Wednesday, March 14, 2012

All About A Master of Public Health

Are you confused when it comes to viable options for a public health graduate degree? There are many public health degrees available, both professional and academic, at master and doctoral levels. Two kinds of degrees can be obtained in this field namely an MS in public health or a master of public health.

The Master of Public Health is a professional terminal degree aiming to provide comprehensive public health master’s education. There are various concentrations in public health that can be considered by the people who are able to complete various MPH programs. Aside from epidemiology, professionals in this industry can also be tasked to deal with concerns pertaining to health policy and administration.

There are several courses that have to be completed by the student when it comes to MPH degree programs. When it comes to this, all MPH students have to engage in either an internship program, a thesis, or a comprehensive test. When it comes to a Master of Public Health, this is something bestowed upon a student by the Graduate School of Public Health.

Most schools accept students who graduated from different undergraduate disciplines. Here, most course enrollees are all undergraduates. For some schools, a doctorate degree is required before you get considered for an MPH degree.

When it comes to MPH acceptance rates, these actually vary from school to school. In some facilities, admission is only pegged at around 35%. Aside from a 3.0 GPA as an undergrad, it is very important for students in MPH programs to get a 50th-percentile on every GRE section at the very least.

About 24 months is needed to complete a Master of Public Health degree if you are a full time student. When it comes to this, having a doctorate degree can make you eligible for accelerated programs which only take a year to complete. Similar to most professional degree programs, students are normally not accommodated with considerable grant or scholarship options to fund their education.

As a professional, if you are considering research efforts, you should think about an MS, MSc, ScM, or MSPH which are all master's of science degrees. A particular focus can be chosen at first but students can delve into things outside of their specialization. If you engage in a Master of Science in Public Health, you will be able to participate in academic research and still learn through PH courses.

This attribute makes the Master of Science a less appropriate degree for students who desire to be a public health professional. What you have here is a career path that requires you to have the necessary interdisciplinary education. Dissertations are always part of the game when it comes to this.

If you are really interested in taking an MS program, you can pursue higher learning in the form of academic doctoral programs such as PhD or ScD as the requirements will be the same across the board. Two years is what you need for the coursework and there is a dissertation prior to graduation. The MS is often conferred by the School of Art and Sciences or any applicable name at universities rather than School of Public Health and hence, the admission requirement will vary than a MPH applicant.

In general, applying to MS programs is more difficult and competitive than to Master of Public Health programs because of the smaller accepted class sizes and the critical individual attention on MS students during defense phase and thesis. Admission rates vary considerably. Financial aid is rarely provided when it comes to post grad programs but in the case of MS students, the necessary funding may be provided by their companies.



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