Academics & Curriculum
The program prepares students to help solve global healthcare problems by examining health policy through a lens that considers societal, psychological, and cultural factors and how they intersect with corporate and institutional influences.
All students begin the Master of Science in Health and the Public Interest Program in August with the course, Health, Disease, and Society, which requires one month of full-time attendance. The length of the program is one year for full-time students and two years for part-time students.
Classes take place in the late afternoon or evening, making the program suitable for part-time enrollment. The didactic structure for a Master of Science Program comprises a 1-year (summer, fall, spring, summer) 30-credit residential program of core courses and electives requiring advisor approval and a required capstone/internship project.
2023-2024 Curriculum
The Health and the Public Interest program begins with a three-week intensive course that will start in the first week of August. This course requires full-time attendance by all students for that period. Students will enroll for the Fall and Spring semesters according to the regular Georgetown academic calendar. In most cases, full-time Health and the Public Interest students complete their program with a six-week internship or capstone project in the Summer.
Educational Objectives
This program provides students with theoretical and methodological skills including:
- Understanding and critiquing complex and interdisciplinary multi-method research relevant to public health
- Understanding the evolution of governance, economic issues and other drivers of global health
- Ability to draw on diverse theory and methods of social sciences and epidemiology
- Ability to communicate with and design health, training, and social programs for healthcare professionals and the public
- Advocacy and activism skills
- Understanding of the sociocultural mechanisms of symptom construction without losing sight of physiological mechanisms
- Basic understanding of physiology as it relates to specific health issues
- Appreciation of the contribution of ethnic, national, occupational, and other cultural influences on healthcare
- Written and oral communication skills, with an emphasis on the ability to communicate about complex theory and data across disciplines and with lay audiences
- Hands-on familiarity with research skills and/or hands-on familiarity with community organizations, NGOs, or governmental agencies focusing on society and health
Course Description
Explore the list of available core and elective classes for offered in recent semesters.