How to position myself for a MPH-Health Policy program

[UponReflection]

I am ending my freshman year in college and I have recently switched majors and career paths from Neuroscience (planning to go on to Psychology PhD) to Healthcare Management/Public Health.

While I am in no way behind on course work, I feel like I am behind in extracurriculars. What kinds of internships/jobs/volunteer work/research should I be looking to do to best position myself for a Health Policy MPH program?

I have seen a lot of successful applicants study or do volunteer abroad. Would this be something I should make an effort to do even if I would like to focus on U.S. Health Policy not Global Health Policy?

I have the opportunity to pick one major and graduate in three years or have two majors and graduate in four years. I was wondering if having one less year of extracurriculars and one less major would be a detriment to my grad school applications? If I did graduate in 3 years, would you recommend pursuing a Healthcare Management and Policy major or a Public Health major?

Also, do MPH programs "care" about your undergraduate major. Are my undergraduate majors too much like what I want to do in graduate school or does that show that I am dedicated and have an interest?

For reference: I'm an undergrad student at Saint Louis University and my goal is to get into George Washington University's MPH-Health Policy program.

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[Pudu2009]

MPH admissions, thankfully, are not like medical school admissions. You do not have to start doing related ECs right out of your freshman year. If the opportunity comes up, definitely take it, but don't feel like you have to check any boxes. Major in whatever you want, just make sure that you satisfy any prerequisites.

Something to keep in mind: your interest has already changed once, it is likely to change again. So don't put your all of your eggs into the health policy basket, especially so early into your college career. Do things that interest you; not things you think you need to do to get into health policy. Enjoy college, get good grades, volunteer, and you'll be fine.

Also, there is a good chance you won't want to go to GW after you graduate. This is from the person who thought she was going to aim for UCSF med school, did a complete 180, and ended up at GW for epi. You'll experience new things along the way, and your interests will change. So many of my friends who said they would not go to med school in a million years are now in med school. So keep all your options open.

 

[JDGBruin1317]

I agree with everything @Pudu2009 has said!

I started college having a particular goal in mind and that was to attend UC Berkeley's MPH-Epi program, which was my dream program since my sophomore year in high school. Throughout my undergrad years I had a variety different experiences with clubs, internships, and research opportunities and decided to actually go for Health Policy and Management and my dream school changed to Emory. I think it's awesome that you have a specific program and school in mind, but I also think it is important to have an open mind and explore the different areas of public health before settling on a particular program. Good luck with the rest of your undergrad and enjoy these years as much as you can!

P.S. You can PM me if you have any questions about the application process and/or why I decided to go forward with HPM instead of Epi!

 

[wwmmkk]

Totally agree with what's been said above. It's great that you have a very clear idea of what you want to do now, but things in life rarely go according to plan. This is coming from someone who started undergrad as a political science major, switched to biology sophomore year, added education junior year, got a masters in education, taught middle/high school for 5 years, and then started an MPH. Literally none of this would have been predictable when I was ending my freshman year.

Anyway! I wanted to also suggest some things you could do not necessarily with an intent to improve your application (MPH programs aren't competitive in the traditional sense) but to explore what public health is and build a foundation for succeeding in graduate school even if you end up in a totally different field.

- Take statistics. If you take a basic introduction course, do well, and enjoy it, then consider taking an applied course ("Statistics for [Insert Field Here]) that interests you.
- Take at least one research methods course-- public health, public policy, psychology, medical, quantitative, qualitative... whatever interests you. It's important to understand what "research" is and is not because if you end up in public health (or a similar field) you will be interacting with research and data constantly even if you are not doing it yourself. And if it turns out you like doing it, that's a great thing to know about yourself going into grad school.
- If programming isn't offered as part of the statistics or research methods course, maybe take a course that will teach you R or SAS to analyze data. Knowing the basics of statistical programming will (a) help give you skills that will make places you may want to work at or volunteer at actually want to have you and (b) help immensely in most science and science-adjacent graduate programs.
- Focus on improving your academic writing however works best for you. Taking writing-heavy courses, work with your school's writing center, or take an actual "Writing in [Insert Field Here]" course. Journalism classes also help build communication skills for a variety of fields.
- If you think you are interested in health policy, explore what people working in the field actually do. You could get an internship at your local/state health department. You could get involved with research opportunities for health policy at your school. You could volunteer/work for a local nonprofit that does health advocacy work for a population you care about.
- Don't do things that don't interest you! It sounds like you don't *want* to volunteer abroad, so don't. There are plenty of ways to get a perspective on health policy here through volunteer work.
- Show growth in things that do interest you-- for example, take on leadership positions in clubs you are in. Become a tutor/TA for a class you liked. Go to conferences/presentations/networking events and see what opportunities are out there.

Basically, I'd encourage you to change your thinking from "How do I build the best resume for an MPH program?" to "How can I prepare myself for graduate study in general?" and "How can I explore what makes me excited about health policy?"

Also, graduating early won't make a huge impact either way. Do you have the financial resources to stay for 4 years? Are you enjoying your undergraduate experience? If so, I'd recommend saying for 4 years and making the most out of it.

 

[medception]

Agreed with all of the above. I’ve been in the health policy world for about 5 years now, and the above posters offer excellent advice.

 

[deleted462159]

Your major is unlikely to matter as much in health policy. I've met many policy wonks - some come from clinical fields, some from public policy backgrounds. Understand how the system(s) work, how advocacy works, how laws get made, who influences what, who's aligned with whom and why. Good luck!