Graduate Master of Public Health
College of Social Sciences and Public Policy
Website: https://coss.fsu.edu/publichealth
Director: Amy M. Burdette Faculty: Coutts, Dowd-Arrow, Lee, McFarland, Rowan, Sherron, Uejio, Mahony, Barath, Ramírez-Surmeier, Peek
The College of Social Sciences and Public Policy offers the interdisciplinary Master of Public Health (MPH) and the combined Bachelor of Science/Master of Public Health (BS/MPH) Pathway.
MPH degree graduates are trained principally in health policy but also acquire a solid background in epidemiology, environmental health, health care finance, health behavior, health administration, health policy and policy analysis, and statistical and qualitative analytic skills. Careers are likely to include positions in government agencies or legislative staff, policy and consulting firms, healthcare organizations, advocacy organizations and lobbying firms, international organizations focused on health and population issues, academia, or media.
As an accredited program from the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), the Master of Public Health program at Florida State University establishes itself as an innovative program that focuses on providing the best education for our future public health professionals. The MPH degree is a professional, terminal graduate degree intended to prepare students for a lifelong career in Public Health.
Concentration
With a concentration in Health Policy, students will learn a transferable skill set to analyze and affect policy, reduce health inequities in the U.S. and abroad, and improve the health of communities. Students will also be trained to analyze data, influence public policy, study and monitor threats to public health, and/or conduct health research.
Admission Requirements
Students must meet the University's general requirements for graduate admission and must be recommended by the program's admissions committee. The university requirements: Earned bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution or a comparable degree from an international institution, a minimum of 3.0 (on a 4.0) in all work attempted while registered as an upper-division undergraduate student (the semester you earn 60 credit hours), and GRE scores with a percentile ranking of 50 or higher on the verbal, quantitative, and writing sections (this equates to about 150 in both the verbal and quantitative portions and a 4 in the writing section).International Students must submit official English Proficiency Test scores (TOEFL or IELTS) if their native language is not English. Please note that all applications are reviewed holistically to determine the applicant's eligibility. Applicants who do not meet one of these criteria are still eligible to apply and are encouraged to address these issues in their statement of purpose.
Beyond the university requirements listed above, the program requires additional application materials. These can be found on the website, the links below. There is no required undergraduate major or pre-requisites for the program. All majors are welcome to apply. The MPH program accepts applicants for full-time and part-time tracks. The admission requirements are the same for both tracks.
For detailed information for domestic applicants, please visit https://coss.fsu.edu/publichealth/admissions-requirements.
For detailed information for international applicants please visit https://coss.fsu.edu/publichealth/international-applicants.
Admission Deadlines
The application deadlines are set by the university and program. The MPH program does not admit students in the summer term.
The deadlines for the fall semester: Financial Aid Consideration is February 1st, Early Consideration (encouraged deadline for international applicants) is April 1st, and Final Deadline is July 1st. The deadlines for the spring semester: Financial Aid Consideration is October 1st, Early Consideration (encouraged deadline for international applicants) is October 1st, and Final Deadline is November 1st.
Degree Requirements
The program of study is a total of 43 credit hours, where students complete 34 core credit hours and nine elective credit hours. Students choose their nine credit hours of electives from an approved course list posted by the program every semester, based on availability of classes. The 200-hour internship class, PHC 5945, is completed within the 34 core credit hours.
Average time for completion is dependent on the track of the student and the number of credits taken each semester. For the full-time track, which entails students taking nine credit hours per fall and spring semester and six in the summer semester, students typically graduate within two years. For the part-time* track, which entails students taking six credit hours per semester, students typically graduate within three to four years.
*The MPH program is a classroom-based program with limited distance-learning options. However, the program offers most of our core classes after 5:00PM Monday–Thursday to accommodate students who work full-time. The program cannot promise classes to be offered outside of traditional work hours. It is the sole responsibility of the student to work with their place of employment.
Internship
Placements include international, national, state, or local health-related organizations for a required 200-hour working experience. Due to the CEPH Accreditation policy, waiver requests will be denied. Those in the part-time track can split the internship hours between two or more semesters, with approval from the Internship Coordinator. The goal of the placement is to expose the student to the day-to-day experiences of working in a health-related organization, setting priorities, teamwork, marshaling resources for problem solving, serving client needs, accepting and responding to feedback and learning how individuals' visions and values shape the vision and values of an organization.
While students may work on a variety of tasks during their 200-hour experience, the expectation is that they will have one major project for which they are principally responsible. It should be accompanied by appropriate project goals and success criteria, adequate instructions, supervision and feedback, interim products and deadlines, resources, and an identifiable product such as a report, presentation, briefing, hearing, web page, survey, or other product which reflects integration of analytical, organizational and presentation skills and makes appropriate use of the student's academic training. Students should feel that they have undertaken a challenging project, marshaled resources, overcome obstacles, and produced a worthwhile product that will help the organization achieve its goals. A mere compilation of lists or sorting of files will not be considered adequate to meet the goals of the internship.
Due to the CEPH Accreditation policy, waiver requests will be denied. For more information, you can contact the Internship Coordinator, Dr. Alan Rowan at COSSPP-MPH-Internships@fsu.edu
Combined Bachelor of Science/Master of Public Health (BS/MPH) Pathway
For the Combined Bachelor of Science/Master of Public Health (BS/MPH) Pathway, Florida State University undergraduate students may apply up to twelve credits of MPH courses taken while enrolled as undergraduates toward the MPH if they enroll in the Public Health degree program. The combined bachelor's/master's pathway allows academically talented students the opportunity to acquire their MPH degree in a shorter time. Undergraduate students may take up to 12 credit hours of graduate level work while completing their bachelor's degree. These hours will count towards both the 120 credit hours needed for the bachelor's and the overall 43 credit hours needed for the MPH degree.
This pathway is designed to allow FSU undergraduate students to take graduate level coursework, however, admission into the Combined Pathway does not grant admission into the MPH program. Students must still apply to the MPH program by the appropriate deadlines. In addition, admission into the Combined Pathway forgoes any opportunity to apply or enroll in the Joint Pathway between Urban Regional Planning and Public Health. Any courses taken under the Combined Pathway are subject to approval for transfer to a program outside of the FSU MPH program. Any course with a grade lower than a “B” will be ineligible to transfer for MPH credit.
Minimum Eligibility Requirements:
- Any undergraduate major is eligible
- 3.5 FSU GPA
- 90 credit hours of completed coursework (60 credit hours if the student is an honors student)
- Minimum of two semesters and 24 credit hours completed at FSU
- One-page paper showing intent and interest in the program
You can find the course equivalencies and the application for the pathway at https://coss.fsu.edu/publichealth/combined-bs-mph.
Joint Planning and Public Health Graduate Pathway (MPH/MSP) Requirements
To better prepare students for overlapping careers in Planning and Public Health, a Joint Graduate Pathway has been created through which a student may earn the degrees of Master of Public Health (MPH) and Master of Science in Planning (MSP).
Florida State University is one of only a handful of universities offering a Joint Graduate Pathway in planning and public health. This pathway reflects the recent resurgence of interest in what civic stakeholders, local communities, and global society are doing to ensure that urban and urbanizing landscapes are healthy and desirable places for today's world.
Significant improvements in health can result from improving places and the planning processes that shape them and changing our personal and collective lifestyles, rather than simply investing further in the health (sick) care system. The city and the communities where people live and work provide a valuable focus for these concerns because more than half the world's population now lives in urban areas
Students will complete requirements for the MPH and MSP with a total of sixty-six credit hours. For MSP capstone, students choose between a research paper, thesis, or studio. For MPH capstone, students take PHC 5151, where there is combined content of urban regional planning and public health. Some courses overlap, reducing total credit requirements.
All students complete a ten-week, full-time (or 400 hours) internship in a planning or public health related agency or organization. The internship should have planning or public health policy-related content. Typically, the training is completed during the summer between the first and second years of study. Many students, however, fulfill this requirement through part-time employment during the school year. Students are not limited to the local area alone for a position. The student's advisor and the MSP and MPH program directors must approve internships.
Students complete all requirements for the MSP and MPH degrees. The four years it would take to earn these degrees if pursued separately is reduced to three years through the cross counting of selected courses. In addition, some courses overlap, reducing total credit requirements.
Students would need to apply to both degree programs separately, and if admitted to both, would be in the joint graduate pathway.
Course Requirements for the Master of Public Health (43 credit Hours)
Required MPH core courses (34 Credit hours):
First Year Required Courses:
HSC 5930 Special Topics in Social Science (1) [Proseminar]
PHC 5300 Environmental Health (3)
PHC 5155 Health Services Organization and Policy (3) (Must be taken in first semester)
URP 5521 Public Health Epidemiology (3)
Or
PHC 5001 Public Health Epidemiology (3)
URP 5525 Health Behavior and Education (3)
Or
PHC 5475 Health Behavior and Education (3)
*ECP 5538 Health Policy Statistics (3) (Must be taken within first year)
*May be exempt from ECP 5538 if student has taken an approved statistics class (PHC 4069 or equivalent) with a grade of “B” or higher, within the last five years. Student must have written approval from the program. If exempt, student must take an additional elective to complete the minimum 43 credit hours required to graduate.
Second Year Required Courses:
PAD 5216 Healthcare Finance
PAD 5884 Healthcare Management
PHC 5945 Internship (3)
PHC 6110 Comparative Health (3)
PHC 5151 Politics of Health Policy (3) (Capstone)
PHC 5797 Advanced Public Health Statistics and Data Analysis (3).
Approved MPH Electives (9 Credit hours):
Electives sections can be tailored to suit a student's needs and interests, such as policy, business, economics, epidemiology, administration, sociology, statistics, and other fields. Current approved MPH electives are subject to availability.
EAP 5845 Academic Writing for International Graduate Students (3) (International students only)
ECP 5536 Economics of Health (3)
FOS 5205 Food Safety and Quality (3)
GEO 5451 Medical Geography (3)
GEO 5453 Global Health (3)
GIS 5101 Geographic Information Systems (3)(must also take GIS 5101L)
HUN 5297 Eating Disorders, Body Image and Healthy Weight Maintenance (3)
INR 5935 Special Topics (3) [Politics of Hunger and Malnutrition]
LIS 5418 Introduction to Health Informatics (3)
LIS 5419 Consumer Health Informatics (3)
LIS 5631 Health Information Sources (3)
LIS 5661 Government Information (3)
PAD 5845 Public Health and Emergency Management (3)
PHC 5003 Chronic Disease Epidemiology (3)
PHC 5936 Selected Topics in Public Health (3) [Guns, Public Health, and Wellbeing; Leadership in Public Health, Maternal and Child Health; Indigenous Health Meets Modern Medicine; College Health]
PHC 6002 Infectious Disease Epidemiology (3)
POS 5698 Selected Topics (3) [Comparative Federalism]
RCS 5080 Medical Aspects of Disability (3)
SOW 5455 Grant Writing and Grant Management (3)
SYA 6933r Selected Topics in Sociology (3) [Neighborhood and Health; Becoming an Adult in Strat. Society; Sexual and Reproductive Health; Health and Life Course; Medical Sociology]
SYD 5045 Introduction to Demography (3)
SYD 5133 Population Data (3)
SYD 5136 Life Course Epidemiology (3)
SYD 5215 Health and Survival (3)
SYD 5225 Fertility (3)
SYO 5416 Stress and Mental Health (3)
SYO 6407 Race, Ethnicity, and Health (3)
URP 5059 Community Involvement and Public Participation (3)
URP 5272 Urban and Regional Information Systems (3)(not approved if other GIS course already taken)
URP 5526 Healthy Cities, Healthy Communities (3)
Substitutions
Courses drawn from various departments may be substituted for certain core and elective requirements including introductory research design, statistics, and advanced methods. Substitutions must be approved in advance by the director or director's designee.
Definition of Prefixes
HSC—Health Sciences
PHC—Public Health Concentration
Graduate Courses
HSC 5930r. Special Topics in Social Science (1–3). Interdisciplinary special topics of current interest or utilizing special competencies of faculty. Content varies from semester to semester. May be repeated with the permission of the Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Social Sciences.
PHC 5001. Public Health Epidemiology (3). This course is designed to introduce the student to basic concepts of applied epidemiology and to learn critical evaluation of peer-review literature. The course combines theory and practical knowledge of how epidemiology is practiced in the field.
PHC 5003. Chronic Disease Epidemiology (3). This course discusses chronic disease risk factors, conditions, and diseases and public health approaches within the context of epidemiology. Students learn concepts and methodology in describing chronic diseases and their methods for control.
PHC 5151. Health Services Organization and Policy (3). This course is intended to instill an understanding of American health policy and the policymaking process, including problems, policies, programs, issues, interests, institutions, organizations, financing, and delivery of health services, the ACA, and reform agendas.
PHC 5300. Environmental Health (3). This course covers the science behind the basic elements of environmental health and its centrality to human health. It includes the basics of providing a pure water supply, sanitation of waste matters, and common field procedures needed for environmental surveillance.
PHC 5475. Health Behavior and Education (3). This course covers the various theoretical models used to explain the behaviors and predict the behavior processes that influence human health outcomes. Educating persons about the risks of certain behaviors is a fundamental component of a holistic model of health.
PHC 5625. Legal and Ethical Issues in Public Health and Health Professions (3). This course provides an overview of legal issues facing the health care industry, and provides students with a basic knowledge of health law and ethics. Students are provided with realistic knowledge of health law and how its applied to the real world.
PHC 5797. Advanced Public Health Statistics and Data Analysis (3). This course provides students with the basic data management skills necessary for carrying out quantitative analysis and presenting the results to both lay and professional audiences in public health. Students learn the fundamentals of research study design, the relevant research methods and data collection, and the appropriate modeling techniques for health projects.
PHC 5900r. Directed Individual Study (3). This is a directed independent study for public health students in the MPH program. The content of the course will vary depending on the agreement between the faculty member and the student. May be repeated to a maximum of six credit hours.
PHC 5912r. Public Health Capstone and Research Project (6). (S/U grade only). This practical and research application course allows the student to integrate all knowledge gained in the core courses and apply that knowledge in a systematic way through an applied research project that is defended before two faculty.
PHC 5936r. Special Topics in Public Health (3). This course covers a broad range of important topics in public health not typically offered.
PHC 5945. Internship (3). (S/U grade only). This internship places students, under faculty supervision, in employment situations related to their academic interest; research related to a problem or issue facing the sponsor of the internship.
PHC 6002. Infectious Disease Epidemiology (3). This course introduces the basic methods for infectious disease epidemiology and case studies of important disease syndromes and entities in various disciplines within infectious disease.
PHC 6110. Comparative Health (3). This course provides a comprehensive examination of the structure of healthcare systems from selected countries worldwide. Specific attention is paid to the developmental history of the national healthcare systems, financing, and infrastructure.