Personal statement application for MPH adivse

[Furix]

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Hello all!
I am applying to top european schools for a master of public/global health (different programs/schools). They require you to submit statements of around 900 words asking why you are applying to the program along with your application. I ofc know my reasons for applying to the program would just like to see some examples of the structure of the statement that successful applicants. If anyone could PM me their statement or just some general advise I would be most grateful!

Regards,
Furix

 

[swaffles]

I don't have any successful statements of purpose just YET (I'm still waiting on my colleges to reply), so I don't want to give faulty advice.

However, I think you'll have more success on here if you wrote your statement and asked people to edit it. There are some tried n' true members on here who have always been glad to help with that kind of thing =)

(Just don't attach it to your post)

 

[adnankhan]

dear helo how are u ??
is there anyone who can help me with statement of purpose for public health ,thanks

 

[parapluie]

I don't have any successful statements of purpose just YET (I'm still waiting on my colleges to reply), so I don't want to give faulty advice.

However, I think you'll have more success on here if you wrote your statement and asked people to edit it. There are some tried n' true members on here who have always been glad to help with that kind of thing =)

(Just don't attach it to your post)

I agree with swaffles! I think writing my personal statement was the hardest part of my entire application. My first two drafts, I kept myself up until 5,6 in the morning so I could hammer sentences out (when you're tired enough, somehow things just come to you). By no means do I recommend that you do the same (it made me very sick for a while, haha), but you know yourself best, and when you function best as a writer, so work with that! Squeeze out that first draft and the rest will be much, much easier. Then ask a few people who have experience with grad school apps to edit it for you. Good luck!

 

[nietzsche754]

This part of the application has gotten easy for me over the course of time. In trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life I've been accepted to law school, graduate programs in the social sciences, library school, education school, public health, and public administration. A good statement of purpose was fundamentally the same for all of these. Basically for the Master's level they want you to do the following:

a) address how the program you are applying to will meet your long term goals
b) address what it is specifically about the program at that school that you feel can address these goals better than other schools (Note: Answers like I want to go here because it's Ivy League/highly ranked = garbage heap!)
c) how has your particular life experiences shaped your desire to do this as a profession (Note: This is where you want to talk about being gay/disabled/an ethnic minority if applicable it NEVER hurts your chances trust me!)

You do not want to talk about specific research interests or faculty you want to work with until you apply for the PhD unless you are specifically asked. At the MPH level the more vague your goals the better because that way many professors can have you work with them on different projects.

 

[PH2011327]

[/QUOTE]You do not want to talk about specific research interests or faculty you want to work with until you apply for the PhD unless you are specifically asked. At the MPH level the more vague your goals the better because that way many professors can have you work with them on different projects.[/QUOTE]

I was told the opposite and that it was better to list faculty members and have specific research goals. This shows that you have done your research on why the school is a good fit and have focus in what you want to study. What are others opinions? now i'm curious...

 

[RAMPA]

I was told the opposite and that it was better to list faculty members and have specific research goals. This shows that you have done your research on why the school is a good fit and have focus in what you want to study. What are others opinions? now i'm curious...

I was told the same thing and I think it helped me get into my #1 choice.

 

[PH2011327]

You do not want to talk about specific research interests or faculty you want to work with until you apply for the PhD unless you are specifically asked. At the MPH level the more vague your goals the better because that way many professors can have you work with them on different projects.

[/QUOTE] I was told the same thing and I think it helped me get into my #1 choice.[/QUOTE]

Sorry RAMPA just to clarify- you were told be specific and list faculty and research interests or not to be specific?

 

[RAMPA]

I was told the same thing and I think it helped me get into my #1 choice.[/QUOTE]

Sorry RAMPA just to clarify- you were told be specific and list faculty and research interests or not to be specific?[/QUOTE]

fixed it

 

[parapluie]

I was told the opposite and that it was better to list faculty members and have specific research goals. This shows that you have done your research on why the school is a good fit and have focus in what you want to study. What are others opinions? now i'm curious...

I was told the same thing and I think it helped me get into my #1 choice.

I agree with both of you. I was told to explicitly state which faculty members' research were of interest to me, especially for those schools whose MPH programs heavily focus on research. In my personal statement, I just dropped a line or two that included a few faculty names. I wouldn't make it take up more than that in your statement. But stating some names gives the admissions ppl something to work with, because you want to show that you are a good fit for their program.

 

[ReproHlthPlz]

I agree with both of you. I was told to explicitly state which faculty members' research were of interest to me, especially for those schools whose MPH programs heavily focus on research. In my personal statement, I just dropped a line or two that included a few faculty names. I wouldn't make it take up more than that in your statement. But stating some names gives the admissions ppl something to work with, because you want to show that you are a good fit for their program.

I too did a similar thing. I dropped the names of a couple of faculty that did research in my particular areas of interest. I got into my number one choice as well and have an interview lined up with number 2.

I have seen people on this board who posted the responses from schools that rejected them and the most common reason appears to be a feeling of "a lack of direction" on the part of the applicant. Schools like to know you have a goal in mind and that they will get a return for the investment of offering you acceptance.

 

[Wiingy]

I agree with both of you. I was told to explicitly state which faculty members' research were of interest to me, especially for those schools whose MPH programs heavily focus on research. In my personal statement, I just dropped a line or two that included a few faculty names. I wouldn't make it take up more than that in your statement. But stating some names gives the admissions ppl something to work with, because you want to show that you are a good fit for their program.

I did this with all of my statements and I think it helped. It showed that I had done my research on the school, was coming in with specific interests in mind (they don't really if those interests change, but it's very important to show that you've thought about it). I cannot imagine a situation where one would be rejected because they mentioned how much they liked a certain professor's research.

 

[nietzsche754]

My point was more that listing research interests should not as someone said take up more than 2 or 3 sentences of what is essentially a 3-4 page essay. I have known many students who thought the purpose of the essay was to detail exactly what their research interest were and went into great specifics to the point that they did not convey very much about who they were as individuals. That is where it hurts.

 

[milosavljevic]

Hello,

Is anyone willing to let me PM them for reviewing my personal statement? I have a few schools that I am still applying to, and would really appreciate some feedback. Based on comments from the schools I have been rejected from, my personal statement was not clear and did not convey a sense of direction as to why I wanted to pursue an MPH.

I am applying to programs that are either geared towards a general MPH, global/international health, and/or community health education.

Thank you in advance.

 

[SoleilParapluie]

Hello,

Is anyone willing to let me PM them for reviewing my personal statement? I have a few schools that I am still applying to, and would really appreciate some feedback. Based on comments from the schools I have been rejected from, my personal statement was not clear and did not convey a sense of direction as to why I wanted to pursue an MPH.

I am applying to programs that are either geared towards a general MPH, global/international health, and/or community health education.

Thank you in advance.

Hi Milosavljevic,

I would be happy to provide feedback on your PS. Feel free to PM me.

-SP

 

[symphonyinc11]

My point was more that listing research interests should not as someone said take up more than 2 or 3 sentences of what is essentially a 3-4 page essay. I have known many students who thought the purpose of the essay was to detail exactly what their research interest were and went into great specifics to the point that they did not convey very much about who they were as individuals. That is where it hurts.

I agree with this. This is pretty much what I did....inserted a couple of sentences in each relevant section about somebody whose work interested me, or a center at the school with which I would like to work etc and clearly related it to what I have done and what I want to do.

 

[symphonyinc11]

Hi Milosavljevic,

I would be happy to provide feedback on your PS. Feel free to PM me.

-SP

I would also be happy to give feedback, PM me if you wish.

 

[SoleilParapluie]

Hello,

Is anyone willing to let me PM them for reviewing my personal statement? I have a few schools that I am still applying to, and would really appreciate some feedback. Based on comments from the schools I have been rejected from, my personal statement was not clear and did not convey a sense of direction as to why I wanted to pursue an MPH.

I am applying to programs that are either geared towards a general MPH, global/international health, and/or community health education.

Thank you in advance.

So I just PMed you about the personal statement that you had sent me. It was the first time I had PMed on this site, so I didn't realize that sent messages weren't automatically saved. As a result, when I sent the message and subsequently couldn't find it in the sent box, I assumed that it didn't go through. So I sent it again. And again. And again...

...And then I realized my error. Totally embarrassing. So sorry!

 

[milosavljevic]

no worries, i did that the first time I PM'd someone too! i think it's kind of a weird system to not have it automatically save your sent messages 😕