MPH Health Policy flexibility switch concentration

[dkhsporting]

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I have been accepted to MPH programs in Health Policy at various schools (GW, Emory, University of Florida, University of Illinois-Chicago, Penn State) and was wondering if anyone can provide insight into how easy or difficult it is to switch concentrations once I begin the program. I am a newbie to Health Sciences, and believe Health Policy may be a good fit for me(in the long run), but I am curious about other areas as well, and would prefer a program that may provide flexibility to switch concentrations.

I do realize that a 2-yr Master's program is a relatively short-period of time, and I realize that I will still have limited exposure to the other CORE areas of public health into my 1st or 2nd semester. So, most likely, I will be inclined to stay in Health Policy, but in case I am more drawn to another area, it would be nice to have that option. Any opinions on the flexibility of programs, or recommendation on schools would be appreciated. thx.

 

[Stories]

Both schools I attended (BU and Yale) had flexibility for changing concentrations.

 

[364462]

I cannot speak directly about the school you mentioned. There should be flexibility in most programs. After all, a school should be in a position to make sure its students are thriving in their area of interest. If you are in health policy and want to move to epidemiology, for instance, then it's a matter of filling out some paperwork (here at UCLA, we call it a "blue petition") and the review committee will then look at your application materials to assess fit and readiness - just like how the health policy program would have done with your initial application. The challenge is where you are at the point of changing programs. You can imagine that if you are well into the health policy program, you might have a lot of steps and groundwork to cover in order to fulfill the new requirements of epi or whichever program you decide. This is relevant, in particular, between departments whose classes may not easily overlap. A health policy analysis course is not likely going to fulfill epi's requirement, say, on advanced epi research and data analysis.