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Is anyone on this forum considering Berkeley for MPH?
UC Berkeley
- Thread starter futuredwight
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EpiWin - I'll be going too! I'm really excited to take a few days off work, especially in California (and I'll get to visit some family I haven't seen in a few years!) Which department will you be going into?
roger0770 - I'm sorry you didn't get in, especially if it was your top choice 🙁 best of luck with wherever you end up going!
I'm not sure if either of you would know, but how is cost of living in Berkeley? I've done some random rental searching and saw some pretty high prices, almost comparable to NYC, though I imagine/hope they will have more square footage (?) If anyone has any insight into cost of living, I would appreciate hearing more about it. Thanks!
roger0770 - I'm sorry you didn't get in, especially if it was your top choice 🙁 best of luck with wherever you end up going!
I'm not sure if either of you would know, but how is cost of living in Berkeley? I've done some random rental searching and saw some pretty high prices, almost comparable to NYC, though I imagine/hope they will have more square footage (?) If anyone has any insight into cost of living, I would appreciate hearing more about it. Thanks!
cost of living in the san francisco bay area is not cheap. i wouldn't say it is as high as new york city, but it's not much lower. if you were to get a nice one bedroom apartment, you're looking at $1,500 / month. of course, it's cheaper in oakland and other farther away from campus areas. welcome to the bay!
I'll be visiting the Epi/Biostat department, I'm so excited to visit California as well! Although with the nice weather Boston has been getting recently (as well as the fact that it's St. Patrick's Day weekend) there's a strong pull to just stay put and enjoy things over here 😎.
did they mention anything about being a GSI?
I noticed that no one posted about the visit day for Berkeley, so I wanted to throw in a few of my thoughts about what I gathered (from the perspective of a prospective Epi MPH).
One of the major qualities of UCB is cohort size. In my group, the year above us has between 15-20 students, and the entire MPH program for Epi is about 40. It seemed like in general most of the departments were towards the smaller, more intimate end of the spectrum in terms of relative size to other SPH. Our faculty coordinators told us this allows for significant interactions with faculty, which I think is a great attribute for a program. However, one point that was stressed by both faculty and students is that the network that you build is going to be very much a West Coast one. From the alumni they brought in to the current students' frank opinions, a degree from UCB is going to put you in touch with many, many people within major organizations in the West (e.g. Kaiser) but that significantly fewer alumni would be available out on the East Coast just by nature of many graduates choosing to stay. I think this could be a negative or positive depending on where you want to end up; all my family is on the East Coast so I felt this was a point to consider during my decision process.
Financial aid was discussed, and essentially the vast majority of students are getting loans from UCB. That having been said, we were told that every student who wanted a GSI/GSR position was able to secure one, and that this was the route selected by roughly 30% of the students within the school. These positions have the added benefit of providing significant fee remissions, including tuition, campus, health insurance, etc. I think by one calculation, an in-state student attending UCB with a typical GSI position for all four semesters could expect to only pay the professional supplement for the degree (which is roughly 3-4k per semester). That was a HUGE plus in my mind, because students could expect to cover the costs of their education with the wage earned from teaching or researching, and only have to think about covering their living expenses. Some students also secured fellowships by learning foreign languages, which the SPH is prioritized in receiving because it's designated as a professional school. The impression I got was that UCB is largely shielded by the budget cuts and shortfalls within the state government.
The curriculum is the most flexible one I've heard of, at least for Epi. Students are only required to take a nominal number (I think five) of required breadth courses within the school, and after that the students are free to arrange the schedule however they'd like. There seems to be significant leeway in terms of being able to switch departments, take classes within different departments, or take classes within different schools at UCB. I believe other departments may have more specific requirements, but the 2 year Epi MPH seemed unbelievably flexible. The professor talking to us mentioned that their goal was to ensure that students learned what they wanted to learn, and as a result some Epi students were taking three different programming languages while others were focusing heavily on HPM classes with minimal statistics. Each student is assigned a faculty mentor beforehand to help them with their courses, another way that support is given from the administration.
Regarding the practicum, the summer internships are very organized, and the school itself helps coordinate organizations and students by having an application process for interested students to apply with. Though it seemed like you could find positions outside of the system, the ease and convenience of applying through the school was great in my mind, since many people come in without any network or connections to a city. I heard one student talk about how she was able to get funded to travel internationally for her internship, and that many students end up using their experience as fodder for their final thesis. As an exception to what I said about the network above, there seems to be placement everywhere, from local state departments to the CDC. Really top-notch job by the Career Services office.
The campus is beautiful. There's no way around it, best weather I've seen anywhere.
Housing can be as cheap or expensive as students want, I've heard rents from anywhere between $500 and $1100. It seems like there are students living in Berkeley as well as in Oakland and San Francisco, and the school is pretty easily accessible by the MARTA. Cost of living seems comparable to cities like Boston.
Overall, the students who I talked to all were extremely happy with their decision. We had a happy hour at the end of the visit, and the students who came all thought that they had been given excellent opportunities to learn from the faculty who were there. Most students seemed to have experience already coming into the program, so there were not as many straight-from-undergrads that I met at the visit. The faculty coordinators stated that the school is very masters focused, so the masters students at the school are given a good deal of attention. If you come here and you're out of state, it's very easy to become a CA resident to qualify for in-state tuition (living in the state for one year = resident). The NRC rankings for the PhD program in Epi puts UCB tied for number 1, a point that is scattered throughout their promo literature, but it certainly makes sense that they are ranked highly given the dedicated faculty.
Recap (or tl;dr): UCB comes out as an extremely affordable and well-regarded school, with smart, friendly students and committed faculty. The flexibility of the program is a unique aspect of the school, and the location is pretty much unbeatable. The focusing of alumni on the West Coast seems like it could have an effect on people interested in returning to the East, but the school is able to network well with organizations all throughout the country and the world.
One of the major qualities of UCB is cohort size. In my group, the year above us has between 15-20 students, and the entire MPH program for Epi is about 40. It seemed like in general most of the departments were towards the smaller, more intimate end of the spectrum in terms of relative size to other SPH. Our faculty coordinators told us this allows for significant interactions with faculty, which I think is a great attribute for a program. However, one point that was stressed by both faculty and students is that the network that you build is going to be very much a West Coast one. From the alumni they brought in to the current students' frank opinions, a degree from UCB is going to put you in touch with many, many people within major organizations in the West (e.g. Kaiser) but that significantly fewer alumni would be available out on the East Coast just by nature of many graduates choosing to stay. I think this could be a negative or positive depending on where you want to end up; all my family is on the East Coast so I felt this was a point to consider during my decision process.
Financial aid was discussed, and essentially the vast majority of students are getting loans from UCB. That having been said, we were told that every student who wanted a GSI/GSR position was able to secure one, and that this was the route selected by roughly 30% of the students within the school. These positions have the added benefit of providing significant fee remissions, including tuition, campus, health insurance, etc. I think by one calculation, an in-state student attending UCB with a typical GSI position for all four semesters could expect to only pay the professional supplement for the degree (which is roughly 3-4k per semester). That was a HUGE plus in my mind, because students could expect to cover the costs of their education with the wage earned from teaching or researching, and only have to think about covering their living expenses. Some students also secured fellowships by learning foreign languages, which the SPH is prioritized in receiving because it's designated as a professional school. The impression I got was that UCB is largely shielded by the budget cuts and shortfalls within the state government.
The curriculum is the most flexible one I've heard of, at least for Epi. Students are only required to take a nominal number (I think five) of required breadth courses within the school, and after that the students are free to arrange the schedule however they'd like. There seems to be significant leeway in terms of being able to switch departments, take classes within different departments, or take classes within different schools at UCB. I believe other departments may have more specific requirements, but the 2 year Epi MPH seemed unbelievably flexible. The professor talking to us mentioned that their goal was to ensure that students learned what they wanted to learn, and as a result some Epi students were taking three different programming languages while others were focusing heavily on HPM classes with minimal statistics. Each student is assigned a faculty mentor beforehand to help them with their courses, another way that support is given from the administration.
Regarding the practicum, the summer internships are very organized, and the school itself helps coordinate organizations and students by having an application process for interested students to apply with. Though it seemed like you could find positions outside of the system, the ease and convenience of applying through the school was great in my mind, since many people come in without any network or connections to a city. I heard one student talk about how she was able to get funded to travel internationally for her internship, and that many students end up using their experience as fodder for their final thesis. As an exception to what I said about the network above, there seems to be placement everywhere, from local state departments to the CDC. Really top-notch job by the Career Services office.
The campus is beautiful. There's no way around it, best weather I've seen anywhere.
Housing can be as cheap or expensive as students want, I've heard rents from anywhere between $500 and $1100. It seems like there are students living in Berkeley as well as in Oakland and San Francisco, and the school is pretty easily accessible by the MARTA. Cost of living seems comparable to cities like Boston.
Overall, the students who I talked to all were extremely happy with their decision. We had a happy hour at the end of the visit, and the students who came all thought that they had been given excellent opportunities to learn from the faculty who were there. Most students seemed to have experience already coming into the program, so there were not as many straight-from-undergrads that I met at the visit. The faculty coordinators stated that the school is very masters focused, so the masters students at the school are given a good deal of attention. If you come here and you're out of state, it's very easy to become a CA resident to qualify for in-state tuition (living in the state for one year = resident). The NRC rankings for the PhD program in Epi puts UCB tied for number 1, a point that is scattered throughout their promo literature, but it certainly makes sense that they are ranked highly given the dedicated faculty.
Recap (or tl;dr): UCB comes out as an extremely affordable and well-regarded school, with smart, friendly students and committed faculty. The flexibility of the program is a unique aspect of the school, and the location is pretty much unbeatable. The focusing of alumni on the West Coast seems like it could have an effect on people interested in returning to the East, but the school is able to network well with organizations all throughout the country and the world.
^^^ this.
