<p>For graduate school I plan on enrolling in a three-year dual degree in M. of Public Health and M. of Social Work. I've been set on this for a while now. I plan on applying to:
Columbia
UPenn
WUSTL
UMich
Berkeley </p>
<p>I was discussing this with a group of adults along with my undergraduate plans (I'm a HS senior) and they warned me about my ugrad plans and linking them to my grad plans. I'm going to a small, midwest LAC applying to:
Knox
Beloit
Grinnell
Oberlin
Carleton
Lake Forest</p>
<p>I plan on majoring in International Relations (Sociology with Global Development concentration at Grinnell, and Third World Studies with Sociology minor at Oberlin) and will be going to the school that gives me the best financial aid.</p>
<p>Anyway, a couple of the people said that it's going to be really hard to get into these graduate programs going to the schools I'm applying to and studying IR. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>I plan on getting some health and/or social work position after getting my Masters, pay off loans/save up some money, go back to school (I'm thinking of getting my Ph.D from Yale in Epidemiology & Public Health) and working in third world countries trying to stop the spread of diseases.</p>
<p>Thanks, I always tend to ramble on, I only think about half of this is relevent...</p>
<p>That's quite a plan! </p>
<p>As an adult, I have to agree that making detailed BA->MS->work->PhD plans at this stage might be setting yourself up for dissapointment. And its possible your undergrad major is not the ideal prep for the MPH/MSW. For example, Penn's curriculum is here:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.publichealth.med.upenn.edu/curriculum.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.publichealth.med.upenn.edu/curriculum.shtml</a></p>
<p>My read of that page is that they're looking for something close to "pre-med" level preparation from their applicants.</p>
<p>That said, you can certainly accomplish such preparation in a LAC by taking "real" science and math courses for your basic requirements and continuing to more advanced material as electives. That will help with the PhD goal as well since you'll need pretty much the full pre-med curriculum for that:</p>
<p><a href="http://info.med.yale.edu/eph/emd/phd.html%5B/url%5D">http://info.med.yale.edu/eph/emd/phd.html</a></p>
<p>It looks do-able - you'll want to work closely with your advisor(s) at whatever LAC you end up at. You may need to be a little aggressive to get a Soci/TWS anvisor and a pre-med advisor in the same room to hash things out. Even at a LAC the "real science" departments are not always on friendly terms with what they consider the "touchy-feelies".</p>
<p>In any case, you'll want to be on top of things from Day One - you've got a lot of stuff to squeeze in.</p>
<p>Good Luck! </p>
<p>PS: After you're in school, don't be afraid to just call the grad programs you're interested in. Once you get hold of an advisor you can set up a conference call with your undergrad advisor(s) and work out a program that has the best chance of getting you in. (If you think undergrad admissions are competitive you should check out the grad school numbers!)</p>