The Major

The undergraduate public health program at Tulane University builds on the strengths of its respected graduate research faculty, multicultural student body, and excellent programs. The school's undergraduate program will provide you with a strong base in the liberal arts and sciences and a solid foundation in the public health sciences. Your Tulane degree will be a first step in securing the tools and skills you need to create and disseminate public health knowledge and to apply that knowledge on local and international levels.

Public health undergraduates choose one of three tracks:

Environmental Health Science: This track applies the principles of toxicology, industrial hygiene, policy, and oncology to build skills to prevent, detect, and mitigate environmental public health problems and threats locally and globally. This track will emphasize recognition, evaluation, and control of environmental health problems. This includes application of basic environmental health principles to problem solving; use of laboratory and quantitative methods to generate and evaluate environmental health data; and use of computer technology to calculate, analyze, and display data.

Global and Community Health: This track educates students in the biologic and behavioral determinants of important public health problems in both developed and developing countries and discusses disease prevention strategies at the levels of communities and populations. Students learn how the biological sciences and the social sciences can be applied in developing public health policies and in planning, implementing, and managing prevention programs

Health Informatics: This track will prepare students for a variety of careers within public health, in other health sciences, and in careers outside of the health field where quantitative skills are necessary. Students will learn computer applications related to the acquisition, management, analysis, and dissemination of information. Emphasis will be placed on the fundamentals of the scientific method and its historical development , which is applicable across the whole scientific spectrum. Particular emphasis will be placed on the evaluation of data with a view of inferring causal relationships among given factors and health outcomes.

All students must fulfill the Newcomb-Tulane College requirements in addition to the BSPH Program requirements. Information on the Newcomb-Tulane College requirements can be found here.

Required Courses*

A. All students are required to take a Basic Core Curriculum that include:

             SPHU 101 Epidemics, Revolutions, and Response: The Historical

                                Development of Public Health (3 Credits)

             SPHU 102 The Cell, The Individual, and The Community (3 Credits)

             SPHU 201 Disease Ecology and Public Health Concepts (3 Credits)

             SPHU 202 Genetics and Human Health with Lab (4 Credits)

             SPHU 301 Public Health Systems Design and Decision Analysis (3 Credits)

             SPHU 302 Knowledge and Information in the Practice of

                               Public Health (3 Credits)

             SPHU 401 Foundation and Formulation of Public Health Policy (3 Credits)

             SPHU 406/408 Senior Seminar/Internship

 

B. All students must also take an Advanced Core Curriculum that includes:

             SPHU 403 / BIOS 603   Introductory Biostatistics

             SPHU 405 / EPID 604   Epidemiologic Methods I

             SPHU 304 / ENHS 603  Survey of Environmental Health Sciences

             SPHU 402 / SPHL 603   Social and Behavioral Aspects of Global Health

             SPHU 306 / HSMG 603 Principals of Health Systems Administration                                                                              and Management

 

C. All students must select a track and complete the required courses.  The BSPH program offers three tracks which provide specialized knowledge in the field of public health.

             1. Environmental Health Sciences:

                          SPHU 3XX Environmental Media: Air, Water, Soil, and food                 

                          SPHU 421 Health and Environmental Risk Assessment

                          SPHU 427 Ethics and Environmental Health

 

             2. Global and Community Health:

                          SPHU 311 Public Health Program Planning and Evaluation

                          SPHU 312 From Biology to Policy: Issues and Strategies in Public Health

                          SPHU 420 Implementing Evidence-Based Public Health

 

                                                    3. Health Informatics

                         SPHU 222 / BIOS 622 Database Management

                          SPHU 224 / BIOS 673 Database

                          SPHU 326 / Bios 626  Website Development

                          SPHU 330 Information Management

                          SPHU 430 Technology in Communication and Education

                          SPHU 431 Topics in Bioinformatics

                               Introductory Computer Course approved by the Department

 

Also required for each track is a professional communication course from the following list:            

                    COMM 220 Organizational Communication

                      COMM 223 Interpersonal Communication
                      COMM 225 Public Address

                      COMM 321 Principles and Practice of Argument

                     COMM 324 Interaction Analysis

                      COMM 351 Environmental Communication

                     COMM 421 Persuasion          

                      COMM 426 Communication, Culture and the Body

                     COMM 445 Communication, Language, and Gender

                      COMM 460 Intercultural Communication

                     COMM 462 Women, Development, and Communication in the English-                                        Speaking Caribbean

                      COMM 464 Communication and Cultural Identity in the English– Speaking                           Caribbean

                      COMM 484 AIDS and the Media (Instructor approval required)

 

*The school reserves the right to change its rules, regulations,
courses, and requirements and to make all such changes
applicable to all students, whether new or continuing, when in
its sole judgment such changes are deemed necessary.

Undergraduate Programs (Major)

To contact us:

Email: tuphs@tulane.edu

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