Course Requirements

MPH Program for Students Entering By Fall 2011

(Prospective Applicants Note: Beginning in the Fall 2012, the School will launch new curricular offerings including a 1-Year Accelerated MPH program which will offer an MPH in Biostatistics. Visit the Prospective Student site for more information about MPH programs and options.)

The MPH curriculum is designed to achieve the program’s learning objectives through courses totaling 45 (or more) credit hours and the field practicum experience. The curriculum includes 32 credits of required course work and 13 (or more) points of electives.

Students wishing to waive one or more required courses must request approval in writing from their advisors and the director of academic programs. Waivers do not reduce the number of credits required to complete the degree but they enable students to take other, higher level courses. To encourage students to take courses outside of their field of experience, up to two electives may be taken pass/fail.

Required Courses

In addition to completing the five Mailman School of Public Health core curriculum courses, MPH students in the Department of Biostatistics must take the following six required courses.

Required Biostatistics Courses
Course #	Course Name	Points
P8104	Probability	3
P8109	Statistical Inference	3
P8111	Linear Regression Models	3
P8120	Analysis of Categorical Data	3
P8140	The Randomized Clinical Trial	3
P8185	Capstone Consulting Seminar	1

Electives

MPH Biostatistics students also select at least four elective courses, totaling a minimum of 13 points. Two of these electives must be courses in the Department of Biostatistics. (Please note: P8100 and P8110 are not acceptable electives for the MPH in Biostatistics). Other electives focus on particular areas of public health. Electives are selected on an individual basis in accordance with the student’s background, interests, and career goals, with the approval of faculty advisors.

A sample of biostatistics and other electives is provided below.

Biostatistics Electives
Course #	Course Name	Points
P6110	Statistical Computing with SAS	3
P8108	Survival Analysis	3
P8116	Design of Medical Experiments	3
P8117	Nonparametric Statistics	3
P8129	Theory of Multivariate Analysis	3
P8141	Genetic Analysis Laboratory	3
P8142	Randomized Clinical Trials II	3
P8144	Randomized Clinical Trials III: Pharmaceutical Statistics	3
P8157	Analysis of Longitudinal Data	3
P8175	Principles of Genetics for Biostatisticians	3
P8180	Research Data Coordination: Principles and Practices	3

Other Electives
Course #	Course Name	Points
P6503	Introduction to Health Economics	3
P8307	Molecular Epidemiology	3
P8403	Nutritional Epidemiology	2
P8405	Genetics in Epidemiology	3
P8414	Cancer Epidemiology	3
P8417	Selected Problems of Measurement in Epidemiology I	3
P8422	Perinatal Epidemiology	3
P8438	Epidemiology II: Design and Conduct of Observational Epidemiology	3
P8440	Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Diseases	3
iP8482	Outcomes Research: Methods and Public Health Implications	3
P8509	Applied Pharmacoepidemiology and Outcomes Research	1.5
P8777	Survey Research Methods	3
G4001	Introduction to Computer Applications in Health Care Biomedicine	3
Total elective points: 13 or more
TOTAL POINTS: 45 or more

Statistical Software Classes

MPH students are also strongly advised to develop expertise in one or more statistical software packages routinely used in several of the biostatistics courses (such as SAS, SPSS, STATA). Knowledge of one or more computer programming languages is also useful. The Computer Center in the Health Sciences Library offers “mini-courses” to help students acquire these skills or they may enroll in a biostatistics course devoted to teaching the use of software packages or programming languages, such as P6110 Statistical Computing with SAS.

Biostatistics

MPH Program for Students Entering By Fall 2011