Sunday, March 25, 2012

Professionals and A Master of Public Health


Are you confused when it comes to viable options for a public health graduate degree? Plenty of public health masters programs are readily available for people who want to be a professional in this field. In public health, there is an MS option and a master of public health that differ from one another.

The thing about a Master of Public Health is that this is a degree course that teaches students about the general concepts of public health. When it comes to MPH programs, these are centered on public health and graduating from these courses can lead to a job in the public health sector. When it comes to this, you can choose to specialize in areas like occupational health, epidemiology, or community health if you prefer.

In public health, accomplishing an MPH program will require students to take up various courses in all major areas. Here is where students are required to complete internships or prepare a final thesis before the program can be completed. When it comes to a Master of Public Health, this is something bestowed upon a student by the Graduate School of Public Health.

Even if your undergraduate discipline is not related to public health, you can enroll in this master's course. Many students directly come from undergraduate studies. There are times though when MPH degrees are only available to those who have doctorate degrees.

Admission procedures and rates are not standard across all educational facilities. Some schools have an acceptance rate of eighty percent. You need a 3.0 GPA to qualify for this kind of masteral program but you have to maintain at least a 50th-percentile on every GRE section.

About 24 months is needed to complete a Master of Public Health degree if you are a full time student. A year is what you need if you are a professional with a doctorate degree as accelerated programs will be available in your case. Similar to most professional degree programs, students are normally not accommodated with considerable grant or scholarship options to fund their education.

As a professional, if you are considering research efforts, you should think about an MS, MSc, ScM, or MSPH which are all master's of science degrees. A particular focus can be chosen at first but students can delve into things outside of their specialization. The thing about a Master of Science in Public Health is that it focuses mainly on research but several PH courses are included in the program.

If you want to be a professional in the public health industry, the Master of Science is really not a good degree to consider. What you have here is a career path that requires you to have the necessary interdisciplinary education. What you have here may require a defense from each student before graduation.

Options like academic doctoral programs such as PhD or ScD can be valuable to someone with an MS program in mind as the focus will be somewhat similar. Usual programs take two years for coursework and dissertation/thesis. The MS is often conferred by the School of Art and Sciences or any applicable name at universities rather than School of Public Health and hence, the admission requirement will vary than a MPH applicant.

Since the course is really tougher not to mention more competitive, MS programs are harder to get into compared to Master of Public Health programs with the rates of admission being lower than 35%. Admission is not something that is consistent across the board though. Financial aid is rarely provided when it comes to post grad programs but in the case of MS students, the necessary funding may be provided by their companies.