public health nyc phd

As part of the School of Global Public Health’s rigorous PhD in Public Health  program, you’ll balance the theoretical and the practical through methodological preparation that is tailored specifically for your unique interests and goals.

If you’re ready to work side-by-side with an interdisciplinary network of venerated faculty and research experts from across NYU’s global sites, then we encourage you to apply to the PhD program today. Learn more about what we look for , how to apply  and more below.

Who Should Apply?

All applicants to the PhD in Public Health must hold an undergraduate or first professional degree from an accredited institution. We suggest, but do not require, that you hold either a Master of Public Health degree or equivalent graduate coursework to apply. If you do not have these credentials, you can complete the required coursework in the first year of the PhD program.

We also strongly recommend that you have some amount of applicable work and/or research experience related to public health. Although this is not a formal requirement for admission, successful applicants will usually have completed at least 2-3 years of work or research in a relevant area.

How Are Applications Reviewed?

The review process for the PhD program is holistic, taking into account all factors and experiences in a prospective student’s application and reviewing your overall potential for success in doctoral public health studies and future careers. Our review of applications examines the following characteristics:

Prior academic performance : Usually at least a cumulative 3.3 GPA in prior undergraduate and graduate programs and have received A or A- grades in quantitative courses

Work and research experience : Usually 2-3 years of relevant experience, including professional, research, publications, internships or volunteer

Statement of purpose : Evaluated for evidence that the applicant understands the program and the field, can clearly articulate professional and academic goals, and has carefully considered how the program will help them achieve those goals

Writing sample : Help the admissions committee understand the applicant’s critical and analytical skills, facility in writing, and potential as a future researcher

Recommendations : Evaluated for the extent to which recommenders indicate the applicant’s potential for advanced graduate training and career in public health

Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores are not required to apply to the PhD program.

Personal interview (if invited)

TOEFL scores from applicants for applicants whose native language is not English and who have not completed a previous degree at an accredited U.S. college or university; A minimum score of 100 on the internet-based test is required.

Faculty Mentors

Doctoral applicants are encouraged to list potential faculty mentors in the application.  Please note that if you choose to identify potential mentors, they should be drawn from the  list of primary GPH faculty .

All applications are due on December 1st. The NYU PhD in Public Health only accepts applications for fall enrollment.

How To Apply

For an application to be considered complete, all of the following application materials must be received by the deadline:

The completed SOPHAS application

Personal statement

Resume or curriculum vitae

Official transcripts from each post-secondary institution attended, with English translations if applicable

Three letters of recommendation

Writing sample of 5 to 15 pages

TOEFL scores from all applicants whose native language is not English and who did not receive the equivalent of a US bachelor's degree at an institution where English is the primary language of instruction. Applicants holding or completing only a graduate or professional degree from an institution where English is the primary language of instruction are still required to submit a TOEFL score unless the graduate program was four or more years in duration. When ordering test reports from ETS, you must include the proper institution code for the NYU GPH (5688).

NO GRE IS REQUIRED FOR APPLICATION TO THE PHD PROGRAM

NOTE: Applications are due on December 1st.  Applicants should ensure that all of the above required documents are received by SOPHAS in time for them to be processed by this date. Applications will not be considered complete or reviewed for admission unless ALL required supporting documents have been received.

Tuition & Financial Aid

Students who are admitted to the program will be fully funded by a fellowship or a combination of fellowship and Research Assistantship for five years. Learn more on GPH’s Financial Aid page .

For Additional Information

If you have additional questions or can't find the answer to your question here, please feel free to contact GPH Admissions directly at [email protected] .

Public Health (PhD)

Program description, epidemiology, social and behavioral sciences, public health policy and management, biostatistics.

The rigorous Public Health PhD program at GPH allows students to balance the theoretical with the practical; the innovation with the application. Students will work side-by-side with, and under the guidance of, esteemed faculty from NYU’s global and interdisciplinary network on vanguard research and solutions to universal public health issues.

Concentrations

Students will further tailor their studies by selecting one of the following four areas of study:

The Epidemiology concentration will deepen your understanding and application of advanced data analytic techniques and research methodology, taking at least three courses in these disciplines. You’ll also identify a specialization area (e.g. chronic disease epidemiology, mental health epidemiology, etc.) and take a minimum of two courses in this specialization area.

In the Social & Behavioral Sciences Concentration, you will Identify a social science discipline that will serve as your subfield, such as sociology, political science, anthropology, or psychology. You will take at least two additional courses in advanced methods, as well as a minimum of three theory or seminar courses in your social science subfield.

The Public Health Policy and Management concentration prepares students to apply appropriate research methods to analyze health policy and management issues and questions, synthesize evidence to guide policymaking and assess public policies and programs that promote population health and health equity, and assess different theoretical perspectives in management and apply these ideas to the identification, analysis and understanding of critical themes and issues in health care and public health. The PHPM PhD concentration builds on doctoral-level methods, policy and management courses offered at Wagner and Stern, combined with PhD-level public health policy and management as well as health services and policy research courses offered at the School of Global Public Health.

The Biostatistics concentration prepares students for careers in which they will develop and apply statistical methods to advance research in public health and biomedical sciences. The program is designed to train students to be independent scholars in the theory, methodology, and application of biostatistics. The program includes classroom learning, training in consulting and scientific collaboration, and mentored independent research. Dissertation research will typically be motivated by important problems in public health that require novel statistical methods for design or analysis. Upon completion students will have gained a broad foundation in statistical computing, public health sciences, and learned to communicate effectively with biostatisticians and scientists from other disciplines.

All applications to the PhD programs at NYU GPH must be submitted through  SOPHAS , the common application for schools and programs of public health.  You are required to select a single area of concentration when you apply, and we encourage you to research the four different areas of study available to identify one which best aligns with your interests.

In general, the elements of a complete application include:

• SOPHAS application form
• Official transcripts from each institution attended (or an evaluation of your credentials if you graduated from a foreign institution)
• Three letters of recommendation
• Personal statement 
• English language proficiency exam results for all applicants whose native language is not English and who did not receive the equivalent of a US bachelor's degree at an institution where English is the primary language of instruction.  
• Writing sample (must be sole author or first author among multiple)

Although not required, PhD applicants are encouraged to identify potential faculty mentors at NYU whose research interests align with theirs and with whom they would like to work with in a proposed area of research interest.    

Prerequisite Courses

Candidacy exam, dissertation.

These courses are only required for students who enter the program without an MPH. For questions related to this, please consult with the Director of Doctoral Studies.

Degree Requirements

For students who matriculated in Fall 2020 and after, the total doctoral degree requirements are 72 credits. This includes the addition of 33 doctoral research credits that will be required for all doctoral students effective Fall 2020.

Required only for students who have not taken an equivalent intermediate level course in epidemiology and have obtained permission to waive this course.

Students will engage in a course of study designed to deepen their understanding and application of advanced data analytic techniques and research methodology. Students are required to take two of the courses listed.

Students will identify a specialization area (e.g. chronic disease epidemiology, mental health epidemiology, etc.) and take three courses in their specialization area.

Students should identify a social science discipline that will serve as their sub-field. Possibilities include sociology, political science, anthropology, or psychology. Students are required to take the three advanced methods courses listed above.

Candidacy and Dissertation

The culmination of years of advanced study, ardent research, and dedicated attention to improving the global public health paradigm are the candidacy exam and subsequent dissertation. All PhD in Public Health students are expected to demonstrate competence in their area of study via successful completion of both.

In June following your second year of study, you will sit for the candidacy examination to assess your potential to successfully undertake scholarly research at the PhD level.

After you pass the candidacy exam, you must prepare a dissertation proposal that outlines your research ideas and officially form a dissertation committee. The dissertation is the culmination of the PhD degree and should demonstrate not only your mastery of the literature of the subject, but also an ability to carry out independent research that results in a genuine contribution to public health knowledge, or an original interpretation of existing knowledge in an articulate and impactful way.

Sample Plan of Study

Program sequence.

Although the maximum allotted time you have to complete the degree is seven years, we expect most GPH doctoral students to complete their degree in four or five years. The sample timeline below assumes that you have completed the  prerequisite courses  prior to entering into the doctoral program; if you have not, another year of coursework would be added to this timeline. Although the time it takes to complete the PhD degree varies for each student, we expect that students will typically complete the candidacy in Year 2 and the dissertation defense in Years Four/Five. See a sample timeline of a typical PhD degree completion on the Doctorate page.

See Curriculum page for concentration course requirements for specific concentrations; additional electives may be considered in consultation with the department chair and/or faculty mentor.

Learning Outcomes

Phd competencies.

• Discuss and critically evaluate the broad public health literature and literature related to the student's discipline.
• Apply public health concepts in the framing of research questions and design a proposal to address the gaps identified in the student's discipline. 
• Explain the principles of research ethics and apply these principles to specific research projects.
• Apply qualitative and/or quantitative techniques to analyze and synthesize data related to public health issues.
• Author a publishable manuscript suitable for peer-reviewed publication as an independent researcher and present to colleagues and professionals in the field.
• Convey public health concepts and methodologies to undergraduate and/or graduate students.

Concentration-Specific Competencies

• Critically evaluate public health and biomedical studies with respect to their design features (i.e., type I error, power), biases in sample selection and retention, and efficiency and correctness of analyses and interpretation.
• Apply appropriate statistical methods and statistical software for optimal design of public health and biomedical research studies.
• Apply appropriate statistical methods and statistical software for optimal analysis of public health and biomedical research studies.
• Provide appropriate statistical interpretation of the results of data analyses of public health and biomedical studies.
• Communicate and teach biostatistical principles and methods to researchers and trainees in public health and the biomedical sciences.
• Understand ethical principles of study design, data analysis and interpretation.
• Critically evaluate public health and medical literature with respect to disease (outcome) measures, measures of association, study design options, bias, confounding, and effect measure modification.
• Interpret descriptive epidemiologic studies in order to develop hypotheses of possible risk factors for a health outcome. • Apply quantitative methods to analyze and synthesize epidemiologic data related to public health issues.
• Design robust observational and experimental studies to address public health and clinical problems.
• Deploy central concepts, methods, and applications of contemporary modeling in epidemiology, including transmission dynamics of infectious, chronic, vector-borne, and sexually transmitted diseases and the manner in which social networks and human behaviors affect those dynamics and their control.
• Design and present and epidemiologic investigation resulting in a publishable manuscript.
• Apply appropriate research methods to analyze health policy and management issues and questions.
• Synthesize evidence to guide policymaking and assess public policies and programs that promote population health and health equity.
• Assess different theoretical perspectives in management and apply these ideas to the identification, analysis and understanding of critical themes and issues in health care and public health.
• Apply knowledge from a social science specialization (sociology, political science, psychology, anthropology) to a public health problem.
• Critically assess major theories, trends, and debates in the social and behavioral sciences literature regarding health.
• Develop skills used to choose appropriate research designs and statistical methods for answering public health questions in the field of social and behavioral sciences.
• Design rigorous and ethical research studies that examine theories or conceptual models relevant to the social and behavioral sciences.
• Assess the means by which the social determinants of health create challenges to achieving health equity at the behavioral, community & societal levels.
• Communicate social and behavioral health theories, concepts, and scholarship in oral and written form to diverse audiences.

NYU Policies

School of global public health policies.

University-wide policies can be found on the New York University Policy pages .

A list of related academic policies can be found on the School of Global Public Health academic policies page . 

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