Master’s in Epidemiology

Founded in 1968, the school's Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology made the groundbreaking decision to combine the two disciplines in one department, making it the first university to do so. The result has been robust educational opportunities for master's degree students who want to get the theoretical knowledge and real-world training they need to address diseases in a community. In addition, the school has several research centers looking at community diseases, such as the American Indian Diabetes Prevention Center, the Center for Biosecurity Research and the Southwest Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Center.

Students in the school's master's degree programs must complete at least 40 hours of coursework, demonstrate proficiency in epidemiological computer programs and complete a thesis and comprehensive examination.

The Department of Epidemiology is actively involved in advancing the profession by building partnerships with several facilities such as Kaiser Permanente, National Jewish Health, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Denver Health. In addition, the school has received millions of dollars of research funding and professors have presented their scholarly work to professionals at the local, state and national level.

And this dedication to scholarship is also evident in the school's master's degrees. Students in these programs get an in-depth look at how epidemiological research is conducted and the ramifications it has for the way health practitioners treat their patients.

The epidemiology department at the school has several master's degree options, including combined undergraduate/graduate degrees. These programs have an emphasis on training research scientists, and other health professionals, with the skills needed to conduct studies in a clinical and community setting. In addition, the program serves as a training ground for those who want to move on to earn a doctoral level degree.

The master's degree programs cover topics such as how to formulate a research hypothesis, how to use computers when collecting and analyzing data, how to conduct a preventative health study and how to use epidemiological findings to influence public health policy.

The department of epidemiology is not only interested in researching diseases that affect humans at UNC Chapel Hill; students interested in studying animal diseases also have the opportunity to learn how to conduct this type of innovative research. Geared toward those who already have training working with animals, the veterinary concentration teaches students how to track outbreaks among animals, understand the trade policies related to livestock, control zoonotic pathogens and ensure that animals' food is secure.

The program's offerings are equally strong for those who want to study patients with two legs, as they get extensive training in epidemiological research methods, logic and probability, data analysis and clinical trials.

This master's degree program focuses on both biostatistics and epidemiology as applied in research concerning public health issues. The degree requires 36 credits, with elective courses chosen from topics such as medical geography and international research ethics. In addition, a graduate certificate program gives students advanced knowledge about how to track and prevent diseases. Beyond the required core courses, students in this program can take elective classes in areas such as chronic diseases. The certificate requires 18 credits of coursework earned with a minimum GPA of 3.0, and students are only allowed a grade of C in one class.

This schools master's degree program, which requires that students complete 36 credits, focuses primarily on interdisciplinary translational research and clinical investigation. To that end, students receive training in topics such as health behavior, the economics of healthcare and health promotion.

In order to ensure that students keep abreast of the latest developments in the field, the program recently added some new course offerings, covering topics such as biostatistics, infectious diseases, community-based participatory research and informatics. In addition to coursework, students in this program are required to complete either a master's thesis or project. They may also have the opportunity to participate in an independent study.

The Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health is dedicated to creating a community of faculty and students whose research interests are as diverse as their backgrounds - a philosophy that the school believes will foster the innovation of ideas and research methods to help move the field forward. Students can earn two master's degrees in epidemiology at the school. Students in one program must complete 33 credit hours and a thesis, while students in the other are required to finish 47 hours, a project and training in the field. Available course subjects include alcoholism, cardiovascular disease, research methodologies and biostatistics.

Master's degree students who want to study cancer may particularly be interested in the school's Department of Epidemiology and Population Health. Thanks to a community partnership with the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, the program is involved in initiatives to prevent the disease and is currently looking at topics such as the human papilloma virus, nicotine and cervical cancer prevention.

The master's degree at the school gives students an understanding of how epidemiological research is conducted, paying special attention to disease surveillance methods, population-based sampling, survival analysis and the criteria for finding causalities. This program requires that students complete coursework and a thesis.

Students who attend the School of Public Health's Epidemiology Division can take advantage of its state-of-the-art computer equipment, as well as the opportunity to work with scientists at institutions close to the school, such as the California Department of Public Health, the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program and the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.

The department has three programs at the master's level, two of which are 2-year programs that prepare students to pursue job opportunities in the industry after graduation, or to go on to a doctoral program. The other master's degree is a 1-year program designed for medical professionals who would like to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to pursue research or teaching.

The Graduate Group in Epidemiology (GGE) provides a rigorous training in the principles of the field, particularly those related to quantitative research methods. In order to foster an environment that encourages innovative research, the school integrates several approaches and lets students study a wide range of research interests, such as wildlife, infectious diseases, social and behavioral studies, health economics and vector-borne diseases.

The master's degree program gives students the choice to complete a thesis based on original research or a comprehensive examination in addition to their coursework. Class topics that students can choose from include how to conduct research surveys, samples and health research, regression analysis, injury epidemiology and cancer.

The Department of Epidemiology is actively involved in industry research and currently has several research programs in progress that address a number of topics, including neurodegeneration, diabetes, cancer, infectious diseases and occupational epidemiology. In addition, the school has several training programs, such as the NCI-Cancer Training Program, the UCLA/Fogarty International HIV/AIDS Training Program and the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund Inter-school Training Program in Metabolic Diseases.

The school has three master's level programs in epidemiology, including one that is geared toward clinical scholars. This degree, which can be completed in one year, helps healthcare professionals learn more about new systems of patient care, the relationship between epidemiology and policy and healthcare registration.

Since 1956, the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics has promoted the importance of studying infectious diseases. When the program first began, the university's doctors were looking at diseases in their own backyard, studying how certain conditions were affecting Californians during that time and looking at how they could be contained.

The school has leveraged its long history to prepare students for the realities of working in epidemiology. The department offers a master's degree program at heavily focuses on the research portion of the field, allowing students to make the connection between what goes on in the lab and how it affects patient treatment in the real world.

Students enrolled in this master's degree get preparation to work with microbiologists, biostatisticians, health administrators, environmental health experts and physicians. The program not only emphasizes the research methodology necessary to track illnesses in a population, but also the ethical concerns that arise during the course of this type of work.

Coursework in the master's program includes subjects such as pathobiology, public health data management, environmental health sciences, clinical effectiveness, infectious diseases, surveillance systems, and sexually transmitted diseases. Students are also required to complete a practicum, as well as progression and comprehensive examinations, in order to graduate.

With over 100 faculty members in the department, epidemiology students have access to experts with a wide range of experience in the field and research interests. In fact, the department has received $34 million in funding to conduct studies on the causes of diseases, how diseases are spread and how they can be controlled and prevented.

The master's degree program gives students the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge and expertise of the faculty through coursework, as well as research opportunities. Students earning a degree at the school can focus on clinical research, human genetics or preventive medicine.

The Division of Epidemiology, which is part of the school's Department of Environmental Health has a faculty dedicated to research that advances the knowledge base in the field. Students who enroll in the master's program will have access to professors currently involved in research that addresses the health ramifications of being exposed to factors such as illicit drugs, work-related ergonomic disorders, organic pollutants, lead, mercury and arsenic.

With a staff so heavily involved in research, it's not surprising that the master's degree program focuses on training students to understand different facets of epidemiological study, including the use of human subjects, disease surveillance, human population studies and data analysis.

The Department of Public Health works in concert with the private sector, community health practitioners, researchers in the field and other educators in order to understand the spread of diseases and work toward solutions for containment and elimination.

Building on the experience and vision of the department, the master's degree program focuses on two vital areas: descriptive and analytic epidemiology. As a result, students get a broad view of the field, with information about both conducting surveillance on health outbreaks and forming hypotheses about the risk factors causing the conditions. Students in this program can study subjects such as tracking diseases in children, HIV and AIDS research, mental health and environmental epidemiology.

The university's department of epidemiology is dedicated to training the future professionals in the field through rigorous graduate degree programs. In addition, the school stresses the importance of research, as well as providing service to the federal, state and local health communities.

The school has two master's degree programs that provide extensive training in the theories and methods of the epidemiology profession. Upon completion of the degree programs, students can expect to be able to conduct evidence-based research and solve health problems through studying diseases, demonstrate high professional and ethical standards when working on public health cases, and understand the quantitative and qualitative research methods necessary to craft and execute public health studies.

The epidemiology master's program at Michigan State has been teaching students since 1997. However, in order to enhance their educational offerings, the department also added biostatistics to its focus; as a result, the master's degree program provides students with both the biostatistics skills and epidemiologic knowledge to work in the disease control, community health and health planning areas of the field. The school also has a diverse list of research interests, including zoonotic diseases, environmental exposures, breast cancer, survival analysis and computational genomics.

This program, which takes two to six years to complete, requires that students finish 40 hours of coursework including epidemiology, biostatistics, SAS programming and elective courses.

The Division of Epidemiology and Community Health is staffed with faculty members who have extensive experience in the epidemiology field. As a result, students enrolled in the master's degree program get the opportunity to work with researchers on numerous projects, such as research related to cancer, maternity, infectious diseases, behavioral interventions and community-based health. Armed with this experience, as well as robust coursework, students leave the program prepared to track diseases on an individual patient and community level.

Students have the opportunity to earn joint degrees from the program. For example, those who want to study medicine or law can combine their master's studies with a doctorate in the other discipline.

Students in this program can get the scientific foundation they need to conduct epidemiological research by studying the relationship between risk factors and public health outcomes. Some skills students can expect to graduate possessing include the ability to use software to conduct statistical analyses, review research and test its validity, apply best practices to data analysis and understand the different methodologies used to conduct epidemiological research.

Students in this program are required to take core courses that cover data management, clinical trials, multivariate biostatistics and applied biostatistics. In addition, students can take five credits of electives to complete their degree.