<p>I've decided on pursuing a Masters and a career in Public Heath. Now I know we're not talking about law school or med school, but I would like to know the difficulties (or easiness level if you see it that way) of being accepted into the program. I'm not aiming for Ivy-level but a decent school for Public Health would be great, such as George Washington University's School of Public Health or USC.</p>
<p>I ask this question because my neighbor, who graduated from USC (Public Health) in 2004, told me she had a GPA just above 3.0 and still got accepted into several well-known Public Health programs. I don't know how quickly things change in a matter of a decade, so I got curious...</p>
<p>Anyhow, safe GPA/GRE scores for decent Public Health programs?</p>
<p>USC’s website says a minimum of a 3.0 and 1000 GRE. But unlike med and law, PH programs are not so numbers-driven. Experience in the field counts a lot.</p>
<p>OminousRun, where are you getting your numbers from?</p>
<p>No school REQUIRES a doctorate to get an MPH unless you’re looking at the executive/accelerated MPH. Even Hopkins, Harvard, NC, etc., have tracks that are suitable for only BA/BS holders.</p>
<p>Getting into a top 5 SPH is much, much easier than getting into a top 30 Business school. The amount of quality work experience required, high-percentile GMATs, etc. make admissions a lot more competitive.</p>
<p>Admission into top MPH schools are routinely > 50%. Check out page 29:</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins, the #1 school, is ~49% acceptance rate, UNC and Harvard at 44% and 38% respectively, UCLA at #8 with 63% acceptance, etc.</p>
<p>That’s from 2 years ago, but if you go to individual SPH websites, you’ll see that not much as changed for the entering class of of 2012.</p>
<p>And when it comes to GRE/GPA, an 1150+ and 3.3+ GPA is usually enough to get into at least a few of the top 10 programs. JHU/UNC/Harvard hover around 1250+/3.5+, but are still not that hard, numbers-wise.</p>
<p>I’ve looking at MPH in BioStatistics, which is a subset of most PH schools.</p>
<p>Programs are probably a little more strict.</p>
<p>In order to get a MPH (in Biostatistics and a few other specialities) at the University of Washington, they require a doctorate in another field.</p>
<p>Look up their MPH program, they have some good information.</p>
<p>They have a MS program which doesn’t require a doctorate, of course. I always found is bizarre they required a doctorate for their MPH in Biostatistics. Maybe they just want to train MD’s?</p>
<p>I know there are different MPH fields, perhaps the ones I’m looking at are a little more strict.</p>
<p>I also realize there are many different types of MPH’s, that don’t require a doctorate.</p>
<p>Uhhh, depends on the program and school. Plenty of Nurses (BSN’s) are accepted into the top MPH programs (Hopkins, Harvard, etc.), which was my earlier point: its EC’s, aka health care/social service experience that matters most.</p>
<p>Top programs do offer a Master’s level degree, it’s just not an MPH. And for Biostat, it probably matters little.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins, one of the top biostat programs, does not even offer an MPH in biostat. Instead, they offer an ScM (MS) or MHS. It doesn’t appear that Harvard offers an MPH in biostat either (but does offer one in Quantitative Methods).</p>
<p>Yeah, OminousRun, I think the first program you mentioned is a special program intended for students who already have advanced degrees. UW seems to have an unusually high number of public health degree programs. Or is this typical for schools of public health?</p>
<p>I go to a school of public health (I’m in a doctoral program, but I also applied to MPH programs and there is an MPH program here).</p>
<p>MPH programs are not extremely competitive. I think the selection rates, even for the best schools of public health, are somewhere around 40-50%. I would think that a 3.2 and around an 1100 should be expected in the top programs (our average at Columbia is 3.4) - most of my friends and colleagues in the MPH programs weren’t superstars in their undergrad. At GWU or UMDNJ, probably around 1000-1050 but still probably a 3.2 GPA. A little lower might be forgiven with some good work experience.</p>
<p>What counted the most was their preparation for public health like related coursework, work experience in the field (programs that require work experience - really require work experinece. But some don’t), any research or internship experience they had in public health, and interest in public health as well as a good articulation of their goals in the field. Because there are very few public health undergraduate majors you’re not expected to have one - but be prepared to explain why you want to go into public health if your major was, say, English literature. (Most majors are easily relateable to public health, though, and there are a lot of social science majors and many humanities majors in the social and behavioral programs and a lot of social science majors and natural science majors in the epidemiology and biostatistics programs, too).</p>
<p>OminousRun’s numbers are incorrect - I go to Columbia and I’ve seen our most recent accreditation report. Our acceptance rates aren’t anywhere as low as 25% - I think it’s closer to 40-50% if I can remember correctly. And no, the top public health schools do not require a doctorate to obtain an MPH. We do have some special programs that are designed specifically for doctoral degree holders, but you can get an MPH without a doctoral degree and most students do. The only school I know for sure that requires you to have a doctorate to get an MPH is Johns Hopkins, but they offer other master’s degree programs (they call them MHAs or MHS) that are for bachelor’s degree holders and they are equivalent to the MPH at other schools. At UW the only specialty they have that requirement for is biostatistics, and they offer an MS which is sufficient for a career in public health.</p>
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<li>Would this look good on my resume for an application to a public health program? (I’m still deciding on Global Health or Environmental Health): I work for a contract research organization, and I analyze the raw data of clinical trials, which involves biostatistics and SAS programming, for research departments in pharmaceutical companies.</li>
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<p>(Considering the fact that I’m not applying for a program in biostatistics I don’t know if this would be meaningless to the admissions board. The problem is internship positions fill up fast around here and I know sometimes people sign up on a ridiculously long waiting list…either I live too close to ambitious students or I’m just really unlucky…)</p>
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<li>Also, would work experience (if the answer to the above question is a “yes”) make up for a “low” GPA? My first two years in college was not good, to put it lightly, because I was accepted into a pharmacy program and I didn’t realize I was waaaaay over my head. My GPA might be over 3.1 by the end of Junior year, but I’ll just have to wait and see.</li>
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<p>Edit: All right, I lied, third question–would volunteer hours help or should I do everything I can to find a work-study program? I’ve volunteered abroad, worked with Habitat for Humanity, helped out several charity marathons…no dice?</p>
<p>Public Health is a professional degree; admissions will highly favor work experience and extracurricular activities that are related to public health issues. It is not strictly numbers like law.</p>
Hi, I just got an acceptance mail from Columbia for MPH in Epidemiology program. I had a 3.97 GPA , 158 Quant and 147 Verbal score. I was wondering if acceptance to Columbia is easy? Probably I did a fairly good job with all the components of my application. Is it advisable to take admission at the Columbia? The tuition fee is pretty high and there are no scholarships or financial aids of similar sorts available. Will I be able to get a good job after graduating?