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 three interdisciplinary specializations: environmental public health, public health methods 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 College of Arts and Sciences with public health courses to cover basic and applied science relative to sources of contaminants from air, water, soil, food and the related aspects of human exposure and impact.
The public health methods specialization includes coursework from a broad range of public health disciplines with a focus on evidence-based decision-making for individual and population health and finding, analyzing, interpreting and making decisions with health data.
The public health sociology specialization blends courses from the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences with public health courses to combine the 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.
The BSPH Foundational domains, foundational competencies, and specialization competencies are available on the program competencies page: https://cph.osu.edu/students/competencies.
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 pursuing the minor learn about the health issues affecting populations in the United States and worldwide, the factors that contribute to existing and emerging issues, and how to develop interventions that improve health for all.
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 expands learners’ knowledge and comprehension of issues affecting humans domestically and internationally.
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 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. Review the eligibility requirements and the specific combinations of BSPH and MPH specializations available through this combined degree program.
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.