Is public health for me?

[maybedoctor???]

Hey everyone! I need advice. I’m currently a pre med student about to start my junior year of college, but now I’m not so sure I want to become a doctor. I’m interested in disease, but I think I am better suited for research than clinical work.

I am studying biological psychology in school and absolutely love it (especially my neuroscience / psychology focused classes). I also have taken a lot of statistics and research methods classes, which I enjoy a lot and have a real talent for. Now I’m trying to decide what career path I should follow.

I’ve been looking into public health (but admittedly don’t know a whole lot about it) and think I might be good at biostatistics. I really enjoy study design and analysis, but I’m worried that I won’t have much exposure to my other interests in biostats. I love statistics, but I want to combine it with medicine/biology/disease/etc. could I have a job that does this in biostats? Or would I be better off in say epidemiology? Or maybe another area of public health that I could use my psychology background in?

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

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[LookForZebras]

It does sound like public health is for you. I'd recommend focusing on biostats. The main reason is that not a lot of public health professionals are strong in this area. If you get a solid set of skills in biostats, you'll be sought after. Also, biostats is difficult (relatively speaking) and many other aspects of public health are softer and easier. And biostats is used in so many public health settings - government, regulation, research, etc. You can pick up on at least the basics of other concentrations within public health either through electives during your training or 'on the job.' I believe many PH programs allow you to combine biostats and epi, so that may be a good direction for you to go in. You can likely also take courses in study design even if your focus is on biostats.

 

[wwmmkk]

I agree with @LookForZebras's assessment. I'd recommend looking at the courses and research happening in epidemiology and biostats departments at a few schools to see what interests you more. Biostats is more useful and more widely applicable than epidemiology, but many epi programs have a quant focus so you can pick up the biostats skills in an applied context. Public health is very interdisciplinary; you don't have to decide now what you want to do, and even what you get your MS/MPH/PhD in won't dictate the course of your career.

 

[lovelyemy]

Yesssss! I was on a similar track where I majored in Biology but followed the pre-med track. I thought I wanted to be a doctor as well but realized that my lack of passion really reflected in my low grades. However, I knew I wanted to still be in healthcare somehow and help people but not as a frontline provider. I had zero experience after I graduated and worked as a medical tech for a year before applying for my MPH.

Once I got accepted into my MPH program it was so much easier finding a research job. However, due to my lack of experience, I had to take on an extry level research assistant job to work my way up. I hope this helps and good luck!

 

[maybedoctor???]

All your responses were really helpful, thanks guys!! I’m definitely going to look into public health, biostats, epi, and all that some more, they seem really great!