Help me decide? Data science vs epidemiology

[Itsapotatoes]

Hello all,

I have been accepted to the University of Manchester's MSc. Health Data Science and London School of Hygiene's MSc. Epidemiology program. My goal is to work for 1-2 years as an analyst with health data, hoping to land a role in pharmaceuticals in the future. However, I can also see myself as an epidemiologist for my local health department in California. After 1-2 years of work, I am hoping to return to graduate school for a PhD in a quantitative health data field, be it epidemiology, biostatistics, or some other health data oriented program.

University of Manchester will cost me roughly $20k in tuition while LSHTM will cost $28k plus higher cost of living. Both are 1 year programs. To me, it seems like Manchester is the practical financial decision. Since my goal is a PhD, I can't help but feel that a master's degree institution wouldn't matter as much because where my PhD came from will matter more. However, LSHTM is a prestigious institution and might help me get into a better PhD program.

Can anyone offer advice / thoughts? Thank you

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[deleted462159]

Personally, I would go for the data science degree. Not to discount epidemiologists by any means, but in my opinion if you can work with data, it doesn't matter what kind of data it is. You have more flexibility with data science than epidemiology.