Public Health Degree Programs at Kent State University
Kent State University appears in our ranking of the Top 10 MPH in Health Policy and Management Degrees Online.
The College of Public Health at Kent State University offers degree programs for any student with an interest in public health. Many of those programs are available for undergrads, including transfer students coming from other schools and freshmen who recently enrolled in the university. A Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) is available with a focus in health administration, health promotion and education, or environmental and occupational health. Each program is available both online and on its Ohio campus.
Some of its undergrad degree programs in public health are only available for traditional students. One is a BSPH in Environmental Health Sciences, which looks at the impact of environmental conditions on the health of individuals. A community public health program is also available with a focus on promotions and ideas that help people at the community level. Undergrads can also focus their public health programs on clinical trials research, allied health or global health. The College of Public Health offers a pre-professional public health program for those who want to attend medical school. Kent State University has an undergrad certificate program in public health too.,
The Master of Public Health (MPH) program offered by Kent State University features 19 credits of core classes and 15 credits of specialization courses. Students can pick from specializations such as biostatistics, environmental health sciences, epidemiology, health policy and management, or social and behavioral sciences. Both the social and behavioral and health policy and management specializations are available for students in the online program. All other specializations are only open to traditional students. Graduate students will also earn six credits for a practicum and a culminating experience. The university requires that they work 10 to 20 hours each week in a public health agency.
A Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health is also available from Kent State University. This program includes 13 credit hours of prerequisite classes that most students will complete at the graduate level and 12 credits of core public health classes. The specializations open to doctoral candidates include epidemiology, prevention science, and health policy and management. Candidates must take at least 24 credits of classes from within one of those specializations. They’ll also earn up to 30 credits for their dissertation work. Kent State University requires that doctoral students present their dissertations before they can get their degrees.
About Kent State University
Kent State University is a public university named after the city of Kent, Ohio. Established in 1910, it was one of two schools designed by the state for the training of teachers. Those teachers sometimes moved west, but many stayed near the campus and worked for schools across the Midwest. As the university grew, it added new programs and began offering bachelor’s degrees programs for teachers and other types of students. Often called both Kent State and KSU, its campus has an important place in history because of the shootings that occurred there during a protest in 1970. A memorial to those affected by the incident has a focus on its campus. KSU operates multiple campuses outside of Kent and has an enrollment of nearly 40,000 students in total.
Kent State University Accreditation Details
Kent State has both regional accreditation for all its degree programs and specialty accreditation for its public health programs. Its public health accreditation comes from the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). Regional accreditation, which helps students with their financial aid and transfer credits, comes from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).
Kent State University Application Requirements
Kent State decides which freshmen to admit based on factors such as their ACT/SAT scores and high school grades. Prospective undergrads should submit transcripts that show a college prep curriculum that includes four years of math and English classes and three years of social science and life/health science classes. The university recommends that students take two years of a foreign language and one year of art classes too. Students will use the KSU online application and pay a fee of $50. They will then submit both their test scores and transcripts. The deadline for those who need financial aid and those who want to apply for scholarships is February 1, and the final deadline for undergrad applications is March 1.
Grad students applying to the traditional public health program or the online option must meet the same admission requirements. Those requirements include a minimum grade point average of 3.0 in college and a bachelor’s degree. The university looks favorably on those who studied public health, health, medicine or science in college. They can apply online through the KSU application portal and then submit their documents to the university via the mailing address listed on the application. Those documents include three letters of recommendation, official college transcripts and a GRE score that is no more than five years old. They will also submit a personal goals statement through the application portal. The university has the same requirements for doctoral students but also asks that they interview with a faculty member of the College of Public Health.
Tuition and Financial Aid
The tuition guarantee established by KSU guarantees that undergrads will avoid tuition increases later. This policy freezes the tuition rate based on when the students enroll and allows them to take four years of classes for this same rate. Undergrads can take up to 18 credits during the fall and spring semesters for $10,756 per year. Students who are not Ohio residents will pay $19,458 per year. Those residing on the KSU campus pay $11,300 each year for room and board. Both doctoral and graduate students pay $9,450 per year as an Ohio resident and $17,622 per year as a nonresident.
Both loans and grants are available for students who need financial aid. They can apply for those programs through the FAFSA. While graduate students receive unsubsidized loans, undergrads qualify for subsidized loans. There are PLUS loans for students of all ages and loans designed for their parents/guardians. Incoming freshmen can also qualify for KSU scholarships, which the university offers for both Ohio residents and incoming freshmen from other states. Students may get $2,000 or a larger scholarship of $10,000 based on their high school grades and test scores. Kent State University will also accept the alternative loans that students get from private lenders to pay for its public health degree programs.