MPH Admission Chances

Hi! I’m a third-year student graduating from Tulane early next spring with a major in Public Health. I’m currently working on my MPH application for Fall 2020, and I was hoping to get some advice on whether or not I could be considered a competitive candidate. I’m currently planning on applying to the Epidemiology concentration at UT Houston, Texas A&M, UNT, and potentially USC (South Carolina), Drexel, and BU.

I just took my GRE today and I know my qualitative and quantitative scores. I received a 158 Qualitative and a 154 Quantitative. Since I’m applying to Epidemiology, I wanted to get some feedback on whether or not I should retake the GRE in a couple of weeks to shoot for a higher score. I’ve taken statistics courses in college (Stats for Scientists I received a B+ and Biostatistics I received an A) and have also received AP credit (scores 4 and above) for other math credit. Those would show up on my transcript, so is it worth it to retake?

I imagine that my letters of recommendation will be fairly strong as I’ve known my recommenders for a while and they have a good sense of my personality and/or work ethic (2 academic professors and 1 research professor).

As of the end of last semester, my total GPA is a 3.775 (I was premed for a bit and Genetics dragged it down), and my major GPA is a 4.0.

As for extracurriculars/work experience:

  • I work two jobs on campus (Resident Advisor and student event programming/budgeting).
  • I’ve been a research assistant for two qualitative analysis-type projects, one dealing with rural opioid use (since Fall 2018) and the other with trauma (since Spring 2019).
  • I’ve been a peer mentor for several student organizations, an orientation leader, and I’m currently the Social Media Coordinator for a club cycling.
  • I’ve volunteered sporadically (1 semester long program presenting science to elementary school students, 3 times as a group leader for an empowerment program for young girls, etc.).

I would really appreciate some honest thoughts on my chances of being accepted into the schools I listed at the beginning of this post, as well as some advice for what I should or shouldn’t include on my application. I’m really just beginning to form my application, so I would also be grateful for any advice people have for the application process in general. Thank you!

can’t really opine on chances, but would encourage you to throw out an app to a couple of the big PH names, such as Harvard, Hopkins, Emory, Michigan, North Carolina…