Importance of CEPH accreditation

[phdaspiration]

How important is CEPH accreditation when choosing a PhD in public health program? I know they CEPH website says it's important, but I'm looking for a more unbiased opinion. Would you ever go to a school without it? Also, I noticed that some are accredited schools of public health and some are colleges of public health. What is the difference between school and college? Size?

[jordanami]

Not only do you want CEPH but you want ASPH as well. There are a lot of fellowships, etc. that are dedicated for ASHP member schools. The CEPH is important if you want to move forward and get a doctorate after a masters, as they will only accept people with masters degrees from CEPH accredited schools.

[goomba25]

It's a mixed bag. On one hand, there are a lot of decent/good programs that aren't CEPH-accredited. Unlike the WASC-accreditation for colleges, not having the CEPH stamp does NOT mean that the school is necessarily a degree mill. On the other hand, if you want to go farther and get into the top positions (e,g, CDC), you need that CEPH stamp.

Also, note that your degree is only considered "accredited" if the school was accredited at the moment you got your degree. If it lapsed while you were still in the program or the school was in the process of being reviewed and was accredited the day after you got the degree, it does NOT count.

I called CEPH about this. They update their list of schools every July and November, if I remember correctly.

[juilletmercredi]

It depends on what you want to do. If academia is your goal - teaching in a school of public health or a related department - CEPH accreditation isn't going to matter, since most faculty in PH actually don't have PH degrees. What's going to matter is your research and publications. If your department is well-respected, you'll be fine - but most well-respect public health schools are CEPH-accredited.

If you want to work within the public health field non-academically, then I wouldn't go to a non CEPH-accredited school. (And even in the former case, there's no guarantees on academic jobs so I wouldn't go to a non-CEPH-accredited school anyway.)

[runningupthathill]

On 4/27/2011 at 12:45 PM, jordanami said:

Not only do you want CEPH but you want ASPH as well. There are a lot of fellowships, etc. that are dedicated for ASHP member schools. The CEPH is important if you want to move forward and get a doctorate after a masters, as they will only accept people with masters degrees from CEPH accredited schools.

This would exclude all students with public health degrees outside of the USA would it not? How is that even equitable in today's climate? Should a student (even American ones) with international PH degrees simply not waste time applying for jobs and PhD programs in the States?