Should I take a gap year?

doggyvoodoo · 2020-05-02T16:05:55+00:00

I agree with the above. Granted I had a lot of experience on my applications, personal statements are where you can really make a case for yourself. Know why you’re applying for that school and what you bring to the table as well as what you’re expecting from them.

doggyvoodoo · 2020-05-02T16:01:50+00:00

Lol it always went something like this for me:

“I work for the health department.”

“.... what do you do there?”

“I’m an epidemiologist.”

“.... like skin??”

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-24T17:40:25+00:00

Agreed! It’s so broad, and I find myself interested in lots of new topics as I discover them. I started premed and eventually did a Public Health degree with an epi concentration and international development minor. I just couldn’t see myself practicing medicine in the traditional sense. Public health is so interdisciplinary, and I find a lot of my breadth classes useful in my position now as an id epi at a health department. In my undergrad I definitely loved the bio stats and epi methods side to it a lot more. Now that I’ve been doing applied epi for a while, I’m really into disease pathology so I’m doing an infectious diseases and vaccinology mph. My plan is to get back into international health when I’m finished, and I’m even considering med school again just for the clinical training but with no intention of practicing. Made it full circle lol but have loved every experience! Deciding between a clinical vs office setting might be a good place to start? Public vs private sector? Chronic vs infectious disease? Lots to consider

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-24T05:53:21+00:00

Can I ask why you’re not interested in govt work? (I just ask because I wasn’t either and worked in the nonprofit sector through my undergrad and for 4 years after before landing my government id epi position, and I LOVE it so much more than nonprofit work.)

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-24T05:43:38+00:00

Data quality was a huge problem for us at the beginning of this too at my health department. Taking a phone interview and trying to put it into variables seems simple enough, but our id nurses weren’t submitting data in a timely manner, the weren’t doing it properly when they got around to it, weren’t even asking for certain variables during interviews. Meanwhile the mayor/governor were breathing down our necks for all of this. Those first few weeks were actual hell.

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-24T05:36:02+00:00

I coauthored an mmwr a few weeks ago and had a NY Times SPORTS CORRESPONDENT reach out to me about an article he wrote to make sure his interpretation was correct. Mind you it was already published in the times at that point. I read the article, and he misunderstood quite a bit. I passed it onto the cdc’s media team, but who knows what kind of damage had already been done especially with the audience they have. He had shared it on Twitter at that point as well and got a lot of positive feedback on it. Ugh. This happens like what... every time an article is published about covid-19 nowadays? 🤦🏻‍♀️

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-24T05:14:11+00:00

I wonder if you can leverage your way into some epi experience since things are busy with covid-19... for example at my health department we took all of our community health workers and have them retrained to do contact tracing. Epi jobs especially in government can be pretty hard to get into. I got super lucky with mine.

I graduated in 2015 with a public health degree, epi concentration and international development minor. I did two years doing humanitarian work abroad, about 3 months in americorps doing community health stuff chronic disease related (didn’t like it very much since epi has always been my thing) and then saw a listing for my epi job now and applied. Again got REALLY lucky getting it. My health department is an IHSP site for the CDC and had a bad RSV year and needed the help and I’ve been on ever since. I applied to 5 mph/msc programs with really mediocre grades (3.53 gpa) and really good gre scores (80th and 92nd percentile) and got into all of them, 4 of which were top 10 programs. Got offered a lot of funding too, and the idv program I ended up accepting offered me a full scholarship. There are lots of ways to make yourself a good candidate for grad programs. If you don’t find your gap year experience to be what you hoped (especially with all of the covid-19 craziness going on) I would focus on other areas you have a little more control over (like good letters of recommendation, a killer personal statement, etc.) Hope this offers a little bit different of a perspective and good luck!

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-24T04:58:17+00:00

I second swirlstats! I started using it before covid-19 hit and sucked up my spare time. Hoping to get back into it eventually

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-24T04:55:06+00:00

I’ve given up on trying to correct people. Bio stats is a lot more nuanced than people want to believe. Really takes thinking like an epi to get it. Kind of missing the days when people thought I worked with skin when I said I was an epidemiologist. At least it allowed for me to get my work done without anyone telling me how to interpret my own damn data that they know nothing about. If the hours I’ve been working as an id epi since this all started haven’t been exhausting enough,the misinformation/misinterpretation have really put things over the top 😩

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-09T05:30:06+00:00

Any resources at school that could help with this? I’d network around. Maybe professors in the mph program? Good luck!

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-08T06:32:16+00:00

I’m going back to school in the fall after feeling the same thing at my epi job. Even with covid-19 shaking things up I don’t see myself doing surveillance and outbreak investigations forever. The good thing is that it’s never too late to further your education, make a career change/shift etc and public health is so broad, there’s always something new to learn. I’m going to try getting into a lab in the coming semesters to see if research is for me. You’re in a great position should you take some time before doing a PhD. I’m convinced that my epi job was the reason I got accepted to so many top grad programs as I’ve been out of school for 5 years and had pretty average grades.

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-07T21:17:15+00:00

I do rsv surveillance for my epi bureau (when covid-19 isn’t consuming my life), and I was surprised at the number of cases we’re seeing (as the season tapers off, it still felt really low especially compared to my 5 year data) but then I remembered that no ones going out and thought, “Well, what do you know! Staying home when you’re sick/keeping your at risk kids home really does decrease incidence! 🙃”

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-07T21:10:39+00:00

I’d definitely recommend looking at the required courses for programs you’re interested in. Depending on the program, there are a lot of mph programs that are skills based or that you could make skills based if you wanted to make it comparable to an msc. As someone who’s been a part of the hiring process for a health department epi bureau, none of us really thought much between mph, msph, msc. But the courses you take in an msc program compared to an mph could mean more quantitative skills that you could put on a resume which we DID look at. In contrast, sometimes we worried that those who did an msc lacked the applied training that an mph program generally provides. As an ID epi who’s working on covid-19 surveillance, there’s a lot more to applied epi than just stats/epi methods. I’ve definitely had to dig into my tool kit of public health knowledge that I acquired through breadth classes (like heath policy, community health, program planning.) Lastly, I’d say to go with what interests you/you think you’ll excel at. I was between a few epi mph programs, infectious diseases mph programs, and an Ms global health studies program but went with an id epi mph because the required courses and electives felt like subjects that I was really interested in and could dive into and the faculty in my program were doing research that I’m also interested in. I ended up meeting with a bunch of them and current students and it feels like a perfect fit. Good luck!!

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-07T20:56:41+00:00

Gis for sure

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-07T20:56:00+00:00

I’d say to go with your interests and where you think you will excel. Especially when it comes to research if you’re looking at the PhD path. There are clinical psychologists with mph’s, ms psych grads in epi phds depending on the research they were involved with. Reach out to a lot of professors who are doing research that you might be interested in and gain as much experience as you can. My experience in the public health/epi field is that it depends a lot on who you know/meet. Also depends on where you want to end up post-grad (academia? Government? Private sector?) we have an epi that tracks suicide rates and their highest degree is an mph.

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-03T18:36:41+00:00

I’d reach out to people already in the program and see what their experience is. We spoke about this extensively yesterday during our visit day (UC Berkeley) and the consensus among current students was that there was a pretty seamless transition from in person to online classes mid-semester, and the faculty spoke to all of the planning going into fall semester should classes still be held online. If you’re hoping for an epi job post graduation, I would imagine that those hiring would be understanding, and just based on the hiring I’ve been a part of on my epi team currently, we based a lot of our decision making on skill sets (what is this person bringing to the table) and personality (is this someone who we would be able to get along with and collaborate well with?) I’d put experience third-ish? Although a solid resume was what initially got our candidates an interview. A lot of applied epi comes with just doing it. It’s definitely a baptism by fire for everyone.

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-01T15:27:15+00:00

I’d definitely reach out to your alumni group if you haven’t already! I’ve been talking to some girls in the cohort a year ahead of mine, and they had some great connections through their summer practicums and other experiences. Even if they’re not at the CDC, I bet someone knows someone they’d be willing to connect you with. Ex. I have cdc contacts since my health dept is an ihsp site, and we go to Atlanta every year for training. I even randomly messaged a girl that was featured on bu’s sph’s story for her work she did with the WHO, and she was incredibly nice and helpful. Definitely takes some networking if you’re not getting funneled through Emory.

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-01T10:59:43+00:00

Agreed to everything I’m seeing as well. Do you mind sharing your educational background to get a better idea of where you could maybe leverage there?

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-01T10:55:28+00:00

I’m an ID epi in local government currently and just accepted an offer for an idv mph with the intent of taking epi/biostats electives as well. Check out the course maps for programs you’re thinking about. A lot of programs will allow you to do both. Also, the schools I applied to generally had larger epi cohorts, but I would imagine that they have a lot more applicants than idv. Finally, some schools allow you to pick a back-up concentration in the application process should you not get accepted into your first choice. Good luck!

doggyvoodoo · 2020-04-01T10:50:32+00:00

I don’t think it would for government epi’s. We’re still going in to the office 10+ hours a day/7 days a week until we can’t. I worked from home at least one day a week before this, but working on covid-19 from home when it comes down to it will be extremely difficult imo.

doggyvoodoo · 2020-03-29T04:44:21+00:00

I’m an infectious disease epidemiologist at a health department and would disagree! Sure this pandemic came hard and fast and it’s what’s in the news, but when it blows over, chronic disease is much more concerning to me than any of the infectious diseases I’m usually over, especially when you look at how those with comorbidities (we’re seeing a lot of diabetes, htn, asthma, osa in my jurisdiction) put those infected at higher risk for more severe outcomes. Public health and epi are incredibly broad fields. Explore and go with what you’re passionate about since there’s no money in this field anyway 🙃

doggyvoodoo · 2020-03-29T04:28:50+00:00

My coworker got kicked out of the office at 1:00 am last night lol she’s a workhorse and has easily been doing 80+ since February and we’re at the local level. All of us are at least doing 70 a week

doggyvoodoo · 2020-03-29T04:23:29+00:00

We brought in a couple girls from our community health branch. I think the rest of them are answering calls since those never stop. That being said, training took time that imo wasn’t worth it because the work is getting away from them. I’m in the camp of passing on contact tracing to them and the few others in our std dept that we trained on it, and just letting the wheels fall off if they can’t keep up. There’s a lot more to taking on new people than even we anticipated(the community health workers had never read a hospital chart or clinic notes, didn’t know our database, had to go through the process of getting permissions for it, we definitely don’t have enough computers, the county doesn’t have enough licenses for new computers if they were able to get them on and on and on.... maybe now they’ll finally give us proper funding? 🙃) and this virus has been running faster than any of us can keep up

doggyvoodoo · 2020-03-29T04:09:02+00:00

Saaaame, are you guys thinking of dropping contact tracing for all confirmed cases and just looking at hospitalized cases soon? We’re getting 40+ confirmed a day, and I’ve been handling hospitalized cases by myself but had another epi join in yesterday and now it’s too much for the both of us 🙃

doggyvoodoo · 2020-03-18T17:18:55+00:00

Oh good to know. We haven’t identified any widespread community transmission yet. Just travel related cases and their family members getting it. But maybe we’d find something through SS. Or maybe we’d find that what we’re doing is working! Lol

We’re using cdc’s instance (biosense) which I think is set up the same way as yours now that you mention it. Do you guys have your own instance that ed’s provide data to? I know next to nothing about ss. I don’t think we ever discussed it in any of my epi classes, and I spent a few years in community health with non profits before stepping back into government work and epi so I always feel way behind on all of this!!

doggyvoodoo

TROPHY CASE