<p>Just another one of my clueless-undergraduate posts.</p>
<p>Well, we've all heard that the job market isn't particularly booming for biology majors. However, I'm wondering if anyone has any information on job security or employability of a masters (or phd?) in public health. I may be interested in epidemiology or global health, although I'm not sure what the exact job requirements are for the different areas of public health.</p>
<p>I'm thinking I could major in statistics, microbiology, or maybe even anthropology (BS) to prepare myself for public health. Would these be good preparatory majors for a public health program? Would certain majors prepare me better for different segments of public health than others (I'd prefer to not be crunching numbers all day, so maybe biostatistics isn't for me?)</p>
<p>Bump. I’m curious too.</p>
<p>Statistics is a good major, but do couple it with something like bio if you want to head for public health. If you major in something else, consider minoring in statistics. While you do not want to crunch numbers all day (that’s a likely job of a MSc statistician/biostatistician, but not the only thing they do), public health involves a lot of statistics and you need to understand how the data are collected, how it’s analyzed, the models used and whether the conclusions make sense.</p>
<p>There are 2 (or more) routes to public health. At least 20 years ago when I did an MPH at JHU, students were divided into those with a “clinical” background and those without. We took some of the same basic classes, but the docs, nurses and few vets among us clinicians received a Masters in Public Health, while the non-clinicians received a Master of Sciences in Health, I think they called it. I think they took a few different classes, e.g., health education. At the time, I was applying as a nurse, and there were many opportunities. Now that I am doing the college search for my daughter, I see that some schools are offering un undergrad degree in “global health,” although very few of the programs seem science-based.</p>