Curious about pursuing an M.P.H.

[Seatown1]

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Hello all,

I was recently admitted to an M.D. program and will be starting this coming fall. I have been curious about pursuing an M.P.H. at some point because my background involves working with populations in underserved regions and a lot of public health-related stuff. I would like to pursue this area of study further and believe that an M.P.H. would be the best way to go about doing this. Some doctors I shadowed have recommended attaining an M.P.H. (and even an MBA) at some point.

I'd like to know if any of you pursued an M.P.H. and if so, how did you do it? I understand that med school and residency is a grueling process and there is little if any time for completing an M.P.H. even part-time. Also, is it even worth it to pursue an M.P.H.? What doors can it open for me in my career? Pursuing an extra degree is another financial commitment, so I'd also like to ensure that I'd be making a return on my investment.

Thus far I haven't done much research on the topic. I know what the best programs are and have one in particular that I'm most interested in pursuing due to (a) it's proximity to my medical school and (b) it's high ranking internationally. I'll give some of the programs a call later this week when I have more time.

Thanks!

 

[mcloaf]

If you can't articulate why you need the degree you probably shouldn't spend the time and money to get it.

Perceived international prestige, location, and random recommendations from other physicians aren't very compelling reasons.

 

[Seatown1]

If you can't articulate why you need the degree you probably shouldn't spend the time and money to get it.

Perceived international prestige, location, and random recommendations from other physicians aren't very compelling reasons.

That's why I'm hear trying to receive feedback from other medical students. I clearly asked if it's something that others have looked in to and pursued.

 

[sk7]

I did an MPH a few years before starting med school, mostly because I was interested in epidemiology and wanted to apply it to my study of medicine. Just as with any field of study, you should go into it because you're interested and want to use it. Depending on what branch of public health you want to go into, the money might be substantial of minimal. Some residency programs offer an MPH as part of the program so you wouldn't have to worry about paying for it.

 

[MalibuPreMD]

I'm finishing my MPH between MS2 and MS3. It's been good learning biostats (esp linear/logistic regression using sas/stata) and epi, but 50% of what I'm learning is useless. I've had more time to work on research projects and have had much more time to be with my son.

Luckily my med school is paying mph tuition, I would not have done it otherwise.

 

[rpurplel]

I'm doing my MPH during medical school as well. I'm doing a more integrated type program where I alternate my M3 year with my masters courses. I'm doing the MPH at my home university (its just easier that way), and my graduate school offers assistant programs where you get your tuition covered if you work as a teaching assistant or research assistant, so my MPH isn't costing me anything. Doing an MPH at a prestigious university is just going to add 50k+ to your debt, so in my opinion, definitely not worth that expense. But if you can find a way to get it cheaply, then sure, it can open some doors for you without that extra financial burden. And honestly, I really don't think I'm losing anything education-wise by not doing my MPH at Harvard or John Hopkins. Biostats is biostats no matter where you learn it.

Doing it during medical school generally saves you a year. Normally, an MPH is two years, but most schools do a 5-year dual degree for MD/MPH, so you save one year. There are some schools that do a 4 year MD/MPH, but only a few do that. Some fellowships do offer MPHs, but you aren't going to get it in one year, and then there are some residencies like General Preventative Medicine or maybe a few EM programs that offer MPHs as part of their curriculums.

I was in your shoes when I started med school- I was interested in doing an MPH but wasn't sure. My recommendation would be to find something to do during the summer between M1 and M2 that is public health related and see if you like that (though it seems like you've already done that). That's what I did and it helped me decide for sure that I wanted to take that extra year to do the MPH. You don't have to be 100% sure right now, or know exactly how you want to use it yet. The majority of SDN seems to dislike dual degrees and would probably answer that no, an MPH isn't worth it, but its ultimately your life and your career, so you have to decide if its worth it for you.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

...Also, is it even worth it to pursue an M.P.H.?...

This may be due to non-random sampling, but most people that I know who are 5+ years after residency and who have an MPH aren't using it in any way.

 

[PL198]

Training to be a physician is long enough without any add ons

 

[ZuluHotel]

Also, is it even worth it to pursue an M.P.H.? What doors can it open for me in my career? Pursuing an extra degree is another financial commitment, so I'd also like to ensure that I'd be making a return on my investment.

An MPH will not give you much financial return on investment at all. It's likely you might even make less than you would otherwise, if for instance an MPH leads you to a more academic track or a lower paying speciality (i.e. infectious disease). It's a small feather in your cap for residency matching but not worth taking a year out to do it unless you are actually interested in public health work. One MD/MPH professor at my school likes to plug the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service as a career option for an MD/MPH. You get to fly around around the world to places with disease or natural disasters and do public health stuff.