<p>I recently graduated from UMass Amherst with a BS in Public Health and certificate in Public Policy and Administration. I am not sure of the exact field I want to get into but am interested in Public Health, health policy, the economics of healthcare, and the healthcare industry.<br>
Which graduate program should I pursue and why?
How difficult is it to get into these programs? (average GRE and GPA scores? How much work/volunteer experience is expected?)</p>
<p>If you don’t know what graduate degree to get, my advice is always to work for a few years and figure it out. You don’t want to spend 2 years and tens (potentially hundreds) of thousands of dollars only to realize a few years later that you should have gotten a different degree. One way to figure it out is work and try to observe the people who are doing what you want to do in 5-10 years. What kind of degrees do THEY have? Then get that.</p>
<p>What you can do is not really constrained by program; but the approach that you take will just be different per program. In an MPH program you’ll learn about the five core areas of public health - so not just health policy, economics, and management, but also epidemiology, biostatistics, sociology/anthro/psych/history of public health, and environmental health sciences. You’ll take classes in statistical methods for analyzing healthcare data and making policy decisions. All of your concentration coursework in policy will be health-related, and if you go to a combined policy/management program (as most MPH programs in policy are) you’ll also learn about the finances and management of healthcare systems. (Public health is my field, so I am a little more familiar with this.)</p>
<p>An MPP program will focus on policy and policy research without focusing specifically on health, so you’ll learn about policy-making and evaluation in a variety of fields/areas and not just health. This might be useful because many other areas (specifically economics and education off the top of my head) intersect with health.</p>
<p>Other options may include an MPA or even an MBA, if you wanted to do economics and healthcare industry stuff (and particularly healthcare management and administration). There are also plenty of dual degrees: MPA/MPH, MBA/MPH, and possibly also an MPP/MPH. You can also get an MPA/MBA at NYU Stern/Wagner, and possibly an MBA/MPP at other places.</p>
<p>None of these programs will be very well funded, as they are all professional programs. Average GRE/GMAT scores and GPA will vary from program to program. Top MPH programs (and I suspect MPP programs) are less competitive than top MBA or MPA programs, but generally speaking I think ~3.2+ GPA is good to have and at least an 1100+ on the old GRE (what is that, like a 145 on each section of the new?) MBA programs have class profiles on their admissions pages so you can see what the average GPA and GMAT scores are.</p>
<p>MPH, MPP, and less competitive MPA programs will require less full-time work experience. Most MPH programs like to see at least 2 years, but there were a few students in my class who had 0-1. MBA and competitive MPA applicants typically have more - the averages vary by school but is probably around 4-5 years, with the majority of students having between 3 and 7 years of experience.</p>
<p>So the tl;dr version is
-Only you can choose; there’s no right or wrong answer and any of these programs will probably serve you well.
-A dual degree program may be the answer for you.
-Test scores will vary by program, but aim as high as you can.
-Generally a good GPA is at least ~3.2 but varies by program.
-Aim for at least 2-3 years of work experience for MPP and MPH programs and 3-5 years for MBA and MPA programs. of course…this varies too.</p>
<p>Wow thanks for the thoughtful and detailed response. A duel degree program does sound like a great opportunity long term but I agree with your point of getting work experience first. It certainly is a relief to hear that MPH and MPP programs are generally less competitive so I don’t have to start worrying about that too much right away. If you don’t mind me asking did you get an MPH? Or do you know of any good schools that I could look into for future reference? </p>
<p>I didn’t get an MPH; I went into an MA/PhD program in public health so I have my MA in public health and will receive my PhD in a few months. My MA had a pretty similar curriculum to the MPH here, though, and I took all of my classes with MPH students.</p>
<p>I am currently at Columbia; this is an excellent school of public health and I feel privileged to be a grad student here. Other great schools in the field are Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Michigan, Emory, UNC-Chapel Hill, Berkeley, UCLA, Minnesota, Yale, Tulane, Boston U, UWashington, UPittsburgh, George Washington, Brown.</p>
<p>There are MPH programs and schools popping up everywhere nowadays, though, and I encourage you to look and see if your home state’s public university has an MPH program. For example, although Emory has the premier MPH program in Georgia, Georgia State and UGA also have good MPH programs that will be far less expensive for the GA resident. My reasoning for this is that most MPH graduates can’t expect to make six-figure incomes, and unless you get good scholarship aid or your job is paying for the MPH borrowing for the whole thing at a place like JHU, Harvard, or Columbia could easily cost upwards of $100,000.</p>
<p>I am less familiar with the other fields. I do know that Columbia also has an excellent MPA program and we do have a dual MPH/MPA program - one of my close friends did that and works as a health policy consultant in DC. NYU’s MPA at Wagner is highly rated, especially in health policy, and I know that they have scholarships there. I also know that Princeton’s MPP at their Woodrow Wilson school is not only highly regarded, but also funds 90% of their students. All of those programs want people with work experience, though; I think Princeton says the average in their program is around 7 years.</p>
<p>You should feel privileged. That is a prestigious school and I’m sure you are doing great! I’m from Massachusetts and recently graduated from UMass Amherst in December, so I have looked a bit into their graduate programs. They have a MPH, MPP, and a duel degree program too. Deciding between the three of those is what sparked this conversation!
Working as a health policy consultant in DC would be a dream job for me at this point but is exactly the type of career I could see myself in. Hopefully after some work experience I’ll be able to find a grad program that I can afford/am interested in.<br>
Thanks for the advice Juliet and good luck with the next career move post PhD!</p>
<p>Thank you, and good luck to you as well :D</p>