Coursework

You must select a specialty track or focus area to complement your MPH degree coursework. All students take 45 credits, though the specific required courses vary for each track. You will work with your track’s advisor to select your thesis advisor, choose elective courses, plan your applied practice experience, and more. The MPH curriculum guide has more information on individual courses.

Applied Practice Experience

The applied practice experience is a planned, supervised, and evaluated field-based experience that allows you to implement and practice lessons learned in the classroom. It can take place at a variety of public health agencies and organizations. The 150-hour experience can be designed in a variety of ways (i.e., five days a week for several weeks, a few hours a week for several months). Participation in the applied practice experience enables you to achieve many of the competencies necessary to be a successful public health practitioner, often while serving a community.

Culminating Experience

All Master of Public Health students are required to complete a culminating experience. The culminating experience typically starts towards the end of your first year and finishes by the end of your second year. The goal is for you to synthesize, integrate, and apply the skills and competencies you have acquired to a public health problem. You may choose to complete a thesis, manuscript, or capstone project to satisfy the culminating experience. The type of project completed will depend on your specialty track and topic of interest.

Thesis, Manuscript, and Capstone Project

Thesis

Researching and writing a thesis gives you a chance to explore and develop ideas learned in the classroom and/or applied practice experience. The goal of the thesis is to advance or create new knowledge in an existing body of research. You will develop a research question and a hypothesis based on previous research on the topic, then gather data and analyze the data. The findings are then discussed as to whether or not they support the hypothesis. The study should be designed so that the results of the analysis are applicable to a larger population, rather than only to the sample used in your data analysis.

Manuscript

You may choose to prepare a manuscript of publishable quality for submission to a scholarly journal. You will determine with your faculty advisor which journal is most appropriate for your topic.

Capstone Project

This scholarly project is generally developed for and in consultation with a public health organization or community agency. The capstone builds directly upon the applied practice experience by producing a deliverable based on the work completed in the applied practice experience and/or the needs of the site. Most often, the capstone project is completed in the form of a practice-based paper. You will identify a public health problem, conduct background research or a literature review, design or evaluate a program or intervention, or conduct an in-depth analysis of a particular problem, and describe findings and conclusions.