kilbonger

Thank you @penguinbombs for your reply! Yes, the additional math is a huge selling point for me - as well as the fact that I am somewhat confident that I can get into some programs, which isn't the case for pure epidemiology or PH programs. Thank you for your recommendations about relevant areas of statistics and the specific schools/professors you mentioned. I'll definitely keep an eye out more for those keywords. Thanks again and best of luck to you as well!

Thank you very much for your response! I did actually consider applying for a PhD in epi or global health. But like you said many such programs require either an MPH (or similar graduate experience) or at least a biology background which I don't have. My background is in pure math. And I do really really love math - did an REU, did some other research, took a ton of math classes. But I realized I couldn't do something so divorced from practical applications as a career, hence stats. And I've since worked as a days analyst for a university's global health program, hence the interest in biostats. I really want to do any kind of work that helps people with public health, doesn't need to be epidemiology if that isn't reasonable. But do biostatistics PhDs end up working for NGOs? I have mainly seen a lot of academia, tech companies, or big pharma - not so much of NGOs. Is that something I could do? If not, then maybe a PhD in stats really isn't for me. I just think that I have a chance at getting into some programs and also that I'd really enjoy the math, but if it wouldn't be possible for me to do the sort of work I'd like to, then I'll think more seriously about an MPH.

Hello, I was wondering if people could help me find biostatistics (or statistics honestly though I just figure that biostatistics programs are where these would be) programs that are focused on applications to epidemiology and infectious diseases. I want to work for NGOs in global health hopefully focusing on east Africa after getting a PhD but I'm having trouble determining the schools that would best prepare me to do this. Another related question I have - would I be able to do this sort of work even if my PhD work is not particularly related? E.g. if I did a pure statistics PhD focused more on methodology, would I still be able to find my way to global health work? Thank you all for the help.