posted right away? So far this year it seems like decisions are posted on Mondays and Thursdays. Hoping we all have some answers tomorrow!

I hope so! I wish you much success in your application!
 
Berkeley might not be the best place for undergrad, but I think grad school is a different story. Compared to other top-ranked public scholls, Berkeley SPH has a low student-faculty ratio and I heard its faculty members are accessible and friendly. Do you have any insights on the SPH, not the entire university?
Hello,

I went to undergraduate at UCB, and I was a public health major. I have friends that did their undergrad at Cal, and came back for graduate school at the School of Public Health. The environment is definitely different from when you are an undergraduate student. My friends in the graduate program, Health and Social Behavior really like it. From what I know you are guaranteed a stipend summer internship, and there are many opportunities to work on campus.

The staff at the school is mostly invested, I say this because as an undergraduate I felt more resources were spent on graduate students, and I resented this. In reality I think the school should have a optional one year MPH for UCB Public Health undergrads, like a pipeline. But alas, money and public schools.
But as a graduate student this is a good thing!

Students are generally really willing to help each other, because they want to help communities...a lot of the quant classes are difficult for grad students but they help each other out. It is not cut throat the way other people described. My undergraduate upper division classes as an undergrad were always fair, but my general requirements were not.
Generally they are really excited about the work you are doing, and want to help you. However, the bay area is really expensive. I opted out of the bay area for this reason, but really so much amazing work going on in SF, Oakland, and Berkeley.

Let me know if I can help you some more.
 
Hey all,

Really stuck between Emory's Global Epidemiology program, Michigan's Global Epi program, and Boston University's Epi program with a social justice certificate. Any and all insight/thoughts on these three programs would be greatly appreciated!
 
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