now that i'm in a public health program...how important are the grades?

[danbread]

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hey everyone, i'm in my first semester and was wondering about the importance of grades. i went to law school for a semester and although i moved in a different direction, one lesson still sticks to me. in order to get somewhere in the law profession, you needed the grades. you needed to be in the top 10% percentile, and you needed to out-score your competition.

my question for you is, is this the same lesson i should use for my MPH? sure, i'm going to work hard and do my best, but that mentality of "top 10 or die" has been engrained in my head! just wanted to hear some of your thoughts about this.

 

[JMM051]

It depends what you want to do after. For the PhD route, while grades are important they are not the most important component of the application. Fit and research experience are definitely at the top for that. At non-profits it won't matter as much depending on the level/region, etc. Consulting may be the only field where you may be asked for GPA/GRE/insert other standardized test. I don't think percentiles are important (and I don't know if they're even calculated).

 

[Wiingy]

hey everyone, i'm in my first semester and was wondering about the importance of grades. i went to law school for a semester and although i moved in a different direction, one lesson still sticks to me. in order to get somewhere in the law profession, you needed the grades. you needed to be in the top 10% percentile, and you needed to out-score your competition.

my question for you is, is this the same lesson i should use for my MPH? sure, i'm going to work hard and do my best, but that mentality of "top 10 or die" has been engrained in my head! just wanted to hear some of your thoughts about this.

It's definitely not like law school - you don't need to be top 10% to have a future. The way it was described to me, most grad school grades work like this: "A = keep up the good work; B = try harder"; "C = find a new program." Most public health people are friendly and competition is rare - it's much more likely that your classmates will help you than hide books from you.

If you are applying to PhD programs grades might matter somewhat, but letters and research experience will almost always trump them. Learning the material (and an ability to understand statistics and computer packages) will be far more important in landing a job.

 

[E24Gose]

My experience may be different than others, but when I was getting my MS competition with my classmates was friendly, but very motivating. We spent a lot of time studying together and after every test we'd go to the local pub and grab a pint (or two 🙄).

I'd say Wiingy is on the right track with grade equivalents. I dont think having the mentality its important to be in the top is bad. I was in the top of my program and I know my LORs were fantastic. There are still perks to being tops, but its not be the best or die. I would say work as hard as you can, but if you receive a rough grade, dont feel like its the end of the world. Then again, this is what I used to tell my pre-med undergrads and they would still cry when they received a C. Maybe easier said than done?

 

[Stories]

If you are applying to PhD programs grades might matter somewhat, but letters and research experience will almost always trump them. Learning the material (and an ability to understand statistics and computer packages) will be far more important in landing a job.

To an extent. The right research fit will overcome a few B's, but programs generally will not even consider reading an application if there's too many B's. Read: PhD programs know that MPH programs have massive grade inflation.

 

[JMM051]

Stories-
I was going on the "top 10 mentality."

As in, you are not going to get dismissed from consideration if you don't have a 4.0.
A 3.8 vs. 4.0 when the 3.8 has the direct fit will definitely not come down to, well this person had a 4.0 so they're definitely our choice.

Danbread-My school is very competitive but collaborative-as in most work extremely hard but collaborate (and commiserate) together.

 

[intlhealth2010]

What if your MPH program doesn't give letter grades? (ie. Yale) How would that look to a PhD Ad-com? As far as I know, graduate students at Yale in general do not receive traditional letter grades.

Would they be looking for more High Passes than Passes?

If anyone who is at Yale now or is familiar with Yale's grading system could answer my question, that would be great!

I was mostly wondering if I decide to go for PhD in Public Health later down the road, how would not having letter grades compare against applicants who did receive traditional letter grades?