Public Health Degrees and Career Oppurtunities

• What is Public Health?
• Careers in public Health
• Salaries in Public Health
• Degrees in Public Health
• How to choose your public health school?
• Applying to Public Health degrees
How to look for your desired public health degree?
Pr-requisite tests
The online application process
World Education Services (WES)
Submission
Scholarship Application
Interviews
Acceptance letters and Student visas




What is Public Health?

Recently many careers have emerged in the public health field and many international health systems turned their focus to public health in order to ensure disease prevention and health promotion to the society as a whole. Public health is defined as ““The art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts of society” (Acheson, 1988; WHO).
Public Health professionals are concerned primarily with the wellbeing of the population as a whole rather than that of individuals. They are more focused on methods of disease prevention rather than cure.
Many disciplines are integrated within the public health field and public health professionals have a wide range of specializations. They are the ones for example who set up vaccine campaigns, ensure the establishment of safe and sound healthcare systems, develop health care policies, devise strategies to control epidemics and outbreaks, implement models to change health behaviors and launch programs that ensure that racial and ethnic minorities have access to an equitable health system.
Public Health and Research:
At the core of public health lies medical research. As part of preventing disease public health researchers play a crucial role in conducting research, extracting evidence and producing recommendations that aid medical personnel to take safe and effective clinical decisions for their patients. All public health degrees concentrate chiefly on teaching students biomedical research. This includes core modules such as biostatistics and epidemiology in addition to undergoing independent research projects. Public health degrees enable students to acquire various research skills that allow them to conduct their own research later on.

To know more about public health please visit the following websites
1. www.whatispublichealth.org/what/
2. www.who.int/trade/glossary/story076/en/
3. www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-health-england



Careers in Public Health

There is a variety of career choices in public health, depending on your interest and what you would like to do. Here is to name a few
• Epidemiologist
• Health advisor
• Researcher (Research assistant, Research fellow, Director of research )
• Health educator
• Behavioral scientist
• Health care analyst
• Health economist
To get yourself more acquainted with public health careers you can take a look at public health jobs advertised online
• www.publichealthjobs.net/
• jobs.theguardian.com/jobs/health/public-health/




Salaries in Public Health

Here are some snap shots from other websites on the range of salaries offered to public health professionals

Public health job median salaries in the United States taken from Payscale.com
Occupation Median Salary
Research Scientist $73,506
Epidemiologist $59,367
Biostatistician $77,658
Health advisor $43,888
Health Care analyst $57,168
Health care consultant $71,293
Public Health Director $76,178
Public Health Specialist $49,345
Environmental Health Specialist $58,360
Health Policy Manager $69,041
Health policy analyst $52,484

Public Health average salaries in the United Kingdom taken from Reed.co.uk and TheGuardian.com
Occupation Average Salary
Research Scientist £33,875
Epidemiologist £88,109
Biostatistician £65,000
Health advisor £36,000
Health Policy manager £50,000

Salaries of Directors jobs in Public Health in the UK taken from Glassdoor.co.uk
Occupation Average Salary
Clinical and Public Health Director - NICE £173,333
Director- International Health and Public Health Delivery – Department of health UK £93,333
Regional Director of Public Health West Midlands £90,833
Centre for Public Health Excellence Director - NICE £108,333




Degrees in Public Health:
Public health degrees are offered across many universities worldwide. The coursework offered is not the same across public health schools, however all schools teach the same core modules (e.g epidemiology, statistics, behavioral science, health systems, health promotion, etc). Some public health schools offer general public health degrees while others offer specialized public health degrees (e.g. maternal and child care, health promotion, infectious disease epidemiology, health services research, health education)
Choosing a public health degree depends on your area of interest and what you feel inclined to do as a future career. For some people it also depends on their previous academic/professional experience and education, for others public health can be their denovo career. Before you choose your public health degree make sure to log on universities’ websites and read the curriculum of the degree offered. Also try to contact people who you know work in this career and ask them about their feedback and input. This will greatly aid your decision making process when finally selecting a public health stream to study.
Degrees in Public Health include Masters of Public health (MPH) , Doctorate of Public Health (DrPH) or Doctor of Philosophy in public health (PhD). Other degrees are also offered, however those are the main ones. Whether you choose a master’s degree or a doctorate degree depends on many factors such as how many years are you willing to spend in education, how much money you can secure (through scholarships or other means of funding) and what is the level of expertise that you wish to acquire. A doctorate degree is the highest degree in public health and it provides more extensive expertise in the field. It also opens more job opportunities after graduation with better salaries than the master’s degree. However it takes longer (4-5 years) and tuition fees are much higher. A master’s of public health (MPH) takes less time (1-2 years) provides good core knowledge of public health and excellent foundation in research; however it pays less after graduation and does not provide the same level of expertise as in a doctorate degree. It’s not a necessity doing an MPH before applying to a DrPH or a PhD; however some universities require an MPH as a pre-requisite.


How to choose your public health school?

Before you choose a public health degree you need to run an online search (through google for example) for the top ranked schools in public health. There are several reasons why you should search for top ranked schools in general
1. They will provide you with the best education in the field. Big universities have large research budgets. This means a variety of research projects, extensive research facilities on campus, full range library services; this is all quite essential to look for when applying for a public health degree.
2. Their reputation is known worldwide and adding those schools on you CV after graduation will strengthen it and increase the chance of employers hiring you
3. More funding opportunities. Scholarships are more likely to fund students going to top universities
4. Many of these top ranked schools are keen on setting up a diverse class pool of students, thus they are more likely to accept international students in their programs
You can look for public health school rankings in league tables available online or in public health websites. The following are some links that can help
1. grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-health-schools/public-health-rankings
2. www.topuniversities.com/
3. www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings

Saying that, it’s not always feasible to apply to these top schools. Sometimes they don’t provide the concentration that you are interested in. Sometimes their tuition fees are much higher than you can provide or the living expenses in the cities that those schools are in are very high. My advice is to search thoroughly before you apply for a degree. Balance the benefits and the losses and choose what suits you and suits your personal conditions and future goals best. There are small universities that can provide excellent education and brilliant careers after graduation. Whatever your decision is, make sure it’s an informed decision after searching the matter comprehensively.



Applying to Public Health Degrees
In the coming section we will discuss the steps required to apply for the MPH and/or the DrPH (or PhD) in the United States and the United Kingdom. This will include
• How to look for your desired public health degree?
• Pr-requisite tests
• The online application process
• World Education Services (WES)
• Submission
• Scholarship Application
• Interviews
• Acceptance letters and Student visas



Public Health Degrees in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is a leading country in Public health and preventive medicine. It pays special attention to promoting health in the society and sets up health related programs on a national level (e.g. screening, smoking cessation, vaccination, sexual education, etc). This has contributed to the emergence of public health degrees in UK universities. In addition there is a public health training scheme in the UK analogous to the specialist training of doctors.
Top UK universities that are present in the top 10 world league tables offer public health degrees. This includes Cambridge University, University College London (UCL), Oxford University and Imperial College London. They offer MPH and DrPH with various concentrations. Log on to these universities websites and search the degrees that they offer.
• For Cambridge: www.admin.cam.ac.uk/students/gradadmissions/prospec/
• For Oxford : www.publichealth.ox.ac.uk/courses/gradstu/gradstu
• For UCL : www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology
• For Imperial College London: www1.imperial.ac.uk/publichealth/

To take an example let’s visit the website of The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, One of the most renowned schools of Public Health in the UK and worldwide. When you visit the school website www.lshtm.ac.uk/index.html and click the study tab (up on the left) you will find master’s degrees and research degrees. If you click on master’s degrees, you will be provided by a list of courses or concentrations that the school offers. For example there is a master’s of Epidemiology www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/masters/mse.html If you click on it, a detailed explanation of the coursework is given, with the duration of study, whether there is available funding or not and deadlines for the application. Some degrees are offered in campus (London), others are offered online (distance learning) and so on and so forth. If you wish to directly apply to a DrPH or a Phd then click on research degrees www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/research/index.html.

Make notes on a separate sheet (word or excel sheet for example or an offline paper pad) of the courses which you are interested in (it takes a long time to search and with the enormous number of degrees offered it is impossible to retain all the information without writing it down. This will save you time and energy and later on you can look at your notes and be able to compare between the degrees and choose your preferred one.


Public health degrees in the USA

The United States provides US ranking for schools of public health grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-health-schools/public-health-rankings. Looking for a public health degree in the United States is an easier task than in the UK. The reason is that most US public health schools are participating in SOPHAS www.sophas.org/
SOPHAS stands for Schools of Public Health Application Service. This provides a common platform for US institutions who offer public health degrees to participate in this service providing all the information about their degrees, admission criteria and application processes on SOPHAS. SOPHAS also is a platform for all the prospective public health students allowing them to apply to multiple public health institutions using ONE centralized application.
If you log on to SOPHAS directory www.sophas.org/Directory.cfm you will be able to know which public health schools are participating, their websites, degrees offered, contact information, application deadlines and special instructions needed for international students or additional supplementary applications. In addition, SOPHAS also provides a list of non-participating institutions. If you wish to apply to one of these schools you will need to visit their websites and write a separate application.



The application Process

Most of your application will be made online. There are two applications you will need to fill, one to the university of Interest and one to the scholarship foundation that will fund your studies (please see scholarship and funding section) . The most important factor in applying is the TIMING. Universities and scholarship foundations have strict admission criteria and very early deadlines after which they don’t accept further applications even if you are a better candidate so you need to fulfil your admissions criteria, finish your required exams and manage your time so as not to miss an opportunity that comes only once a year.
Most of the degrees will commence in the autumn/fall semester of the coming year (August in the USA, September or October in the UK). Sometimes you can start in the spring that follows that autumn (January/February). The application process usually starts November of the previous year. For example if you want to start your master’s degree in September of 2016, you have to start writing your application and finalizing it by November 2015. Deadlines vary from one school to another, however it’s a general rule that when you apply first, your application will be reviewed first and you have a better chance of being accepted both by the university and the funding body. Decisions on admissions by the faculty vary in their timing, however by May of 2016 you will have known whether you got accepted in the program or not. Always remember that TIMING is crucial in the selection process so prepare all your documents several months before starting your application.
The pre-requisite tests
As part of your postgraduate application, certain qualifying tests have to be taken and their scores included in the application. Without those tests your application will be rejected (except in exceptional circumstances where you can get a waiver). These tests need preparation and studying several months before the application starts. Also it can take a few weeks from siting the test before your score is issued. Therefore make sure that by November (the time of writing your application) you have taken those tests and your scores are ready to be sent to designated universities.



In Public Health these are the tests that you will need.

An English Test: This English test which is either the TOEFL or the ILETS is a must before applying to most American and U.K Universities. You cannot enroll as an international student in one of those universities without proving a certain competency in the English language, therefore passing is not enough for this test but you need to get the minimum acceptable score specified by your university of interest. The good news is that studying and practicing for these tests will get you the desired score. You don’t need to speak like native English speakers to get a good score. They are not testing your accent or require that you have advanced English skills. They are testing your ability to communicate clearly in English and your ability to use your English effectively in an academic environment. There are a few schools that will waive the test if the language of instruction of your undergraduate/postgraduate studies was English. Those exams are widely taken all over Egypt and other countries. More information about the test is given on the ETS website www.ets.org. Please see also our section about English tests.

•The GRE (for U.S Universities only): The Graduate Record Examination is a standardized computerized exam taken by students inside and outside the USA who wish to join a graduate school in the States. You will be asked to sit such an exam as part of your application to many American universities. The exam components are Math and advanced English. If you are applying to a master’s degree in public health, some (but not all) American universities will waive the test if you submit a proof of your M.D (MB BCh) or any of your USMLE steps (send the school you are applying to an email mentioning your credentials and asking whether you can be waived) . If you are applying to a doctorate degree, you must take the exam. From personal experience this exam is a hard exam and if you are coming from a medical background and have been away from math for a long time you will need to set several months for preparation and studying for the GRE. The English in the GRE is advanced and needs a lot of practice. There are many Q-banks online to practice the GRE and the more you practice the easier it gets. Also although it’s an important exam many public health schools do not set a certain GRE score as an admission prerequisite, however a good score will increase your chances of admission. For more on GRE please visit the ETS website www.ets.org. Also please see our GRE section

The online application
Your online application is equivalent to your C.V except that every university has a special format in which you enter your personal and career details. Your application is a reflection of yourself and it’s what will determine whether you get accepted or not. Please refer to our C.V section in order to get an idea of how to write a good CV hence a good application. Remember that this application is the only thing that the faculty will see of you, that’s why make sure your application reveals your best credentials, use clear language and correct any spelling mistakes. Remember that public health is about helping the community and promoting good lifestyle and health. Don’t be shy to mention your volunteer and charity work. This will strengthen your application.
In the UK there is a separate application form for each university. In the US you will fill a SOPHAS application which then will be sent by SOPHAS to the schools that you designate.
Let’s see an example of how an online application looks like. For a more comprehensive approach we will use SOPHAS application in the United States as an example. Below is the first SOPHAS page that you will be prompted to. You need to set an account with a user name and a password to be able to access the application.

After setting a SOPHAS account and logging in, your application will appear exactly as in the figure below. You will also be given a unique SOPHAS ID that you will use in all your correspondence with SOPHAS. We will explore together each item in the application and how to fill it.
On your left hand side there is the” My tools box”. Here lies your account log in username and password and you are given the option of changing them. Then the tab “messages” reveals how many messages have been sent by SOPHAS to you as a applicant. There is also a tab that allows you to print your application after you complete it.
The “Help” box gives you instructions on the best way to use SOPHAS and there is a FAQs section and a contact data for further assistance.
In the Center lies the “Application “box. This is where you will fill all your personal and professional information. The top part is an application checklist with check boxes that notifies you whether you filled all the necessary fields or some fields are still missing.

• Under “Applicant information” you will be asked to give your personal details. This includes your full name, date of birth, citizenship status and ethnicity. You will also be asked to give your permanent address, phone number and email. Please make sure your contact data especially your email will be valid all through the application period. This is the way that schools will communicate with you. Finally you will be asked to grade your language proficiency in terms of reading, writing, speaking and listening. This includes all the languages that you speak

• Under “Additional information” you will be asked whether you were convicted with any felony or misdemeanor, whether you have an ECFMG certificate and whether you are applying for financial aid or assistance. If you are applying for an external scholarship and you don’t want the university to fund you then you don’t have to apply for a financial aid (choose NO when answering this question). R International students, master’s degrees in the US are usually unfunded and you will need to look for funding elsewhere. For international students sometimes ticking that box can cause the application to be rejected since universities that cannot fund you will not accept you. Therefore if you are applying to other sources of funding make sure that you answer “NO” to that question. Doctorate degrees however are in many occasions funded and many international students get this kind of funding from American universities. In that case answer “YES” to this question. Then you will be asked to write about your community and volunteer work, your awards and honors and any research experience that you have. This includes research papers that you published or didn’t publish, audits, research projects, posters and presentations.

• Under “Academic history” you will be asked to submit your test scores (TOEFL, IELTS, GRE). This will be verified because SOPHAS request that your score be sent directly from ETS to them. You can’t send the scores yourself. Then SOPHAS will send your scores to the designated schools. You will be asked to mention the educational institutions that you graduated from. This will also be verified by WES later on (will be discussed later in the topic). Then you will be asked to upload a CV. Make sure your CV is updated and modified to suit your public health career goals. Write your work experience. Make sure to write dates clearly. Take care of career gaps. Write the courses that you took and the conferences that you attended. Please see out CV section

• Under “statement of purpose and objectives” you will be asked to upload your personal statement. This gives the faculty an idea of why you choose public health, what is your background, what are your achievements, what are your career goals and why did you choose their institution. Personal statements need practice and need to be written with utmost care and professionalism. You are given the option of writing more than one personal statement. You can write one for each school you are applying for or you can write one personal statement for all of them. This will depend largely on the public health degree concentrations that you are applying for. Different concentrations will necessitate different statements of purpose.

• Under “references” you will be asked to designate your referees (i.e. people willing to write a letter of recommendation for you”. SOPHAS requires a minimum of three references. They can be academic, professional or personal referees. In public health always concentrate on academic references. Professional references come next. If you have worked with a professor on a research project ask him/her to provide you with a reference. Otherwise ask your employer or others. You will be asked to designate three referees in that section. This is done by writing their full names and their emails. SOPHAS will not ask you to submit letters from your referees. SOPHAS will send an email to each referee asking them to answer some questions about you (professional evaluation questionnaire) and to write an online letter themselves. Thus make sure when you choose your referees that they have valid emails and that they are willing to fill these evaluations on your behalf. Always designate more than three referees in case one of the referees was not able to receive SOPHAS email or fill the evaluation.

• Under “writing sample” you will be asked to submit a research proposal or a paper or a research project that you have written before. This section is mostly for PhD or DrPH prospective students. They are usually asked to submit a research proposal outlining their research interests and perhaps the topic that they want to focus their study on during their doctorate years.

• The final item in your application box is “school and program designation”. After you write your application you will need to submit it to various schools. This section allows you to choose your desired school of public health and pay the application fees. When it’s time to submit the application SOPHAS will automatically send your application to the schools you designated in this section.
Back to our figure, on the right side there is a “check status” box through which you can check the status of the application and whether your tests and documents have been received. Let’s check those items. The first two items are GPA calculations and transcripts. If you are an international student please look at the transcripts tab. Because international universities grade students differently than US universities by using different scales to calculate students’ marks other than the conventional American GPAs, the American universities request that international students submit their transcripts to an organization called World Education Services (WES) www.wes.org/students/index.asp . WES verifies your academic records and prepares an official credential evaluation report with GPA calculations, the latter is sent to SOPHAS and SOPHAS sends your WES reports to your designated public health schools. This process is very lengthy and can take three months or so. The reason is that WES requests that the universities that you graduated from follow certain steps in preparing your transcripts along with other documents before sending them. Thus make sure you contact WES 2-3 months before the application deadline and get your transcripts verified and converted. When this happens the transcripts tab will read (Recd) in green. One of the disadvantages of WES is their expensive fees. Please take a look at their fees page www.wes.org/fees/schedule.asp. Make sure you save money for WES when you start your application.


The tab “official tests” will show whether your GRE test scores and English test scores have been sent to your designated schools. This is done through ETS website www.ets.org/ . Again this costs a lot of money so make sure you know how much money you will want before you start.
The “references” tab shows how many references are finalized and complete. In our example above four referees submitted their references and one referee didn’t.
The “payments” tab indicates the SOPHAS application fees that you paid for each school. In many circumstances the schools will ask for a separate supplemental fee that you will have to send by mail or pay online through the college website. To know more about SOPHAS application fees please visit this link portal.sophas.org/applicants2013/instruction/fees.htm



Finalizing the application:
Once you submit your application you can’t change it. So make sure that you have written and included everything you want to include. Print your application before submitting it. It’s optimum to have your references ready and your tests sent and your transcripts verified before you submit your application. Ideally this can happen if you start working on those three months before application submission. If your documents are not ready, don’t miss the deadlines, submit your application still and send the schools informing them that the documents are being processed and might take a little longer time.


The online UK application
Although there is no unified application for UK public health schools as in the United States, one of the advantages of UK applications is that they are easier to fill and cost much less money if compared with US applications. They share lots of similarities with US applications with regards to their content (remember it’s nothing but your CV arranged differently). However, here are some key differences about UK applications
1. You don’t need the GRE exam neither in master’s nor in doctorate degrees
2. Some schools will allow you to upload the scores of the English tests directly without having to pay ETS to send your scores
3. The UK Universities application fees are much cheaper and in many cases there are no fees at all.
4. You can directly upload your transcripts to the UK application or send them by mail. You don’t need WES to verify your transcripts.



Key points to remember while writing your university applications:
1. Be on time, don’t miss the deadline
2. Make sure you read the school website carefully, their admission criteria and pre-requisites
3. If you are unsure of something send the school and don’t be shy to ask questions.
4. If you feel you can get a waiver from a test or a document submission, don’t hesitate to contact the school and ask for a waiver. This can save you a lot of money and effort.
5. Make sure that there are no other supplemental applications that you need to be sent by mail in addition to the online application
6. Make sure there is no supplemental fees to be paid
7. Always contact WES, ETS and your referees to make sure they are working on your documents and they will submit them before the deadlines (people forget, it’s ok to remind them)
8. Keep a log of what you have done and what needs still to be done

Now your application is ready to submit. Be confident, submit then sit back and relax. It will take some time before anyone gets back to you


Scholarship applications
Scholarships are discussed in detail in another section. However we want to stress here that the scholarship application is as important as your university application (unless you are self-funded or have already secured your source of funding). Without a source of funding, you will not be able to study your desired degree no matter how many schools accepted you. Many students apply to scholarships and that makes scholarship applications quite competitive. Please apply early, don’t wait until you get acceptance into a program by a university to apply (unless the scholarship application requires that). Look online for all the sources of funding that you can get and apply to as many as you can. Applying to more than one source maximizes your chances of getting accepted in one. Make sure whether the scholarship provides full or partial tuition fees, whether it provides living expenses as well. It’s a tiresome job but it’s worth the effort.




Interviews
If you are applying to a master’s degree you will usually not require to be interviewed by the faculty. The decision will be taken based on your online application. If you are accepted you will be sent an acceptance letter online or through regular mail. This acceptance letter you will then take to the scholarship foundation that will fund your studies and then to the embassy to issue your student visa and that’s it. Well done
If you are applying to a PhD or a DrPH you will usually require to run an interview with the faculty before they make a final decision on whether to accept you or not (and sometimes whether to fund your PhD or not as well). This can be done through a phone call or a Skype conference call or else. After submitting your application and taking a little break, start preparing for your interview. Study your CV very carefully, run mock interviews with your friends or professors, dress well, communicate clearly and make sure your internet and phone connections are excellent on the day of the interview. For more about interviews please see our interview section.



Acceptance letters and Visas
After getting accepted in your public health program of choice and getting accepted by the funding body, two letters will be given to you to take to the embassy; the acceptance letter from the university and the proof of funding from the scholarship (sometimes the same university will fund you and so they will provide you with a proof of funding along with the acceptance letter. The next step is to issue you a student visa. This is done by the embassy. Briefly speaking student visas allow you to stay in a certain country for a number of years where you are taking a specific coursework in that country. The number of years depends on the degree acquired. They are not employment visas; however some student visas will allow you to work a certain number of hours a week if you wish. For more on visa please visit our visa section


Now you are ready to fly and enjoy your public health degree. Congratulations!



By Hoda Hashem
MPH, Imperial College London