Program: Public Health, MPH - Hofstra University

Mar 17, 2025

2025-2026 Graduate Studies Bulletin

Associate Professor Hackett, Graduate Program Director, 516-463-6517

Public health is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to prevent injuries, illness, and premature death, promote health and wellness and prolong life at the group, community, and population levels.

Hofstra’s MPH program is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). It emphasizes both the theoretical foundations of public health as well as its practical application. Students are trained to understand, conduct, interpret, and apply public health research, assess public health problems in communities, apply health education and social science theory to developing interventions to improve community health, and understand the role of public health within society.

Admission Requirements

A completed online application form;
Undergraduate degree from an accredited institution of higher learning, including submission of all transcripts from undergraduate institutions (a course in statistics is preferred);
Minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0;
Three letters of recommendation addressing the applicant’s potential for success in graduate school and the public health field;
Written personal statement identifying areas of interest and reasons for seeking advanced training in public health;
Resume;
International applicants for whom English is not their first language must submit TOEFL scores;
Interview with the program director if the applicant does not have any prior experience in public health or health care.

The program understands that any single criterion may not reliably predict a student’s potential for success. Applicants who want to be considered even though they do not meet all the admissions criteria are encouraged to offer a rationale for an exception to the requirements in their written personal statement.

Program Requirements - Semester Hours: 42

The curriculum consists of 42 semester hours, with 36 semester hours of classroom instruction, 3 semester hours of internship and 3 semester hours of a culminating experience.

The curriculum is designed to meet the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) accreditation standards and include Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) core competencies. Courses are designed around the five core public health disciplines: biostatistics; epidemiology; social and behavioral sciences; environmental health; and health policy and management. Seven critical cross-cutting competencies are integrated into course work: communication and informatics; diversity and culture; leadership; professionalism; program planning; systems thinking and public health biology.

Core Requirements - Semester Hours: 30

The required core curriculum is comprised of ten courses and 30 semester hours. At the program director’s discretion, students may transfer up to 12 s.h. earned within the last five years in a comparable graduate program. The program director will need to see course bulletin descriptions and/or syllabi to evaluate such requests.

MPH 200 - Introduction to Public Health Semester Hours: 3
MPH 202 - Epidemiology I Semester Hours: 3
MPH 203 - Biostatistics I Semester Hours: 3
MPH 204 - Social and Behavioral Determinants of Health Semester Hours: 3
MPH 205 - Public Health Program Planning and Evaluation Semester Hours: 3
MPH 206 - Biostatistics Lab Semester Hours: 1
MPH 210 - Public Health Policies and Systems Semester Hours: 3
MPH 220 - Environmental and Occupational Health Semester Hours: 3
MPH 221 - Research Methods for Quantitative Studies Semester Hours: 3
MPH 222 - Research Methods for Qualitative Studies Semester Hours: 2
MPH 223 - Introduction to Global Health Semester Hours: 3
MPH 229 - Public Health Professional Development Seminar Semester Hours: No credit

Core Electives - Semester Hours: 6

Students may choose 6 s.h. of electives from the following list. Students also have the opportunity to explore additional areas linked to specific faculty expertise, such as bioethics, chronic illness, and aging; suburban health disparities; clinical research management; medical anthropology; reproductive health; disaster preparedness; outbreak investigations; dental public health; advanced epidemiology; advanced biostatistics; and advanced environmental health.

MPH 207 - Critical Decisions in Public Health Emergencies Semester Hours: 3
MPH 208 - Epidemiology 2 Semester Hours: 3
MPH 209 - Public Health Nutrition Semester Hours: 3
MPH 211 - Health Equity Semester Hours: 3
MPH 224 - Public Health Survey Research Semester Hours: 3
MPH 228 - Population Aging Semester Hours: 3
MPH 251 - Readings in Public Health Semester Hours: 1-3
MPH 280 to 289 A-Z - Special Topics in Public Health Semester Hours: 1-3
HADM 201 - Health Policy and Analysis Semester Hours: 3
HADM 202 - Health Law and Ethics Semester Hours: 3
HADM 204 - Health Care Economics Semester Hours: 3
RES 387 - Skills in Funding and Proposal Development: Government, Foundation and Corporate Semester Hours: 3

Required Field Experience - Semester Hours: 6

The internship provides experiential learning with the goal of applying skills learned in the classroom in the professional practice environment. The culminating experience demonstrates the student’s ability to integrate multiple competencies from both their course work and their internship experience in one of three ways. Each of the following options provide students with the opportunity to develop expertise in a specific topic area, demonstrate research method skills, and make a contribution to the field of public health: 1) a manuscript that can be submitted for publication; 2) a manuscript that can be submitted for a panel or symposium presentation at a professional conference; 3) a grant proposal that uses new data analyses that can be submitted for funding.

MPH 230 - Applied Practice Experience Semester Hours: 3
MPH 231 - Integrative Learning Experience: Proposal Development Semester Hours: 1
MPH 232 - Integrated Learning Experience: Project Implementation Semester Hours: 2

Graduation Requirements

Successful completion of all course requirements for the degree, with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0. Courses in which the student earns below a B- will not count toward degree requirements.

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