International Students Profile

[erickven]

Hi. I'm a Physician from Venezuela. I'm pretty interested in MPH (global health, latin american studies, behavioral, social and community sciences). I'm next to attend University of Florida to take an intensive English course for 3 months (currently I'm intermediate) and I wonder what's the academic profile that International Students usually have to apply to Public Health Schools.. I've done a lot of searching regarding universities admission request, in my case I have a GPA 3.45, my university is a Top in Venezuela, I have two years of professional medical practice, neither research nor volunteer experience, letters from profesors in my university and hopefully soon a high TOEFL score. In regard to GRE, I am thinking to apply no-GRE required universities to spare as much time and money as possible, but I am insecure about if it is the best choice for me. Likewise I've thought in apply to a Public Health Certification ( Postbaccalaureate studies) in the University of Florida because the application requeriments are few, the credit hours (15 in total) can be transfered into the MPH and it would make my application more competitive.

The chaotic situation in my country is making me insane about time and money. I'm very hurry to get into the MPH because here we're permanently in a uncertain future so I need a lot of opinions about what desicion I must take.

Thank you friends. Best regards!!!

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[MolBio]

Sorry to hear about the uncertainty in your home country. Yes, international medical graduates commonly apply to MPH programs; some are interested in doing public health practice and research in the US or internationally. Others use the physical presence in the US, non-clinical time to study for the USMLE, and proximity to teaching hospitals for observerships, as a stepping stone to residency.

The public health certification alone is probably not enough to make you competitive for public health jobs, but it would probably be a useful time for you to test your interest in the different areas of public health to help you make the decision about whether to apply for the MPH, and which specialization to choose. Perhaps it could also help your chances of admission and/or financial aid from UF.

It's also very common for physicians from the US an internationally to select a one year accelerated MPH (such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins and others). It can be potentially cheaper but obviously your student visa would expire after that one year, rather than the two usual years.

Good luck!

MB