My D is looking at Public Health as a major with pre-med concentration. Colleges in her list include NYU, UMD, U Pitt, U Penn, U of Rochester, UNC.
What other major or minor compliments this well? I am thinking as a fall back from career point of view. She is not a computer science person. Bio is one obvious choice.
Sociology, anthropology, anything with people really. For more of a quantitative perspective, maybe statistics? I can’t speak to all the schools on her list, but I know at Rochester it’s very common to do two completely different fields, so it doesn’t necessarily have to compliment public health.
Biology typically has relatively low paid BA/BS-level job and career outcomes (see College Scorecard), so it would not be of much help “as a fall back from career point of view”.
Statistics or data science would be obviously applicable for some public health work, and would offer more other career directions as well.
Public Health/biology double major is going to be intense (of course some may not find it to be). Public Health is a highly competitive admit at some schools. Biostats is a good major, and falls within public health.
Does she enjoy foreign languages? Would she consider a Spanish minor? Public Health + Spanish is a nice combination, but she will also need whatever premed classes are not included in the major.
A public health major with research experience will also set her up for a career, but all of the public health majors I know eventually went to grad school (and are employed).
There’s definitely no need for a full-blown double-major in biology. If the med school prereqs get her close to a bio minor and she wants to finish the minor, all good, but there’s no real tangible payoff for getting the minor vs. just taking the required courses for med school. I can’t imagine any public health employer prioritizing her resume because of a bio minor, unless it were some unusually bio-heavy job in environmental health or something like that.
For career opportunities in the public health field, as others have said, a strong quant background is a real asset. Even a minor in stats, data science, or data analytics would catch the eye of an employer who’s looking for this skill set. Since public health operates on a population level, data analysis is where the rubber meets the road. Another quant-adjacent minor that a few schools offer (Ohio State is one, and that’s another school that could be worth considering) would be epidemiology.
Overall, if she decides to go the public health route, it could be more advantageous to invest elective time in getting a head start on her MPH, where such pathways are possible, vs. collecting undergrad credentials. Many schools have BA/MPH pathways, which often add only one extra year and aren’t necessarily a bad idea even if med school is still a goal.
USC has a Gerontology department that is well regarded.
If she’s at all inclined toward any of them, I wholeheartedly agree with languages (classes if not a major/minor) and data sciences being the most useful toward either a medical or non-medical future.
Economics if she’s interested in healthcare and public policy.
Note that a public health major program probably includes some statistics or data science and social sciences (including economics at least as an option), and may allow for some additional courses in those areas among in-major electives. So it may be possible to increase depth in those areas within the major as well as using out-of-major courses for these subjects.
Here is an example public health major, showing the range of courses (with course titles) that a student in the major can take:
Lower division pre-major courses: Undergraduate Admissions Requirements - UC Berkeley Public Health
Upper division requirements: https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/academics/undergraduate/public-health-ba/curriculum/