MSc Public Health

studentforever wrote: »

Hi I'm finishing up the UCD MPH now. I was accepted to UCC but live in Dublin so UCD it was.

It is an unbelievable course, I love it. I'll break it down into sections.

Class hours - Teaching is pretty full on, 9-5/6 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We have different guest lecturers come in to deliver public health practice, aetiology of disease, infectious disease epidemiology and international health which can be a bit difficult if you need to email a lecturer with a question. But those giving the lectures are some of the most eminent medical professionals both in Ireland and Internationally so I can't really complain. Your timetable changes weekly which is grand for breaking monotony but make sure you bring your schedule with you!

It's also done in 4 6 week blocks and it's actually crazy how fast it goes by.

Subjects - Theres a couple of options but I did:
Semester 1 - Veterinary Epidemiology, Public Health Practice, Aetiology of Disease, Health and Social Science, Research methods in Epidemiology, Overview of International Health.

I cannot recommend vet epi enough, mainly because Pat Wall is an absolute gem of a man, has had an unbelievably distinguished career and I got an A+ in that class so I may be biased.
Also, there's no assignments for the first 6 weeks and we had our assignment deadlines one week before exams so that was kind of tough.
For semester 1 we had 5 exams and 3 essays.

Semester 2 - Again, theres some choice but I did:
Advanced Medical Sociology, Health economics, Qualitative/Quantitative Analysis, Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Health Management, Health Promotion, Genetic Epidemiology and Global Health Threats.

For this semester, I only had 1 exam and 8 essays. The whole class found the number of essays very tedious but mainly because we're all cracking into our thesis at this stage. Difficult but doable.

Class size - This depends on a number of factors, how many part time students you have and the classes you choose. Generally we have 20 - 25 people, 3 part timers joined our cohort in September, stayed for the first 6 weeks, and came back for block 3. If you go to UCD next year, they'll join you for block 2 and block 4. It's a strange system but it works.

Background - The class is predominately health care professions, ranging from GP's, hospital docs, pharmacists, dentists, nurses and physios. There are some without health related degrees and content wise, once you study you'll be grand. Non medics span across nutrition, ag sci, law and journalism.

I won't lie and say it's easy, that is one word I would never use to describe this course. It is very full on, it does require commitment and a lot of independent study to keep ahead of everything. But if this is an area you want to pursue it will be so worth it in the end. Just be aware that I have a number of commitments outside of college and went through the year completely exhausted, so if you can drop a few things, life will be a hell of a lot easier than mine was.

If I have forgotten to include something you want to know, ask away. I can't recommend the MPH any higher, it has been a fantastic year, class is lovely, teachers are excellent. Good luck with your application.