Medical Graduate Seeking Post-Grad Public Health Advice

[callumpierce]

Hello!

I recently graduated in Medicine in July of this year. Rather than enter the Foundation Programme I moved to the Netherlands to pursue an MSc Global Health at the University of Maastricht. Unfortunately my funding was severely delayed which meant I had to return to the UK and make other plans for the coming year.

I plan to return to Swaziland, where I conducted a small Health Services research project earlier this year, for an 11 month period to work with a large research NGO in the country under a "Public Health Assistantship".

I have no family backing for financial support so I will be relying on scholarships, studentships or grants in order to fund my postgraduate study. 

i am trying to figure out what programmes to apply for in Autumn 2015 after I come back from Swaziland. I want to pursue a career in Public Health particularly in an international or low-resource context. The kind of fields I am interested in are Health Services, Health Management or Health Policy.

Athough I was delighted to get into Maastricht University and I felt that Global Health was a good match for my career ambitions, from the short time I spent on the course I don't feel it had enough focus on research skills or qualitative and quantitative data handling for my career goals.

Now I'm a bit bewildered by the choices that are available and I don't really know where to start. The two things I was hoping to ask the forum for are;

 

1) What, in your cumulative opinion, are the relative merits of the MPH programme compared to things like an MRes, MPhil or MSc in any of the above subjects?  I think a PhD is definitely in my long-term career goals, especially as I want to go into research. I am thinking of applying for a 3+1 MPhil/MRes+PhD programme but even though some look amazing I am struggling to find any which align with my career goals which are also fully funded. Overall I just have no idea whether to go for a Masters and then apply for a PhD or to go straight for a 3+1 kind of programme.

 

2) Does anyone have any experience of seeking funding for their postgraduate careers? I want to enrol in a Masters programme or MPhil/PhD that lets me conduct my thesis research abroad but I'm struggling to find any studentships for this kind of study. I know that schemes like ESRC, NIH exist but I don't know where to start in trying to find supervisors for this kind of application. 

 

3) I'm struggling to know where to start in terms of contacting potential supervisors for PhD or MRes programmes. Is there anyone out there who's done this before who might be able to give me some pointers on what kinds of people I should be approaching? Is it acceptable to just write to professors and research organisation directors in my field to get the ball rolling, or should I contact the PhD students working under them in the first instance, or even the admissions dean?

I'm sorry for the novel here but as you can probably tell I'm like a rabbit in the headlights, I just want to get things in motion so I'm all set up for next year. 

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

Cal.

[juilletmercredi]

Hi!  Caveat of course is that I am from the U.S. and am completely unfamiliar with the European system - so if you are trying to stay in Europe to study for your MPH, then a lot of my comments won't apply at all.

 

1) In the U.S. there aren't MRes or even many MPhil programs in public health, but there are MPHs vs an MS, MHA, maybe an MA in related fields.  The MPH is typically the professional degree; you can learn to do research with it, and many MPH graduates leverage their MPH into PhDs.  But the goal is to prepare students for professional practice in public health.  Many universities have MS or MA programs instead that are more focused on research and have preparation for a PhD program as a goal.  If you think that you want to work for a few years before your PhD, then I would encourage the MPH, but what's going to matter more than the letters are the skills you learn.  MPH programs are broader and you take classes in policy, management, epi, biostatistics, etc.  The MS or MA is usually narrower and you're not required to take all of those classes.

 

In the U.S. many public health PhD programs require or strongly recommend a master's degree before you can enroll in the PhD.  So it really depends on what kind of programs you want to enter and whether they require the master's first.

 

2) I was funded throughout my MA/PhD program.  Funding is difficult to come by for standalone MPH programs; a lot of my friends got their funding through assistantships (research mostly, but also some teaching) which helped them get a tuition waiver.  I think finding a master's that will allow you to conduct your thesis research abroad is difficult unless you go into a global health program that allows you to go away for a summer or semester to do your practicum, and you can do your thesis research during your practicum.  It's mostly for time constraint reasons.  You may want to save the international work for your PhD program, unless you get into a program with that structured in.  (I have a friend who studied global environmental health and she spent the fall semester of her second year abroad doing her practicum.)

 

NIH funding, if you mean the National Institutes of Health in the U.S., is usually restricted to U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

 

3) Yes, it is acceptable to contact the professors first, and no you don't have to go through their students.  You would contact professors who you would like to supervise you in your research.  Briefly explain your interests and how your work intersects, and attach a CV so they get an idea of who you are and what you can bring to the lab.