Epidemiology

Pre-Med & Medical School
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<p>Sorry if there is an existing post but I am not sure where to look.</p>

<p>Can anyone provide information or link me to CC threads discussing how to become an epidemiologist, the steps to take and other essentials? I am currently a senior in high school interested in becoming an epidemiologist.</p>

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<p>bump10char</p>

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<p>Epidemiology requires a graduate degree. Entry level positions require a minimum of a MS or MPH; many jobs require a PhD. Some require both an MD and PhD.</p>

<p>Epidemiology has 2 tracks: clinical and research. </p>

<p>Clinical epidemiologists work to stop or prevent infectious outbreaks and most often work in medical facilities.</p>

<p>Research epidemiologists perform extensive research to aid in the prevention and control of infectious diseases. </p>

<p>Epidemiology (either track) requires significant math skills, including advanced statistics, probability, biostatistics. (The full sequence of calculus may be useful.)</p>

<p>Typical undergrad degrees that lead to epidemiology grad programs: biology, public health, statistics/mathematics, computer science, social anthropology.</p>

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<p>Thank you so much! Is the coursework rigorous in something like biology and social anthropology in comparison to pre-med or other science majors?</p>

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<p>Your coursework should be as math-centric as possible since epidemiology relies heavily on statistical analysis. </p>

<p>Any math skill defiencies you may have must be remediated BEFORE you will allowed to matriculate into a epidemiology grad program.</p>

<p>GPA is not as critical for MPH/MS/PhD programs as it is for medical school, but the better programs (JHU, Harvard, UNC, Michigan, Columbia, etc) will be looking for GPAs >3.5 as well as strong GRE scores, particularly in quantitative (math). </p>

<p>In a sense the coursework preparing you for MPH/MS/PhD epidemiology programs may be more rigorous that pre med since it requires higher level coursework in math than pre med does. </p>

<p>Social anthropology is a good undergrad degree if you want to go into epidemiological fields such as global health planning or leadership or public policy or, but not if you want to go into clinical drug trial management or genetic epidemiology or cancer epidemiology.</p>

<p>Additionally, some MPH degree programs expect you have at least 1 year of work experience in the field you wish to pursue. (So if you’re interested in mental health epidemiology, you’d be expected to have a minimum of 1 year work experience in community mental health or something similiar.) PhD programs will expect you to have clearly defined career interest and goals.</p>

<p>Take a look at Johns Hopkins epidemiology program to see the range and scope that their School of Public Health includes.</p>

<p>[Degree</a> Programs - Academics - Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health](<a href=“http://www.jhsph.edu/academics/degree-programs/]Degree”>http://www.jhsph.edu/academics/degree-programs/)</p>

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<p>P.S. One of my kids is strongly interested in a MD/MPH in biostatistics with an emphasis on public mental healthcare policy. She has undergrad degrees in both mathematics and neuroscience with several years research experience in neuropsychiatry. Her backup plan if not accepted to med school will be to get her PhD in mental health epidemiology----> <a href=“Mental Health | Johns Hopkins | Bloomberg School of Public Health”>Mental Health | Johns Hopkins | Bloomberg School of Public Health;