Capstone Option

The Capstone provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate skills acquired in prior coursework. Each capstone section will differ in content based on instructor expertise, but all will require students to implement the skills learned in their concentration courses, analytic courses, and practicum experiences. At the end of the capstone course, each student will submit an individual deliverable in response to a public health challenge or opportunity. All Capstone sections share the same underlying structure of 10-15 students working closely with the instructor. Throughout these courses, students continue to develop their professional skills through effective teamwork, giving and receiving feedback, and journal article discussions.

Thesis Option

There are no formal requirements for a candidacy examination in order to progress to writing a master’s thesis for the MPH degree. Therefore, the development of a master’s thesis is an ongoing process during the student’s academic program. Thesis projects may be descriptive research, investigative research, public health policy development or assessment, or a program evaluation. The thesis must have an analytic component, which may be qualitative, as well as quantitative. The thesis must also have utility, with some application for public health action.

The thesis project involves a smaller scale of administrative and data management activities than a typical MS or Ph.D. thesis. Students may use existing datasets or develop their own, although the latter, by necessity, usually involves small population samples. Faculty conducting research in the centers, programs, and institutes of the School of Public Health have a large array of research projects using public relevant databases. The Department of Health and other state agencies have public use data sets and other sources of data are available from federal public health agencies.

Our goal is to prepare students to improve human health on a large scale—whether by influencing health policy, by designing better public health interventions, or by investigating environmental and community health risks. That’s why we place so much emphasis on research.