Public Health

Public Health Required Coursework

Requirements vary from school to school, so it’s always necessary to consult program websites. Unlike other health professions, there isn’t an exhaustive list of required courses, though there are courses that are recommended.  Pre-requisite courses may include:

Graduate programs in public health look for applicants who demonstrate a sustained commitment to serving others in community settings, specifically related to public health. This may be through volunteering, internships, or paid experience. Remember, public health is a broad topic so working with individuals around an issue that has community impact is relevant to your application! Some examples include gun violence, sexual assault, domestic violence, breastfeeding, cancer screenings, mental health, awareness campaigns just to name a few!

Research is an important way to develop skills that help you hone your capacity to learn and begin to contribute to the generation of new knowledge in fields of inquiry. Working in a research lab also gives you the opportunity to cultivate relationships with faculty who can serve as letter writers when you apply to a graduate program.

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is required by some, but not all, MPH programs. The GRE is not a content exam meaning you do not need specific classes to take it. The GRE evaluates your writing, reasoning, and basic quantitative reasoning skills. Enroll in CPHA’s Applying to Health Professions self-paced course to learn more about the GRE.

What is the GRE?

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is a standardized content exam designed to assess verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skills. The GRE is an adaptive exam meaning that the difficulty of the questions you see are based on the number of correct responses you provide. Raw scores are scaled on a range of 130-170 for the verbal and quantitative reasoning sections and 0-6 for the written section. 

• Verbal Reasoning (27 items) asks you to analyze and draw conclusions from discourse; reason from incomplete data; identify author’s assumptions and/or perspective; understand multiple levels of meaning, summarize text; understand the meaning of individual words, and relationships among words and among concepts.
• Quantitative Reasoning (27 items) includes algebra, data analysis, quantitative comparison, probability, statistics, and math word problems.
• Analytical Writing requires you to provide a focused response and assesses the clarity, focus, relevance, and your command of English of that response. 

The Analytical Writing section will always be first. The Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections may appear in any order after the Analytical Writing section. Section 1 of the verbal and quantitative reasoning section provide the baseline for the difficulty of questions you see in section 2.

GRE Timelines

After completing the GRE, you get an unofficial score and will receive an official score within a month. Since the GRE is not a content-based exam and scores are valid for 5 years, you can take the exam when it suits you. Many students choose to prepare and take the exam during the summer a year before they apply. The GRE is offered year-round at ETS testing sites across the country so finding a test date typically is not a problem. 

Studying for the GRE

There isn’t one “right” way to do well on the GRE, but people who are successful do these things:

• Assess yourself! You need to be honest with yourself about:
  • Your attention span and the breaks you need
  • Your test stress – you will need longer to prepare if you have high test stress
  • The types of resources that work for you. It’s okay to try new study techniques and tools, but you cannot use all of them. If you convince yourself that you must complete everything in one section before you can move on, you will not make progress. 
• Carve out regular time to study. You must build this into your schedule. If you study during the regular semester, treat the GRE like a class and block time for it! 
  • If you have low test stress (exams are your superpower!), carve out 10-12 hrs/week over 4-6 weeks
  • If you have normal test stress, carve out 10-12 hrs/week over 8-12 weeks
  • If you have high test stress, carve out 10-12 hours/week over 16-20 weeks

• You might take a course if you know you need the structure of a course and want some tutoring that often comes with it. However, you do not need a course to do well on the GRE  if you can structure your time. 
• Practice reading online so you get faster at reading passages; refresh math through pre-calc
• Take practice exams! Taking a practice exam before you start studying shows you your strengths and weaknesses and allows you to prioritize content. 
• The module “Prepare for the GRE” on “Applying to Health Professions” has more information on study plans, resources, and tips. Enroll in CPHA’s Applying to Health Professions course – it’s free!