Public Health Curriculum

CompleteDegree@Simmons

The BS in Public Health curriculum is designed to help you grow as a confident and skilled advocate, capable of influencing a healthier, more educated public. The program’s interactive coursework covers emerging research, trends, and solutions that can act as long-term prevention of an issue on a widespread scale — like the eradication of disease.

Key Content Areas

A Simmons education will prepare you to think and lead within your area of focus and beyond. Our undergraduate experience includes courses in a variety of key content areas — such as science, culture, social history, and the arts — that represent different ways of thinking about the world and approaching complex topics. These learning opportunities within and across disciplines prepare our graduates to solve a wide range of challenges in their lives, careers, and communities.

Like many of our students who are continuing their academic journey with Simmons, you may have transferable credits that fulfill key content area requirements. Be sure to submit all academic transcripts for review — we accept up to 96 transfer credits.

Program Requirements

Below are the public health course requirements. As a student in this program, you will complete core courses plus a capstone experience — which can be your choice of an internship, independent research project, or thesis.

Public Health Course Requirements

Course #TitleCredits
PH 101
Introduction to Public Health
4
BIOL 113
General Biology
4
CHEM 110
General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry
4
SOCI 241
Health, Illness, and Society
4
BIOL 104
Introduction to Environmental Science
4
BIOL 221
Microbiology
4
SOCI 245
Global Health
4
STAT 118 OR
STAT 227
Introductory Statistics OR
Intermediate Statistics: Design & Analysis
4
COMM 312
Health Communications
4
PH 201
Introduction to Epidemiology
4
PH 345
Health Systems & Policy
4
BIOL 246 OR
SOCI 239
Foundations of Exercise and Health OR
Introduction to Social Research
4
 
Electives (2)
8

Capstone Requirement

Students complete their capstone requirement by taking our Public Health Seminar in addition to one of the following: a one-semester internship, a one-semester research experience, or a two-semester thesis. All students will create a presentation and submit an internship paper, research paper, or research thesis as the final products of their capstone experience.

Course #TitleCredits
PH 347
Public Health Seminar
4

Capstone Option 1: Internship

Course #TitleCredits
PH 370
Internship
4

Capstone Option 2: Independent Research Project

Course #TitleCredits
PH 350
Independent Study
4

Capstone Option 3: Thesis

Course #TitleCredits
PH 350
Independent Study
4
PH 355 
Thesis
4

Graduate Study Opportunities

The Department of Public Health has matriculation agreements in place for master’s programs in public health with Boston University School of Public Health (Select Scholars Program) and The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Interested students should discuss these options with the chair of the Department of Public Health once enrolled in the program.