3.0 Degree Programs
Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH)
Degree program goals
BSPH graduates will have the knowledge and skills for early career, entry-level positions in public health agencies and other public or private organizations, and advanced study via graduate and professional degree programs.
Specializations
The BSPH degree offers two interdisciplinary specializations: environmental public health and public health sociology. These specializations are distinct from the specializations offered by the College of Public Health within its Master of Public Health (MPH) degree.
The environmental public health specialization blends courses from the School of Earth Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences with public health courses. This program provides a broad pre-professional foundation covering basic and applied science and math relative to sources of contaminants from air, water, soil, food and the related aspects of human exposure and impact.
The public health sociology specialization blends courses from the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences with public health courses. This program provides a broad pre-professional foundation by expanding shared and complimentary principles of sociology and public health relative to population health and intervention.
Degree program competencies and content coverage
The BSPH major has a competency-based curriculum that aligns with criteria from the Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH). The curriculum is designed to expose students to a set of foundational topic areas essential to public health, to ensure students achieve mastery of both foundational competencies and specialization competencies, and to expose students to concepts and skills necessary for success in the workplace, further education and life-long learning.
BSPH foundational domains
Students in the BSPH major are exposed to each of the following foundational topic areas:
- The concepts and applications of basic statistics
- The foundations of biological and life sciences
- The history and philosophy of public health as well as its core values, concepts and functions across the globe and in society
- The basic concepts, methods and tools of public health data collection, use and analysis and why evidence-based approaches are an essential part of public health practice
- The concepts of population health, and the basic processes, approaches and interventions that identify and address the major health-related needs and concerns of populations
- The underlying science of human health and disease, including opportunities for promoting and protecting health across the life course
- The socioeconomic, behavioral, biological, environmental and other factors that impact human health and contribute to health disparities
- The fundamental concepts and features of project implementation, including planning, assessment and evaluation
- The fundamental characteristics and organizational structures of the U.S. health system as well as the differences between systems in other countries
- Basic concepts of legal, ethical, economic and regulatory dimensions of health care and public health policy and the roles, influences and responsibilities of the different agencies and branches of government
- Basic concepts of public health-specific communication, including technical and professional writing and the use of mass media and electronic technology
BSPH foundational competencies
All graduates of the BSPH degree program will be prepared to:
- Summarize the historic milestones in public health.
- Compare and contrast examples of major domestic and international public health issues.
- Discuss approaches and strategies to identify, respond to and intervene with attempt to resolve common public health issues.
- Identify political, cultural, behavioral, and socioeconomic factors related to global public health issues.
- Apply the fundamental principles of the five core disciplines of public health (biostatistics; environmental health; epidemiology; health administration; health behavior/promotion) to domestic and international population issues.
- Communicate public health information, in both oral and written forms, through a variety of media and to diverse audiences.
- Locate, use, and evaluate and synthesize public health information.
BSPH specialization competencies – public health sociology
Students graduating with a BSPH degree with a specialization in public health sociology will be prepared to:
- Employ specific sociological theories, both classical and contemporary, to explain the unequal distribution of health among different subpopulations in the United States and throughout the world.
- Identify how common sociological theories can extend our knowledge of disease processes and prevention and intervention opportunities beyond typical public health perspectives.
- Interpret population health patterns using rigorous methods of sociological inquiry that stem from both qualitative and quantitative reasoning, augmenting what public health researchers and practitioners typically use.
- Illustrate how sociological perspectives of stratification — particularly along the lines of race, class and gender — expand typical public health perceptions and approaches.
- Identify social and public policies that differentially affect the unequal distribution of health in society as well as the social process that led to their creation and keep them in place.
BSPH specialization competencies – environmental public health
Students graduating with a BSPH degree with a specialization in environmental public health will be prepared to:
- Use the Environmental Science Health model to explain environmentally-related exposures and human diseases.
- Apply principles of math, chemistry and biology to the science of environmental public health.
- Summarize major sources, chemical, biological, and physical agents, conditions, the social determinants of health, and other exposure factors that contribute to environmentally-related human diseases including those at the intersection of humans and animals.
- Describe how the quality of environmental media (air/ water/soil/food) is adversely affected by contamination from chemical, biological and physical agents.
- Apply the principles of exposure science, risk assessment, risk management, policy development, and risk communication to environmental public health issues identified within indoor/outdoor and occupational/non-occupational settings.
- Explain and apply fundamental historical, statistical, epidemiological, toxicological, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) concepts to environmental public health issues
- Summarize management and technical measures and approaches that control human exposure to environmental contaminants
- Explain the relationship between population growth, ecosystem health, sustainability and resilience, climate change and environmental public health
- Identify regulations, policies, standards, and guidelines applicable to the quality of air, water, soil, and food; and explain how the prevention or control of environmentally related human exposures and diseases, including changes to the lived environment, are applied to improve environmental public health.
- Apply the principles of environmental ethics and justice to environmental public health issues
Cross-cutting concepts/workforce preparation
All BSPH students will be exposed to the following concepts to prepare them for success in the workplace, further education and life-long learning:
- Advocacy for protection and promotion of the public’s health at all levels of society
- Community dynamics
- Critical thinking and creativity
- Cultural contexts in which public health professionals work
- Ethical decision making as related to self and society
- Independent work and a personal work ethic
- Networking
- Organizational dynamics
- Professionalism
- Research methods
- Systems thinking
- Teamwork and leadership
Global public health minor
The 15-credit hour undergraduate minor in global public health focuses on health issues affecting populations in the United States and globally. Students complete courses that provide content relative to 1) presenting and discussing the type and scope of issues, 2) factors that contribute to existing and emerging issues and 3) applicable public health interventions.
The program will augment and enhance many different undergraduate bachelor degree programs and expands learners’ knowledge and comprehension of issues affecting humans domestically and internationally.
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of the undergraduate minor in global public health, students will be better prepared to:
- Compare and contrast examples of major domestic and international population health issues
- Discuss various global approaches/strategies for identification, response and intervention to address and attempt to resolve common public health issues
- Identify political, cultural, behavioral and socio-economic factors related to global public health issues
- Adapt to diverse cultures, perceptions and approaches
- Discuss major currents of global change and issues they raise
- Communicate across cultural and linguistic boundaries
- Comprehend the international dimension of one’s field of study
Epidemiology minor
The 15-credit hour undergraduate minor in epidemiology focuses on epidemiologic methods and two important content areas of the field: chronic disease epidemiology and infectious disease epidemiology. The minor in epidemiology will augment and enhance many different undergraduate bachelor’s degree programs and expands learners’ knowledge and comprehension of issues affecting humans domestically and internationally.
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of the undergraduate minor in epidemiology, students will be better prepared to:
- Apply the fundamental principles of biostatistics and epidemiology to domestic and international population issues
- Develop quantitative awareness of the multiple-scale, and multiple interactions that characterize public health problems
- Summarize major factors that contribute to human disease and compromised quality of life
- Analyze and interpret fundamental statistical and epidemiological data
- Summarize intervention and disease prevention strategies to sustain and improve quality of life
Public health and the arts interdisciplinary minor
The 15-credit minor in public health and the arts exposes students to both public health and the arts with the goal of promoting an understanding that community well-being encompasses many aspects of daily living and not just individual behavior. By combining foundational courses in public health and arts with discipline-specific courses in arts and humanities, students will gain an understanding and appreciation for how arts and culture are essential components of individual wellness and healthy communities.
Five year (3+2) BSPH + MPH combined degree program
The College of Public Health offers a combined BSPH/MPH program for Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) undergraduate students with outstanding academic records. This allows well-qualified undergraduates to start graduate study before completing their BSPH degree.
The combined BSPH/MPH program can reduce the total time it takes to get both a BSPH degree and a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree by overlapping nine credit hours taken as a graduate student toward a BSPH degree.
Qualified students may complete the combined BSPH/MPH program via a five year (3+2) model: Years one, two and three involve undergraduate courses; Year four is a combination of undergraduate courses plus graduate courses; Year five consists of graduate courses only. The following combinations of BSPH and MPH specializations are available:
- BSPH-public health sociology + MPH-epidemiology
- BSPH-public Health sociology + MPH-health behavior and health promotion
- BSPH-environmental public health + MPH-epidemiology
- BSPH-environmental public health + MPH-environmental health sciences
Students who are interested in the combined degree program are encouraged to work with an undergraduate advisor and the senior director of OAPSS early on, so they can have the appropriate coursework completed before starting the combined degree program. Late in their second year or early in their third year of undergraduate work, students will complete a pre-application to the combined degree program, which is sent to the associate dean for undergraduate studies for review and potential approval. Students whose 3+2 pre-application is approved will apply to the MPH program through SOPHAS (Schools of Public Health Application Service), an online application system. Once the student is admitted to the MPH program, they will formally apply to the 3+2 combined degree program by completing the Graduate School’s combined degree approval form.
Eligibility
Students enrolled in combined programs are admitted by the Graduate School, by the College of Public Health and by the undergraduate college or school. The college receives application material, determines when the application is complete, calculates the official GPA, and notifies the applicant of the admission decision.
To be admitted as a graduate student in a combined program, the applicant must submit documentation that demonstrates satisfactory fulfillment of the following admission criteria:
- Completion of a minimum of 90 undergraduate credit hours
- A minimum of 3.5 cumulative GPA in all previous undergraduate work
- Admitted to the BSPH major