The Major

The Public Health Sciences major is designed to provide students with a broad based education that is well grounded in the Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and in the core areas of Public Health.

Students take courses in four domains: Mathematics or statistics course; foundation courses; public health core courses; and courses chosen from focus areas related to public health. The required public health courses are designed to introduce students to the five recognized public health core competencies: Community health education; health policy and management; environmental health sciences; epidemiology; and biostatistics.

Requirements for B.S. in Public Health Sciences
I. Mathematics or Statistics courses: MATH 121 or higher or one of the following statistics courses—PSYCH 240, RES-ECON 212, SOCIOL 212, STATISTC 111 or 240.

II. Foundation courses: a minimum of 9 credits required from the Natural Sciences and 9 credits required from the Social Sciences/Humanities. Courses must include at least two disciplines from within the Natural Sciences and two disciplines from within the Social Sciences

1. At least three courses (9 credits) from the following or equivalent courses:

BIOLOGY 105 (BS) - Biology of Social Issues
BIOLOGY 106 (BS) Human Biology
BIOLOGY 151 (BS) - Introduction to Biology I
BIOLOGY 152  (BS)- Introduction to Biology II
BIOLOGY 153 (BS) - Introduction to Biology Lab
BIOLOGY 283  - General Genetics 
BIOLOGY 285 - Cell and Molecular Biology
BIOLOGY 287- Intro to Ecology
BIOCHEM 100 - My DNA
CHEM 110 (PS) - Gen Chem for Health and Allied Health (do not take Chem 110 if you plan to take Organic Chemistry)
CHEM 111 (PS) - Gen Chem-Sci I
CHEM 112 (PS) - Gen Chem-Sci II
CHEM 250- Organic Chemistry
CHEM 261- Organic Chemistry
CHEM 262- Organic Chemistry
CHEM 269- Organic Chemistry Lab
ENVISCI 101 - Introduction to Environmental Science
ENVISCI 214 - Ecosystems, Biodiversity & Global Change
FOOD-SCI 101 - Food and Health
FOOD-SCI 150 (BS) - The Science of Food
GEOGRAPH 100 (PS) - Global Environment Change
KIN 100 (BS) - Introduction to Kinesiology
KIN 110 (BS) - Human Performance & Nutrition
KIN 270 - Anatomy & Physiology I with lab
KIN 272 - Anatomy & Physiology II with lab
MICROBIO 140P (BS) - Plagues: Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases
MICROBIO 160 (BS) - Biology of Cancer and AIDS
MICROBIO 310 – General Microbiology
MICROBIO 265 – Microbiology Lab
NUTR 130 (BS) - Nutrition for a Healthy Lifestyle
NUTR 140 (BS) - Nutrition, Weight and Fitness
NUTR 230 - Basic Nutrition
PHYSICS 131 (PS) - Intro to Physics I with lab
PHYSICS 132 (PS) - Intro to Physics II with lab

2. At least three courses (9 credits) from the following or equivalent courses approved by the student’s academic advisor:

ANTHRO 104 - Culture, Society and People
ANTHRO 205 - Inequality and Oppression
ANTHRO 208 (G, SB) - Human Ecology
ANTHRO 312 - Medical Anthropology
ANTHRO 397RR - Disease Ecology
COMM 226 - Social Impact of Mass Media
COMM 288 - Gender, Sex & Representation
ECON 103 (SB) - Introduction to Microeconomics
ECON 104 (SB) - Introduction to Macroeconomics
ECON 105 (SB,U) - Introduction to Political Economy
ECON 203 - Intermediate Microeconomics Theory
ECON 204 - Intermediate Macroeconomics Theory
ECON 308 - Political Economics of the Environment
EDUC 202 (SB, U) - Social Issues in Intergroup Relations: Exploring Social/Cultural Differences…
EDUC 210 (I, U) - Social Diversity in Education
EDUC 229 (SB,G) - International Education
GEOSCI 102 - Human Landscape
LABOR 240 (SB) - Labor and the Global Economy
NURSING 210 - Human growth & development from a lifespan perspective
PHIL 164 - Medical Ethics
PHIL 170 - Problems in Social Thought
POLISCI 101(SB) - American politics
POLISCI 111 (SB,G) - Comparative Politics
POLISCI 171 (SB) - Introduction to Political Theory
POLISCI 181 (SB,U) - Controversies in Public Policy
POLISSCI 203 (HS) - American Political Thought
POLISCI 219 (SB) - State and local politics
POLISCI 220 - Public Administration
POLISCI 252 (SB,G) - Globalization, Governance & World Order
POLISCI 253 - International Environ Politics and Policy
POLISCI 280 (SB) - Public Policy
POLISCI 317 - Massachusetts Politics
PSYCH 100 (SB) - Introduction Psychology
PSYCH 305/EDUC 305 - Educational Psychology
PSYCH 350 - Developmental Psychology
PSYCH 355 - Adolescent Psychology
PSYCH 360 (SB) - Social Psychology
PSYCH 365 - Psychology of Aging
PSYCH 380- Abnormal Psychology
PUBP&ADM 193E - Inequality in the US: Prisons, Schools & Jobs
PUBP&Adm 397P - Policymaking for Social Change- Inequality in the US
RES-ECON 102 (SB) - Intro to Resource Economics
RES-ECON 121 (SB,G) - Hunger in a Global Economy
SOCIOL 103 (SB,U) - Social Problems
SOCIOL 105 (SB) - Self, Society & Interrelations
SOCIOL 106 (SB) - Race, Sex, & Social Class
SOCIOL 107 (SB, U) - Contemporary American Society
SOCIOL 110 (SB,U) - General Introduction Sociology
SOCIOL 220- Sociology of American Culture
SOCIOL 222- (SB, U)- The Family
SOCIOL 224 (SB,U) - Social, Class, and Inequality
SOCIOL 244 (SB, U) - Sociology of Immigration
SOCIOL 261 (G) - Population Studies
STOCKSCH 171 - Plagues: the Ecology of Disease
WOMENSST 187 (I, U) - Gender, Sexuality and Culture
WOMENSST 201 - Gender and Difference: Critical Analyses
WOMENSST 285 (SI, U) - Intro to the Biology of Difference
WOMENSST 291E - Feminist Health Politics
WOMENSST 295M - Politics of Reproduction and Mothering
WOMENSST 295P - Policing, Protest, and Politics: Queeers, Feminists, and #BlackLivesMatter 
WOMENSST 297B - ST-Race, Gender, Sexuality and Science
WOMENSST 301 - Theorizing Gender, Race, and Power

III. Public Health Courses
At least 35 credits are required.

A. The following courses are required:

PUBHLTH 129 Healthcare for All
PUBHLTH 160 My Body, My Health*
PUBHLTH203 - Intro to Environmental Health Sciences
PUBHLTH 223 – Intro to Biostatistics
PUBHLTH 290B Introduction to Public Health
PUBHLTH 323 Public Health Communications (Junior Year Writing requirement)
PUBHLTH 324  Epidemiology of Public Health
PUBHLTH 494CI Capstone Course, open to seniors only, must complete 323 and 324 before enrolling

*Only one General Education course can be applied to to a PUBHLTH department class to fulfill the major requirement.  SPIRE automatically puts PUBHLTH 160 into this category. 

B. An additional 9 credits in Public Health at the 300-599 level.
-Take nine units of PUBHLTH courses numbered 300-599.

No more than six credits of Independent Study (PUBHLTH 396) and Internships (PUBHLTH 398) can be used to fulfill this requirement but it is not required. Up to nine independent study or internship credits can be applied to the major.

Applications and instructions for receiving credit for internships and independent studies can be found online.

IV. Focus Fields related to Public Health Courses

At least 12 credits are required from courses at the 300 level or above. Pre-approval from an advisor is required before courses are able to count toward the collateral. Fill out Collateral Field Proposal Form and submit it to Peer Advisors in Arnold House Rm 330. Course material must be relevant to the study of public health. Details for this requirement and suggestions for public health related majors/minors/certificates can be found on our website: https://www.umass.edu/sphhs/sites/default/files/Overview%20of%20Focus%20Area%20Fall%202015%20and%20Later_9_3_15.pdf