West Virginia University Online MPH

West Virginia University Online MPH
School of Public Health

The School of Public Health at West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown offers an online Master’s of Public Health (MPH) in social and behavioral sciences (SBHS). Open to those with a bachelor’s degree, the WVU MPH degree program aims to give health care and public health professionals the opportunity to improve their skills so that their work will impact on public health nationally and/or internationally.

Both the common core competencies of an MPH and those major competencies recognized by social and behavioral sciences are focused and comprehensive. Ultimately the course will appeal to those health care and public health professionals who are committed to this field, and who have an intense interest in community health and preventive medicine. The most likely candidates will be nurses, physicians, nutritionists, and even other more general health care professionals.

The WVU MPH degree program in SBHS focuses on the various social, behavioral and environmental factors that relate to personal and public health during ones lifetime. The curriculum has been designed to give students a broad and thorough exposure to all the core disciplines in public health, as well as introduce them to social and behavioral sciences during their first year. The focus during the second year is more on SBHS, since this is ultimately the purpose of the WVU MPH degree.

There is a standard schedule for the MPH that allows students to choose three electives equating to nine credit hours. They are also permitted to choose “an area of emphasis” if they wish. Those areas currently offered are worksite wellness and public health practice.

Applicants for the WVU MPH degree program will only be considered if they have Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) scores of at least 146 for verbal reasoning, of 144 for quantitative reasoning, and 3.0 for analytical writing. Those who have achieved a Grade Point Average (GPA) of at least 3.0 are given preference. The WVU MPH degree program is also offered on campus.

Once qualified, MPH SBHS graduates from WVU will be considered competent to work in public health settings at any level. They will also be seen as leaders, researchers, and could be employed to manage or evaluate health promotion program implementations.