Registered  members with 100+ posts do not see Ads

Introduction Hello!

subuwu

Member
Hi everyone,

I'm currently a second year Master of Public Health student! I previously studied a science degree, not really knowing what direction I wanted to take :)
I posted earlier about my concerns and qualms about getting into med, but the replies and PMs I received showed me what a supportive and informative community this is.

It's really motivating to see everyone's stories and the advice on offer - can't wait to share my journey with you all, and celebrate all of your victories too!
 
Last edited:
Good stuff! I specialised in epidemiology when I did it back awhile ago cos I like stats. All the health promotion and management stuff was too fluffy for me haha.
 

A1

Rookie Doc
Moderator

tdnii

Regular Member
Hi biandes, future MPH student here, just received an offer from UQ studying health promotion and disease prevention.
How do find ur course so far?
 

subuwu

Member
Hi biandes, future MPH student here, just received an offer from UQ studying health promotion and disease prevention.
How do find ur course so far?

Hi tdnii, thanks for asking!

So far, I'm really enjoying my degree. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has made this year feel like a fever dream for the most part, it's proved highly relevant to what I've been studying, and really helped get my brain ticking in health promotion and public policy units.

I've got a little pros/cons that might give you a better view of my experience thus far, but please do note that this is my own experience, and in no way indicative of how you way experience the degree:

Pros:
  • Opportunity to network with other students from a variety of backgrounds (clinical, research-based, law etc). Not knowing exactly where I wanted to go with my 'career', this helped me gain insight into other people's experiences and the relevancy of the degree to a multitude of career pathways
  • Flexibility to study a range of healthcare areas, such as research methods, clinical management and epidemiology - even finance and legal! When I started my degree, my university offered a pretty broad way to approach the degree, but I think they have now (and in most cases) the MPH is a bit more structured towards majoring in a specific area(s)
  • An MPH looks really good in healthcare and research job applications. I've worked a range of jobs, from research and governance to healthcare administration. In these cases, multiple employers made it a point to say that my masters qualification (though in progress) really helped my application stand out.
Cons:
  • I found the degree quite challenging to study full-time, full load. In my first semester I did 4 units - did alright but noticed I was really burnt out trying to balance that with the rest of my life. From the next semester onwards, I decided to underload and do 3 units a semester - best decision, and definitely reflected as much in my grades. From next semester I'm going part-time (2 units) so I can dedicate the extra time to treating the UCAT like a 3rd subject
  • Not often considered, but it really is an expensive degree! Not sure how it works in QLD, but where I am most MPH degrees are under FEE-HELP, meaning that they are deferred as loans, but compared to a degree under HECS, the units cost almost 2-2.5 times more. There's at least one university in my state that offers the MPH under HECS, but in hindsight I'm still glad I chose the university I did. This is just worth keeping in mind if you want to do further study after your bachelors degree and masters - there are limits to how much you can take out in loans for your degree, so just keep this in the back of your mind.
To end with some words of advice:
  • Contact your unit coordinators/tutors/chief examiners if you need help or feedback! More often than not, they are willing to help and want to engage in discussion with you. To provide a realistic example, my assignment grades in one unit went from mid 60s to high 80s (in the span of a month) after emailing my unit coordinator for help and asking what I was missing in my work.

Hope this helps you (and anyone else wondering)! If you need the abridged version (lol) just focus on the bolded text 🤣
 

tdnii

Regular Member
Hi tdnii, thanks for asking!

So far, I'm really enjoying my degree. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has made this year feel like a fever dream for the most part, it's proved highly relevant to what I've been studying, and really helped get my brain ticking in health promotion and public policy units.

I've got a little pros/cons that might give you a better view of my experience thus far, but please do note that this is my own experience, and in no way indicative of how you way experience the degree:

Pros:
  • Opportunity to network with other students from a variety of backgrounds (clinical, research-based, law etc). Not knowing exactly where I wanted to go with my 'career', this helped me gain insight into other people's experiences and the relevancy of the degree to a multitude of career pathways
  • Flexibility to study a range of healthcare areas, such as research methods, clinical management and epidemiology - even finance and legal! When I started my degree, my university offered a pretty broad way to approach the degree, but I think they have now (and in most cases) the MPH is a bit more structured towards majoring in a specific area(s)
  • An MPH looks really good in healthcare and research job applications. I've worked a range of jobs, from research and governance to healthcare administration. In these cases, multiple employers made it a point to say that my masters qualification (though in progress) really helped my application stand out.
Cons:
  • I found the degree quite challenging to study full-time, full load. In my first semester I did 4 units - did alright but noticed I was really burnt out trying to balance that with the rest of my life. From the next semester onwards, I decided to underload and do 3 units a semester - best decision, and definitely reflected as much in my grades. From next semester I'm going part-time (2 units) so I can dedicate the extra time to treating the UCAT like a 3rd subject
  • Not often considered, but it really is an expensive degree! Not sure how it works in QLD, but where I am most MPH degrees are under FEE-HELP, meaning that they are deferred as loans, but compared to a degree under HECS, the units cost almost 2-2.5 times more. There's at least one university in my state that offers the MPH under HECS, but in hindsight I'm still glad I chose the university I did. This is just worth keeping in mind if you want to do further study after your bachelors degree and masters - there are limits to how much you can take out in loans for your degree, so just keep this in the back of your mind.
To end with some words of advice:
  • Contact your unit coordinators/tutors/chief examiners if you need help or feedback! More often than not, they are willing to help and want to engage in discussion with you. To provide a realistic example, my assignment grades in one unit went from mid 60s to high 80s (in the span of a month) after emailing my unit coordinator for help and asking what I was missing in my work.

Hope this helps you (and anyone else wondering)! If you need the abridged version (lol) just focus on the bolded text 🤣
Thank you so much for your reply. Really appreciate it.
It's so great to hear that you enjoyed the course so far. Yes, it's a very expensive course, I am still waiting for UQ's response regarding CSP.
If I can't get a CSP place I'll probably do a bachelor of public health instead of a Master degree.
 

Registered  members with 100+ posts do not see Ads

Registered  members with 100+ posts do not see Ads

Top