Sunday, March 25, 2012

With Regard to A Master of Public Health


Are you unsure about which program will benefit you in the long run when it comes to your public health graduate degree? Plenty of public health masters programs are readily available for people who want to be a professional in this field. Below are the similarities and differences of master of public health versus MS in public health.

The Master of Public Health is a professional terminal degree aiming to provide comprehensive public health master’s education. In general, graduates from MPH programs can choose an area of concentration in one of the areas of public health, which is the focus of the coursework. Aside from epidemiology, professionals in this industry can also be tasked to deal with concerns pertaining to health policy and administration.

All MPH students should complete at least one core course in all major areas of public health degree. Here is where students are required to complete internships or prepare a final thesis before the program can be completed. Something like a Master of Public Health is actually awarded by the Graduate School of Public Health to students who complete the program.

Most schools accept students who graduated from different undergraduate disciplines. Undergrads are the ones who normally enroll in such programs. There are times though when MPH degrees are only available to those who have doctorate degrees.

The stringency of admission to MPH programs may vary from institution to institution. In some educational facilities, the admission rate can be high. For these kinds of programs, you have to maintain a 50th-percentile on every GRE section and of course possess a 3.0 undergraduate GPA.

All it takes is 24 months for a Master of Public Health degree to be completed provided that you have no other endeavor but studying. A year is what you need if you are a professional with a doctorate degree as accelerated programs will be available in your case. Grants and other methods of funding might not be applicable when it comes to professional degree courses.

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. Even if you choose to participate in a certain specialization, your coursework will not be limited to that area of expertise. If you engage in a Master of Science in Public Health, you will be able to participate in academic research and still learn through PH courses.

When it comes to public health, if you want to pursue a career path in this field, do not pursue the Master of Science. Something that will be required from individuals is interdisciplinary education if they want to make a career out of this. Prior to completing the program, you need to work on a thesis or defense.

When it comes to an MS program, you can pursue further studies without deviating from the original coursework through academic doctoral programs such as PhD or ScD. Two years is what you need for the coursework and there is a dissertation prior to graduation. No other body but the School of Art and Sciences can confer something like an MS.

The thing about these courses is that both of them are relevant but MS programs are simply more intense than Master of Public Health programs and the acceptance rate for the former is smaller as well. Admission rates vary considerably. Usually, organizations support the education of their employees who engage in various MS programs as they are also going to benefit from the degree.