r/publichealth • u/SadBreath PhD/MPH • Aug 28 '19

ADVICE School and Jobs Advice Megathread Part III

All job and school-related advice should be asked in here. Below is the r/publichealth MPH guide which may answer general questions.

See the below guides for more information:

  1. MPH Guide
  2. Job Guide
  3. Choosing a public health field
  4. Choosing a public health concentration
  5. Choosing a public health industry

Past Threads:

  1. Megathread Part I
  2. Megathread Part II
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u/GDoebler Sep 16 '19

I am currently a 4th year/senior undergraduate student in the process of applying to Masters in Public Health programs.

I’m looking for any advice on how many programs to apply to? My advisor (who admits he doesn’t know too much about MPH programs/admissions) advised me to apply between 8- 10 programs. I originally was planning on applying to 5 (UNC, BU, VCU, GMU, Campbell Uni), but now I am questioning if I should apply to more?

My major concerns are that if I don’t apply to more I’ll greatly hurt my chances of getting into a program. But on the flip side of that applying to programs + the GRE is really expensive and I don’t want to spend so much money only to be rejected.

Any advice? How many programs did you apply to? How many is too little and how many is too much?

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u/life_choices_suck Sep 17 '19

8-10 seems like overkill. I would apply to those 5 you mentioned. I applied to 3 schools and got into 2. That made the decision making way easier for me.