<p>Hey. I had some questions and the internet wasn't helping that much. Right now I'm a freshman in an undergraduate engineering program. I'm not 100% sure I really want to go into engineering, though, and I was recently thinking epidemiology sounded really interesting. I just wondered if anybody here knew anything about this career and could give me some information about it.</p>
<p>I have a couple questions:</p>
<p>1) What is the best undergraduate major to get into a masters program in epidemiology? Would something like biosystems engineering (with a biomedical concentration) be a good major or would it be better to do something more general such as biology?</p>
<p>2) How many years does it generally take to get a masters of public health or masters of science in epidemiology? Is it the standard 3 years? Oh...if you work as a clinical epidemiologist (working in a hospital setting) does that require more education than just a general epidemiologist? </p>
<p>3) What does an epidemiologists work day look like? If you have any knowledge of this, I'd love to learn more.</p>
<p>4) And I know money isn't everything...but is it true epidemiologists make around 60k a year on average? That's not so bad, I'm just curious.</p>
<p>Thanks....if anyone knows anything they can share with me I'd really appreciate it.</p>
<p>Sincerely,
an overly curious undergraduate student</p>
<p>1) Any undergraduate major will do, but since epidemiologists do a lot of clinical and math work, a mathematics degree or one in the natural or physical sciences are preferred. Most of my epi friends had one of those undergrad majors, although I’ve known epi MPH students who have majors in a lot - literature, history, psychology, sociology, etc. Biosystems engineering would be an excellent major.</p>
<p>2) It takes 2 years at most schools of public health. Clinical epidemiologists usually have a PhD in epidemiology or they have a doctoral degree in another field and a post-doctoral MS in epidemiology, AFAIK.</p>
<p>3) This I don’t know; I’m in a different subfield of public health.</p>
<p>4) Depends on where you live and what kind of epi work you do, but this sounds about average.</p>
<p>Advice that I have gotten was that a postdoc in a public health system is an excellent way to get into the field. This of course comes after a Phd. IMHO, I don’t see how the kind of work I do studying infectious disease would prepare me for the practice of public health, but I suppose that’s why there are postdoc positions.</p>
<p>Although I don’t know anything specifically about epidemiology, one of Juillet’s comments, that clinical epidemiologists generally have PhDs, leads to this: in most field’s, you don’t need a master’s degree before you enter a PhD program. I have been surprised by how many people don’t know this. Yes, some PhD program students enter with master’s degrees, but it’s not necessary as long as you have the other pieces in place: research, grades, course preparation, and good letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>suggest you peruse the Epi websites of the top two programs, Hopkins and Harvard. You’ll quickly note that an MPH at those schools is only available to those with significant work experience and/or other professional degrees. (An MPH itself is a professional degree.) Both Hopkins and Harvard offer other Masters programs in Epi, however. </p>
<p>Note: other Unis do over an MPH in Epi, but the big two H’s do not, nor does Carolina or Washington (ranked #3 and #4 in PH).</p>
<p>Yes, they certainly do offer Epi. But the MPH degree is reserved for health care professionals, PhD’s or those with significant work experience (similar to Hopkins and Harvard). The Masters in Epi that UNC does offer to recent grads is research-focused:</p>
<p>Masters of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR) “The program is designed to develop the skills necessary for a successful career as a principal investigator and collaborator in clinical/translational research.”</p>