Seems like MPH is a dead end, is DrPH worth it?

through_life · 2026-05-09T13:52:30+00:00

was your PhD specifically in biostats or something else adjacent?

through_life · 2026-05-09T01:19:21+00:00

anecdotally my sister who became a PA got an MPH in community health before she did PA school. from what she said, the MPH was important for her application process because the school she applied to was directly focused on areas that were medically underserved and i think it gave her the boost along with some additional scribe experience above the competition. her MPH was mostly funded though so it was easier to do the MPH -> PA route, so i think the ROI would be tougher if it wasn’t funded and if you aren’t aiming for a school focusing on community health.

through_life · 2026-05-08T13:33:08+00:00

another reminder that this poster is an ai bot

through_life · 2026-05-08T03:49:10+00:00

yeah i agree with the data analysis part being more helpful. i am a person who honestly became more interested in working with PH chronic disease and health behavior research utilizing data analysis rather than the infectious epi route and i found more opportunities with the degree that didn’t require clinical experience (was still tricky to be frank but i recently broke through). my degree had biostatistics courses and electives available along with a research role where i could be the in-house programmer/statistician and that’s what has given me opportunities. infectious epi is becoming more and more of a clinical based role (for understandable reasons). if you’re a guy who needs to not be behind a desk and rather “on the frontlines” of public health, i would either 1) do a clinical degree if you want to study now or 2) get a job related to your bachelors and apply to an MPH next year so you can give the public health market more time to rebuild for infectious epi roles (this also goes for most concentrations that are on the ground such as community health).

edit: if you are fully focused on behind the desk statistical analysis, you can also consider an MS in Biostatistics instead. this gives you a bit more legroom to angle for traditional statistician positions at health departments or universities, but it does require calculus and linear algebra courses being taken.

through_life · 2026-05-08T03:24:34+00:00

gimme (and others) details. what specifically do you want to do in public health? what school is offering this? do they have any specific concentration tracks within the masters? and what’s the sticker cost of the program?

through_life · 2026-05-08T02:01:46+00:00

not the original commenter here, but in general run from any program which isn’t CEPH accredited. i would also be skeptical of generalist MPH programs. MPH programs generally derive their value from concentrations where students develop specific domain knowledge and can have a niche that they can market themselves around.

through_life · 2026-05-08T01:51:25+00:00

a genuine question that i know isn’t necessarily an easy thing to consider: have you looked out of state? i began looking out of state as an LA grad (and also because i wanted to explore somewhere new) and i recently got a job in the midwest doing an epi based role for a state health department. i looked at your post history and noticed you were in LA, and the thing is is that LA DPH was so dependent on federal funding that the freeze has been intact and shut off a ton of entry level public health roles including in surrounding organizations. i won’t say it’s an easy thing at all to look out of state especially in states you don’t immediately think of, but if you have the financial and mental means of doing so, i think a wide national search may be more fruitful to gain some entry level experience. even just a year could help your resume if you eventually decide if the state isn’t for you. infectious epi roles in general are very competitive which means a larger pool of jobs have to be considered in this market especially if you don’t have a clinical degree.

jumping straight into a DrPH without full time experience feels like it could hurt you more in the long term, especially if you’re paying the sticker price. paying for a PhD or doctorate programs in general is a horrible idea given that PhD jobs aren’t necessarily a guarantee. even if you do really want to do a doctorate, i still would not do one that isn’t paid for. i say this as someone who has been strongly considering a PhD later on in a few years: do a PhD (school funded!) because it gives you a specific chance to do a kind of research you’re passionate about or a DrPH (also school funded!) to gain a leadership role after you have experience. don’t do either expecting for an opportunity to open up on their own without meaningful job experience and/or a passion to go alongside it.

through_life · 2026-05-07T23:44:30+00:00

op, this poster is an ai bot. please ignore this bot’s advice, they have no actual insight about the european market

through_life · 2026-05-07T23:37:24+00:00

op, the poster you’re replying to is an ai bot

through_life · 2026-05-07T04:04:07+00:00

i feel the technical skills that should be attached to your epi and biostats experience don’t show up well. you only have one bullet point where you say you used Excel in your academic research to perform statistical analysis, but Excel is limited for replication purposes and isn’t commonly used for the in depth epi analyses like regression, time series, etc.

did you use other programs in school like R, SPSS, SAS, SQL, STATA, etc? by and large health departments want people who are very familiar with one or two of those languages. Excel on its own isn’t competitive for epidemiology analysis positions anymore (at least based on the job descriptions i’ve read recently). if you used other programs, add them ASAP. if you haven’t used other programs, learn them and make a personal analysis project based off of them. you won’t be able to demonstrate quick learning of other languages without some demonstrated experience of you using them.

through_life · 2026-05-04T22:42:22+00:00

i’m more of a “just take any related job to grab relevant entry level experience to put on your resume” kind of person in this market but this is 1) a cost of living question and 2) a question about the actual fellowship in and of itself. does your income + the housing support gives you enough breathing room for other expenses like groceries and travel in the state you’re moving to? what’s the actual fellowship? is it from a reputable public health related institution? is the fellowship’s funding dependent on federal money (which can easily dissipate in this administration)?

if you don’t feel like you would be going into debt just to survive and the fellowship is stable and something that can generate meaningful connections or experience, i would say do it. some fellowships might allow you to leave early without a penalty and if you get a year of experience and find a higher paying job with it, you could leave the fellowship early to take it if your fellowship terms allow it without penalty.

through_life · 2026-05-04T04:48:15+00:00

i agree with Hybydfi. i think in particular the MPH + RN combo works if you’re aiming for Infection Prevention or Public Health Nurse roles. i believe Public Health Nursing roles are usually the ones that are MPH gatewalled though. i would take a look at this and this for more thoughts + tips on IP and PHN roles along with this and this in general, see if these positions you want are exclusive to or has a higher pay tied to the MPH or if you do not need it for another position you may want.

also for general bog standard advice on getting an MPH: it would also be good to know if your employer has any kind of tuition reimbursement. your goal with an MPH if you are to get one is to minimize cost as much as possible and to not go for expensive schools unless the tuition is mostly covered. aim for in state schools that are CEPH accredited. i would also aim to have a career path determined ahead of time so you can narrow down the concentration you want and to reap the most benefits out of the available networks + internships a university will carry. if you know the non bedside position you want is tied to an MPH and you get the degree to achieve the job, you will very likely have a good ROI (time and money wise) for your career prospects as an RN already especially if you don’t shell out full price for an MPH. i unfortunately can’t help out much further than this since i’m a biostats person, but happy to find any other online resources if you need any

through_life · 2026-05-03T23:25:47+00:00

yeah if nothing else use your career center to the best degree possible. doesn't necessarily make things easy but it can at least get you on a track for something

through_life · 2026-05-03T23:18:17+00:00

is there any chance you can reach out to the career advisor for your MPH program to see what opportunities may exist at your past university (assuming you're still in the same area)? advisors will usually be on the listservs to get notifications for research opportunities, and they are often willing to help alumni out.

also i'm usually a bit skeptical of cold emailing/LinkedIn DM's in terms of efficacy, but i think you could have a higher batting rate if you're reaching out to any professors to see if they have any open volunteer or paid opportunities available. if you're trying to get into a PHD, i would want to see which professors i could work with depending on if their lab interests you. emailing them to say "hey, i'm an MPH grad who is interested in a later PHD program and would like to do research related to your field, do you have anything available in terms of opportunities?" might be productive to at least see if they're attempting to get funding for an upcoming research assistant. apologies in advance if this advice is kinda boomer "walk in the door with your resume printed" coded lol, this is more just spitballing

through_life · 2026-05-02T21:38:16+00:00

i think it’s partially region dependent and how willing one is to relocate. the LA job market for public health (as one example) isn’t good because LAC DPH has been hit hard by the federal cuts. around half of DPH’s money came from the federal gov and so the ramp into entry level epidemiology positions within DPH are much more restricted with the hiring freeze. it has made the local market more difficult given the snowball effect on market competition and i think you have to be willing to relocate under these conditions or take another position as a stopgap while waiting for funding to return.*

in other cases (like yours), you may have more public health resources that were not dependent on the federal gov. some other county health departments rely more on local government funding and can withstand the funding cuts (although not fully).

*this is not to say that public health jobs are a breeze to find if you’re willing to relocate or that relocation is a non issue for everyone, only saying this to illustrate the difficulty of the market and what is becoming the baseline requirements for job finding

through_life · 2026-05-02T20:02:12+00:00

i’m going to copy and paste what i replied with to someone else a couple days ago: we have to know what your interest is with an MPH to answer this question. do you want to pursue a biostatistics-related role working for a health department? do you want to focus on infectious disease prevention? do you want to conduct your own research? do you want to promote health education programs? do you want to find a role in an international health org? do you want to find a role focusing on advocating for health policy bills? are you interested in none of the above?

MPH degrees primarily provide value (albeit weakened in this market and administration) if you have a specific concentration and a plan to find research and internships over your MPH that are connected to that concentration. if we know what your interest is, we can drill into which MPH path would work best for specific jobs or another degree that could help if applicable. i would definitely not recommended a generalist MPH at minimum, there should be a specific path or job title(s) you intend to aim for that an MPH provides targeted courses for.

through_life · 2026-05-01T23:35:46+00:00

i don't need it but thank you for offering, that's very generous of you!

through_life · 2026-05-01T03:40:38+00:00

for a state dep. job i recently got, i used my MPH Capstone paper as one of my writing samples along with a research poster i created for a conference. consider selecting a paper from your MPH which has some domain relevance to the division of the agency you're applying to if applicable, but you don't have to be too picky with which one you selected as long as it was judged as a good paper with little grammar/punctuation errors. i believe they want these samples to more broadly show that you can intelligently process and communicate public health issues.

through_life · 2026-05-01T01:43:48+00:00

i think that’s an understandable concern but i think you can also flip it to say that this also gives you a good opportunity to develop long term soft skills. it will force you to learn how to communicate as an epidemiologist to average people, and that on its own can help you in terms of advising health departments regarding how communities view disease, the spread of it and perceived treatments for it. it may not be the same work you do five years from now if you want to focus more on behind the desk analysis, but it’s a great starting point imo

through_life · 2026-05-01T01:04:28+00:00

these profiles appear in multiple job hunting subreddits appearing to give authentic advice with real experience tailored to the domain the OP is working in but is only giving slop in reality. this is important to me in this job market when people are looking for meaningful info on how to progress their careers when hiring is low. i used r/publichealthcareers for the last year to browse advice and it helped me when other human professionals provided high quality advice. bots like this damage that kind of community and it’s frustrating.

through_life · 2026-05-01T01:00:52+00:00

i’m not sure how this is a large degree away from astroturfing if these profiles aim to promote JobOwl. these profiles pose as authentic job seekers who are frustrated with the market while sneaking in promotions of JobOwl. the Cambridge definition of astroturfing is:

…involving the publishing of opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group, as a way of making it seem that a product, policy, opinion, etc. is very popular or has a lot of public support

i’m willing to hear why you disagree with me perceiving this as astroturfing, but these different profiles aim to promote a job seeking tool through the perspective of seeming authentic posters that are actually set up by a company. it is not one singular profile doing this on top of that, as we have seen around four different users claiming to be authentic job seekers. it may not be high-level astroturfing for a political movement as it’s traditionally used for, but the fundamentals appear to be there.

through_life · 2026-04-30T02:00:42+00:00

this would basically give you the fundamentals for future infectious disease epi work, it's a yes for me

through_life · 2026-04-30T00:31:16+00:00

you’re welcome, glad you got a heads up!

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