PhD in Public Health (Biostats, Epid, Health Behavior, Health Services/Policy Research) 2016

[LushButter]

Hello everyone!

I figured I'd create a thread for applicants to PhD programs in Public Health in various different subfields (see the title) for Fall 2016 entry. We can answer fellow applicants' questions as well as keeping each other updated with offers and results in the next few months.

I'm applying to several programs in Health Behavior/Social & Behavioral Sciences. My top choices are Emory, Harvard, UTHSC, UNC, and NYU. GRE above 75th percentile in all three sections, GPA > 3.7, undergrad & grad degrees from top 20 private schools, and a few years of work experience in academic & non-profit settings.

How about you all?

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[principal_investigator]

Have a BS in Health Policy/Premedical sciences; MPH in Global Health/Epi
5 years experience working in clinical and research labs; 4 years experience international health policy work for academic research institute
GPA = 3.76
Verbal = 90th%; Quan = 65th%; Writing = 80th%

Applying to: Environmental Health Sciences/Environmental Epidemiology programs
Emory
Tulane
Johns Hopkins
UNC
Columbia

Good luck, everyone!

 

[Stories]

As with previous years, I can offer any advice to folks looking for any. I applied to PhD programs several years ago and graduated in 2013--so I'm a little outdated, but I can offer any insights or share my experiences.

 

[mlr2834]

Copied and pasted/edited from the MPH thread because I am applying to both

Undergrad GPA/Major GPA: 3.75/4.0 Ivy
Major/Minor: Public Health
GradGPA: n/a
Grad Studies: Took 10 courses that count for an MPH as an undergraduate at my home institution
GRE: 87%V/71%Q/93%W.
Experience/Research:

• Research experience since my freshman year, including 2 years of cancer epi research
• 4 1st author poster presentations at national undergraduate/graduate student conferences, 2 award winning
• 1 co-authored pub in public health nutrition
• National fellowship + AACR award winner
• LOR- 3 full professors in epidemiology, All of whom I have taken at least 2 classes with, 2 of whom were/are research advisors.

Really interested in cancer epidemiology and racial health disparities in cancer outcomes for breast and gynecologic cancers, so that's what I've been working on most recently. As a current undergrad, my mentor (smartly) advised me to apply to Master's and PhD programs so I leave my options open.

Applied: UT-Houston Epi PhD (Applied 10/18, Verified 11/2), Harvard PhD in Population Health Sciences-Cancer Epi, UNC MSPH-PhD in Epi, Yale Chronic Disease Epi
Accepted: UNC MSPH-PhD (1/14), UTH PhD (1/20, with in state tuition and $5k), Harvard Population Health Sciences-Epidemiology PhD (2/12), BU MPH (12/18, with $20k merit aid), Yale CDE MPH (2/11)
Interview: Yale CDE PhD program (notified 1/22)
Rejected:
Waitlisted:

 

[LushButter]

Have a BS in Health Policy/Premedical sciences; MPH in Global Health/Epi
5 years experience working in clinical and research labs; 4 years experience international health policy work for academic research institute
GPA = 3.76
Verbal = 90th%; Quan = 65th%; Writing = 80th%

Applying to: Environmental Health Sciences/Environmental Epidemiology programs
Emory
Tulane
Johns Hopkins
UNC
Columbia

Good luck, everyone!

Oops, I didn't include Envir Health in the title because there was no character space left! Sorry!

What are people's thoughts on submitting writing samples that you are the first author on but not the sole author? I realized after submitting my apps that I didn't check with several schools about this requirement and whether they specifically ask for individually-authored papers. 🙁

 

[Stories]

Oops, I didn't include Envir Health in the title because there was no character space left! Sorry!

What are people's thoughts on submitting writing samples that you are the first author on but not the sole author? I realized after submitting my apps that I didn't check with several schools about this requirement and whether they specifically ask for individually-authored papers. 🙁

This is totally awesome and you should submit those papers.

 

[LushButter]

Thank you Stories! I did submit one paper as such. I guess I was worrying a bit because a few social sciences disciplines will ask for individually-authored papers. It seems that co-authoring is the norm in Public Health though and maybe schools are open to that as well 🙂

 

[nycstdnt]

Undergrad GPA/Major GPA: 3.75/4.0 ivy
Major/Minor: Medical Anthro
GradGPA: n/a
Grad Studies: n/a
GRE: 160/167/6
Experience/Research:

• 1 psych lab
• 2 years as health educator for school
• 1 independent study
• 2 research assistant/associate position
• 1 abroad program w/fieldwork
• 1 invited lecture at a medical school on thesis work
• 1 internship international NGO, working at UN in policy drafting

I'm interested in qualitative/ethnographic methods in mental health. Now that I see everyone else's stats, it was a mistake to apply to a PhD program


Applied: Columbia Sociomedical Sciences
Rejected:
Waitlisted:

 

[principal_investigator]

Why a mistake? Your stats are great.

 

[nycstdnt]

I'm just coming from undergrad, no cool life experience

 

[LushButter]

Do you all anticipate interviews for your programs? From threads for previous years and schools' websites, it looks like UNC & Harvard doesn't do interviews, and NYU and Emory will in February.

 

[mlr2834]

Do you all anticipate interviews for your programs? From threads for previous years and schools' websites, it looks like UNC & Harvard doesn't do interviews, and NYU and Emory will in February.

I believe that Yale interviews and UT does phone/Skype interviews sometimes but also sometimes directly admits people. I'm not sure what is up with Harvard since they changed everything this year going from an ScD to a PhD. When I visited in October, it seemed like they wouldn't interview, but I also got the impression that things are very much in motion/flexible since this is the first year of PhD in Population Health Sciences admissions.

 

[LushButter]

From the admissions FAQ website: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/phdphs/admissions-faq/
"Applications are reviewed on the basis of academic credentials, GPA, GRE, TOEFL, prior research and work experience, statement of purpose, recommendations and a writing sample. No other entry test or interview is required."

On a related note, I wonder if they will take in the same number of students across all 5 concentrations (so 8-10 students per concentrations).

mir2834, did you speak to any faculty members at Harvard prior to applying? I was exchanging emails with some faculty members who share my research interests, but got the impression that they are not directly involved in the admissions process or have a say in which student to take in.

 

[mlr2834]

From the admissions FAQ website: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/phdphs/admissions-faq/
"Applications are reviewed on the basis of academic credentials, GPA, GRE, TOEFL, prior research and work experience, statement of purpose, recommendations and a writing sample. No other entry test or interview is required."

On a related note, I wonder if they will take in the same number of students across all 5 concentrations (so 8-10 students per concentrations).

mir2834, did you speak to any faculty members at Harvard prior to applying? I was exchanging emails with some faculty members who share my research interests, but got the impression that they are not directly involved in the admissions process or have a say in which student to take in.

I saw that on the FAQ and I tend to believe it. I just take things with a grain of salt though because, I don't know if you noticed, but I sure did is that when the app opened in August or whenever there were no coursework requirements it just had the generic "students should demonstrate excellence in biology, statistics, social sciences... a master's degree can help but is not required" but at some point in the cycle this changed to a very strong suggestion that students should come in with biostats equivalent to Harvard's first year sequence. I thought it was weird that that would change in the middle of the cycle because that basically seems like a filter for people without MPH's or MSc. I wasn't affected because I have a bunch of semesters of stats as an undergrad but I have friends who were debating if it was worth it to apply without it. All of this is to say that since they changed that pretty abruptly, it wouldn't be surprising to me if they make other changes.

I did get to talk with two faculty members I'm interested in, and I got the vibe that they have a say in the applications? But then again they might also be on the committee and so that was non-random. How they explained the process to me is that applications get received and then sent to the area of interest you selected and then sent to the area of specialty that you selected (so for me cancer epidemiology). They told me that they personally read applications, that might be because they are on the committee, or epidemiology does things differently My understanding is that then all of sub-areas in epi read the apps and rank their candidates and then come back as a big epi group. They joked but not really that every year it is a fight between infectious disease epi and cancer epi over students because they are the biggest groups. I don't know how this applies to the other areas of interest, or how closely this will end up applying to epi since it seems like I visited fairly soon after they discussed the process as a department and things are always changing.

For selfish reasons I'm secretly hoping that it is not an an even number across all concentrations! Epi has 12 sub areas at Harvard! I'm also thinking that they'll probably slightly over admit or run a waitlist because I imagine that Harvard will still lose some students to Hopkins or UNC or other schools. It's nice that they guarantee funding now but it seems like it got significantly more competitive especially if they take an equal number of students in each concentration.

 

[nycstdnt]

Anyone know anything about Sociomedical Sciences?

 

[LushButter]

I saw that on the FAQ and I tend to believe it. I just take things with a grain of salt though because, I don't know if you noticed, but I sure did is that when the app opened in August or whenever there were no coursework requirements it just had the generic "students should demonstrate excellence in biology, statistics, social sciences... a master's degree can help but is not required" but at some point in the cycle this changed to a very strong suggestion that students should come in with biostats equivalent to Harvard's first year sequence. I thought it was weird that that would change in the middle of the cycle because that basically seems like a filter for people without MPH's or MSc. I wasn't affected because I have a bunch of semesters of stats as an undergrad but I have friends who were debating if it was worth it to apply without it. All of this is to say that since they changed that pretty abruptly, it wouldn't be surprising to me if they make other changes.

I did get to talk with two faculty members I'm interested in, and I got the vibe that they have a say in the applications? But then again they might also be on the committee and so that was non-random. How they explained the process to me is that applications get received and then sent to the area of interest you selected and then sent to the area of specialty that you selected (so for me cancer epidemiology). They told me that they personally read applications, that might be because they are on the committee, or epidemiology does things differently My understanding is that then all of sub-areas in epi read the apps and rank their candidates and then come back as a big epi group. They joked but not really that every year it is a fight between infectious disease epi and cancer epi over students because they are the biggest groups. I don't know how this applies to the other areas of interest, or how closely this will end up applying to epi since it seems like I visited fairly soon after they discussed the process as a department and things are always changing.

For selfish reasons I'm secretly hoping that it is not an an even number across all concentrations! Epi has 12 sub areas at Harvard! I'm also thinking that they'll probably slightly over admit or run a waitlist because I imagine that Harvard will still lose some students to Hopkins or UNC or other schools. It's nice that they guarantee funding now but it seems like it got significantly more competitive especially if they take an equal number of students in each concentration.

That's pretty interesting. Epi is definitely way bigger than the Social & Behavioral Sciences department then, which only offers 2 areas of specialty. Also, do you know if the biostats requirement you spoke of applies across subfields, or is it more specific to epidemiology? On the FAQ website it says incoming students only need to complete intro level biostats and epi.

Anyone know anything about Sociomedical Sciences?

I debated SMS at Columbia and ultimately did not apply; but I imagine your application will be reviewed by both Mailman and your targeted Social Sciences department.

 

[mlr2834]

That's pretty interesting. Epi is definitely way bigger than the Social & Behavioral Sciences department then, which only offers 2 areas of specialty. Also, do you know if the biostats requirement you spoke of applies across subfields, or is it more specific to epidemiology? On the FAQ website it says incoming students only need to complete intro level biostats and epi.

It doesn't seem like a requirement, but more like a strong suggestion that they are factoring into admissions decisions. I'm thinking it includes all concentrations, but epi might just care a bit more about it since biostats is so critical to epi. I wish we weren't part of the guinea pig cycle but I definitely did not want to wait until the next one to apply for the first time.

 

[LushButter]

I wonder whether applications to the Harvard PHS program will go up compared to SD apps in previous years combined, given that they're fully funding all students now.

This thread has also been extremely quiet compared to past years - I'm surprised to not have seen more fellow PhD applicants posting here.

 

[Logorrhea]

Undergrad GPA/Major GPA: 3.97
Major/Minor: Health Science
GradGPA: n/a
GRE: 96%V/98%Q/80%W.
Experience/Research:

• 2 years epidemiology-related research post-college
• 2 non-epi publications

I feel a little silly applying to PhD programs without a master's, but I thought I might as well give it a shot! I'm applying to master's programs as well. I've heard from a professor at HSPH, they are planning to accept 18 students for Epidemiology for 18 slots. They expect everyone to say yes to them now that they offer full funding. 😛 Good luck to everyone!!

Applied: Harvard PhD in Population Health Sciences, UNC PhD in Nutrition, UNC MSPH-PhD in Epi, University of Michigan PhD in Nutritional Sciences, Emory PhD in Epidemiology
Accepted:
Rejected:
Waitlisted:

 

[principal_investigator]

I wonder whether applications to the Harvard PHS program will go up compared to SD apps in previous years combined, given that they're fully funding all students now.

This thread has also been extremely quiet compared to past years - I'm surprised to not have seen more fellow PhD applicants posting here.

Yes, where is everyone? Maybe a good sign 🙂

 

[Stories]

I saw that on the FAQ and I tend to believe it. I just take things with a grain of salt though because, I don't know if you noticed, but I sure did is that when the app opened in August or whenever there were no coursework requirements it just had the generic "students should demonstrate excellence in biology, statistics, social sciences... a master's degree can help but is not required" but at some point in the cycle this changed to a very strong suggestion that students should come in with biostats equivalent to Harvard's first year sequence. I thought it was weird that that would change in the middle of the cycle because that basically seems like a filter for people without MPH's or MSc. I wasn't affected because I have a bunch of semesters of stats as an undergrad but I have friends who were debating if it was worth it to apply without it. All of this is to say that since they changed that pretty abruptly, it wouldn't be surprising to me if they make other changes.

I did get to talk with two faculty members I'm interested in, and I got the vibe that they have a say in the applications? But then again they might also be on the committee and so that was non-random. How they explained the process to me is that applications get received and then sent to the area of interest you selected and then sent to the area of specialty that you selected (so for me cancer epidemiology). They told me that they personally read applications, that might be because they are on the committee, or epidemiology does things differently My understanding is that then all of sub-areas in epi read the apps and rank their candidates and then come back as a big epi group. They joked but not really that every year it is a fight between infectious disease epi and cancer epi over students because they are the biggest groups. I don't know how this applies to the other areas of interest, or how closely this will end up applying to epi since it seems like I visited fairly soon after they discussed the process as a department and things are always changing.

For selfish reasons I'm secretly hoping that it is not an an even number across all concentrations! Epi has 12 sub areas at Harvard! I'm also thinking that they'll probably slightly over admit or run a waitlist because I imagine that Harvard will still lose some students to Hopkins or UNC or other schools. It's nice that they guarantee funding now but it seems like it got significantly more competitive especially if they take an equal number of students in each concentration.

What you described is pretty common at most schools. Most faculty members are looking for grad students to help with their own research, so when they find students that fit their research profile, they'll advocate for that student to be accepted.

 

[LushButter]

Did anyone hear back from UTHSC? Someone claimed an interview for the PhD in Behavioral Sciences program on Gradcafe :O

 

[mlr2834]

Did anyone hear back from UTHSC? Someone claimed an interview for the PhD in Behavioral Sciences program on Gradcafe :O

I haven't but have been getting nervous because according to the MPH thread UTHSC-Epi MPH program has been sending out acceptances. Also according to gradcafe some Epi PhD students had decisions this time last year.... Ahhhh the wait is killer

 

[publichealthpolicynerd]

Hi! I'm another applicant without a masters degree applying for PhD programs in health policy.

Undergrad GPA/Major GPA: UC 3.8
Major/Minor: Public Health
GradGPA: Certificate Program (4.0)
GRE: 90%V/60%Q (yikes, I know) /80%W.
Experience/Research:

• 1.5 years epi/health policy-related research post-college
• 1 report/1 poster (both not peer reviewed)
• honors research thesis
  
• public policy related fellowships/scholarships during undergrad
• many internships

Applied: UMN, UNC, Berkeley, UWashington, Columbia SMS
Accepted: UMN, UNC, UW
Rejected:
Waitlisted:

 

[mlr2834]

Heard back from UT-H because I inquired... Apparently I unanimously made it through the admissions committee but no one wants to be my advisor because I'm coming right from undergrad so they want me to consider the MPH. Gah

 

[Stories]

Heard back from UT-H because I inquired... Apparently I unanimously made it through the admissions committee but no one wants to be my advisor because I'm coming right from undergrad so they want me to consider the MPH. Gah

It happens--sometimes some departments will simply refer applicants to the masters programs. You could definitely ask about options such as doing a masters that leads directly into the PhD and save some time. Otherwise, consider waiting for other schools responses before making a decision.

 

[mlr2834]

It happens--sometimes some departments will simply refer applicants to the masters programs. You could definitely ask about options such as doing a masters that leads directly into the PhD and save some time. Otherwise, consider waiting for other schools responses before making a decision.

Yeah it was just a bummer because the committee chair sent me a really nice and detailed e-mail about how much they loved my application and alluded to the idea that the concern really wasn't a lack of research experience or coursework, it was a youth thing. Unfortunately my age is something I have 0 control over. I'm not too torn up about it, I've been admitted to UNCs MSPH-PhD program which is my top choice! Still awaiting funding but exciting nonetheless

 

[Stories]

Yeah it was just a bummer because the committee chair sent me a really nice and detailed e-mail about how much they loved my application and alluded to the idea that the concern really wasn't a lack of research experience or coursework, it was a youth thing. Unfortunately my age is something I have 0 control over. I'm not too torn up about it, I've been admitted to UNCs MSPH-PhD program which is my top choice! Still awaiting funding but exciting nonetheless

Awesome news! Congratulations 🙂

 

[mlr2834]

Awesome news! Congratulations 🙂

Thanks!

 

[CaliThugLife]

I applied to schools here in the west coast mostly for health behavior or community health.

Oregon state
Portland State
University of Illinois at Chicago
UCLA
UCSD/San Diego state
UC Irvine
USC

I have interviews for Oregon state and UCSD scheduled next week.

 

[Logorrhea]

Congrats, mlr2834!!! I'm REAAALLLY hoping to get accepted to that program. Best of luck to you!

Yeah it was just a bummer because the committee chair sent me a really nice and detailed e-mail about how much they loved my application and alluded to the idea that the concern really wasn't a lack of research experience or coursework, it was a youth thing. Unfortunately my age is something I have 0 control over. I'm not too torn up about it, I've been admitted to UNCs MSPH-PhD program which is my top choice! Still awaiting funding but exciting nonetheless

 

[l265]

I applied to schools here in the west coast mostly for health behavior or community health.

Oregon state
Portland State
University of Illinois at Chicago
UCLA
UCSD/San Diego state
UC Irvine
USC

I have interviews for Oregon state and UCSD scheduled next week.

Congrats, CaliThugLife! For UCSD/SDSU, did your invite come from the program administrator or straight from the POI? Is it a department-wide interview day, or an individually-arranged visit? Feel free to PM me if you'd rather share there. Thanks!

 

[CaliThugLife]

Congrats, CaliThugLife! For UCSD/SDSU, did your invite come from the program administrator or straight from the POI? Is it a department-wide interview day, or an individually-arranged visit? Feel free to PM me if you'd rather share there. Thanks!

from poi but it's a phone call

 

[CaliThugLife]

Congrats, CaliThugLife! For UCSD/SDSU, did your invite come from the program administrator or straight from the POI? Is it a department-wide interview day, or an individually-arranged visit? Feel free to PM me if you'd rather share there. Thanks!

Actually just checked my email and the director sent me an email on Saturday letting me know they reviewed my app and wants to schedule to speak with me over the phone.

Still a bit surprised I've been contacted back by two programs so far even though gre scores are really low.

 

[l265]

Actually just checked my email and the director sent me an email on Saturday letting me know they reviewed my app and wants to schedule to speak with me over the phone.

Still a bit surprised I've been contacted back by two programs so far even though gre scores are really low.

Congrats! Is it the HB track?

 

[CaliThugLife]

Congrats! Is it the HB track?

Yes the health behavior track. What's your research interest? My broad one is Latino health, but my research experience is in nutrition and work experience is in drug prevention and youth development work.

 

[Logorrhea]

Looks like I might be joining you, mlr2834! I was accepted to the MSPH-PhD Epidemiology program at UNC today!

 

[mlr2834]

Looks like I might be joining you, mlr2834! I was accepted to the MSPH-PhD Epidemiology program at UNC today!

Congrats!!! It's so nice to have such a great option so early. I was snooping around on the school website and saw that admitted students day is on April 1st which is so late. I was hoping to have made my final decision on where I am going to go by then!

 

[Logorrhea]

Congrats!!! It's so nice to have such a great option so early. I was snooping around on the school website and saw that admitted students day is on April 1st which is so late. I was hoping to have made my final decision on where I am going to go by then!

WOAH that is really late... :/

 

[mlr2834]

Has anyone heard from Harvard PhD in Population Health Sciences? Someone on grad cafe posted that they just interviewed for the Environmental Health Sciences track and I thought there were no interviews.... (Sorry if that person is also on this thread)

 

[runfun523]

Does anyone know how many people are invited to interviews for Harvard's Health Policy vs. how many they accept?

 

[DrPH2016]

Hi everyone,

I am reaching out to see if anyone has applied to DrPH programs this year.

Currently, I applied to UC Berkeley, Columbia, and UIC.

Have any of you gotten interviews or any admissions information.

I had an interview with Columbia this past week and wanted to see if anyone else did too.

 

[squishiegiraffe]

.

 

[mlr2834]

Has anyone heard from Yale Chronic Disease Epi?

I heard from them on Friday. I received an interview, it's on Feb 8th

 

[CaliThugLife]

Seems like some people are already receiving PhD acceptances according to Grad cafe. Good luck to all of you!

 

[DrPH2016]

That's pretty interesting. Epi is definitely way bigger than the Social & Behavioral Sciences department then, which only offers 2 areas of specialty. Also, do you know if the biostats requirement you spoke of applies across subfields, or is it more specific to epidemiology? On the FAQ website it says incoming students only need to complete intro level biostats and epi.



I debated SMS at Columbia and ultimately did not apply; but I imagine your application will be reviewed by both Mailman and your targeted Social Sciences department.

Interesting, do you know anything about EPI at columbia? It seems in this forum that most folks are leaning towards other schools for phDs so am wondering if they have a good reputation?

 

[CaliThugLife]

Just received my decision from oregon state. Accepted!

 

[publichealthpolicynerd]

Has anyone heard back from UW - Seattle for Health Services?

 

[runfun523]

Has anyone heard back from UW - Seattle for Health Services?

Not me! Still waiting.

Also, has anyone that went to Brown's recruitment day last Friday heard back yet?

 

[CaliThugLife]

Applied:
Oregon state
Portland State
University of Illinois at Chicago
UCLA
UCSD/San Diego state
UC Irvine
USC

Accepted: Oregon state
Rejected: UCLA, USC

Still waiting on the rest!