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Environmental Health Sciences MPH

Students in our program learn how vulnerable populations are affected by environmental exposures and how we can achieve sustainable communities that provide clean air, clean water, safe food, safe cities, a stable climate and safe workplaces. The curriculum prepares students to assess the health impacts of physical, chemical and biological agents in the environment and to advance means for their measurement and control.

Our program provides interdisciplinary training in epidemiology, biostatistics, mechanisms of toxicity, risk assessment, exposure science and policy analysis. Students learn to apply these skills to environmental health challenges in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the United States and around the world.

Curriculum

Our two-year program requires 48 units of graduate-level coursework, with both required and elective courses offered at the school—including epidemiology, biostatistics, toxicology, risk and exposure assessment, geographic information systems (GIS) for environmental public health, and environmental health policy and regulation—as well as additional elective coursework across the Berkeley campus. Students should reference the Berkeley Compendium of EHS Expertise to supplement their required courses with electives.

Students in our program must also complete a full-time summer internship, as well as a thesis project demonstrating their ability to synthesize the core areas in the environmental health sciences, with application to an environmental health problem encountered in the real world. Students interested in a specialization in industrial hygiene should contact Dr. Elizabeth Noth (bnoth@berkeley.edu) with Professor Ajay Pillarisetti (ajayp@berkeley.edu) cc:’ed for more information.

  • Year One (Fall Semester)
    • PB HLTH 200J: Health Policy and Management Breadth
    • PB HLTH 250A: Epidemiological Methods I
    • PB HLTH 270: Introduction to Environmental Health Sciences
    • PB HLTH 200L: Health and Social Behavior Breadth
    • NUSCTX 110/PB HLTH 270B: Toxicology
  • Year One (Spring Semester)
    • PB HLTH 142: Introduction to Probability and Statistics in Biology and Public Health
    • PB HLTH 271E: Science and Policy for Environmental Health
    • PB HLTH 292: EHS MPH Career Pathways
    • Electives (4–8 units)
  • Year One (Summer Semester)
    • Practicum (full time) – enroll for credit in Year Two Fall
  • Year Two (Fall Semester)
    • PB HLTH 270A: Exposure Assessment and Control I
    • PB HLTH 291A: Public Health Leadership: Improving Health & Creating Value
    • PB HLTH 292: Fall EHS MPH Thesis Seminar
    • PB HLTH 297: Field Study in Public Health (enroll in Fall to get credit for Summer Practicum
    • Electives (4–8 units)
  • Year Two (Spring Semester)
    • PB HLTH 241: Statistical Analysis of Categorical Data
    • PB HLTH 220C: Health Risk Assessment, Regulation and Policy
    • PB HLTH 292: Spring EHS MPH Thesis Seminar
    • Electives (5–11 units)

Qualifications

  • Ideally, applicants should have completed one undergraduate course in chemistry and one undergraduate course in biology. An undergraduate course in mathematics (e.g., calculus, linear algebra or statistics) is also desirable.
  • Common undergraduate majors for admitted applicants: chemistry, biology, microbiology, molecular biology, nutrition, ecology, public health and environmental studies.
  • Common work experience for admitted applicants: Work experience is not required for admission, but successful applicants in past years have worked as lab technicians, student researchers, research assistants, community organizers, study coordinators and post-graduate fellows, as well as for the Peace Corps.

Admission and Application Requirements

A writing sample. There is no length requirement for the writing sample, but a sample approximately 10 pages in length is typical. Please attach a writing sample that highlights your writing and analytical skills. The writing sample may be a final paper from a class, a popular media article, a report, a blog entry, an undergraduate thesis, etc. The purpose of the writing sample is to demonstrate your preparation for graduate-level coursework and research at Berkeley by sharing an example of your prior work that exhibits your ability to articulate and support complex ideas, solve technical problems, construct and evaluate arguments, and/or sustain a focused and coherent discussion. The writing sample should be your own work; if there were multiple authors, please describe your specific contributions to the writing and project.

Employment

Our students are trained to become leaders in identifying—and preventing—adverse health impacts of physical, biological and chemical agents in the environment. Excellent career opportunities in government, the private sector, non-profit and non-governmental organizations, and academia are available for graduates. In the last few years, alumni have accepted positions in various organizations, including the California Environmental Protection Agency, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the City of Richmond, the California Department of Public Health, Cardno ChemRisk and Kaiser Permanente. Many of our graduates also enter into fellowships or continue their academic work in doctoral programs across the country.

Admissions Statistics

3.5

Average GPA of admitted applicants

79%

Average Verbal GRE percentile scores of admitted applicants

70%

Average Quantitative GRE percentile scores of admitted applicants

50%

Acceptance rate

Environmental Health Sciences Faculty

Emeriti Faculty

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