2024-2025 MPH Graduate Handbook
General Requirements
MPH degree graduates will be trained principally as health policy analysts. They will have a rich background in epidemiology, health economics, health behavior, health administration, health policy and policy analysis, and statistical and qualitative analytic skills.
A completed MPH degree requires an overall 43 credit hours, including:
- Core Curricula: 31 credits
- Internship: 3 credits
- Electives: 9 credits
The average completion time depends on the student’s track and the number of credits taken each semester.
For the full-time track, which entails students taking nine (9) credit hours per fall and spring semester and six (6) in the summer semester, students typically graduate within two (2) years.
For the part-time* track, which entails students taking six (6) credit hours per semester, students typically graduate within three (3) to four (4) years.
*The MPH program is a classroom-based program with limited distance-learning options. However, the program offers most of our core classes after 5:00 PM Monday – Thursday to accommodate students who work full-time. The program cannot promise classes to be offered outside of traditional work hours. The student’s sole responsibility is to work with their place of employment.
Required MPH Core courses (34 CORE credits)
1st Year Required Courses:
| Course Number | Credit | Class Name | Semester Offered |
| HSC 5930 | 1 | Proseminar in Public Health | Fall only |
| PHC 5155 | 3 | Health Services Organization & Policy (required in 1st semester) | Fall, Spring |
| PHC 5300 | 3 | Environmental Health | Fall, Spring |
| PHC 5475 or URP 5525 | 3 | Health Behavior | Fall, Spring |
| PHC 5001 or URP 5521 | 3 | Public Health Epidemiology | Fall, Spring |
| ECP 5538* | 3 | Health Policy Statistics (required in 1st year) | Dependent on offering (F, Sp, or Su) |
2nd Year Required Courses
| Course Number | Credit | Class Name | Semester Offered |
| PHC 5945 | 3 | Internship (Prerequisite(s): PHC 5155, PHC 5001/URP 5525, ECP 5538) | Fall, Sp, Su |
| PHC 6110 | 3 | Comparative Health | Fall, Spring |
| PAD 5216 | 3 | Healthcare Finance | Fall only; sometimes Sp |
| PAD 5884 | 3 | Healthcare Management | Su only; sometimes F, Sp |
| PHC 5797 | 3 | Adv. Social Statistics and Data Analysis | Fall, Sp; sometimes Su |
| PHC 5151* | 3 | Health Politics and Policy Analysis (Capstone) | Fall, Sp |
Internship – PHC 5945
Internship positions can include international, national, state, or local health-related organizations for a required 200-hour working experience. We are unable to accept waiver requests.
Those in the part-time track can split the internship hours between two or more semesters, with approval from the Internship Coordinator, Dr. Alan Rowan.
For more information, please click here
Electives (9-12 Credits)
Elective selections can be tailored to suit a student’s needs and interests, such as policy, business, economics, epidemiology, administration, sociology, statistics, and other fields.
*These approved electives are not offered every semester nor promised for enrollment. This is the approved elective list of classes that will count towards graduation requirements if the student were to take and pass. Students are responsible for checking and ensuring they are meeting the necessary prerequisites.
| EAP 5845 | Academic Writing for International Grad Students (Int’l Students ONLY) |
| ECP 5606 | Urban and Regional Economics |
| ECP 5536 | Economics of Health |
| EDF 5461 | Introduction to Program Evaluation |
| FOS 5205 | Food, Safety, and Quality |
| FRW 5775 | Special Topics Narrating Epidemics: Disease, Society, and Culture |
| GEO 5451 | Medical Geography |
| GEO 5453 | Global Health |
| GIS 5101 | Intro to GIS (must also take GIS5101L) |
| HUN 5297 | Eating Disorders, Body Image, and Healthy Weight Maintenance |
| LIS 5418 | Introduction to Health Informatics |
| LIS 5419 | Consumer Health Informatics |
| LIS 5631 | Health Information Sources |
| LIS 5661 | Government Information |
| LIS 5788 | Health Information Systems and Management |
| INR 5935 | Politics of Hunger and Malnutrition |
| PAD 5035 | Policy Development and Administration |
| PAD 5142 | Managing the Non-Profit Organization |
| PAD 5173 | Nongovernmental Organizations |
| PAD 5327 | Public Program Evaluation |
| PAD 5397 | Foundations of Emergency Management |
| PAD 5845 | Public Health & Emergency Management |
| PHC 5003 | Chronic Disease Epidemiology |
| PHC 6002 | Infectious Disease Epidemiology |
| POS 5698 | Comparative Federalism |
| RCS 5080 | Medical Aspects of Disability |
| SOW5455 | Grant Writing and Grant Management |
| SYA 6933 | Special Topics: Neighborhoods & Health Caregiving and Adulthood Becoming an Adult in Strat. Society Sexual and Reproductive Health Medical Sociology How Inequality Makes Us Sick Gender, Work, and Family |
| SYD 5045 | Intro to Demography |
| SYD 5133 | Population Data |
| SYD 5136 | Social Epidemiology |
| SYD 5215 | Health and Survival |
| SYD 5225 | Fertility |
| SYO 5416 | Stress and Mental Health |
| SYO 6407 | Race, Ethnicity, and Health |
| SYP 5065 | Sexuality Over the Life Course |
| SYP 5738 | Aging Policies and Services |
| URP 5059 | Community Involvement and Public Participation |
| URP 5445 | Climate Change and Community Resilience |
| URP 5526 | Special Topics: Healthy Cities, Healthy Communities |
| URP 5272 | Urban and Regional Info Systems (not approved if another GIS course has already been taken) |