I’ve really enjoyed the courses so far! The program is really well rounded so you get a little bit of everything and if you want to focus on epi there is definitely an option to do so through your elective courses. After I graduate I want to work in epi and I know a lot of others in the program do as well. One of the most important considerations in getting hired as an epidemiologist is your ability to use data analysis software, and we learn how to use R in our biostatistics course and STATA in biostats 2. A lot of previous graduates from the program have gone on to become epidemiologists for the Public Health Agency of Canada as well. The department helps a lot with practicums, organizations taking practicum students will reach out to a member of our department and essentially she will send out all of the job postings she receives. She also actively contacts organizations to see if they would be willing to take practicum students. You also can reach out to any organization you want if there hasn’t been a practicum posting from them and a member of our department will help them set up a practicum position for you if they want to take a student. This year they told us there were fewer than normal practicum student requests due to COVID, but still almost everyone in our program has secured a position and if they haven’t there is the opportunity to do research under a faculty member instead. There is also the option to do a second practicum in your second year winter semester if you choose. I did see a couple of practicum postings for positions in Toronto specifically with UHN, but I would assume that UofT has more partnerships in Toronto so they get more toronto based practicum offers.
I was accepted to Guelph and Queens last year and ended up accepting Guelph for a few reasons. I didn’t apply to UofT because I didn’t want to only focus on one program stream and wanted to explore different aspects of public health. The Public Health Agency of Canada is in Guelph so the university has a very strong partnership with it and many of the MPH students get practicums there which I think is a really big accomplishment as far as practicum opportunities go. There are tons of MPH alumni from Guelph that work at PHAC as epidemiologists. It seems like many of them are hired right out of graduation. I know at Queens it seems they have partnership with KFLA health unit so many students do practicum positions there, but my goal is to work at PHAC once I graduate or for another organization at a national level instead of a local health unit. There’s also the option to do a second practicum at Guelph which is really great! When I talked to my profs in undergrad they didn’t know much about the Queens mph program but they were very familiar with guelph, so I think although queens is a prestigious school, Guelph is much better known and has more connections in the field of public health.
