Sunday, March 25, 2012

Managing A Master of Public Health


Are you unsure about which program will benefit you in the long run when it comes to your public health graduate degree? When it comes to the field of public health masters programs, there are various graduate and post graduate degrees that are available. There is such a thing as a master of public health and an MS in the same field but both programs differ.

The thing about a Master of Public Health is that this is a degree course that teaches students about the general concepts of public health. Since public health is the main focus of MPH programs, those who are able to graduate from any of these programs can delve into the public health industry. Community, environmental, and occupational health are some of the areas that you can center your studies on when it comes to a public health degree.

In public health, accomplishing an MPH program will require students to take up various courses in all major areas. In this case, graduating from the course means that you have to engage in fieldwork or prepare a thesis to serve as your culminating requirement. It is the Graduate School of Public Health that is in charge of granting a Master of Public Health degree to a student.

Most schools accept students who graduated from different undergraduate disciplines. Most of the time, the students that engage in these programs are undergraduates. In some cases, MPH degrees are reserved to the people who are holders of doctorate degrees.

Acceptance of students differs from one institution to another. In general, admission rates range from 35% to 80%. You need a 3.0 GPA to qualify for this kind of masteral program but you have to maintain at least a 50th-percentile on every GRE section.

A Master of Public Health degree usually takes two years for full-time study. 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.

You can resort to a master's of science like MS, MSc, ScM, or MSPH if you are interested in the research aspects of professional careers. Students may apply to a specific discipline and little coursework is applied outside of the discipline. The thing about a Master of Science in Public Health is that it focuses mainly on research but several PH courses are included in the program.

When it comes to public health, if you want to pursue a career path in this field, do not pursue the Master of Science. Something that will be required from individuals is interdisciplinary education if they want to make a career out of this. Prior to completing the program, you need to work on a thesis or defense.

Options like academic doctoral programs such as PhD or ScD can be valuable to someone with an MS program in mind as the focus will be somewhat similar. Usual programs take two years for coursework and dissertation/thesis. 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.

When you compare Master of Public Health programs with MS programs, the latter is much more competitive not to mention hard to get into especially because of the requirements for course completion. Admission is not something that is consistent across the board though. When it comes to MS degrees, a student can get the necessary funding from his or her home company under what is called a training grant.