LSHTM vs. BU vs. ...

[blueroom13]

Hi everyone! I'm in the process of deciding on a MPH program - well, more like I've already accepted an offer from Boston University but I am seriously reconsidering it.

BU looks like a great program with great people but I have some big reservations about it - namely, I will be in massive debt (about 85k) and it's a 16-24 months program. That said, it looks like the curriculum is incredible and that the faculty/staff really put all their efforts into making sure you enjoy the course and get a job afterwards. It's apparent that all that tuition money goes towards making students happy.

I recently found out I got in LSHTM, and from reading about it here, it seems like a great program. I would also potentially save some money, as the tuition is less than half that of BU's. Furthermore, I'm really attracted to the fact that it is in London. As a Canadian native, that gives me the opportunity to travel as well be near the headquarters of so many global health NGOs.

Has anyone done the MPH program at either LSHTM or BU, and could advise me on which program to choose? Some specific questions I have:

1) Are there opportunities for any type of award/scholarship at LSHTM? I received a $12 000 merit award from BU, but it doesn't look like LSHTM offers anything.
2) What is the student profile like? Short of studying, I'm really looking forward to meeting people I can make lifelong friends with and potentially other international students that I can travel with (if there is any time...)
3) How difficult is the course? I intend to apply to medical school a few years into the future and would like to have a good graduate academic record. I've heard that BU is fairly straightforward and that 4.0s are not hard to come by. How is LSHTM in this regard?

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[BPW1088]

Congratulations on both of these acceptances, these are both top-tier universities. Of course, each program is different in its own respect. I would say you definitely would want to ask yourself a few questions, and that your concentration should play a role in which university you choose to attend. I did not see you list your focus, i.e. epidemiology, global health, health behavior, etc.

LSHTM is definitely a top contender globally, probably more so than Boston University's School of Pubic Health. With that said, that's not to say BU's program might be a better fit for you. I see that you said that you're interested in applying to medical school. If that's the case, then perhaps Boston would be the better place to set you up for medical school. With a variety of top research universities and teaching hospitals in a 10 mile radius, Boston would offer you with plenty of opportunities and allow you to network, thus setting you up for medical school admissions. If you're most interested in working globally, then I'd say LSHTM might be the better option. With the WHO and other multinational health agencies located in Europe and easier access to underdeveloped countries in Africa, LSHTM provides you with more opportunities if your goals include to practice medicine internationally.

To answer your specific questions,

1. I'm not sure about the scholarships made available to applicants at LSHTM.
2. I'm not sure about the student body. Based on my research and dealings with graduates, I would say that the student body is very diverse and high-achieving. LSHTM grooms some of the most recognized public health professionals.
3. I do not think that this criteria should be factored into your decision, or at least not too heavily. Any graduate program you attend is going to be challenging, and I would say that you'd want a more challenging program than one that will allow you to attain a high GPA and not capitalize in the knowledge of disease and other public health topics. Also, I think that you must consider many factors when determining the "easiness" of a program, factors include course rigor, concentration area, etc.

I hope this helps.

 

[Bolingbroke]

Hi everyone! I'm in the process of deciding on a MPH program - well, more like I've already accepted an offer from Boston University but I am seriously reconsidering it.

BU looks like a great program with great people but I have some big reservations about it - namely, I will be in massive debt (about 85k) and it's a 16-24 months program. That said, it looks like the curriculum is incredible and that the faculty/staff really put all their efforts into making sure you enjoy the course and get a job afterwards. It's apparent that all that tuition money goes towards making students happy.

BU's tuition is high because the school finances their research, and I think some PhD student needs, with the money from the tuition. A public institution, or even a private one with more research dollars, might not need to charge the high tuition at BU. People can debate where the money is going, but it is certainly not going to make student 'happy', they aren't buying students big expensive ski vacations and free cars.

BU has 800 students per 150 staff, kinda a high student to faculty ratio.
LSHTM has 2,805 students to 766 full-time faculty equivalent, a better ratio than BU.

2) What is the student profile like? Short of studying, I'm really looking forward to meeting people I can make lifelong friends with and potentially other international students that I can travel with (if there is any time...)

LSHTM isn't in the public school rankings in the U.S. as obviously it isn't in the U.S., yet it is easily in the top five public health schools in the world, probably in the top two. It is a fantastic school. BU isn't even ranked in the top ten in the U.S., and those rankings will doubtlessly change as more schools are pushing to get accredited. I've heard that BU's faculty has trouble making time for students, not surprising given the huge number of students, and low numbers of faculty.

3) How difficult is the course? I intend to apply to medical school a few years into the future and would like to have a good graduate academic record. I've heard that BU is fairly straightforward and that 4.0s are not hard to come by. How is LSHTM in this regard?

Just getting into LSHTM is a kinda big achievement in itself, I'd sell them a kidney if I could go there. BUSPH admits students with lower grades, nothing wrong with that per se, but it isn't nearly as prestigious as LSHTM which is on par with top US public health schools like JHU and Harvard. No question, on the resume LSHTM looks best, but that's not why I'd recommend it to you, rather because the student body is diverse and highly talented and you'll make great friendships there and have more opportunity to interact with faculty

 

[Bolingbroke]

LSHTM is definitely a top contender globally, probably more so than Boston University's School of Pubic Health. With that said, that's not to say BU's program might be a better fit for you. I see that you said that you're interested in applying to medical school. If that's the case, then perhaps Boston would be the better place to set you up for medical school.

LSHTM is such a well known school, all across the US, and in Canada, and BU's reputation doesn't reach that far and isn't as impressive. I think if you're planning on graduate school or medical school after the mph, then by all means go with LSHTM, especially if it is lower cost than BU, then the decision is a no-brainer to go to LSHTM.

LSHTM is ranked as one of the top three research institutions in the UK, and is obviously the country's best school of public health, might well be the best school of public health in the world.

 

[blueroom13]

Thanks for the help BPW and Bolingbroke! You're right, I didn't mention my specific interests - they change a bit but lie largely in health promotion in developing countries. Specifically, I am interested in the promotion of sexual and reproductive health in women and adolescent populations in developing nations.

While Boston is indeed a healthcare hub, I'm not planning on applying to the US for medical school, but rather Canada since I'm Canadian. So I'm not sure how much networking in the Boston area will help me in that regard.

Any more advice/general impressions of the program would be greatly appreciated!

 

[blueroom13]

Just getting into LSHTM is a kinda big achievement in itself, I'd sell them a kidney if I could go there. BUSPH admits students with lower grades, nothing wrong with that per se, but it isn't nearly as prestigious as LSHTM which is on par with top US public health schools like JHU and Harvard. No question, on the resume LSHTM looks best, but that's not why I'd recommend it to you, rather because the student body is diverse and highly talented and you'll make great friendships there and have more opportunity to interact with faculty

Do you have friends/family that go there that have given you that impression? I'm just wondering where I can inform myself of the characteristics of the student body and the faculty.

 

[Bolingbroke]

Thanks for the help BPW and Bolingbroke! You're right, I didn't mention my specific interests - they change a bit but lie largely in health promotion in developing countries. Specifically, I am interested in the promotion of sexual and reproductive health in women and adolescent populations in developing nations.

While Boston is indeed a healthcare hub, I'm not planning on applying to the US for medical school, but rather Canada since I'm Canadian. So I'm not sure how much networking in the Boston area will help me in that regard.

Any more advice/general impressions of the program would be greatly appreciated!

BU has a large number of masters programs, the mph, and I think they also have a masters specifically designed for folks who are trying to improve their grades before applying to medical school. Point is that doing a masters or mph at BU doesn't differentiate you from the large number of folks doing that. There are a lot of mph programs in Boston as well. One person who I knew who went to BU noted that the school advertises a lot, but that a lot of accepted applicants go elsewhere, and that the school has some issues with regards with increases in class size and the burden on the professors. They were experimenting with using more online videos to connect with students, so I think that if you want a more hands on approach, LSHTM is the place to go as they've got a more manageable student to faculty ratio.

Folks in Canada have probably heard of Harvard, Johns Hopkins, BU not as much. LSHTM is well-known in the U.S. and Canada, of course, but probably even more well regarded in Canada (if that's possible) given the historical connections between Canada and Great Britain, and so LSHTM will help a whole lot more with schooling after the mph.

In terms of global health, LSHTM I would say is in the top 3 public health schools, easily, and they have an advantage given that London is sort of tied with New York in terms of being financial center, but London is also a major global health policy hub for that part of the world. If you want global health, definitely go to LSHTM if you were accepted there.

Google London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, that will give you an idea of the scale of the school's reputation, as well as specific offerings.

 

[Bolingbroke]

Do you have friends/family that go there that have given you that impression? I'm just wondering where I can inform myself of the characteristics of the student body and the faculty.

Have only visited London once, but if you're familiar with public health literature and just the general reputations of schools of public health, you'd know that LSHTM is quite possibly the top public health school in the world, up there with JHU. LSHTM typically attracts the top students worldwide, was founded in 1899, and has made amazing contributions to public health, they even won a Gates Award in 2009. If somebody asked me what the best public health school was, especially with regards with global health, I'd mention LSHTM, JHU, and maybe UNC. LSHTM probably has the biggest commitment to global health in terms of all public health schools.

I'd rank LSHTM as number one, over JHU and UNC, in terms of global health, just given the research that they do and the breadth of the school.

LSHTM is definitely a dream school for the vast majority of applicants, and LSHTM has been described as having students from 120 countries around the world, and is the largest school of public health in Europe, and also won an award for being one of the top ten universities in terms of collaborative research, I believe out of all research universities in the world.

LSHTM is a world renown school of public health, that's not hyperbole, but just a fact. It's a real honor to be accepted there and I congratulate you.

 

[BPW1088]

Based on your interests, I'd say LSHTM is the perfect place for you. Best of luck with your decision!

 

[Stories]

I enjoyed my time as BU MPH student. I didn't have any issues with finding employment or going to further my education afterwards.

I don't know a lot about LSHTM, but I haven't encountered anyone in the cancer or epidemiology research world that was from LSHTM at the two main conferences I attend on a yearly basis (AACR and SER). So my guess is, if you're interested in either of these two disciplines, they're not particularly involved in these areas. The most people I've talked to at these conferences are from Imperial, Oxford, and Cambridge. I don't really know how these schools compare to others in the US, though.

 

[Bolingbroke]

I enjoyed my time as BU MPH student. I didn't have any issues with finding employment or going to further my education afterwards.

I don't know a lot about LSHTM, but I haven't encountered anyone in the cancer or epidemiology research world that was from LSHTM at the two main conferences I attend on a yearly basis (AACR and SER). So my guess is, if you're interested in either of these two disciplines, they're not particularly involved in these areas. The most people I've talked to at these conferences are from Imperial, Oxford, and Cambridge. I don't really know how these schools compare to others in the US, though.

I believe that you "guess" wrong given that the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine might well be the world's #1 school of public health and does a ton of public health research, much more than smaller schools, and they got excellent programs in Epidemiology, and they are specifically involved in the genetics of cancer epidemiology. A cursory search reveals that LSHTM does a lot of work on the genetic determinants of breast cancer.


LSHTM also has a special collaboration, the Bloomsbury Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Statistics


bcges.lshtm.ac.uk/


From just a cursory search we find that Helen Waren from LSHTM is the first author on this article, 9q31.2-rs865686 as a Susceptibility Locus for Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer: Evidence from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium


and also,


A Genome-wide Association Study of Early-onset Breast Cancer Identifies PFKM as a Novel Breast Cancer Gene and Supports a Common Genetic Spectrum for Breast Cancer at Any Age, Isabel dos Santos Silva, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Med.

Given the size and excellent reputation of LSHTM, they've probably have a presence in most the fields and sub-fields of public health, and given that cancer epidemiology research is collaborative in nature, LSHTM may have a distinct advantage given that they do collaboration quite well.

 

[Bolingbroke]

I enjoyed my time as BU MPH student. I didn't have any issues with finding employment or going to further my education afterwards.

That's nice, but we're talking about the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, one of the best public health schools in the world! Probably every applicant to mph programs should be aware of LSHTM, (if they aren't already), as they're kinda the John Hopkins of Europe. As the OP was lucky to get into LSHTM, that's probably the best place to go for her/him as LSHTM excels in global health, in addition to many other areas. LSHTM probably helps the most with regards to further education post mph given the prestige.

If I wanted to do public health research on cancer, even genetic epidemiology, of course I'd consider LSHTM if I got in there, they've got excellent programs in epidemiology (some of the best in the world), and I could get involved in specific research that they're working on in the field. Sounds like great preparation to me.

From just their wiki page:

The Faculty (of Epidemiology and Population Health) has expertise in:

• Clinical trials
• Analysis of routinely collected statistics
• Indirect techniques for measuring mortality in developing countries
• Conduct and analysis of observational studies
• Large-scale field trials
• Design and evaluation of interventions
• National and global health

The spectrum of diseases studied is wide and there are major research groups working on topics which include:

• HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases
• malaria and other vector borne diseases
• tuberculosis
• vaccine development and evaluation
• vector biology and disease control

The School is currently home to the following research centres:

• Centre for the Evaluation of Public Health Interventions
• Centre on Global Change and Health
• European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition (ECOHOST)
• Gender Violence & Health Centre
• Malaria Centre
• MARCH Centre for Maternal, Reproductive & Child Health
• Clinical Trials Unit
• Centre for Global Mental Health
• Bloomsbury Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Statistics
• Centre for Disability and Development
• Centre for Statistical Methodology
• Centre for History in Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
• Hygiene Centre
• Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases
• Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour
• International Centre for Eye Health
• Wellcome Bloomsbury Centre

Awards

The LSHTM won the 2009 Gates Award for Global Health established by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and received $1 million in prize money. The award recognises organizations that have made an outstanding contribution to improving global health.

More recently, a team of researchers led by Professor Richard Hayes at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, have been awarded $37 million to test an innovative combination of strategies to prevent HIV in African countries.

Donald Reid Medal

The Donald Reid Medal is awarded triennially by the LSHTM in recognition of distinguished contributions to epidemiology.

Rankings

In 2008, the UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) confirmed the School as a world leading centre for research. The School has been ranked one of the top three research institutions in the UK in the Times Higher Education Table of Excellence, which is based on the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. There are no current relevant world rankings of institutions of public health, however, LSHTM remains one of the most prestigious postgraduate institutions in public health globally.

 

[Bolingbroke]

There's a good video online about LSHTM:




Here’s some student quotes from the video:


“I wanted to study at the school because I think that LSHTM is the best institution in the world to study public health and health economics.”

“What I’ll remember most about my time at the school would be the friendships I’ve made, the networks I’ve gained, and the interactions I’ve had with really the prime movers and shakers in global health.”

There are 32 LSHTM videos on YouTube, that will doubtlessly provide more info for prospective students:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc1vNJMil0PMsuVXbhu8Rw

LSHTM also has free lectures/podcasts on iTunes, so even if you can't get in, you can benefit from the wealth of knowledge and experience the school has.

 

[Bolingbroke]

I don't know a lot about LSHTM, but I haven't encountered anyone in the cancer or epidemiology research world that was from LSHTM at the two main conferences I attend on a yearly basis (AACR and SER).

If you're going to SER 2014 this month there is a panelist from LSHTM :


Bianca deStavola, London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine


Dr. Bianca L. De Stavola, PhD MSc, is Professor of Biostatistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), London, UK, and Director of the LSHTM Centre for Statistical Methodology. She received her PhD from Imperial College London and MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, after graduating in Statistics at Padua University, in Italy. Dr. De Stavola’s research activities involve the understanding, development and implementation of statistical methods for long-term longitudinal studies, with specific applications to life-course epidemiology. These often involve causal enquiries, in particular related to understanding pathways towards disease development.

• Panelist - How to be the Happiest Epidemiologist you can be!
  Friday, 2014-06-27 - 12:00 - 1:00 pm

I'm sure plenty of folks from LSHTM attend SER, but LSHTM is in London, professors there might be more likely to attend European conferences. As far as education goes, LSHTM is a world-famous institution, perhaps the top public health school in the world.

 

[Solara]

It all depends on what you want to do down the road. If your future job might require you to have gotten an MPH at some school accredited under some organization, then studying at BU could be better if it's accredited and LSHTM is not. Otherwise, I'm not going to repeat what everyone else already said. Go to LSHTM. It's far more prestigious, cheaper, and you will probably learn more there because of the diversity of the student body and university, as well as superiority in research resources and output. You may still have debt if you go to LSHTM, but that much debt is absolutely not worth it. Public health doesn't pay so well in the first place, and I feel BU charges more than it should.

 

[Bolingbroke]

It all depends on what you want to do down the road. If your future job might require you to have gotten an MPH at some school accredited under some organization, then studying at BU could be better if it's accredited and LSHTM is not. Otherwise, I'm not going to repeat what everyone else already said. Go to LSHTM. It's far more prestigious, cheaper, and you will probably learn more there because of the diversity of the student body and university, as well as superiority in research resources and output.

I can see somebody who is interested in just hospital administration in the U.S. shying away from LSHTM, but in that case you'd probably want to get an MHA vs. an MPH.

If the mph is not your terminal degree, then I think that LSHTM makes perfect sense as everybody in academics on ad coms is aware of the school, and if you're not planning on pursuing further education, the MPH at LSHTM offers great versatility given the recognition of the school.

Harrison Spencer was the dean of LSHTM (and he might well have gone there as a student too), and he is president of the Association of Schools & Programs of Public Health here in the U.S.. In a lot of ways, LSHTM is the yard stick against which other schools are measured and it is probably the oldest school of public health in the world.

You may still have debt if you go to LSHTM, but that much debt is absolutely not worth it. Public health doesn't pay so well in the first place, and I feel BU charges more than it should.

LSHTM has students from around the world (I believe 120 different countries), they've got a very good reason to keep the tuition low as a lot of these students will return to their home countries and head departments of health, or do other public health jobs that might well not pay as much as American jobs, and that's probably part of LSHTM's mission as a leader in global health, plus, you're right, global health doesn't pay as well as some other fields, so it is very nice of the school to take into consideration their students' future and how to enable them to have the most positive impact on the world.

 

[Stories]

I believe that you "guess" wrong given that the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine might well be the world's #1 school of public health and does a ton of public health research, much more than smaller schools, and they got excellent programs in Epidemiology, and they are specifically involved in the genetics of cancer epidemiology. A cursory search reveals that LSHTM does a lot of work on the genetic determinants of breast cancer.


LSHTM also has a special collaboration, the Bloomsbury Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Statistics


bcges.lshtm.ac.uk/


From just a cursory search we find that Helen Waren from LSHTM is the first author on this article, 9q31.2-rs865686 as a Susceptibility Locus for Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer: Evidence from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium


and also,


A Genome-wide Association Study of Early-onset Breast Cancer Identifies PFKM as a Novel Breast Cancer Gene and Supports a Common Genetic Spectrum for Breast Cancer at Any Age, Isabel dos Santos Silva, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Med.

Given the size and excellent reputation of LSHTM, they've probably have a presence in most the fields and sub-fields of public health, and given that cancer epidemiology research is collaborative in nature, LSHTM may have a distinct advantage given that they do collaboration quite well.

A few publications in good (but not elite) journal does not make a #1 public health school or research institute. I just said this was my perception having not met a single person affiliated with LSHTM in my ~5 years of conference attendance.

All schools of public health will offer the entire gamut of a public health curriculum.

And a school may be well respected in London and the UK, but that reputation may not necessarily carry over to the entire world. Similarly, not all schools in the US will carry the same reputation overseas as it does in the US. Lastly, nobody should attend a school based on reputation alone. A person should look into all the offerings at each department and see what courses and what faculty that person could work with. Then location/geography obviously should be a good fit, as well.

 

[Bolingbroke]

A few publications in good (but not elite) journal does not make a #1 public health school or research institute. I just said this was my perception having not met a single person affiliated with LSHTM in my ~5 years of conference attendance.

You should know that LSHTM is a world renown institution, and publishes in a large number of journals and has a fantastic reputation. I would encourage you to talk with colleagues and read about LSHTM, I been reading journals for years and LSHTM's name frequently pops-up. LSHTM's reputation is sterling, they're easily in the top 3 public health schools in the world, and quite possibly number 1.

LSHTM is a major biomedical research institution, and if you visit their webpage, they’ve got a massive list of all the research going on there, they’ve certainly published in a lot of the top journals.


https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/publications/


A professor from LSHTM even wrote in a blog on the NEJM website on global health.


http://blogs.nejm.org/now/index.php...-of-hygiene-and-tropical-medicine/2014/03/24/


Yes, LSHTM publishes in a ton of journals such as JAMA, Lancet, BMJ, American Journal of Public Health, Addiction, Public Health, Epidemics, and many more.


From the school’s website:


In May 2014, the School (LSHTM) was ranked in the top 10 of all universities both for citation rate and for top cited publications by the new EU-supported U-Multirank database, and fourth in the world, behind only the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oxford and Harvard, for impact in medical sciences in the Leiden Ranking 2014*. - See more at: http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/news/2014/...top-table-by-reputation/#sthash.RlNbD4k2.dpuf


The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has been named as the world’s leading research-focused graduate school, and is now highly rated in a number of world rankings. - See more at: http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/news/2014/...top-table-by-reputation/#sthash.RlNbD4k2.dpuf

 

[Bolingbroke]

A lot of the "prime movers and shakers" in public health have gone to LSHTM. And, of course, LSHTM is the oldest school of public health in the world, the founder of the school discovered that malaria was being transmitted by a mosquito, and the school takes in $173 million dollars a year.

It would be a disservice to say that LSHTM is not a premier school of public health, it is actually much more than that, the birth place of certain fields of public health, a prestigious school that isn't pretentious, and a school that has been recognized as a world leader in global health, and quite possibly the world's best school of public health, especially for those interested in research, global health, and policy, and the large number of areas which LSHTM is truly a global leader.

List of London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine people
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_School_of_Hygiene_%26_Tropical_Medicine#Notable_people)

Notable alumni (Click on the person's name to learn more about them!)

• Abraham Manie Adelstein
• Dlawer Ala'Aldeen
• Anne Alvik
• John Ashton, public health director
• Nils Bejerot
• Gilbert Bukenya
• Colin Butler
• Sarah Darby
• Helen Epstein, HIV/AIDS journalist
• John Frank, epidemiologist
• Brendon Gooneratne
• Habibollah Hedayat
• David L. Heymann
• Robert Holdstock
• Harry Hoogstraal
• Honoria Somerville Keer
• Vanessa Kerry
• Ariel King
• Philip J. Landrigan
• James Lovelock
• Robert W. McCollum
• Carlos Monge Medrano
• J. Donald Millar
• Eduardo Missoni
• Jim van Os
• Muhammad Ali Pate
• Elizabeth Pisani
• Samantha Nutt
• Max Price
• Eli Schwartz
• V. Sivalingam
• Max Theiler
• Nahid Toubia
• Fred Wabwire-Mangen
• Diana Walford
• Kenneth S. Warren
• Simon Wessely
• Franklin White
• Alimuddin Zumla

Notable current and former academic staff[edit]

• Donald Acheson
• Abraham Manie Adelstein
• Elizabeth Anionwu
• Peter Armitage
• Andrew Balfour
• Kazem Behbehani
• Val Beral
• Claire Bertschinger
• James Cantlie
• Geoffrey Douglas Hale Carpenter
• Sandy Cairncross
• Aldo Castellani
• Havelock Charles
• David Clayton
• Val Curtis
• Christopher Dye
• David Evans, microbiologist
• Richard Feachem
• Neil Hamilton Fairley
• David Flavell
• John Fox, statistician
• Ben Goldacre
• Brian Greenwood
• Major Greenwood
• Andrew Haines
• Michael Healy, statistician
• Austin Bradford Hill
• Joseph Oscar Irwin
• Wilson Jameson
• Robert Leiper
• George Carmichael Low
• Patrick Manson
• Michael Marmot
• Archibald McIndoe
• Martin McKee
• Tony McMichael
• David Morley, paediatrician
• Jerry Morris
• David Nabarro
• S. Jay Olshansky
• Julian Peto
• Peter Piot
• Stuart Pocock
• Anne Marie Rafferty
• Geoffrey Rose, epidemiologist
• John Alexander Sinton
• Peter Smith, epidemiologist
• Fiona Stanley
• Vincent Wigglesworth

 

[Stories]

You should know that LSHTM is a world renown institution, and publishes in a large number of journals and has a fantastic reputation. I would encourage you to talk with colleagues and read about LSHTM, I been reading journals for years and LSHTM's name frequently pops-up. LSHTM's reputation is sterling, they're easily in the top 3 public health schools in the world, and quite possibly number 1.

LSHTM is a major biomedical research institution, and if you visit their webpage, they’ve got a massive list of all the research going on there, they’ve certainly published in a lot of the top journals.


https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/publications/


A professor from LSHTM even wrote in a blog on the NEJM website on global health.


http://blogs.nejm.org/now/index.php...-of-hygiene-and-tropical-medicine/2014/03/24/


Yes, LSHTM publishes in a ton of journals such as JAMA, Lancet, BMJ, American Journal of Public Health, Addiction, Public Health, Epidemics, and many more.


From the school’s website:


In May 2014, the School (LSHTM) was ranked in the top 10 of all universities both for citation rate and for top cited publications by the new EU-supported U-Multirank database, and fourth in the world, behind only the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oxford and Harvard, for impact in medical sciences in the Leiden Ranking 2014*. - See more at: http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/news/2014/...top-table-by-reputation/#sthash.RlNbD4k2.dpuf

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has been named as the world’s leading research-focused graduate school, and is now highly rated in a number of world rankings. - See more at: http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/news/2014/...top-table-by-reputation/#sthash.RlNbD4k2.dpuf

My advice is to take anything that is written on an institute's publication with some skepticism. Most institutes (including the ones I've been affiliated with at some point) will cherry pick the publications that will make them look best. As I've said before, a few publications does not make the institute the best in the world. There's no definitive best or even definitive top 10 because every ranking, every person, every methodology is different and the weights of each category will be different. Each institute will have strengths and weaknesses and it is prudent for potential students to delve into those pros/cons to determine the best fit for him/herself.

Interestingly enough, according to one of the sources cited in the second article: http://www.umultirank.org/#!/readymade?trackType=illustrative&sightMode=undefined&ranking=6&sortCol=sortValues[0]&sortOrder=asc&section=illustrativeRanking, they have UC-Santa Cruz listed as the top citation university in the world. UCSC is a fine institution, but I don't think many folks would consider them to be the premiere research university in the world. Their ranking likely stems from the UCSC Genome Browser, which is one of the best organized data bases from finding genomic information.

 

[Bolingbroke]

My advice is to take anything that is written on an institute's publication with some skepticism. Most institutes (including the ones I've been affiliated with at some point) will cherry pick the publications that will make them look best.

LSHTM's website lists a ton of research papers and I believe it is all of the papers published by their faculty. The school has a great reputation, on par with places like JHU and Harvard, and so there isn't a need for LSHTM to 'cherry pick' anything, a lot of textbooks have authors from LSHTM and the school has an excellent reputation. Just like it wouldn't be very meaningful to question whether JHU does any good research, same for LSHTM.

LSHTM is much larger than BU, your talking 150 faculty vs. 766, and some sources have the number closer to 800, so we're getting close to almost a log scale difference between BU and LSHTM just in terms of available faculty. We've already noted that LSHTM has a better student to faculty ratio.

LSHTM gets in about 170 million dollars in funding each year, Harvard pulls in about $110 million from the NIH, not sure about other sources of funding, but you can see that LSHTM is well funded. JHU has 529 full-time faculty and 629 part time, and Havard has "300 administrative staff."

As I've said before, a few publications does not make the institute the best in the world.

LSHTM has an impressive reputation in the field of public health, has for quite a while, and I and many others would consider the school the numb one school of public health, especially for global health, and maybe it is tied with JHU for research. The school has won numerous awards and does a lot of research as the school is quite well funded, plus they've made a significant contribution to global health, this fact was recognized by the Gates Foundation when the school won the award.

Interestingly enough, according to one of the sources cited in the second article: http://www.umultirank.org/#!/readymade?trackType=illustrative&sightMode=undefined&ranking=6&sortCol=sortValues[0]&sortOrder=asc&section=illustrativeRanking, they have UC-Santa Cruz listed as the top citation university in the world. UCSC is a fine institution, but I don't think many folks would consider them to be the premiere research university in the world. Their ranking likely stems from the UCSC Genome Browser, which is one of the best organized data bases from finding genomic information.

Multiple ways of ranking schools, and just school's general reputation have lead to the consensus that LSHTM is a top public health school, certainly, and is probably the world's premier school of public health, at the very least in the top 3, I would say.

Articles from LSHTM are very well respected, as are the opinions of faculty at LSHTM.

There's no definitive best or even definitive top 10 because every ranking, every person, every methodology is different and the weights of each category will be different.

Well, if somebody asks for help in selecting a school it's expected to note that LSHTM has an excellent/world famous reputation, and has an especially strong reputation in global health, this is important info, especially for the OP.

I think LSHTM also added on a new 'wing', a special architectural project given that the school is historic, architecturally, and can't be modified much. I think they did a great job, but I think that the most important thing is the people who are at LSHTM who are overall very nice and humble folks who have made a very positive impact on global health issues, and continue to do so, and they should be lauded for this.

LSHTM Library

Lecture Room LSHTM

 

[blueroom13]

Thanks for all the feedback! I've decided on LSHTM, but that was mainly due to my own research. I'm sure both programs are great.

 

[2015iscoming]

Elizabeth Pisani's book The wisdom of ****** was the first reading I truly enjoyed (for learning and entertaining) on HIV prevention, which eventually leads to my MPH and my current job... For her I vote for LSHTM. However, do you care about any potential interaction/exploration outside of the public health school? Although LSHTM partners with other great institutions in London, BU might provide more opportunity/well-established mechanisms to explore any transdisciplinary work with other schools. I met two LSHTM MPH graduates before at an internship (both international students), and surprisingly they didn't wave about it as I expected... I think the main reason is that it was relatively short compared to a two-year MPH program in many other schools. I think you have one of the best problems you can ever have, and good luck with your study!

 

[Bolingbroke]

Elizabeth Pisani's book The wisdom of ****** was the first reading I truly enjoyed (for learning and entertaining) on HIV prevention, which eventually leads to my MPH and my current job... For her I vote for LSHTM. However, do you care about any potential interaction/exploration outside of the public health school? Although LSHTM partners with other great institutions in London, BU might provide more opportunity/well-established mechanisms to explore any transdisciplinary work with other schools. I met two LSHTM MPH graduates before at an internship (both international students), and surprisingly they didn't wave about it as I expected... I think the main reason is that it was relatively short compared to a two-year MPH program in many other schools. I think you have one of the best problems you can ever have, and good luck with your study!

LSHTM seems to excel with collaborations with other institutions, and the OP could spread it out over 2 years vs 1 year if he/she wanted to work/explore other opportunities. London is a bigger city than Boston, and Boston has several competing schools of public health, the most prestigious of which is, of course, Harvard.

Given that they are different universities, Harvard would presumably give preference to their students first and foremost when it comes to some sort of extracurriculars.

I think that UMass's public health school has connections with the state health department in Boston, though I've heard the same thing about BU, though probably every public health school in Boston has dealings with the state health department.

Just because LSHTM is that much larger than BU, and given LSHTM reputation (certainly that much more impressive in its host country), I'm thinking that LSHTM can open a lot of doors in London. It should be remembered that LSHTM has something like 800 faculty . . . that's a lot of in-house talent and it would take a lifetime to become acquainted with everyone and everything offered.

Elizabeth Pisani's book The wisdom of ****** was the first reading I truly enjoyed (for learning and entertaining) on HIV prevention, which eventually leads to my MPH and my current job...

That's a good book! Other public health writers have been associated with LSHTM, I think that LSHTM has a gift shop (they sell cups, t-shirts, stationary with the LSHTM logo online), I wonder if they sell their books there as well . . . there's also the famous 'gilded vectors of disease', the golden bugs/rodent artwork on the outside of the building. Would be awesome to see it in person one day.

 

[Bolingbroke]

On somewhat of a tangent, you really have to feel sorry for people in West Africa being affected by the latest Ebola outbreak. Ebola researchers think that the fruit bat is reservoir in Ebola's case, though it hasn't been definitively proven. Kind of humbling to think that humanity is still so plagued by animal vectors and the diseases they carry.

MSF is maxed out in terms of what they can do, in terms of isolation/treatment of affected patients. Really hope that WHO or somebody steps up to the plate because it seems that the epidemic is "out of control" if they can't track down all the affected patients and their contacts.

 

[blueroom13]

Elizabeth Pisani's book The wisdom of ****** was the first reading I truly enjoyed (for learning and entertaining) on HIV prevention, which eventually leads to my MPH and my current job... For her I vote for LSHTM. However, do you care about any potential interaction/exploration outside of the public health school? Although LSHTM partners with other great institutions in London, BU might provide more opportunity/well-established mechanisms to explore any transdisciplinary work with other schools. I met two LSHTM MPH graduates before at an internship (both international students), and surprisingly they didn't wave about it as I expected... I think the main reason is that it was relatively short compared to a two-year MPH program in many other schools. I think you have one of the best problems you can ever have, and good luck with your study!

I'll have to check that book out. Can you tell me more about what those two MPH grads said about LSHTM?

 

[2015iscoming]

I'll have to check that book out. Can you tell me more about what those two MPH grads said about LSHTM?

I don't remember too many details, but both of them are from HK and worked for the PH department for 1-2 years before doing the MPH at LSHTM. I think they told me that the school is gigantic, but you still need to be very proactive in terms of seeking opportunities... Also every one is super busy, so might be hard to develop relationships. However, their goal was basically to get a degree so that they could get promoted back in HK (they were funded by the gov).

I actually work with someone based in Uganda who graduated from LSHTM too. I think he did his medical degree in Uganda before getting a master's in epi from LSHTM. He is a local study coordinator and is extremely charismatic! He said he went back to Uganda because he missed the food (LOL)~ I do remember he mentioned how diverse the student body is.

I am actually thinking again whether I should apply for PHD there. I love the school, but also want to gain solid teaching experience (one major reason I'm going back to school). Would love to hear your experience after you get there. Again, congratulations and enjoy!!!

 

[Bolingbroke]

I actually work with someone based in Uganda who graduated from LSHTM too. I think he did his medical degree in Uganda before getting a master's in epi from LSHTM. He is a local study coordinator and is extremely charismatic! He said he went back to Uganda because he missed the food (LOL)~ I do remember he mentioned how diverse the student body is.

If the OP is applying to medical school, then LSHTM has distinct long term advantages as you'll be able to meet people at LSHTM who are clinicians and will return to their country to practice, and you can become familiar with the large number of international sites where LSHTM is currently doing research. I'm thinking this is a distinct advantage if the OP wants to do some sort of international research or clinical work during or after medical school, having those contacts and connections through LSHTM would probably be a major advantage.

 

[Bolingbroke]

Just ran across a June 26th, 2014 article on LSHTM, gives a very good bird's eye view of the school, the focus on research, and that fact that school does more than what the 'gilded vectors' on the outside of the building would suggest as they

http://www.timeshighereducation.co....hygiene-and-tropical-medicine/2014072.article

From the article,

There is still a Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, which has many joint clinical appointments with the nearby Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Mosquito larvae are kept in the basement and fed on Heinz breakfast food. Brave volunteers come and offer their arms so that the mosquitoes can drink blood, as they prefer, direct from bodies. Yet the two other faculties, of Epidemiology and Population Health, and Public Health and Policy, focus much of their efforts on the UK and Europe, rather than the tropics. Major areas covered, says vice-director (and professor of health economics and policy) Anne Mills, include “cancer epidemiology”, “obesity and exercise”, “sexual health”, drug abuse, gender violence and the specific health issues of “hard-to-reach populations”.

The article talks about health economics (one researcher said that LSHTM has the largest number of health economists in the world), interdisciplinary research, and the fact that the school is doing quite well in terms of research funding they receive from a variety of sources such as the NHS, European Union, Bill Gates Foundation, but also that they want to diversify their sources of revenue so that in the future if research funding drops off, the school will still be doing quite well, specifically, they said they don't do direct consultancy work for national governments, but are considering getting into this field. They also mentioned possibly offering specialized insect testing services (probably directly to foreign governments battling malaria and other diseases).

Very interesting, nice to see that the school is very proactive in terms of future growth.

LSHTM photo, from the article.

 

[Bolingbroke]

For anybody interested in LSHTM, Peter Piot who co-discovered Ebola in 76', (and was a former under secretary general at the United Nations, and former director of UNAIDS), is director of the LSHTM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Piot

He talks about students at LSHTM having the time of their life at the school:

 

[skinofteeth]

Hi everyone! I'm in the process of deciding on a MPH program - well, more like I've already accepted an offer from Boston University but I am seriously reconsidering it.

BU looks like a great program with great people but I have some big reservations about it - namely, I will be in massive debt (about 85k) and it's a 16-24 months program. That said, it looks like the curriculum is incredible and that the faculty/staff really put all their efforts into making sure you enjoy the course and get a job afterwards. It's apparent that all that tuition money goes towards making students happy.

I recently found out I got in LSHTM, and from reading about it here, it seems like a great program. I would also potentially save some money, as the tuition is less than half that of BU's. Furthermore, I'm really attracted to the fact that it is in London. As a Canadian native, that gives me the opportunity to travel as well be near the headquarters of so many global health NGOs.

Has anyone done the MPH program at either LSHTM or BU, and could advise me on which program to choose? Some specific questions I have:

1) Are there opportunities for any type of award/scholarship at LSHTM? I received a $12 000 merit award from BU, but it doesn't look like LSHTM offers anything.
2) What is the student profile like? Short of studying, I'm really looking forward to meeting people I can make lifelong friends with and potentially other international students that I can travel with (if there is any time...)
3) How difficult is the course? I intend to apply to medical school a few years into the future and would like to have a good graduate academic record. I've heard that BU is fairly straightforward and that 4.0s are not hard to come by. How is LSHTM in this regard?

What did you do for public health experience prior to applying?