Public Health Newbie

[fanfanfan]

Hi Everyone! I became interested in public health while preparing for a degree in medical anthropology. After some cursory research, I started thinking that PH might be more up my alley. Still, I'm not very familiar with MPH programs and was wondering if there are any fully-funded programs as well as what I should do to make myself a stronger applicant. I have a degree in anthropology with some international health-related NGO internship experience, which culminated into an honors thesis. Since graduating in 2008, I've worked a variety of jobs while living abroad. Although, I spent some time working at a local pharmaceutical company, I was in sales/marketing which doesn't seem to really 'count.' I also have qualitative research experience, but for a marketing research company.

Thanks for your help!

[RockStar]

I'm not familiar with any fully funded MPH programs. But if you think you might be interested in a longer term investment in the field of PH, there are programs that combine MPH or MSPH and PhD, which have some funding (e.g. UNC Chapel Hill).

[ZeroFlux]

I think RockStar is right. Most of the funding comes in at the doctoral level (or in combined degrees). Unlike other disciplines, it seems harder to enter a doctoral public health program straight out of undergrad.

At the MPH level, there are a few good merit scholarships that will cover potentially all tuition, but I imagine they're pretty competitive. Still worth a shot though. For example, https://source.wustl.edu/2009/05/master-of-public-health-program-offers-fulltuition-scholarships/