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<p>We have had very little snow in the past few years in the New York region. In addition, in the City itself, snow – even big snow – is usually gone within a few days.</p>
<p>ETA: Talk to your current undergrad professors who teach the courses in your major and get their opinions. They are in the field, and they will Know Things.</p>
<p>First of all, I am so very proud of you. Second of all, I’m disappointed that you won’t be coming here, but when the cost of living is factored in, you are making the right decision.</p>
<p>For the entirety of the long and wonderful life you are going to have, SLU seems the right choice – unless you get there and hate it, which I highly doubt. The debt is just too much and too limiting with Michigan.</p>
<p>I would go with Michigan. It’s a top-rated school in so many areas and people have heard of it. That helps as much as anything with employment. I graduated from U of M back in the dark ages and I’m surprised that even here on the east coast, people respect the degree. I have a good friend with an MPH from Michigan and he’s got a very successful private consulting firm here in MA.</p>
<p>I don’t think SLU has the same reputation. Here in MA–very few would know what SLU stands for–most of my friends (who’ve grown up in the northeast) think of St. Louis as one of those fly-over places. I’ve lived in St. Louis (my husband taught at Wash U)–it’s hot, humid and miserable starting in late April and stays that way until well into the fall.I prefer the Michigan weather. </p>
<p>I don’t have a sense of MPH programs other than to go by rankings, but you’ve said that the SLU program is geared toward working professionals and is mostly online. I’m assuming the Michigan program is a little different. Based on that alone, I would think you’d have a better community/network in Michigan and that would serve you well for employment. Have you determined where each program places its students? What’s the success rate in terms of employment for each one?</p>
<p>My sense is that you’d like to get out of Michigan and St. Louis seems attractive for that reason. Don’t worry–you’ll have opportunity and offers to get out of Michigan–you’re bright and thoughtful and you will impress future employers.</p>
<p>My S completed his MPH in Global Disaster Management and Preparedness last year. Much of the program went to an online format (many have) and program participants included physicians, hospital administrators and public officials. Even though much of the coursework was online, there was a lot of group interaction and conferencing. The program included a field work component and S was able to obtain a position in the Disaster Operations Center of a major gulf coast city. Before relocating, find out about the actual amount of time you will need to be near campus. </p>
<p>I don’t think you will have trouble finding employment after completing your MPH degree. S made great connections both within the program and internship office and has had many opportunities and options. It sounds as if you feel a stronger connection to the SLU program. If your visit cements that, I wouldn’t be afraid to go with your gut. Best wishes!</p>
<p>I’m on my phone so I can’t respond to everything but thank you so much for your input. </p>
<p>VH, my undergrad degrees are completely unrelated to public health so no real help from professors.</p>
<p>ZM, thank you so much :). </p>
<p>Book, I commute a half hour every day to work so that shouldn’t be an issue. However, it’s something to think about with the winters as bad as they’ve been. </p>
<p>church, yes I’m hoping St. Louis will be a good match for us. We’re both from smallish towns and are not big on big cities. I think SL is just small enough to be ok with us though :).</p>
<p>My3, thank you! I know which program you’re talking about. Would you be willing to ask your s if I could contact him? I would like some perspective from someone in the field. I understand if he doesn’t want to talk to a stranger.</p>
<p>Again, thank you all. I’m sure I missed some questions and I’ll answer them later :)</p>
<p>SLU is a Catholic university. Will that pose any issues with your interests in reproductive health?</p>
<p>I would try to get in touch with someone who actually works in your field.</p>
<p>The reason I say that is because rank can be EXTREMELY important in some fields. My friend is in law school. It turns out that in this hiring climate, the name of your school, especially if you want to go into Big Law is EXTEREMELY important. There are plenty of people who went to lower-level shcools, were in th top of their class, law review, etc., and they cannot get jobs. Yes, they probably saved around 100K, but they can’t get jobs as lawyers. I see this in my firm too - law graduates applying for temp secretary positions, etc. My friend says the cut-off is about the top 10 -14 law schools in the country.</p>
<p>I know nothing about the field you are going in, but I would definitley try to find out how much rank matters. It’s not always irrelevant.</p>
<p>Good point about SLU being a catholic university.</p>
<p>I’ve addressed that concern with current students and they all say that it’s a non-issue in the grad school department. </p>
<p>I’ve just received some interesting news. The tuition waiver only covers up to 21 credits per year. With the joint concentration, this would leave me with about 11k out of pocket costs. However, the stipend is higher than I thought.</p>
<p>I do not like getting conflicting information and that’s all I’ve seem to have gotten lately from SLU. I think I’m now heavily favoring Michigan with this recent development as the loan difference would only be around 10k.</p>
<p>Is there any possibility that you can offset the 10K with being a TA, tutor, paper grader or something like that? I know that sometimes these are offered to PHD students first, but there might be something if you look into it.</p>
<p>I’m with the person who says to take your offer from Columbia and see if UMich will increase their offer. They might be able to add something. I’m gathering the umich offer does not include health benefits…just some kind of tuition waiver. Can you purchase insurance through UMich?</p>
<p>Re: the offers…it’s good to start thinking but until you have them all in writing you really can’t make a decision.</p>
<p>Gp Blue, romani! I vote for Michigan. I speak from experience as I also went to MSU for undergrad and Michigan for graduate school. I am very proud to be a Michigan graduate and have always been glad I went there. Wherever you go in your professional career, people respect Michigan, especially the graduate and professional schools.</p>
<p>I graduated during a recession and the only job I could find (in another state) was stressful and didn’t pay well at all. At my first statewide professional conference, I met a Michigan grad who had recently left a job that was still open. She found her old boss and then came and pulled me out of a lecture session. I was interviewed in the hallway and was then hired for that job in an ideal location and a much higher salary. </p>
<p>I also commuted to Michigan for all of my grad school program (from Lansing). I had a great part-time job in Lansing in my field, which made the commute worthwhile. I didn’t have many friends in my grad school program due to being a commuter, but you will be closer so that won’t be such an issue.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I won’t have the packages “in writing” until very, very close to the deadline so I just have to go by email offers until then and had to narrow it down to two or three because of travel restrictions (and my own sanity).</p>
<p>And thanks,bookie :)</p>
<p>I think they will send out info by e mail to you soon. I don’t think anyone has to decide before April 15 ( although they prefer you do if you are sure so that the spot can be given to someone else). I think you have to have some kind of solid information by that time, at least by e mail.</p>
<p>I suggest that you look at each program you are considering and identify which one(s) come(s) closest to what you are looking for. If there is an internship component, see where students have been placed and how that aligns with your interests. Look at where students have been placed after graduating and how much help the program gives graduates. Look closely at the faculty and try to identify professors whose personal interests line up with yours.</p>
<p>Then look at your financial outlay for each program you are considering. If there is no clear winner between the two best academic programs for you, then follow the money. If the clear winner requires a significantly greater financial outlay for you, then see if you can play the better financial offer against your top academic choice to increase your award. If you have no luck with this, then only you can decide if the better program for you is worth the financial outlay. (Are there any loan forgiveness programs for MPH students who agree to serve underserved populations after graduation? I know there are for med school and nursing school graduates, but unsure about MPH grads.)</p>
<p>Consider the savings on rent if you can live in your parent’s house rent free, but unless all things are equal I would ignore the weather!! It’s only for a relatively short period of time.</p>
<p>I still remember how crazy April 15 was many years ago when my (now professor) husband was weighing PhD offers. It came down to two; his first choice couldn’t guarantee funding so he accepted his second choice. Not 15 minutes later his first choice came up with the funding so he accepted that offer and had to contact his second choice to decline!! I don’t know if this kind of thing still happens, but it was down to the last minute for us!</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>As a former grad student and the mother of a current grad student, I agree with alot of the suggestions here. </p>
<p>Offers can change at the last minute. My son was waitlisted by one of his top choices, chose his other top choice and let the first school know, only to have them then make him an offer. He decided to stick with his original decision, but I’m sure he questions if he made the right choice. </p>
<p>Be sure to talk to current students about the culture of the program. Is there a collegial atmosphere? Do students socialize with each other? Are professors taskmasters? Do students enjoy working with the professors there? How are research groups run? I was a grad student in 2 different grad schools and they couldn’t have been more different from each other. My son wishes he’d asked more questions about culture when he visited(even though I encouraged him to), but he was taken in by the prestige of the school he’d gotten into and didn’t really want to be dissuaded. </p>
<p>It’s an exciting time for you. You can’t make a bad decision.</p>
<p>romani, will PM you. Have contacted a friend who may be helpful.</p>
<p>I’m remembering when I was considering PhD programs. I thought I was so sure where I wanted to go but then I put in a last minute app somewhere else. In fact, it was past the deadline, but I called them, they asked for my test scores and told me to go ahead and apply. When the chair of the department called to tell me I was accepted, my heart just knew I wanted to go there. Funny how these things happen. It turned out to be a great decision. These things aren’t always rational.</p>
<p>I will definitely hold out until the last minute but I think my heart and my gut are telling me to go to Michigan. Now that I’ve been browsing through their courses and their opportunities, I think it’s a better fit for me. Their opportunities, the research of their profs, etc all seems better for me. </p>
<p>Who knows? Maybe on April 15th, I’ll get a random offer to Arizona or something :p. </p>
<p>Thank you so much everyone. You’ve all given me a lot to think about.</p>
<p>You know, you sure can’t discount what opportunities might await you on a campus that is heavily recruited where you could get great connections. It might be easily worth the extra money. Though obviously I’ve no idea about either school’s recruitment opportunities, Michigan is a huge name.</p>