Master of Public Health
Admission Qualifications
Qualifications for Admission to the Master's Program in Public Health
Please note: Prospective students must meet both University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) and School of Community Health Sciences (public health) (SCHS) requirements for graduate status.
Once the admission qualifications are met, an application for admission may be made. Applications will be evaluated on the following criteria:
1. Completion of an undergraduate degree from an accredited college/university. If you graduated from an international college or university, please contact the Graduate School for approval of your Undergraduate degree for graduate studies at UNR.
2. Earned an undergraduate grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or higher on a 4-point scale.
3. We do expect that MPH candidates take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) general test. We do, however, look at more than just the GRE score for admission to the program. We are looking at GPA, volunteer and paid experiences, letters of recommendation, research interests, etc. We do expect that students will achieve a minimum score on the new exam which began on August 1, 2011. However, until the GRE has calculated how the new tests results are coming in, we will not know until December 2011 what our requirements for the new GRE will be. Keep checking in with us on this. For additional information go to http://www.gre.org. The university’s institutional code to receive GRE test score reports is 4844. Other standardized exams such as the MCAT, LSAT, GMAT, DAT are acceptable in place of the GRE. International students must have a TOEFL score of 250. For additional information go to http://www.toefl.org. The university’s institutional code to receive TOEFL test score reports is 4844. Information on both of these tests can be found at http://www.unr.edu/grad.
4. Demonstrated evidence of course-work in health-related disciplines and/or professional health-related experience.
5. Provided 3 letters of recommendation specifying the student’s interest in the MPH program.
6. Provided a sample of academic writing for review of writing abilities.
7. Provided us an “admissions essay” discussing why they are choosing to pursue an MPH and which specialization they are interested in – epidemiology or social behavioral health.
In addition, pre-requisite coursework is required for admission into the MPH Program. Applicants will have:
1. Completed undergraduate or graduate courses in statistics. Statistics
must be completed prior to taking CHS 780: Biostatistics in Public Health and
CHS 712: MPH Epidemiology. The MPH student may be able to take a statistics
course in summer school prior to starting their progression of study in fall.
2. Students who have not completed an undergraduate patho-physiology must
complete CHS 200 - Public Health Biology, a course that grounds a student in
health science. This course can be taken after admission is approved.
While relevant work in the health field is not required for admission into the program, evidence of this could ensure a proper alignment and knowledge of public health values of our MPH program. However, we also do encourage students with non-health related backgrounds as well. It adds to the diversity of experiences of students who will now choose public health as a future direction without having had that background in their past.
