So, As of right now I’m in my second of about 6 semesters at a community college. I’m currently going for a Biology and Chemistry double. I know for epidemiology you have to get an MPH for most things, but before I get to that I want to know what combination of majors would be best. I really enjoy both biology and chemistry (especially microbiology and chemistry) and have been looking to major in biology for a long time; However lately I’ve been a little more into my chemistry class (may be because of the professor) than my biology. I have thought of careers with more of an emphasis in chemistry but every time I do I keep going back to epidemiology.
I really want the epidemiology career because it is something that interests me, but I also really want to do something with chemistry, any suggestions? :-/
What about environmental science? Chemistry is certainly relevant to topics such as environmental toxicology, and you could focus on toxic occupational and environmental exposure on the epidemiology side of things. Chemistry would also be a relevant background for pursuing certain areas of pharmacological epidemiology, food safety (e.g., pesticide exposure), etc.
I am hoping to be able to do an MSPH for environmental health and epidemiology; I’ve been looking at this program through Rollins School of Public Health (Emory University) and it has a good program for that. Many of these students who graduated got jobs at a government facility such as the CDC which is what I’m looking into. This degree gets you dual degree in both practical experience in the field along with research experience (which I believe has chemistry Involved). If that’s not the case though (with chemistry) I will most likely just get a second degree in chemistry.
Biology and math! Or chemistry and math. Or statistics, if that is a minor or major at your school.
Epidemiology is actually a career/field that is heavy on mathematical and statistical analysis. Epidemiologists use the natural sciences for sure, but they actually use a lot of mathematical modeling to look at patterns of disease across populations. As an epidemiologist you’ll need to have a strong foundation in basic math - so you should at least minor in it. Those epidemiologic methods classes are all math-based. (And you have to take biostats I and II, which are advanced.) The more math and stats you know, the more competitive you will be for post-graduate positions, too.
At minimum I think you should take two semesters of calculus and a linear algebra class. If you have time, minor in math and take 2-3 semesters of calculus, linear algebra, and 1-2 semesters of mathematical statistics.
