MD/MPH or Prev Med or MPH later?

[Supadupafly]

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So I want an MPH someday. If I do it as an MD/MPH I can do it at Hopkins, which sounds fancy... it would cost a full extra year of tuition and work though. Alternatively I could do a Preventive Med MPH or a fellowship later on down the line and get paid for it, but probably not from such a fancy sounding school.

Of course I'll make up my mind, but what are your thoughts? Is it worth it to pay for an MPH from Hopkins and graduate a year later as opposed to getting paid to get one somewhere else later?

 

[epalantequevoy]

i'm planning to graduate a year later and get an mph during med school rather than wait until residency. i say go for it now.

i've only heard good things about hopkins public health.

 

[LizzyM]

I heard an answer to this question recently from docs in the MD/MPH business. The general consensus is that if you wish to use the MPH to inform your practice of medicine then taking it with the MD is a good thing. If you want to be a clinical scientist and use the skills used in the MPH to actually do epidemiologic or health services research then it might be better to wait until closer to the time you would actually put those skills into practice (i.e. fellowship), not 6 or 7 years earlier.