Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Use of A Master of Public Health

Are you confused when it comes to viable options for a public health graduate degree? A number of different programs can be considered by individuals who want to take up a degree in public health. 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. Public health is an industry that can be delved into by people who are able to graduate from MPH programs as these focus mainly on this industry. When it comes to this, you can choose to specialize in areas like occupational health, epidemiology, or community health if you prefer.

There is more than one major area in public health and core courses in these areas need to be completed by someone taking an MPH. When it comes to this, all MPH students have to engage in either an internship program, a thesis, or a comprehensive test. What you need to know about a Master of Public Health is that this is one of the things awarded to students by the Graduate School of Public Health.

Even if your undergraduate discipline is not related to public health, you can enroll in this master's course. Undergrads are the ones who normally enroll in such programs. In some cases, MPH degrees are reserved to the people who are holders of doctorate degrees.

Admission procedures and rates are not standard across all educational facilities. In general, admission rates range from 35% to 80%. For these kinds of programs, you have to maintain a 50th-percentile on every GRE section and of course possess a 3.0 undergraduate GPA.

For students that will only be focusing on their studies, a Master of Public Health degree can be finished in two years. When it comes to this, having a doctorate degree can make you eligible for accelerated programs which only take a year to complete. If you will be pursuing further education, financial assistance might not be readily available.

For those who want to delve into professional research efforts, a master's of science in forms such as MS, MSc, ScM, or MSPH is available. You will be trained internally and externally when it comes to this regardless of the discipline that you select early on. The Master of Science in Public Health is the exception because it is still an academic research degree but include some of the PH courses from the MPH.

You should rethink taking up the Master of Science if your intention is to become a professional in public health. This kind of profession relies on the ability of people to develop and enhance their skills with the help of interdisciplinary education. Students will normally complete a research project with a dissertation/thesis and defense.

If you will be engaging in an MS program, it will be best if you also considered taking academic doctoral programs such as PhD or ScD as the coursework will be similar. 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. Even if this is so, variations in admission rates exist. 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.



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