Spring 2006 or Fall 2006?

[runaway_train]

hi all,

Just took my GRE few days back...got 720 on the Verbal and 780 on the Quantitative section... i have an undergrad degree in medicine from india... i'm thinking of applying to the MPH program at BU, University of Iowa(they're supp. to have a good public health prog), USC,NWU and San Diego State... for SPring 2006...most other good schools don't have intake for the Spring semester....i was wondering if anybody on this forum could tell me about the advantages if any in applying to the above mentioned schools (if any) for spring 2006 or whether i should wait and apply to fall of 2006 to other schools...
thanks

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[namazu]

Hello,

Congratulations on your excellent GRE scores...they should be helpful to your application, along with your medical experience.

As far as I know, all of the schools you mention have reasonably well-respected programs - BU, Iowa, and SDSU have full Schools of Public Health, while USC and Northwestern offer their programs through their Schools of Medicine. I don't know if this distinction matters to you; it may or may not influence the focus of each of the programs. Also, depending on how the program is administered, it may or may not qualify for different types of accreditation.

What are your interests in the areas of Public Health? Are you primarily interested in the basic science aspects, the administrative of policy aspects, the community-education aspects? While most programs will give you some insight into each of these areas, some programs allow you to specialize more strongly in a particular area (e.g. Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Healthcare Administration, International Health, Health Education, Environmental and Occupational Health, Clinical Trials, and so on).

Every school has different strengths, often related to the activities of the region of the country in which they are located. The University of Iowa is strong in agriculture-related health issues, for example, while Boston University has a program in Health Law and Bioethics. Try to decide in what areas you want to focus your studies, what type of environment would allow you to pursue the opportunities you seek while a student, and then find out which schools best match your needs and goals.

Other factors to consider include the cost of tuition and the availability of funding, which may be limited for international students. In general, some of the less-prestigious school are more generous with funding for well-qualified applicants - but this is just a generalization. Finally, find out if applying for Spring admission would put you at a disdavantage or not as far as course scheduling - if there is a sequence of courses that begins only in the fall, you would have to wait to begin that sequence. It is also possible that courses are scheduled with Spring admits in mind and there would be no problem.

Certainly there are other good schools that only offer Fall admissions, but if you have a desire to begin in the Spring, you certainly would have some excellent choices among the schools you mentioned.

Good luck!

 

[runaway_train]

hi...thank you very much for the wealth of info you gave me...and very sorry for the delay in replying..