A focus on prevention, rather than treatment of disease distinguishes public health from clinical practice. This distinction can also help guide your selection of "pre-public health" coursework.
There is no one degree or set of coursework for pre-public health. If you want to go on to an MPH program, you should select the degree that best matches your interests (while accommodating as much as possible of the pre-public health relevant coursework below). Your undergraduate courses should be chosen to achieve: 1)a grounding in public health's core content areas; 2) preparation for rigorous graduate level coursework in research methods and data analysis; and 3)effective written communication skills.
Graduate programs in public health generally require coursework across five core content areas: Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Environmental Health, Health Services/Policy, and Social/Behavioral Sciences. Many have additional specializations- for example, Global Health is a growing public health specialty. Binghamton University offers undergraduate courses that correspond directly with these content areas (list B), courses with content that intersects with multiple public health areas (list C), research methods and data analysis courses relevant to public health (list A), and general coursework in health and disease (list D). Students who plan to pursue the MPH or PhD in a field of public health should consider taking multiple courses from each list, and should seek out research opportunities with faculty affiliated with the Binghamton University MPH program.
Additional Advice for pre-public health students can be found at APHA, SOPHAS, and ASPPH
Public Health Courses
*Please note that some of these courses listed below have pre-requisites which will need to be completed before enrolling in the course.
LIST A
Rigorous quantitative research methods and data analysis courses (is it STRONGLY recommended that you take at least 2 of these courses).
| Quantitative Methods in Anthropology | ANTH 200 |
| Census Geography and GIS | GEOG 460 |
|
Differential and Integral Calculus (Calculus I) |
MATH 224 & 225 |
| Elementary Statistics | MATH 147 |
| Probability with Statistical Methods | MATH 327 |
| Social Research Methods | SOC 305 |
| Statistical Analysis and Design | PSYC 243 |
LIST B
Courses corresponding to public health core content areas (it is STRONGLY recommended that you take at least 3 of these courses).
| Introduction to Community and Public Health | AFST 380T (Also cross-listed as ANTH 380E) |
| Global Health | AFST 450 |
| Introduction to Epidemiology | ANTH 249 |
| Case Studies in Global Health | ANTH 427 |
| International Health | ANTH 480O |
| Environmental Health: Race and Place | GEOG 336 |
| Biostatistics | BIOL 437 |
| Biostatistics with R | BIOL 447 |
LIST C
Courses with public health content (it is recommended that you take 2 of these courses).
| Immigrant and Refugee Health | AFST 387A |
| Diversity and Health | AFST 480F |
| Medical Anthropology for Pre-Health | ANTH 240 |
| Biology, Culture and Lifestyle | ANTH 242 |
| Medical Anthropology: Human Biology and Health | ANTH 243 |
| Plagues, Culture and History | ANTH 244 |
| Humans & Physical Environment | ENVI 201 |
| Environmental Planning/Policy | GEOG 239 |
LIST D
Courses to build a broad foundation in the study of health and disease (it is recommended that you take 2 of these courses).
|
Nutritional Anthropology |
ANTH 280T |
| Darwinian Medicine | ANTH 248 |
| Human Genetics | ANTH 333 |
| Comparative Aspects of Human Growth | ANTH 334 |
| Human Skeleton | ANTH 336 |
| Human Biological Variation | ANTH 337 |
| Human Anatomy and Physiology I | BIOL 251 |
| Human Anatomy and Physiology II | BIOL 347 |
| Pre-Health Microbiology | BIOL 319 |
| Pre-Health Microbiology Lab | BIOL 329 |
| Genetics | BIOL 332 |
| Molecular Genetics | BIOL 401 |
| Immunology | BIOL 402 |
| History of Modern Medicine | HIST 230 |
| Medical Ethics | PHIL 148 |
| Behavior Disorders | PSYC 223 |
