1. Getting paid to go to Harvard
I eat Coco pops for breakfast, my cat has been known to wear a
Christmas jumper, I enjoyed Frozen morethan any adult should, and last
year I got paid to go Harvard. If I can, so can you. At the very least you
should ask.
About two years ago I realised that it was about time I got my Master of
Public Health degree- its absence was holding back my career, and being
a total public health nerd I was excited by the prospectof spending a
year learning and geeking out. I began scouring the Internetfor
information on public health schools in the UK, only to experience a
sharp intake of breath on discovering the current price tag of a Master’s.
So my schoolsearch was rapidly followed by a mission to hunt down and
acquire a scholarship. After severalweeks I began to feel morelike a kid
rifling through the local tip in hope of finding the golden ticket to Willy
Wonka’s chocolatefactory.
Until the wedding. Around this time I went to a wedding and got
speaking to a friend fromuniversity I hadn’tseen in years. Shewas just
back from the States having completed a Master’s degree with a
Fulbrightscholarship. This little bit of news blew my tiny mind. I had
known that such scholarships existed but thought they were reserved
for demi-gods or at the very least people who got 80% of the questions
on University Challenge correct (actually that might be a tautology…)
Now my friend was smartand had bag loads of initiative and talent, but
she wasn’ta demi-god. Perhaps I didn’tneed to be either?
I knew that there were somefantastic schools in the States, and the
prospectof studying health policy during the roll out of the Affordable
Care Act was exciting. So I identified schools to apply to, found some
scholarships thatwould cover fees and living costs, and set about
perfecting my hoop jumping skills. Itwasn’teasy. I had academic
achievement on my side, but I had to find a way to market myself well
enough to get into a university AND secure a scholarship. Therewere
essay applications to writeand the exquisitely dull GraduateRecord
Examinations (GRE) to study for. The GRE is a numeracy and verbal
exam, which has all the pain of med schoolexams without the pleasure
of being vaguely interesting or practical. At one point I had offers from
Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Johns Hopkins, butzero scholarships. Then

2. eventually, justas I began giving up hope, I was awarded a Frank Knox
Scholarship to study at Harvard Schoolof Public Health.
The year I spentthere was one of the best of my life, and I nearly didn’t
apply. If I hadn’tmet someone who made it seem feasible I wouldn’t
have given it ago. So, in the interest of paying it forward I’mtelling you:
don’t take yourself outof the running. If, likeme, you are a boundless
geek with a desire to study at one of the best universities in the world,
but don’t happen to have$50k in tuition in your back pocket then at
least apply. You might not be successful- Fulbrightturned me down- but
don’t let your own mindset be the thing that limits you.
PS- If this has made you think about applying and you’d like to know
more about how to find scholarships, apply to US universities as a grad
student etc then leave a comment below or drop me a messagewith
your thoughts and questions and I’ll happily write a follow-up blog!