Thanks for the response. Out of curiosity specifically why are you glad you did your MPH first? If you could do it over would you still do it first or would you have waited until after MD/DO?
100% would do the MPH before the DO again.
My preferences were based on wanting to do an MCH (maternal and child heath) program and get a good epidemiology base. I truly believe that to get the most out of a MPH program, you need to look at what research is going on by faculty and see if every aspect of the program matches your interests. While all of the schools teach the same basic classes, areas of research will differ and you should do what you are interested in.
If I would have done the MPH after (or during) med school, I would have only had 1 year to learn all of the material. I'm not saying that it is that hard (most of the classes are pretty darn easy compared to OChem or Anatomy!) but it is really easy in one year just to go to class, turn in your home and bam, have an MPH.
On the other hand, having 2 years (or more) allows you invest time in research, internships, extraneous seminars and other functions. In my 2 years I went to 2 national conferences, overseas for my field experience and got significant exposure in my 2 main areas of public health interest (maternal/fetal health and infectious disease epidemiology). The course really won't prepare you for med school, but the way that they are taught, I believe, set me up to be a better physician.
I'm not saying that a joint program is bad, it all depends what you want to use the MPH knowledge for. I have all of the knowledge and capabilities to do research at any stage in my life now, which you will get in any joint program. But the other skills that I got by doing the two year program (grant writing, program evaluation, policy making and population health just to name a few) are going to fit my desired career better. I wanted to go into Public Health b/c I wanted to be able to use the knowledge in community health care centers, do community outreach (immunization and unintended pregnancy prevention), to focus on prevention and general health opposed to fixing illness and International/Global Medicine. Over 2 years I was able to dabble in all of those areas and in 1 year I know that I would have had to leave some of it out.
I don't know a lot about the joint programs, but what I do remember about the top 2 med schools I wanted to go to in the joint MD/DO/MPH the first time I applied (EC2003) I just wasn't happy with the classes, focus and quickness of the MPH that I would be getting. Again, it is all personal choice.
My advice--and it is just that--to anyone wanting an MPH and DO/MD is to apply to them separately. From what I remember about most of the joint programs is that you have to apply to the MPH program after your first year, then after year 2 you do the MPH classes in one year and then move on to your clinical rotations. The other option is to do all 4 years and then the MPH in one year. Either way you are looking at 5 years for both degrees, so why limit yourself to one school if you don't want/have to.
