Epidemiology

The MS in Epidemiology is designed to provide working health professionals with the knowledge, skills, and credentials needed to engage in rigorous population health research. Students are trained in the conceptual, methodologic, and biostatistical skills they need to conduct epidemiologic research.

Trainees will develop expertise in both the foundational concepts that underlie study design and analysis and in the innovative methods that are currently changing and improving the practice of epidemiology. The degree can be completed as a part-time or a fulltime trainee.

Students who complete the MS in Epidemiology have gone on to become independent researchers in academia, at health departments, non-profits, the pharmaceutical industry, and other areas.

Curriculum

The curriculum’s rigorous series of methods classes provides hands-on experience in the design and evaluation of epidemiologic studies, analysis of population-based data, and an understanding of the role of bias and confounding in epidemiologic studies. The biostatistics series provides a theoretical foundation for understanding the critical role of statistics in population health as well as practical experience applying rigorous statistical methods to a wide variety of data sources.

Candidates must complete 30 credits of course work that provides knowledge of several substantive areas within epidemiology and an understanding of basic epidemiologic principles and methods and a master’s thesis.

MS Required Courses

In addition to the required courses listed above, MS students are also required to take any two  substantive courses and one elective addressing specific health domains in epidemiology.

EPI SEMINARS and CUEGR SEMINARS are a required part of your training in epidemiology.  You are required to attend 18 seminars over the two years that you are in the Department working toward your degree.

Students are required to complete a thesis to be awarded the MS degree. Students initiate the process in their first year and continue their work throughout the course of their training. The process begins by identification of a topic, dataset, and first and second readers. The first reader must be an epidemiology faculty member; the second can be outside of academia or from another department.

Students also take two thesis courses to provide structure and guidance and to assure they are on track with their projects. The process is intentionally iterative: students submit multiple drafts to their readers before the final thesis submission.

Note Waiver examinations are offered for the core courses in Sociomedical Sciences, Biostatistics, Environmental Health Sciences and Health Policy and Management and Epidemiology.  Students who receive passing grades on these examinations may substitute substantive courses or electives to meet the credit requirement for the master’s degree.

How is the MS in Epidemiology different than the MPH in Epidemiology?

The MS in Epidemiology is meant for trainees who are already working in a health field but wish to acquire the skills needed to conduct sophisticated epidemiologic research. Trainees do not take the range of public health core courses required for the MPH.

New: The Department is now offering an Executive MS in Epidemiology starting in Fall 2012. For more information, visit the Executive MS website.