Things to do as an undergrad!

[thesmartazz]

Howdy, everyone.

I'm currently a rising junior in college, and I was wondering if there are any things that I should do now to: 1) get to know what working in public health is really like and 2) make myself a better candidate for MD/MPH combined programs. My college does have a EPH school, so I could possibly try to take advantage of some of their resources.

I am currently a biology major, so I've done a bit of research in neurobiology (what I'll be doing this summer). However, I have very little experience in public health. I think that I ideally would like to pursue some type of future in health policy. I do a lot of advocacy work for the homeless, and access to quality health care for impoverished people is absolutely abysmal (grar! ).

I guess what I'm mainly looking for is advice on what to do during the school year and during the summer. Are there any good internships that I could pursue during the summer? I'm particularly interested in doing something abroad, if possible, since this upcoming summer will be my last chance to go overseas during college. I'm also hoping that I'll be able to take a health policy course at the EPH school or at the graduate School of Management.

Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide!

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[ben_loper]

Howdy, everyone.

I'm currently a rising junior in college, and I was wondering if there are any things that I should do now to: 1) get to know what working in public health is really like and 2) make myself a better candidate for MD/MPH combined programs. My college does have a EPH school, so I could possibly try to take advantage of some of their resources.

I am currently a biology major, so I've done a bit of research in neurobiology (what I'll be doing this summer). However, I have very little experience in public health. I think that I ideally would like to pursue some type of future in health policy. I do a lot of advocacy work for the homeless, and access to quality health care for impoverished people is absolutely abysmal (grar! ).

I guess what I'm mainly looking for is advice on what to do during the school year and during the summer. Are there any good internships that I could pursue during the summer? I'm particularly interested in doing something abroad, if possible, since this upcoming summer will be my last chance to go overseas during college. I'm also hoping that I'll be able to take a health policy course at the EPH school or at the graduate School of Management.

Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide!

yale?

 

[fantasty]

I'll offer my $0.02. I was interested in public health since high school, so during college I took as many relevant classes as I could (demography, human service studies, social science research methods, public health nutrition, ecology and the environment, epidemiology, etc). And, I think the final eye-opener for me was working as a research assistant for an epidemiologist.

I don't know if there are many resources specifically for undergrads, but you might check out the community and public health section of AMSA's website (AMSA has lots of active pre-meds, and you might come across some fellowships listed for undergrads / pre-health professionals). But, if you're persistent, you'll probably find something good (during undergrad, one of my friends ended up doing a summer intership with WHO; and another option for health policy would be working as a staffer in government). Also, depending on where you live, you might be able to find something at a local or state department of public health.

http://www.amsa.org/cph/

 

[fantasty]

Oops - one more plug for AMSA. You mentioned that you wanted to go abroad. AMSA has a searchable database of international opportunites at :
http://www.amsa.org/global/ih/ihopps.cfm

And yes, you can select premed (or public health) as an option and there are lots of opportunities listed. (But, I'm not sure how current the info is).