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 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 methods specialization uses evidence-based decision-making for individual and population health. It focuses on 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. 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.
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 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