MPH - Epidemiology and Foodborne Illness (Grad Schools)

Graduate School
1

<p>Dear CC,</p>

<p>My girlfriend is applying to grad schools with me at the moment and she's trying to figure out where to go. I figured that I would ask for suggestions on what schools she could apply to. </p>

<p>Her status:</p>

<p>Beloit College</p>

<p>GPA: 3.2 </p>

<p>Desired degree: Masters of Public Health (MPH)</p>

<p>Research Interests: </p>

<p>Public Health/Epidemiology with an emphasis on foodborne illness. </p>

<p>Her specialization is obviously very narrow and though she her interests lie entirely within foodborne illness, she has no desire to go into Food Science (she is focused on prevention and detection of illness). </p>

<p>My girlfriend's primary school is the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. She wants to work with Michael Osterholm, one of the top researchers in the field of epidemiology. It is the only school that she can find that specifically has classes on foodborne illness.</p>

<p>Internships:</p>

<p>Public Health Fellowship at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill</p>

<p>Thank you!!</p>

<p>Sincerely,
Ulrich</p>

2

<p>Does anyone have suggestions?</p>

3

<p>Im not sure about foodborne illness, but you can check out SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. They offer epidemiology/public health…</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the info, but I don’t think its relevant. :/</p>

5

<p>If she gets an MPH likely she’s not going to specialize much. She may take a few classes on foodborne illnesses, but most MPH programs have broad foci that require students to take classes in health policy, health management, social and behavioral sciences, biostatistics, basic epidemiology, and environmental health sciences. In epi specifically, she’ll take some epidemiological methods courses.</p>

<p>For example, I’m at Columbia, and here’s the MPH in epi curriculum:</p>

<p>P6400 Epi I: Principles of Epidemiology
P6103 Introduction to Biostatistics
P6300 Environmental Health Sciences
P6530 Issues and Approaches to Health Policy and Management
P6700 Introduction to Sociomedical Sciences
P6810 Introduction to Global Health* </p>

<p>Methods Sequence
P8438 Epi II: Design and Conduct of Observational Epidemiology
P8400 Epi III: Applied Epidemiologic Analysis
P8120 Analysis of Categorical Data
P8483 Applications of Epidemiologic Research Methods I</p>

<p>Thesis
P9419 Master’s Thesis in Epidemiology I
P9420 Master’s Thesis in Epidemiology II</p>

<p>Then they have to take 3 substantive courses and 2 electives that can be from any department within the SPH.</p>

<p>With that said, the best idea for your gf is to go to the CEPH website and look at the list of schools:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ceph.org/pdf/Master_List.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ceph.org/pdf/Master_List.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>And then start checking out some of these schools’ course offerings and professors. Who does research on foodborne illnesses? Where are they? Are there any courses on foodborne illnesses?</p>

<p>Columbia doesn’t have any specific offerings in foodborne illnesses, but I know that our EHS department is known for work with water and water contamination. Other top schools to look at are Minnesota, Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Emory, the University of Washington, UNC-Chapel Hill, Boston U, Pittsburgh, Tulane, Yale, GWU, U Ala.-Birmingham, UIC, Ohio State, Drexel, South Florida, Iowa, Arizona, and South Carolina. These are the top 25 or so schools in the nation in public health.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the lengthy post! =] I will get her to look into this.</p>

<p>Only thing is…she is limiting herself substantially in terms of geography. She doesn’t want to go to any of the southern states, which cuts down a lot of opportunities in the area of foodborne illness. Additionally, she has visited Pittsburgh and Drexel, both of which she has decided not to apply to. Her adviser went to Johns Hopkins, but advised her against going because of the level of difficulty. California is also not an option.</p>