The Waiting game

[IntriguedStudent]

So now that it's mid-November, I'm sure a lot of us have submitted our applications and are now playing the waiting game. I figured a thread like this would be nice so that we can talk about whatever and (hopefully) distract ourselves from checking our e-mail 10 times a day. Feel free to use it to vent, express your nerves, goals, aspirations, or discuss any random topic you'd like. It never hurts to see the Public Health community on SDN grow a little closer!

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[wwxx]

My application just got verified this morning...kinda late...but so nervous now!!!

 

[IntriguedStudent]

Yeah, I thought I would feel so much better once my application was in and verified, but I actually think I'm more nervous now! Hoping that at least a school or two will start getting back to us in a month of so.

 

[WHOdriscoll91]

Same. I bought a new computer and I waiting for that would take my mind off my apps. Instead I constantly check everyday for updates on both. Also, I have to submit 1 or 2 more statements, but non of which are my major choices X)

 

[IntriguedStudent]

Same. I bought a new computer and I waiting for that would take my mind off my apps. Instead I constantly check everyday for updates on both. Also, I have to submit 1 or 2 more statements, but non of which are my major choices X)

I haven't been able to find a way to distract myself yet. I'm looking forward to the holiday though because at least I'll get to go visit my family for a few days and that should provide a (brief) distraction. I tend to be a worrier, so this whole waiting thing is killing me. I keep finding myself wanting to submit to more schools to broaden my chances, even though I know it wouldn't do me much good at this point.

 

[syzar]

I have classes right now so that's keeping me somewhat busy. I am planning a schedule of sorts for what I will read and study till I start graduate school which helps keep my mind from worrying too much. I have also received acceptance letters from Tulane and U of Pittsburgh. That certainly helps!

 

[BPW1088]

In order to pass time, consider investing time into pursuing new opportunities in the public health field. If you feel that you lack certain skills and/or knowledge, why not take advantage of some extra time you have on your hands, in order to broaden your skill sets and foundation for the content area. This can come into play if God forbid you're wait-listed or denied from a program, and you want to appeal the decision. By having these new components, it'll make you a stronger candidate and display a greater sense of your genuine passion for public health.

Instead of obsessing on what's already done and out of your hands, take control of what you can and create a greater case for why you want to pursue your degree. This will also help when you get to campus and are seeking research opportunities with professors, or internships with different entities that work in public health in one way or another.

I hope this helps!

 

[IntriguedStudent]

I have classes right now so that's keeping me somewhat busy. I am planning a schedule of sorts for what I will read and study till I start graduate school which helps keep my mind from worrying too much. I have also received acceptance letters from Tulane and U of Pittsburgh. That certainly helps!

Congrats on your acceptances! I don't think any of the schools I applied to have starting giving notices yet. Are either of those one of your top choices? That schedule is actually a pretty good idea. I've been taking some Coursera classes to try to keep my mind working .

In order to pass time, consider investing time into pursuing new opportunities in the public health field. If you feel that you lack certain skills and/or knowledge, why not take advantage of some extra time you have on your hands, in order to broaden your skill sets and foundation for the content area. This can come into play if God forbid you're wait-listed or denied from a program, and you want to appeal the decision. By having these new components, it'll make you a stronger candidate and display a greater sense of your genuine passion for public health.

Instead of obsessing on what's already done and out of your hands, take control of what you can and create a greater case for why you want to pursue your degree. This will also help when you get to campus and are seeking research opportunities with professors, or internships with different entities that work in public health in one way or another.

I hope this helps!

Yeah, I'd definitely like to get involved in some more public health opportunities. I think that's going to have to wait until the new year though. Nobody wants to take anybody on during the holidays .

 

[IntriguedStudent]

Received my first acceptance today! Huge weight off my shoulders to know that I'm officially in somewhere.

 

[BPW1088]

Congrats, @IntriguedStudent . I saw in the other thread that you got accepted to Icahn at Mt. Sinai. That's great! One of many more acceptances to come, . The fun and hard part comes in May when you have to make a decision!

 

[IntriguedStudent]

Congrats, @IntriguedStudent . I saw in the other thread that you got accepted to Icahn at Mt. Sinai. That's great! One of many more acceptances to come, . The fun and hard part comes in May when you have to make a decision!

Thanks! I'm hoping that I have that issue !

 

[backwardinduction]

Congrats on your acceptance, as well as for everyone else who has found out already!

I'm currently in the state of limbo where I have submitted everything to SOPHAS, but my application can't even begin to be verified by SOPHAS because none of my references have submitted their recommendations yet even after a month of knowing they've had to do this. And honestly this makes me nervous since the school I want to go the most (UMN) has a priority deadline on Monday, which I've told my references about. If all of my application materials aren't submitted to SOPHAS by December 1st, then I won't receive priority consideration for scholarships, even though I can be accepted if my stuff gets submitted after that deadline. Its just frustrating because its out of my hands completely, and even though I've sent out reminder emails yesterday and the week before, I haven't gotten any responses from yesterday's reminder email so now I'm literally freaking out about all of this since there is literally nothing I can do but hope. And its frustrating because every additional day that other people wait to turn in their letters, is another day that I'll have to worry about the status of my future.

 

[truffletumbles]

Congrats on your acceptance, as well as for everyone else who has found out already!

I'm currently in the state of limbo where I have submitted everything to SOPHAS, but my application can't even begin to be verified by SOPHAS because none of my references have submitted their recommendations yet even after a month of knowing they've had to do this. And honestly this makes me nervous since the school I want to go the most (UMN) has a priority deadline on Monday, which I've told my references about. If all of my application materials aren't submitted to SOPHAS by December 1st, then I won't receive priority consideration for scholarships, even though I can be accepted if my stuff gets submitted after that deadline. Its just frustrating because its out of my hands completely, and even though I've sent out reminder emails yesterday and the week before, I haven't gotten any responses from yesterday's reminder email so now I'm literally freaking out about all of this since there is literally nothing I can do but hope. And its frustrating because every additional day that other people wait to turn in their letters, is another day that I'll have to worry about the status of my future.

I'm in the same boat as well. I JUST submitted my application this morning. The only thing holding my application up for verification is one more recommendation letter (which said recommendator has over a month to do). I heard that the schools do receive the components of the application, but it's just not verified. Can anyone validate it?

 

[JaneOakmede]

The schools can view your application as soon as you add them as a designation. However, as far as I know most schools do not actually look at them until all materials are in and your application is verified. I know one exception is Tulane, which will begin processing your application as soon as its status is listed as complete.

 

[truffletumbles]

YAY! My last LoR AND My SOPHAS application got verified this evening! I thought they would get verified next week or later, but I'm happy!

 

[backwardinduction]

YAY! My last LoR AND My SOPHAS application got verified this evening! I thought they would get verified next week or later, but I'm happy!

Interesting, I e-submitted my application on November 15th, but I just got the first 2 of the 3 LORs in Thursday and Today, so does that mean that my application could be verified at some point today?

 

[JaneOakmede]

Interesting, I e-submitted my application on November 15th, but I just got the first 2 of the 3 LORs in Thursday and Today, so does that mean that my application could be verified at some point today?

As far as I understand that is all that is required for verification. How long it takes depends on how many other people are ahead of you to be verified.

 

[backwardinduction]

As far as I understand that is all that is required for verification. How long it takes depends on how many other people are ahead of you to be verified.

Yeah, just going by what truffletumbles said it sounds like mine could be verified very soon.

 

[truffletumbles]

Interesting, I e-submitted my application on November 15th, but I just got the first 2 of the 3 LORs in Thursday and Today, so does that mean that my application could be verified at some point today?

I submitted mine the day before I got the verification, but I had all of my transcripts submitted by September. So maybe that's why I got it so quickly?

 

[backwardinduction]

Interesting, mines still not verified, and it was considered complete yesterday morning when my 2nd reference submitted her thing, and I've had all my stuff filled out and transcripts there for a few weeks. My final reference uploaded his letter today so I'm all set, as UMN is fine as long as its considered complete by December 1st.

 

[IntriguedStudent]

@truffletumbles @backwardinduction
I'm glad to hear that your LoR writers finally submitted! That was one of the most painstaking parts of the whole process for me as well. Good luck on your applications! It sounds like you both should have made the priority deadlines.

 

[IntriguedStudent]

How was everybody's weekend and/or holiday? It provided a great distraction for me, but now it's back to the everyday grind .

 

[Changemaker]

Any PhD acceptance decisions anyone?

 

[truffletumbles]

How was everybody's weekend and/or holiday? It provided a great distraction for me, but now it's back to the everyday grind .

Finishing up my last undergraduate semester by studying and drafting my commencement speech (I got chosen to be the student commencement speaker! I'm so excited).

MPH-related, I got an email from GWU confriming that my application was processed. Emory received my application, but won't be reviewed until 1/5 (ah well, at least it's out of the way).

 

[IntriguedStudent]

Finishing up my last undergraduate semester by studying and drafting my commencement speech (I got chosen to be the student commencement speaker! I'm so excited).

MPH-related, I got an email from GWU confriming that my application was processed. Emory received my application, but won't be reviewed until 1/5 (ah well, at least it's out of the way).

You received confirmation that Emory won't start reviewing applications until 1/5? I was wondering if that was going to be the case. They have such a late deadline. I'd love to hear from them sooner since they are one of my top choices, but I guess it'll be a while.

 

[IntriguedStudent]

Finishing up my last undergraduate semester by studying and drafting my commencement speech (I got chosen to be the student commencement speaker! I'm so excited).

MPH-related, I got an email from GWU confriming that my application was processed. Emory received my application, but won't be reviewed until 1/5 (ah well, at least it's out of the way).

And congratulations on being chosen to be the commencement speaker! That's quite impressive.

 

[syzar]

Congrats on your acceptances! I don't think any of the schools I applied to have starting giving notices yet. Are either of those one of your top choices? That schedule is actually a pretty good idea. I've been taking some Coursera classes to try to keep my mind working .

I honestly do not know! I love them, but I will wait till I get replies from all or most schools before I start rating them on the scale. I will just get too stressed if I do that now!

Any recommendation for good courses on Coursera started in January or so?

 

[IntriguedStudent]

I honestly do not know! I love them, but I will wait till I get replies from all or most schools before I start rating them on the scale. I will just get too stressed if I do that now!

Any recommendation for good courses on Coursera started in January or so?

Well I'm going into epi, so I'm taking a work at your own pace epidemiology course offered by professors at UNC right now. The Data Science specialization (the free track) offered by Johns Hopkins is also useful for those going into Epi/Biostats, as it provided an introduction data science and statistical programs (mostly R).

Coursera is really easy to use and doesn't take up too much of my time, so I'm really enjoying it!

 

[backwardinduction]

I'm busy killing myself with finals. Microbio will be easy, but my other classes have long non-scientific papers that I need to slave away over.

Next semester I'm not taking any bio sadly, but it'll be a nice break while I finish up my upper division math and econ classes.

 

[IntriguedStudent]

I'm busy killing myself with finals. Microbio will be easy, but my other classes have long non-scientific papers that I need to slave away over.

Next semester I'm not taking any bio sadly, but it'll be a nice break while I finish up my upper division math and econ classes.

I always hated having to take the non-science courses. It was so difficult trying to switch my brain from "science mode" to anything else. Good luck on your finals, though!

 

[syzar]

Anybody knows how you go about getting published and doing research at the various research centers at the university? I really have no idea how this works. Do you just start approaching random professors, are their certain avenues, do you wait till somebody asks you, etc?

 

[IntriguedStudent]

Anybody knows how you go about getting published and doing research at the various research centers at the university? I really have no idea how this works. Do you just start approaching random professors, are their certain avenues, do you wait till somebody asks you, etc?

I'm really not sure about this, although I would like to know as well. From what I've seen, some schools have avenues that aid in finding research opportunities. However, for the most part, it seems that the best way is to research various professors to see what kind of research they do and then contact those that fit your interests.

 

[2015iscoming]

Any PhD acceptance decisions anyone?

I only applied for two programs this year, and only submitted right before the deadline... thus i don't expect to hear anything until maybe March? Shall we start a new thread for phd stats?

 

[agh2415]

I only applied for two programs this year, and only submitted right before the deadline... thus i don't expect to hear anything until maybe March? Shall we start a new thread for phd stats?

I think there is a PhD thread, but it was pretty dead last I saw. I also submitted several apps in the past couple weeks. Received emails from two programs saying they expect to have a decision by the end of January.

 

[IntriguedStudent]

I think there is a PhD thread, but it was pretty dead last I saw. I also submitted several apps in the past couple weeks. Received emails from two programs saying they expect to have a decision by the end of January.

End of January seems to be when most programs will release decisions, although a few have already started to notify applicants.

 

[JaneOakmede]

End of January seems to be when most programs will release decisions, although a few have already started to notify applicants.

Some of the PhD programs I applied to said they send decisions out after February. Are we there yet?

 

[IntriguedStudent]

Some of the PhD programs I applied to said they send decisions out after February. Are we there yet?

February can't come soon enough. I just want to know where I stand with these schools!

 

[kc1223]

I finally got my first acceptance! It makes the waiting game a little more tolerable, but it's marginal at best. I just want to know!

 

[IntriguedStudent]

I finally got my first acceptance! It makes the waiting game a little more tolerable, but it's marginal at best. I just want to know!

Congrats ! Where from?

 

[kc1223]

Congrats ! Where from?

University of Illinois at Chicago

 

[IntriguedStudent]

University of Illinois at Chicago

Awesome! What department? How long ago was your SOPHAS verified? I've been waiting to hear back from them. My status has been "referred to college for review" for a while now.

 

[kc1223]

Awesome! What department? How long ago was your SOPHAS verified? I've been waiting to hear back from them. My status has been "referred to college for review" for a while now.

I applied for MHA through HAMPCAS, verified 10/8. My last LOR got in 10/31 though. I think the MHA program is a little separate from all the other programs in the SPH, so I'm not sure what their process is like.

 

[Changemaker]

I only applied for two programs this year, and only submitted right before the deadline... thus i don't expect to hear anything until maybe March? Shall we start a new thread for phd stats?

Yeah, I started the other PhD thread for the applications, but yeah it's pretty dead. Some schools like UMD told me at the APHA conference that they'd start sending out acceptance in December. Still haven't heard anything. Just emailed the department chair again who was nice and warm when I met her at APHA, but didn't reply my previous mail a week ago. Let's see. The PhD folks, should we do the waiting game here or move our conversation to the PhD thread?

 

[samiihong]

I check SOPHAS dozens time a day to see if it verified my GPA... Damn it is slow...

 

[IntriguedStudent]

I applied for MHA through HAMPCAS, verified 10/8. My last LOR got in 10/31 though. I think the MHA program is a little separate from all the other programs in the SPH, so I'm not sure what their process is like.

Yeah, the timeline is probably a bit different. But congrats again! They are a great school.

I check SOPHAS dozens time a day to see if it verified my GPA... Damn it is slow...

I feel your pain . I hate that my SOPHAS GPA is so low.

 

[truffletumbles]

University of Illinois at Chicago

Oh my goodness! I already submitted my SOPHAS application to that school and haven't heard back from them. That could be because I haven't finished the sub-application...I'm waiting until my partner and I find a new place in Chicago so I could update the address.

 

[truffletumbles]

And congratulations on being chosen to be the commencement speaker! That's quite impressive.

Thanks IntriguedStudent! I already had my first rehearsal and it seems like it'll be great! I feel like a diva because I'm gettiing the star treatment during the ceremony

 

[wwxx]

I applied for MHA through HAMPCAS, verified 10/8. My last LOR got in 10/31 though. I think the MHA program is a little separate from all the other programs in the SPH, so I'm not sure what their process is like.

OMG, Congrats!!! UIC is the school I want to go the most because I LOVE Chicago!!! I also applied to MHA, didn't know they give out results so soon, though I submitted my application much later than you...fingers crossed...

 

[2015iscoming]

Yeah, I started the other PhD thread for the applications, but yeah it's pretty dead. Some schools like UMD told me at the APHA conference that they'd start sending out acceptance in December. Still haven't heard anything. Just emailed the department chair again who was nice and warm when I met her at APHA, but didn't reply my previous mail a week ago. Let's see. The PhD folks, should we do the waiting game here or move our conversation to the PhD thread?

I'd love too! I also think it might be helpful for future PHD applicants to leave our stats (and complaints, happiness and tears...) all in one place..

 

[JaneOakmede]

Does anyone know when Emory starts processing their applications?