Biostatistics Careers

[StarryNight23]

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I'm an incoming MPH Biostatistics student and my ultimate career goal is to do Nutritional Research, Obesity Prevention, and research on eating disorders. Do you think a MPH in Biostatistics is a good avenue for this career? What additional classes should I add into my curriculum? I am also interested in what other Biostatistic students are pursing as their career goals.

 

[stmaan01]

I'm a MS Biostats student, and I'm planning on working in industry, probably medical device or private research. As a MPH Biostats student, make sure you become very familiar with statistical programming, especially SAS.

 

[fernandez]

hi..i also want to pursue MPH biostatistics and I have been looking at prerequisites required by various schools. I want to know the extent of Math background required for applying into this program.As per my understanding,MS biostats requires a more in depth Math than MPH

 

[hughesn2]

hi..i also want to pursue MPH biostatistics and I have been looking at prerequisites required by various schools. I want to know the extent of Math background required for applying into this program.As per my understanding,MS biostats requires a more in depth Math than MPH

Based on what I have read I don't think there is actually a pre-requisite for MPH Biostatistics to apply other than a statistics class. Really the only reason I am applying to an MPH program instead of an M.S. in Biostatistics is that I only have up until Calc 2 (4.0 in both Calc 1&2) and an intro to stats course. I graduated in December and most programs I have looked at are much more competitive for the M.S. program since they accept much less students than MPH programs and they tend to require up to Linear algebra and two statistics courses. Here in Michigan there aren't many M.S. in Biostatistics.

My issue is that I was pre-podiatry up until my final semester in undergrad, but realized I didn't want to pursue that any further. Unfortunately for me I realized this way too late since now I regret not going into Biomedical Engineering. I am personally not going to take another whole year off to take one or two more statistics courses and Linear algebra to apply to an M.S. program to have a slim chance to get in

 

[stmaan01]

Yes, you are correct. MS biostats programs are generally more math intensive than MPH. MS is more of a research degree, so more stat theory is taught in MS programs, even though biostatistics is a more applied field of statistics. Usually, the prerequisites for MS programs include math through calc 2, lin alg, and calc based stats class. Sometimes an alaysis class is aso suggested, but I'm not aware of any MS programs that require an analysis class.

 

[fernandez]

Hey..thank you both for your reply.I am a foreign medical grad(obgyn) looking for MPH biostats as it would be useful for clinical research later.So,you think calculus is sufficient? I studied Math up to high school. When I looked up MPH schools here some like UNC, UCB,Hopkins,UW ask for calculus,linera algebra and basic statistics as prerequisites. But other schools are not very particular about these. To enroll for these courses at a college here,I need to clear a placement test. I feel that I should be pretty sure before I take all this up..

 

[stmaan01]

It will depend on how rigorous your program is. Obviously, the four schools you listed are generally considered to have some of the top biostat departments in the US, so it's likely that their programs will be more rigorous. I would advise that if it is feasible for you to take LA and a stats course, do it. It will definitely help your application and your experience in grad school.