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Resources for Prospective Students

Crafting a Strong Application

In their application statements, successful prospective students demonstrate their commitment to public health research by discussing their involvement in research activities during their undergraduate or post-college careers. In addition, outline your specific research interests, methods or approaches you seek to learn, and future career goals so that our Admissions Committee can assess potential fit between your interests and our program. We also recommend that you mention specific faculty whose research or teaching interests align with your own. To help with this process, we recommend reviewing our faculty and their research areas. We also encourage prospective students to check out our current students and alumni.

The GRE is no longer required! However, we do require applicants to have taken and received at least a B grade in an introductory statistics course, at either the undergraduate or graduate level. Either an MPH (or equivalent Master’s degree) or 2+ years of relevant work experience is also strongly encouraged.

Strong applications generally include:

  • Demonstrated commitment to research through discussion of research activities during undergraduate or post-college career

  • Identification of specific research interests, methods or approaches you seek to learn

  • Discussion of future career goals so that our Admissions Committee can assess potential fit between your interests and our program

  • Mention of specific faculty whose research or teaching interests align with your own. To help with this process, we recommend reviewing our faculty and their individual websites.

We encourage all prospective Ph.D. students to reach out to existing faculty members to explore whether our program is a good fit for your interests and career goals. We do not formally interview applicants to our program, but conversations with individual faculty can be very useful for assessing whether our program is a good match for you.

Questions you may get asked:

  • Why do you want to pursue a Ph.D.?
  • What kind of research are you interested in conducting?
  • Do you have any background in statistical or qualitative research methods?
  • What kind of career do you want to pursue after your Ph.D.?
  • What aspects of doing research do you enjoy, and which seem intimidating?

Questions you might want to ask:

  • What research projects are you currently working on? 
  • How many students do you currently have, and what are they working on? 
  • What is your mentoring approach, particularly around writing and publishing academic papers? 
  • What types of data and methods (quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods) do your students typically work with? 
  • What careers have your previous students pursued after graduating? 
  • What funding opportunities do you have for your students, including funding for summer research and travel to conferences?

Also check out the following external resources:

 

 

Updated Septemeber 2023