About this Program
Old Dominion University offers a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Applied Data Science (M.P.H.). The Master of Public Health (MPH) is designed to prepare students for entry and/or advancement in public health careers. The program provides students with an understanding of the public health sciences and with knowledge and skills that can be utilized in healthcare management, population-based research, and the community practice of public health. The MPH is designed for students with a bachelor’s degree from all academic disciplines within and outside of the health disciplines. The graduates of the program will be ready to serve as invaluable professionals and leaders in the realm of public health.
The 43 credit Applied Data Science curriculum provides students with hands-on skills of applying data science principles to process, visualize and analyze data in order to extract meaningful information to address important questions in public health and the health sciences. Students in this track will also learn to use popular software packages such as R, SAS, SQL and Tableau. Data scientists are in high demand in several fields. Data science professionals with added contextual expertise of public health will find career opportunities at state or federal departments of public health, universities, pharmaceutical industries, and business entities.
Program Highlights
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Interprofessional Collaboration
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Hands-on, Community-Based Learning
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Flexible, Career-Focused Education
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Commitment to Community Impact
Featured Courses
Requirements
The Master of Public Health program evaluates applicants using a holistic review process. All components of an application are reviewed prior to making an admission decision. Consideration may be given for appropriate work experience in a health-related field.
All applications are made through the Schools of Public Health Application Service (SOPHAS), the centralized application service for schools and programs of public health.
There are no pre-requisite courses or specific undergraduate degrees required to be eligible to apply. Previous coursework in statistics and research methods is encouraged but not required. Applicants will be formally notified of admission decisions within two weeks of receipt of a completed application.
Applicants must confirm their spot in the program within 2 weeks of receiving a decision. Admitted students will be assigned a faculty advisor in their concentration area.
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Completion of Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited US institution or Foreign institution with a GPA of 2.8 or higher.
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Three (3) letters of recommendation from academic sources or employment supervisor. Additional letters of recommendation are encouraged, if available.
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Unofficial transcripts from all degree-granting programs listing the dates of program completion or attendance.
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A personal essay of approximately 500 words explaining your public health career goals, reasons for interest in the Public Health program, specialty concentration selected with reasons for this selection, and any relevant work experience
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TOEFL (minimum 79 IBT or 550 paper)/IELTS (minimum 7.0) is required for International Applicants.
Careers
Check out these ideas from ODU's Center for Career & Leadership Development and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET). A median salary is a midpoint of what people typically earn—half of those surveyed earned above the median salary, and half earned below.
Compile, process, and maintain medical records of hospital and clinic patients in a manner consistent with medical, administrative, ethical, legal, and regulatory requirements of the health care system. Process, maintain, compile, and report patient information for health requirements and standards in a manner consistent with the healthcare industry's numerical coding system.
Apply knowledge of health care and database management to analyze clinical data, and to identify and report trends.
Develop and implement a set of techniques or analytics applications to transform raw data into meaningful information using data-oriented programming languages and visualization software. Apply data mining, data modeling, natural language processing, and machine learning to extract and analyze information from large structured and unstructured datasets. Visualize, interpret, and report data findings. May create dynamic data reports.
Cost of Attendance
Tuition is charged per credit hour. Amounts shown are tuition only and do not include mandatory fees, technology-delivered course fees, course-specific fees, books, housing, meal plans, or other costs. Campus-based students may take technology-delivered or online courses. Tuition is based on student classification. Fees for technology-delivered courses and other costs are listed on the ODU tuition and fees page.
Ways to Fund Your Degree
There are a few ways for you to save on the cost of attending Old Dominion University, including scholarships, assistantships, and student loans. For more details about financial aid at Old Dominion, visit the Financial Aid Office page.
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