Dr.P.H. Program 

Curriculum Requirements  Course Descriptions   Dr.P.H. Handbook (pdf)   Field Practicum Capstone Guidelines 

Curriculum Requirements

Dr.P.H. curriculum is minimum 63 Semester Hours.

• Twenty-seven semester hours of required course work in the core curriculum, which consists of an advanced course in each of the five core public health areas of concentration (Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Health Behavior, Health Services Management, and Environmental Health).
• A second level advanced course in three of the five concentration areas including the course in your area of concentration.
• A research methods course.
• Fifteen hours of professional elective course work consistent with your area of concentration.
• A one-hour integrative professional colloquium in six semesters of enrollment.
• Two supervised public health field experiences.
• An integrated capstone option of either a problem-based or research-based project paper demonstrating appropriate discipline understanding.

* The chair of the Biostatistics Department has established a policy that students completing an acceptable (equivalent to STA 580) introductory statistics course (with a laboratory) in the past five years meet this expectation. Students completing an introductory graduate statistics course more than five years ago must repeat the introductory course or may take a diagnostic examination to demonstrate that they are prepared to move to the first statistics course in the Dr.P.H. Program.

Prerequisite Curriculum

Must complete courses listed below (or their approved equivalent). Hours earned for prerequisite course work will NOT be applied to the Dr.P.H. degree requirements.

Biostatistics - STA 570 or 580
Environmental Health - CPH 601
Epidemiology - CPH 605
Health Behavior - CPH 604
Health Services Management - CPH 650

Core Curriculum, Part A

Must complete ALL five core Courses

Biostatistics - CPH 930 Advanced Biostatistical Methods
Environmental Health - CPH 920 Advanced environmental Health
Epidemiology - CPH 910 Advanced epidemiology
Health Behavior - CPH 940 Health Related Behaviors
Health Services Management - CPH 950 Well Managed Healthcare Org

Core Curriculum, Part B

Must complete THREE of the following core courses, including course in area of concentration

Biostatistics - CPH 931 Prof. Seminar in Biostatistics
Environmental Health - CPH 921 Prof. Seminar in Environmental Health
Epidemiology - CPH 911 Prof. Seminar in Epidemiology
Health Behavior - CPH 941 Prof. Seminar in Health Enhancement
Health Services Management - CPH 950 Well Managed Healthcare Org

Core Curriculum, Part C

Must complete ALL of the following

Doctoral Research Methods in Public Health - CPH 995
Doctoral Colloquium (repeated each semester of enrollment) - CPH 901
Public Health Project Research (1-12 credit hours; maximum of 6 credit hours per semester) - CPH 996

Advanced Courses in Area of Concentration (Selectives)

Must complete FIVE courses in area of concentration (Requires advisor approval).

• Biostatistics Advanced PH Elective

• Environmental Health Advanced PH Elective

• Epidemiology Advanced PH Elective

• Health Behavior Advanced PH Elective

• Health Services Management Advanced PH Elective

Other Requirements

Must complete ALL of the following requirements.

• Doctal PH Field Practicum (2) - CPH 997

• Comprehensive Determinative Examination

• Doctoral PH Field Practicum II (4) - CPH 997

• Major Problem Solving Capstone Project

EPIDEMIOLOGY CURRICULUM

All students concentrating in Epidemiology are required to take the following TWO courses.

• CPH911 Professional Seminar in Epidemiology

• CPH931 Professional Seminar in Biostatistics

In addition to these courses, Dr.P.H. students concentrating in Epidemiology must take at least 5 (15 credit hours) of the following courses. Some of these courses may be currently going through the university process for final approval and may be taught under a different, temporary course number.

CPH 610 - Injury Epidemiology (3)
CPH 612 - Infectious/Emerging Diseases Epidemiology(3)
CPH 614 - Managerial Epidemiology (3)
CPH 616 - Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology(3)
CPH 617 - Environmental/Occupational Epidemiology (3)
CPH 618 - Special Topics in Gerontology: Epidemiology of Aging (GRN 770) (3)
CPH 662 - Public Health Response to Terrorism(3)
CPH 711 - Chronic Disease Epidemiology (3)
CPH 718 - Special Topics in Epidemiology (3)

In addition to the regular selective courses in Epidemiology, students may want to take elective courses. The following are some courses that students concentrating in Epidemiolgy have found useful. However, there are a number of other elective courses that could be valuable:

CPH 535 Databases and SAS Programming (3)
CPH 631 Design and Analysis of Health Surveys (3)
CPH 632 Mixed Models in Public Health (3)
CPH 664 Biostatistics in Clinical Trial (3)