MS in Epidemiology – Master’s Programs – UCI Program in Public Health

About

The Master of Science (MS) in Epidemiology degree offered by the UCI Program in Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics offers a sound foundation in epidemiologic methods, biostatistics, and allows flexibility in selecting elective courses to meet the needs and interests of each student.

Students seeking a Master’s degree in epidemiology are usually interested in teaching careers after graduation, but many go into different areas of industry, research and government. Conferral of the Master’s degree demonstrates a students familiarity with the current state of the science in one or more areas and their capability to make important contributions to knowledge in one or more areas of epidemiology. Nominal time to degree in our program is two years.

Learning Outcomes

Define, calculate and interpret measures of disease frequency and measures of association between exposures and outcomes;
Describe the major epidemiologic research study designs and their advantages and limitations;
Describe the major sources of bias in epidemiologic research (confounding, selection bias and measurement error) and the ways to evaluate and reduce the bias;
Define and evaluate effect modification;
Understand and differentiate between commonly used terms in epidemiology, including chance, bias and confounding, and approaches to mitigate the effects of each;
Effectively communicate methods, assumptions and results of an epidemiologic study, both orally and in writing;
Competency to plan and conduct a review of the existing peer-reviewed literature and of other sources in order to describe the current evidence for a specific scientific question;
Apply regression, classical methods of analysis of categorical data, and other appropriate statistical approaches to analyze epidemiologic data;
Demonstrate proficiency with a statistical software package, such as SAS or R to analyze and interpret epidemiologic data; and
Develop a research proposal that presents the study aims, scientific background, public health significance, and the detailed methods for carrying out the epidemiologic study.

Time to Degree

For students enrolled full-time, the normative time to complete the MS degree program is two academic years (or six (6) quarters) of full-time study.

Career Opportunities

Our PhD graduates have gone on to positions in government, NGOs, academia and private industry.

Questions?

Andrew Odegaard, PhD

Director of the PhD Program in Epidemiology

aodegaar@hs.uci.edu

Please note that this degree is not yet accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health. UC Irvine is a member of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and it’s graduate programs are fully accredited by the WASC Senior Commission of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WSCUC), California’s regional accrediting agency.