Flash26

Definitely take the MSc! Huge range of job opportunities will open up for you. I've also heard from a student who just finished there 1st year in the Msc program at queens and she completely loves it. She said that it sets you up with a strong skill set that can be applied to a variety of areas afterwards...MPH will give you some Epi skills too, but its very broad. I have also heard from an a Epi prof at OttawaU who says that it can sometimes be difficult for students entering directly from undergrad to the MPH program to find jobs afterwards because they dont have as much 'real world' healthcare experience. (I dont know if thats your situation or not though.) He was saying how initially the MPH program was developed for nurses and docs to upgrade their skills, but now theres this trend allowing in undergrads. I should probably mention though that even with this stuff being said I still accepted an offer to Guelph's MPH program (didnt apply to any epi programs because i felt i didnt have the stats background to be competitive enough to get in). I am an undergrad, but I decided that even if it takes me sometime to find a job, I'm fine with just trying to do internships either in Canada or abroad to get more 'real world' experience. Best of luck in September with whatever you decide!

Thank you! I am really excited about starting too and Guelph was also my #1...it was just these little things that kept making me a bit nervous. Really appreciate the input!

Thanks so much Melissa! Especially glad to hear that there are a variety of ethnic associations. Feeling a little better about accepting the offer now I'll definitely be checking out the campus soon. Hopefully we will meet in September!

Hi guelphbiomed, since your a current student at guelph I would really like to get your opinion on general life in Guelph. I've scrolled through forums that bring up issues on racism at the university...what have you noticed on campus and what are the general attitudes of students towards people of different ethnic backgrounds? (This kinda stuff makes me anxious about accepting the offer...i dont want to feel like an outsider for 2 years)

So glad you brought this up! I just got my acceptance letter from Guelph and feel the same way. I dont think I'll be much help in answering your question but from what I've gathered through reading random things on internet (theres very little info out there), it seems like a good program if you want to do work in food safety. The Canadian food inspection agency gave a grant to the school to develop this MPH program with these aims in mind: "The development and implementation of a Master's of Public Health Program (MPH) at the Ontario Veterinary College serves to complement the CFIA's mandate through contributing to food safety, animal, public and ecosystems health. The MPH program will provide focused training to produce front-line public health practitioners who will be prepared to enter the public health workforce and will be equipped to work in a variety of subject areas essential to CFIA's activities (e.g. policy development, risk assessment, animal and human health program development)." http://active.inspection.gc.ca/scripts/agen/proactive/awaoct/awaoctrport.asp?lang=e&yr=2008-2009&q=1&contraID=20 I really dont know about the general perception of the school/program by others though...wish some current MPH students would check out this thread (Cant comment on the Msc vs MPH) Any other opinions?

Hi, has anyone else heard back from Guelph?? I've only seen two posts in this thread about it...