<p>Hello I'm a junior undergraduate at elmira college double majoring in economics and environmental studies (a weird bio/econ/philosophy hybrid major) and minoring in math. For grad school I'm thinking of going into either development economics or epidemiology, probably to the Phd level. I was wondering which of these two disciplines would I have a better shot at getting into and which one would give a more fulfilling career, salary isn't as nearly as important to me as helping other people and working in interesting places across the world.</p>
<p>About me education wise, I have a 3.8 GPA, Will have had math up to stats, calculus 3, linear algebra, and real analysis/diff EQs (if I choose econ) by the time I graduate. Biology wise I have basic biology, botany, ecology, and general chem (no organic or physics), and will take microbiology if not in real analysis (offered at the same time), if not I'll take genetics or something like that instead. I've done a summer research project in biostatistics with one of my professors on demographic sexual/drug health and behavior. This year I'm taking a regional development econ course with my school's development economist in Peru at the end of the 2nd semester.</p>
<p>So what do you guys recommend I do with my life!</p>
<p>Neither? Both? It’s virtually impossible to answer this question, because the PhD discipline is not what matters so much as what you do with it. In short, both disciplines have the potential to get you a career in which you can help people and work around the world. Both can be very fulfilling careers, as well. And both have the potential for you to make a good salary, depending on who you work with and where. You have enough math for either. (I would argue that differential equations is also useful for epidemiology, and probably more useful than microbiology honestly.)</p>
<p>So the choice should be based upon what you want to study for the rest of your life. Do you want to study the spread and distribution of diseases, and use mathematical models to predict and then help control the spread of diseases within certain populations? Or do you want to do economic research in or on developing countries? If you are interested in the economics of health, you can either go to a developmental economics program or traditional econ program that has specialists in health economics, or you can attend a health economics or health policy PhD program (usually in schools of public health). If you are interested in the health of those in resource-poor countries and/or who are disadvantaged economically, then the best place to do that from would be an epidemiology department - there are hundreds of epidemiologists who do that, and we need more.</p>
<p>Also, think about what you would want to teach if you were a professor. Neither of those fields is exclusive to academia, but a lot of jobs in both are. Epidemiologists rarely teach undergraduates - although that is changing rapidly, and in the 8-10ish years between now and when you graduate with your PhD there may be many many more undergraduate public health majors than there are now. But now, they typically work with MPH, MS, and PhD students in schools of public health. Economists teach all levels of students.</p>
<p>Also consider that health economists can be hired in schools of public health AND in economics departments (and in other places, like schools/departments of public policy or public administration or international relations or business) whereas epidemiologists can’t be hired in economics departments, and typically are not hired outside of schools of public health within the context of academia.</p>
<p>However, people with a PhD in either field can work at NGOs, think tanks, and government agencies. It sounds like that’s what you really want to do, and if that’s the case then you should choose primarily based upon what kind of research you want to do in your career.</p>
<p>Since you seem to know the public health admissions process really well, do you think I’d be able to get into good epidemiology programs without physics or organic chemistry, the classical premed classes? Would having Real Analysis and ODE be okay even if I didn’t have microbiology? I know that candidates can come from a variety of backgrounds so I feel like I’d be good.</p>
<p>Definitely. You don’t need physics and I’m not even sure it would be helpful. Organic chemistry might, if you planned on doing epidemiological research on toxicology or environmental health sciences or something else that was related to chemistry, but most of the epidemiology PhD students I know didn’t take that. In fact, epidemiology is much more math-based than natural science-based, so I would argue that ODE and real analysis might be more helpful than microbiology.</p>
<p>And yes, epidemiologists come from all kinds of backgrounds. Some of them come from more math-heavy backgrounds and some come from more science-heavy backgrounds. I also know some epidemiologists who were social science majors in college, including a friend who majored in history.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed that most PhD programs fro epidemiology desire a masters degree for admission, and do you know how good, affordable or common are masters/PhD combined programs? I’m willing to get a masters first, but it seems like there will always be more funding to cover life/tuition for PhD students inmost fields I’ve heard of.</p>
<p>In epidemiology, most PhD programs do require an MS first, but there are some that don’t. Sometimes you can get funding to do an MS in epidemiology, and many programs will take an MS in a related field (like statistics or a biomedical science, which is often funded).</p>
<p>Here are a few epidemiology programs that don’t require an MS (although likely, they will favor applicants with an MS in epidemiology or a related field):</p>
<p>Yale University: [PhD</a> in Chronic Disease Epidemiology > Chronic Disease Epidemiology | Yale School of Public Health<a href=“not%20required,%20but%20preferred”>/url</a></p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions on schools to try for, they all sound like the ticket for success and happiness with life!</p>
<p>I am a little worried that I may not be good enough for those programs though. While I have a 3.8 GPA and my econ/bio/environmental classes are all As or A-s, the average for my math classes is a B+. Although its early, I’m not too sure if I can get an A or A- in Calc III (those careless mistakes on quizzes add up) even though discrete math should be an A. And then due to the teacher for linear algebra I expect an A next semester as well. Granted I won’t take the GRE for a little while, but do you think I’ll still be competetive for the very best programs even if my math GPA isn’t stellar? I already have research experience and plan to get some epi-related internship this summer, but I don’t know how to begin to find a good one!</p>