The 43-credit curriculum provides students with hands-on skills of applying data science principles to process, visualize and analyze data in order to extract meaningful information to address important questions in public health and the health sciences. Students in this track will also learn to use popular software packages such as R, SAS, SQL and Tableau.

Career Opportunities

Data scientists are in high demand in several fields. Data science professionals with added contextual expertise of public health will find career opportunities at state or federal departments of public health, universities, pharmaceutical industries, and business entities.

Educational Format

The educational program includes 43 total credit hours where classes are taught in three terms per year (fall, spring, summer). Full-time students can complete this program in two years. Part-time students are required to complete the degree within 6 years of their start date. All students are paired with an academic adviser.

Classes are taught online and on campus in the evenings to accommodate working professionals. There may be unforeseen circumstances such as low registration numbers and COVID-19 where residential (on campus) delivery mode sections will be moved into an online delivery mode section.

Recommended Prerequisites

Faculty recommend that students have taken some college-level math courses such as college algebra or calculus. Faculty also recommend that students have taken at least one college-level statistics course.

Full-Time Course Sequence

Year 1

Fall Term | 10 Credits

  • MPH 600 Introduction to Public Health (1 Credit)
  • MPH 620 Public Health Administration and Management (3 Credits)
  • MPH 701 Introduction to Healthcare Analytics (3 Credits)
  • MPH 703 Programming Tools and Techniques in Data Management (3 Credits)

Spring Term | 9 Credits

  • MPH 613 Principles of Environmental Health Science (3 Credits)
  • MPH 614 Principles of Epidemiology (3 Credits)
  • MPH 779 Introduction to Research Methods (3 Credits)

Summer Term | 6 Credits

  • MPH 612 Statistical Reasoning for Public Health (3 Credits)
  • MPH 704 Predictive Data Analysis* (3 Credits)

Year 2

Fall Term | 9 Credits

  • MPH 611 Social and Behavioral Sciences for Public Health (3 Credits)
  • MPH 705 Data Mining and Machine Learning** (3 Credits)
  • MPH 706 Categorical Data Analysis* (3 Credits)

Spring Term | 9 Credits

  • MPH 627 Data Visualization*** (3 Credits)
  • MPH 707 Survival Analysis* (3 Credits)
  • MPH 750 Community Practicum (3 Credits)
*Prerequisites: MPH 701 and MPH 703
**Prerequisites: MPH 701 and MPH 704
*** Prerequisite: MPH 612

 

This website reflects current program information, including admissions criteria and curricula. Information is subject to change.