Grad Blog by Pranita Sharma, Public Health student
“Public Health is a dynamic, diverse, and booming field. Many students are interested in pursuing a degree in Public Health these days from all over the world.”
I have been with MPH program at UM-Flint for two years and I would like to share some of my personal experience with you. The MPH program has so many pros…
- It has the flexibility to choose an online or in-person class. Personally, I like to take in-person classes. The best part is that the classes are mostly in the evenings and match everyone’s schedule.
- The professors and faculty are highly experienced in their career field and really care about their student’s success. I have had most of the professors. The don’t limit their content to the textbooks; they also share real-life examples from their career.
- The Department of Public Health and Health Sciences (PHHS) staff is extremely helpful if students need any help from them, such as class registration, or other program-related issues. For example, for some reason I was unable to renew my parking tag recently. I contacted one of the PHHS staff members and told her about the issue. She was more than happy to help me and my parking tag was instantly renewed.
- The internship in the program provides the student with many potential opportunities to learn, grow professionally, and help them choose their desired career path. Additionally, there is dedicated staff in the department who will also help students to find their interests-based internship. During my internship, I learned so much, got opportunities to shadow different people, and completed many projects.
- The students can choose between Health Care Administration and Health Education for their concentration. Personally, having just two concentrations made it so much easier for me to choose from. The capstone project helps the students to apply all their learned skills from the program and allow an opportunity to show their results based on the research topic of their choice. Capstone can be completed within an academic year.
- There are also some paid on-campus research opportunities like Graduate Student Research Assistantships (GSRA) and other unpaid research opportunities that could help build the student’s research experience. This definitely makes a big difference for those who want to get exposure in the field of research.
I think the only con about the program is that the students have to choose their concentrations right at the beginning of the program which can be confusing if you are not sure. However, the faculty members from the department can guide you through during an open-house or orientation which definitely helps.