This week, candidates for the epidemiology doctoral program are coming for a day of interviews, during which our department will try to impress them and they will try to wow us.
The Other Side
The Other Side is brought to you by Erin Philbrick '09, former editor for the CT and current PhD student in Epidemiology at URMC. This blog aims to describe what it's like to be a graduate student as opposed to an undergraduate, compare and contrast the Medical Center with the River Campus and comment on various happenings across Elmwood Ave. It is published weekly on Fridays.
Getting Here
February 5th, 2010 by Erin Philbrick
Epidemiologic Expectations
January 30th, 2010 by Erin Philbrick
It is irrational of the administrators to believe that a major nearly half-filled with graduate courses is appropriate for an undergraduate degree, especially when the major requires 17 courses, which is many more than most other majors in the College.
The Flower City
January 25th, 2010 by Erin Philbrick
When I was applying to graduate schools, I applied to UR because I loved its program and I was familiar with the school. I did not, however, apply based on the location. As a senior on the undergraduate campus, I felt cramped and ready to spread my wings. I had enough of the boring city …
Epidemiology in Action
December 4th, 2009 by Erin Philbrick
Sometimes it seems as though epidemiologists do work about which very few people know or care. However, two weeks ago, my perception of this changed. At that time, Director of the URMC Center for Reproductive Epidemiology Shanna Swan, PhD, released the results of a study to the press. This study, which has been featured in …
CBPR: the new way to do research
November 20th, 2009 by Erin Philbrick
Today’s public health grand rounds (held every other Friday, usually in room K-307 of the School of Medicine and Dentistry) focus on a new community approach to doing research. CBPR, or community-based participatory research, is, according to the WK Kellogg Foundation Community Health Scholars Program, a “collaborative approach to research that equitably involves all partners …
Showing up is half the battle
November 14th, 2009 by Erin Philbrick
Very few undergraduate classes require attendance in the syllabus. While in smaller classes, it is awkward to miss a session without an excuse and it’s often implied that you should be there, professors tend not to make too big of a deal about whether or not you show up. So, I was shocked to read …
First-name basis
November 6th, 2009 by Erin Philbrick
One of my favorite things about being in graduate school is the incredible class dynamic I encounter. As I’ve mentioned before, the diversity of students’ backgrounds provides for interesting discussion and thought-provoking comments. However, what allows this discussion to happen is the enthusiastic encouragement of all my professors for class participation. And, participation doesn’t even …
The researcher becomes the subject
October 30th, 2009 by Erin Philbrick
As you may have read a few weeks ago, many people tend to ask me questions about the H1N1 virus because I’m studying epidemiology (much to my chagrin). I always wind up telling them that it’s not really my area of expertise, that I’m only in my first semester of graduate school classes and the …
Web site woes
October 23rd, 2009 by Erin Philbrick
When I was applying to graduate programs, I found one of the most frustrating parts of the process was trying to navigate through the various degree program Web sites. Every school had a completely different layout for their program with too little or even too much information. Often, after I started applying to a program, …
Epi-what? The Science of Public Health
October 19th, 2009 by Erin Philbrick
When I tell people I’m working toward my PhD in epidemiology, their responses are often “so you’re getting your degree in… skin?” Then I have to explain that, no, epidemiology is actually part of public health. Then I have to stumble through some sort of disjointed explanation that invariably ends with me receiving a whole …