Application Process
Application for Scholarships
Interested applicants from low- and middle-income countries are invited to submit an application for the IGTC Scholarship. Applications for the 2022-23 program are closed. Watch the Virtual Open House to learn more about the program.
The application process for the Global Tobacco Control Certificate Program Scholarship now consists of two parts.
Part 1
All interested applicants must complete a general application through the SOPHAS Express system. Applicants must provide:
- Academic history of all college-level institutions attended
- Unofficial transcripts from all college-level institutions attended
- Curriculum vitae or resume
- Three (3) short essays (details below)
- Three (3) letters of recommendation (At least one letter must talk about your impact/role in the tobacco control field)
- Anticipated Course Schedule
- Scholarship students should download the pre-filled Anticipated Coursework Schedule, insert your name, save the file as a JPEG, and upload the document in SOPHAS express. Note that scholarship students are expected to take the eight (8) required courses consecutively and within a single academic year.
- $50 application fee
Instructions for completing Part 1:
1. Visit SOPHAS Express to create an account.
2. To make sure you apply to the correct program, select the following in the “Full Program List” section:
- Institution – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Location – Maryland
- Degree Certificate – Global Tobacco Control
- Program Type
3. Applicants for the IGTC Scholarship must complete all sections of the application except for the following. Applicants may leave these sections blank and it will not in any way affect admission decisions:
- Unofficial Standardized Test Scores (GRE, TOEFL, etc.)
- Personal Statement
After you complete Part 1
The academic committee will review these materials and select applicants who meet the scholarship eligibility criteria based on Part 1 of the application, and will invite them to complete Part 2. Applicants who do not meet the scholarship eligibility criteria will be notified.
Part 2
The academic committee may schedule phone interviews and will request that selected applicants arrange for the submission of official transcripts from all university-level institutions they have attended.
Applicants who are requested to complete Part 2 of the application will receive emails from IGTC with further details on this process. An academic credential verification organization will review and certify the transcripts. The designated academic credential verification organization must receive these documents from the applicants’ institutions by a set date (July 2021). No exceptions will be made to this deadline.
To allow sufficient time for the verification organization to certify the official transcripts from the applicants’ academic institutions, applicants should request their official transcripts from their institutions as soon as they are invited to complete Part 2 of the application. There is a $175 verification fee that IGTC will pay directly to the verifying organization on behalf of each applicant invited to submit official transcripts.
After you complete Part 2
Once the transcripts have been reviewed and certified by the verification organization, a final decision will be made by the academic committee to determine which applicants will be awarded the IGTC scholarship.
SOPHAS Express Essay Instructions
1. Write three (3) essays briefly describing each of the following:
a. Describe key tobacco control activities that have been undertaken by your country over the last five years. (850 character maximum.)
b. Describe your current and previous work in tobacco control. (850 character maximum.)
c. Provide a detailed explanation about why you are interested in obtaining the Global Tobacco Control Certificate, how it will be relevant to your work in tobacco control activities in your organization or country, and how you plan to use the skills gained from the program in your future work in tobacco control. (1,000 character maximum.)
Please include references and use the Vancouver style for citations. Plagiarism1 is a violation of the JHSPH Ethics code. Please note that incomplete essays (i.e. essays that do not address points a, b, c and d above) will disqualify applicants from further scholarship consideration.
1Plagiarism is defined as intentionally taking for one’s own use the words, ideas, concepts or data of another without proper attribution. Plagiarism includes both direct use or paraphrasing of the words, thoughts, or concepts of another without proper attribution. Proper attribution includes: (1) use of quotation marks or single-spacing and indentation for words or phrases directly taken from another source, accompanied by proper reference to that source and (2) proper reference to any source from which ideas, concepts, or data are taken even if the exact words are not reproduced.