As a dedicated researcher and professional in the field of mental and public health, I am enthusiastically seeking opportunities to pursue a Doctorate degree in various disciplines. My interests lie in the fields of Public Health, Health Policy, Healthcare Systems, Epidemiology, Population Health, Global Health, Health Promotion, Mental Health, Neuroscience, Addiction, Neuroscience, Aging and Psychiatry & Psychology. I am eager to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and make a meaningful impact in these fields through my doctoral studies.
As an international student, I am writing to inquire about the availability of PhD programs in public health at your esteemed university for the 2024 intake. As an aspiring public health professional, I am eager to pursue my academic goals at a renowned institution like yours.
I would be grateful if you could provide me with the following information:
- Program details, research areas, and deadlines
- Scholarships and financial aid availability
- Application process and link
- Admissions requirements and deadlines
- Current projects and faculty research
- Any recent program advertisements
Additionally, I would appreciate any updates or resources that you may have regarding the program's current status, faculty, and research activities.
With kindness, this request is unlikely to help you get onto a PhD programme. Staff in university departments receive direct requests like this daily and do not have capacity to provide information they would expect the candidate to source for themselves.
I hope the following tips help you apply successfully.
1. Search for different Public Health departments that are undertaking research you're interested in. You can do that either department websites, or through literature searching on topics that would interest you and note where key scholars in public health are - they may be able to supervise you or know who might be open to supervision.
2. Using the questions you've asked (Program details, research areas, and deadlines; Scholarships and financial aid availability; Application process and link; Admissions requirements and deadlines; Current projects and faculty research; Any recent program advertisements) search university websites and also academic job websites like jobs.ac.uk. You can narrow down by topic (public health) and level of work/funding (PhD/postgraduate). The information you want to know will be included in funding calls, adverts for PhD candidates, or university web pages aimed at doctoral students.
3. Having found a potential funder/supervisor you can either apply directly if there is a specific opportunity advertised. Or you can approach a potential supervisor and ask them if they have spaces to supervise you. You should also include a brief abstract outlining what you'd like to study and a link to your CV. Do not include the list of questions you've put here and ask them to do that work for you as sadly it won't count in your favour. They will prioritise candidates who have sourced these answers themselves and know what they want to do and can demonstrate their proposed PhD would align with the supervisor/department goals and that the candidate is of a standard to fit with the university doctoral programme's requirements.
4. You ask "I would appreciate any updates or resources that you may have regarding the program's current status, faculty, and research activities". This is for you to find out, perhaps via this site, but also other academic groups, societies, literature searches and social media. They will prioritise candidates who are informed and aren't asking for updates that busy academics unfortunately don't have time to deliver individually. Follow academics on social media and most will be sharing this kind of update for you to appreciate.
5. If you're sending a request like this via email and are not getting a reply it'll be because you're asking them to help you apply, whereas they want to see what you can offer and where they might align. They won't answer requests like the one you've posted here because they are overwhelmed and don't have capacity. They may also perceive you as sending the same messages to many places, indicating there's nothing special about them but you're expecting free work. To avoid this, focus your requests and demonstrate why you'd be a good person for them to work alongside and support in your studies. Avoid ending messages with "Reply to this discussion" as it will appear demanding and rude (although I know that isn't what you intended).
6. Ensure things like funding, visas etc are either possible, sorted, or in the pipeline. It may be they can assist with a PhD place/supervision but the funding and visa aspect will be for you to sort. They may have funding, but they may not. Don't rely on them sorting that, again it's for you to find out about, or ideally apply for funded PhDs in Public Health. You can try places like Find a Phd for this https://www.findaphd.com
If you're based in a low or middle income country you can join Author Aid who have free training for scholars and can also give advice if you can't find answers to questions that need researching as part of your PhD application process. It's a nice friendly community too. https://www.authoraid.info/en/
Hope that helps and feel free to ask if anything isn't clear. TL;DR do the majority of this research yourself to present your ideas as an outstanding candidate. Get help with friends/colleagues along the way if you find some of those tasks challenging. Good luck!
Do you have any preferred country which you are looking for?
I am a current PhD student at Arizona State University, United States, and I am an international student too. For U.S universities, as far as my knowledge, PhD applications for the proceeding year will open in August and close around December (Fall intake).
FYI PhD in Population Health is available in our university. Please refer to the College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University website.
Wish you good luck!
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