For Prospective Students: Being a UMich SPH Student

Katie Sloter

It is mid-February!

How does this happen? Around this time last year, I was actually trying to figure out housing situations, funding, etc. for the next year– my first in SPH. I cannot believe this year is going so fast. As a first year, I am beginning to think about what comes next. However, I want to take some time to ask you prospective students out there what it is you want to know– about the school, Ann Arbor, the people, anything. I am going to comment briefly on a few topics I was concerned with, but please feel free to jump in and either

a) comment on your experience if you are a current or past student (advice, what you wish you would have known, etc.)

OR

b) ask a question if you are a prospective student.

Ann Arbor, Michigan: Very cute, kind of hippie. I love the Farmer’s Market (which runs through the winter), the music venues, and the little shops and coffee houses. SPH is further from the downtown area. There is also a section called Kerrytown, which is where the Farmer’s Market is located– this is kind of an artsy location. Cobblestones, etc, this is the historical area.

SPH: There is SPH 1 and SPH 2, which is actually connected by an overpass, which is nice in winter if you don’t want to walk the 20 feet into the cold to get across buildings. SPH1 is definitely newer, and pretty impressive looking. It has a cafe, which can be good or bad depending on how bad your caffeine addiction is….! It is pretty, and is full of glass windows (Glasshouse Cafe is it’s name, aptly). SPH1 is my favorite of the two buildings, and it has a couple different quiet study areas, and some rooms you can reserve for groups to study. SPH has a library in this building, but it has been closed since I got here. SPH2 is a little less shiny and new, but this is where the computer lab is located as well as lockers SPH students can reserve, which is handy for storing food-stuffs and winter gear.

Faculty: I personally have had a great experience with most of the faculty at SPH. I definitely choose classes based on not only the material, but whether or not I can learn from the professor. I think we are in an enviable position at Michigan where the faculty are both incredible in their field, but also maintain a passion for teaching. This combination is really why I love Michigan. In the smaller courses I took, I feel like I was able to better get to know faculty.

Adviser: I am not sure how your undergraduate experience was, but I basically planned everything, saw a different adviser each time, and had them sign off on my schedule. I have been so pleasantly surprised with the extent that my adviser cares about my personal goals, and is helping me carve out a class schedule that caters to them.

Funding: … is difficult to obtain. Since public health is not an undergraduate major, it is different than going into a grad program where you can GSI for the mirroring undergraduate department. That being said, I do know some people (usually second years or U of M grads) who hold GSI positions. Unfortunately, they are few. However, U of M does offer scholarships for excellence in education, and this has greatly helped me personally and quite a few students I have talked to. Also, since public health is a service field, there may be possibilities of student-loan forgiveness programs.

People/Students: Something I have found is that everyone right away is craving friendships. I was a little intimidated (okay, a lot intimidated) by moving 12 hours from my home-town. I came a couple weeks before school orientation, and there were some pros and cons to this. I had a chance to explore a little and get settled before scrambling into school-mode; but I was concerned about not having enough to do. You will have enough to do. You know how you have that crazy interest that you like to nerd out about, and peoples’ eyes start to glaze over after a few minutes? Imagine a whole class full of people who care/enjoy/talk about the same things– but from completely different angles and backgrounds! Everyone, I mean everyone, in SPH is there for a reason. I have been here since August 2010, and still have found that I wish I had the time to completely invest in knowing all the amazing people that go to this school. That being said, it is difficult to meet people outside of SPH if you don’t make an active effort early on to join U of M organizations, and just explore outside of SPH.

Housing: I lived alone this year because I didn’t want a random roommate. However, many of my friends found random houses and have really enjoyed their experience! It is also personal preference, but the further you move away from campus, the cheaper housing is. You can find covered parking, but parking in general costs more usually.  I would recommend really seeing what is included utility-wise, check with other students, and e-mailing new and current students about living together.

Courses: Courses depend entirely upon your concentration, but whatever your specific interest, you should be able to find a way to make your courses relevant. For example, I am interested in Global Health, and am taking courses to meet the Global Health Certificate requirements. You can take courses in all departments of SPH, and any grad level course in different programs.

I hope this is at least mildly helpful for anyone getting their acceptances, and like I said, please pitch in if anyone has a comment, question, or suggestion!

My Last First Day of School

Carrie Rheingans

Today’s my last first day of school and it’s been a great one so far! It’s sad to think that this long journey will be over in eight short months, but I know I’ll be happy to be done and start applying all the wonderful knowledge and skills I’ve learned in my two degree programs, public health and social work.

I always feel so optimistic at the beginning of a new semester – like maybe this time I can actually do all the reading! I’m very excited about my two public health classes this semester (EHS 500 – Principles of Environmental Health and HBHE 622 – Program Evaluation in Health Education). The environmental health class interests me because of the material and my background in the biological sciences, and the program evaluation class because it’s a valuable and transferable skill in the field(s) in which I’ll be working upon graduation.

I’m also excited to start teaching again. Last semester was my first being a graduate student instructor (GSI), and I really learned a lot, both about being a teacher and about being a student. I gained a lot of patience and improved my skills for speaking publicly and making sure people are following what you’re saying. I also learned how to better manage my time as a student, as well as what amount of work goes on behind the scenes in the classes I take. I also learned that while teaching is fun, grading is NOT fun. The worst part is that my midterms are at the same time as the ones I have to grade – which doesn’t make it easy to study for my own classes.

The other exciting development this semester is my field placement for social work. I’m working with the Washtenaw County Public Health Department to help develop a Latino community center for our community (Washtenaw County, the county in which the University of Michigan is located). Currently, there is no such organization that caters to people of Latino/Hispanic ethnicity or Spanish speakers.

I hope to write posts this year about my public health and social work classes, my field placement, teaching, and my passion, HIV and AIDS. Stay tuned!

Grading is NOT Fun

Carrie Rheingans

This past weekend, while I should have been studying for an exam I have on Wednesday and writing a paper also due on Wednesday, I spent hours upon hours grading homework and quizzes for the class I teach. It was painful – mentally and physically – since I was confined to my couch looking at the same things over and over and over again… I got through it, though. It’s a small price to pay in exchange for a tuition waiver and health insurance!

I think the teaching part of teaching is fun, but this grading is something to get used to. I like leading the class in activities, creating the prep worksheet, drawing the instructions on the board, and problem solving on my feet while in lab. Grading, on the other hand, takes a lot more time. I idiotically left it all for the weekend, instead of spreading it out over the week, so it’s definitely my fault it felt like so much. It did go pretty quickly when people got the problems correct. The most difficult part was figuring out what went wrong in the problems where students made a mistake. Now I know for next time to start earlier!

Teaching, including grading, gives me an additional sense of respect for professors. When I get a 20-pg paper assignment, I may groan, but imagine the professor who has to grade 20+ of them! I couldn’t even imagine… the lab reports I’ll be grading aren’t supposed to exceed 5 pp., and even then, some of it will be graphs of raw data, etc. Plus, the professors need to figure out a way to test for understanding, which can be very difficult in larger lecture classes.

Teaching is Fun!

Carrie Rheingans

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m teaching undergraduates this semester in exchange for a tuition waiver, a stipend, and health insurance. It’s been going well so far and I really enjoy it!

Each week, I teach one three-hour lab on Monday, have a three-hour meeting with the other GSIs and the course instructor, and hold three hours of office hours in the lab. The lab is set up for students to come in outside lab time to complete projects, so I’m in and out at other times, checking on students’ experiments. I also get to create a lab handout each week, which takes time, as well as grade homework, lab reports, quizzes and exams. I was told to plan on it taking about 20 hours/week, and it’s taking about that much time. That’s on top of my 16 hours/week social work field placement!

In the lab, I teach the lab techniques for the week and explain the steps of the experiments. We have six projects this semester, and the longest one is a 7-week fruit fly experiment. We’re squarely in the middle and it’s going well! It’s been fun so far, listening to the students reactions to looking at the flies under the microscope and such.

Fly examination microscope

The other thing that I’ve noticed about teaching is how I now look at my own instructors. We do so much back-end planning for each week’s lab, to make sure everything goes well. I didn’t really think before how much planning professors have to do outside classtime – I just assumed ‘hey – they’re the experts in the field, what planning do they really have to do?’. Now I know it’s A LOT of planning! I also get to help write the exams, the first of which is coming up soon. That’s interesting, too, because I have to make sure the questions aren’t too easy, but aren’t too tricky.

My view of the lab

View from the back of the lab

Funding Grad School by Teaching

Carrie Rheingans

Professional/terminal (non-PhD) graduate school is not cheap – but it can be free in exchange for your hard work. The University of Michigan is a large institution with more undergraduates enrolled in courses than can possibly be taught by professors, so graduate students are employed to teach many introductory level courses’ discussion and lab sections. This semester, I will be teaching a 300-level genetics lab course in the department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. Graduate students who teach at U-M are called Graduate Student Instructors (GSI). There are also positions available as Graduate Student Staff Assistants (who do administrative work for various schools or departments) and Graduate Student Research Assistants (who do research with professors). Both of those positions come with a tuition waiver, monthly stipend, and health insurance, just like the GSI positions do.

You can find positions for fall 2010 at the U-M Human Resources Graduate Student Appointments page. There’s a way to get a daily digest of postings as they happen. Many of the fall 2010 positions will have applications due in February and March. Most departments have PhD students who’ve been promised funding as part of their program – each department’s own PhD students usually have priority over any Public Health students who might apply to teach. There are a limited number of GSI positions in the School of Public Health, but they are usually filled by PhD students in the various departments of SPH. To apply, you need to apply to each individual department, and they all have different procedures. Some won’t take a first-year graduate student, some will. Obviously, a background in that field and teaching experience make applicants more competitive!

If you’ve never taught, you can still be hired for a GSI position. That was my case. I had taken this course as an undergrad here (back when I still wanted to be a genetic engineer!), which helps. The University of Michigan offers a lot of training, as does each department, so you shouldn’t be completely unprepared for the first day of class. I’ve had 17 hours of training already – and my first day of teaching isn’t until Monday! U-M also has a Center for Research on Learning and Teaching that does just that – researches learning and teaching – and they provide wonderful information for incoming GSIs, as well as professors, lecturers, and more.

I am very excited to finally start my teaching on Monday, but of course a little nervous too. As a woman teaching a science class, I’ve been told in various trainings that I might find some students challenging me more than my fellow male GSIs. I’m not as worried about that as I am about students breaking expensive lab equipment! My other worry is time management, since I’m teaching, doing my social work field placement, planning for going abroad for four months this summer, and… oh, yeah – being a full-time graduate student! I’ll be sure to post more about this fun balancing act as the semester progresses

$$ for International Internships

Carrie Rheingans

Finding funding for an international internship or field placement is probably the most daunting task of the whole experience. Most international placements cost a few thousand dollars, the largest part of which tends to be airfare. Be sure to talk with your academic advisor and your department to see what internal funding sources are available before expanding your searches.

There are a few steps that you’ll want to take before applying to the various campus offices for funding.

1. Make a list of all things you need to pay for
2. Determine how much each thing costs
3. Transfer this information into a budget
4. Find funding applications, due dates
5. Get letters of recommendation for those applications for which they are required
6. Get letters of invitation from host agencies for those applications for which they are required

Here’s a list of some things to consider for your budget (most funders won’t allow you to use their funds to pay for U.S.-based expenses while you’re abroad, like car payments, rent, etc.). Here’s a tentative budget I’ll be using for my work this summer in China and Bangladesh.

1. Passport/Visa costs – be sure to check WELL in advance if a visa is necessary, to ensure you have enough time to get one
2. Immunization costs – the University Health Service at U-M can help you determine this
3. Housing in your host country – will it be provided? Apartment? University housing? Living with a friend/family member? Host family?
4. Transportation in your host country – will you travel inside the country? What’s your daily commute?
5. Airfare to/from your destination – check a variety of locations to get a good average, and be prepared for it to change as the departure date gets closer.
6. Food in your host country – will you be eating out all the time? Cooking at home? Can you pay a flat rate, like if you’re with a host family or in university housing?
7. Internet/Phone in your host country – many students find it comforting to buy a local cell phone; check prices and how much minutes/plans cost. Will you be paying separately for internet at your host agency/home?
8. Allowable internship/project costs – some funders allow you to include this, some don’t. Will you need to make copies? Buy disposable cameras? Pay for an interpreter? Pay for your internet use?

There are many places on campus that provide funding, and if you decide to apply to many, it might be helpful to create a spreadsheet to keep all the requirements straight! Here’s what I’m using for my summer work in China and Bangladesh as an example (beware – this spreadsheet is a bit ugly with the long links…).

1. your home department in SPH
2. Center for Global Health
3. International Institute
4. International Center
5. Ross School of Business
6. School of Social Work
7. Ginsberg Center for Community Service & Learning
8. Nonprofit and Public Management Center

Please leave comments about your experiences with finding funding or with suggestions of additional places to look. We’re all in this together – although it may seem like we’re competing, consider the fact that we’re all going to be colleagues shortly and we’ll all benefit from working with the best-trained colleagues we can possibly have!

Leave any tips you have for others in the comments below!!