<p>My S is a rising Junior in a LAC. He is majoring biology and philosophy. He is also in premed . He has school GPA 3.6 so far but starts thinking Medical school might be a reach for him. one of the options he is considering now is MPH. He seems interested in it but does not know how is the job market for MPH graduates. Can somebodies have information to share? Very appreciated.</p>
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<p>It depends on what you get the MPH in.</p>
<p>Job opportunities in epidemiology and biostatistics are great. Quantitative skills are in high demand these days. University medical centers, hospitals, health insurance companies and other health-related organizations are always going to need biostatisticians to analyze their data and seek patterns, and right now statistics and data are booming. The entry-level degree in this field is an MS, and a student would at minimum need two semesters of calculus and a semester of linear algebra to be a good candidate. Three semesters of calculus, linear algebra, and an intro class in statistics and probability would be more competitive.</p>
<p>Epidemiology is a good choice, too - it’s a blend of the quantitative stuff and disease surveillance. Lots of health departments and hospitals hire epidemiologists.</p>
<p>I don’t know as much about environmental health sciences, but with the shift towards green everything, sustainability and the increasing climate change/environmental change issues I’m thinking it’s a bigger issue now. My last roommate was an EHS MPH graduate and she now works at this company: [About</a> CIET :: CIET Building the community voice into planning](<a href=“http://www.ciet.org/en/about-ciet/]About”>http://www.ciet.org/en/about-ciet/)</p>
<p>Health policy and management is a toss-up; it depends on what you do. If you choose a management track and get some internship experience, then it can be a very lucrative path into healthcare administration. The more policy side may be a bit more difficult to get jobs in; that’s more like NGO, government work and those jobs are scarce and competitive.</p>
<p>And last we come to my field, the social and behavioral sciences in public health. Really, this also depends on your skills and interests. The lowest salaries in our field are in this area, and in my personal experience, the MPH grads I was friends with who majored in this area took the longest to find jobs. They’re doing things like health promotion, social science research with the department of health, health education, outreach, project coordinating. I think the salaries are in the mid-$30K to mid-$50K range depending. But I mean, you can break out. For example, I have significant statistical skills so when I was looking for MA-level jobs (I have an MA in public health, not an MPH) I was looking at jobs that would’ve paid in the $50-60K range. You could go into consulting and easily make more than that. Another roommate of mine did a dual MPH/MPA in the social and behavioral sciences in public health and is working as a consultant at a major firm in DC; I’m pretty sure she’s making at least $70K.</p>
<p>Other options to consider for a health-interested kid with a bio major looking at other options:</p>
<p>-Bioinformatics. Very in-demand field!
-Nurse practitioner. Nurse anesthetists make, on average, $158,000 a year. They can easily begin at six figures. Even other kinds of NPs can average $80-90K starting out If he’s pre-med with a bio major, he likely has the majority of the prerequisites and could apply for a 3-year BSN/MSN program or could apply for an accelerated 1-year BSN and then a regular 2-year MSN. NPs are in pretty high demand, especially with a shortage of primary care doctors and even specialists willing to work in high-demand areas.
-Physicians assistant, although he would need to get at least 1,000 hours of direct patient care experience.
-Genetic counselor.
-Physical or occupational therapist.</p>
<p>Juillet, a lot of thanks to your detailed reply. I have many information that I can discuss with my S.
Do you know what are the prerequisites for epidemiology path? Does it require a lot of math courses? S is not strong in math. He took very little math classes so far and would need to put a lot of efforts to make up if that is what required. </p>
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<p>Collegeguy562,</p>
<p>I’m very interested in epidemiology as well and I’m not very good at math. I passed college algebra with a C+ but it was a prep course for calc. It was also more difficult than the original college algebra course I took at another college.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m currently enrolled in a public health 101 course taught by a professor who is on the executive board for my city’s health department. He brought in the head of the epidemiology unit and he said they are plenty of jobs available in this field. In fact he encouraged us all to look into it and we could contact him if we wanted to learn more. </p>
<p>I’m just trying to figure out how I would gain experience in this field. I’m hoping to email my professor tomorrow to see what he says. I plan on taking the intro Bio course at my university since I’m not a bio major. If you would like I could respond here or pm you with he says in terms of finding experience. He did already direct me to my city’s internship program but I couldn’t do it as I’m taking a summer course that is only offered in the fall or summer. Perhaps your son could check in with the local health department if he hasn’t already.</p>
<p>Fumafoo101
thanks, It would be great if you can Pm me the information from the professor. My S took AP calc A in high school,got a 3 for AP exam but did not take any math in college yet other than an intro statistics. I guess he is OK with math but does not feel that he can do well in a field that heavily involved quantitative analysis. Doing an internship in this field would be a good way of figuring out if He likes it and can do it. Thanks </p>
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<p>Every school has different prerequisites for epidemiology. Many webpages don’t recommend any specific course of study, but I find Emory’s requirements and recommendations helpful: their MSPH applicants are required to have one course in calculus, and their MPH and MSPH applicants are required to have at least one college-level science course and one college-level math course (college algebra wouldn’t count, as that is not considered college-level). The most competitive applicants, Emory says, have at least 2 semesters of math (including calculus) and 2 semesters of science (biology, chemistry, or physics).</p>
<p>I would say for the greatest chance of success in epidemiology applications, your son should at minimum take calculus I and linear algebra, and perhaps calculus II. If your son doesn’t enjoy math, then epidemiology may not be a good choice for him because it is a quantitative field, although the mathematical techniques used are kind of different from your typical college math class like calculus. I do encourage an internship if he’s not strong in math and doesn’t feel like he could succeed; he may instead consider environmental health sciences or health policy and management or the social and behavioral sciences in public health/health behavior and health education.</p>
<p>Juillet, thank you for the information. I will talk to S about an internship.</p>
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<p>Collegeguy562, I sent you a PM just now about my professor’s response.</p>
<p>Juillet,</p>
<p>I was wondering what your feelings are on health law. Is there any good prospects for those with a JD/MPH? Our professor keeps saying the social sciences and social work are the up and comings areas of public health, but I would think to some degree the law/policy area would with the new law going into effect. My book lumps health law/policy/bioethics together in a very short chapter. It’s my possible back up if I can’t handle the math required with epidemiology as it’s my professor’s expertise (policy mostly) so I hear a lot about it.</p>
<p>I was accepted to Epi at Columbia and Minnesota (applied to other programs elsewhere). I had only AP credits in statistics and calc (no math in college). Very few science courses.</p>
<p>I will be pursuing Health Behavior and Health Education at UMich. The median salary for their students is 45-50k within a year of graduation, range was 30-90k IIRC. The epidemiology department gave almost the same figures though theirs were about 5k higher. That’s definitely not bad if they’re staying in Michigan given the low COL. I can’t speak to other places.</p>