SUMMARY
Majoring in Public Health is not only a valuable choice, but generally a necessary first step for undergrads hoping to enter a career as a healthcare consultant, a health program analyst, or an occupational health and safety specialist. Interestingly, public health is fairly popular being the 31st most popular area of study. In the last year, there were 16,962 public health diplomas received. In-state tuition for public health at private schools is, on average, 3.8 times more pricey than their public fellows.
There are 406 universities which offer public health. 406 schools is fairly average in terms of the number of institutions which offer each degree. If you're hoping to surround yourself with other public health undergrads, consider universities in California which have the most undergrads admitted to public health annually. Zooming out, the top region to get a degree in public health is in the Southeast region with University of Florida, East Carolina University, and University of South Carolina-Columbia best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection of the best conference to study public health is the Big Ten Conference with University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Maryland-College Park, and Rutgers University-New Brunswick representing the conference. Based on our extensive list of the best colleges, our choice for the best college for public health is Harvard University.
The objectively best school does not have to be the best school for you. There are lots more angels to weigh when deciding on college. External stuff such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food could definitely refashion your choice of where to go to college. Here at authority.org, we have weighed the pros and cons for you. If, as an example, you are intrigued by which public health school is home to the best campus, the answer is Harvard University. If you are very interested in which school is home to the top campus, we have a whole page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through professor reviews, government databases, student reviews, and more so we can compare every major in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can explore our comprehensive list for the universities with the best student life and from that list, our choice for the university with the best student life for public health is Cornell University. Are you curious why? Keep scrolling to learn more about Authority's top choices. Some of our decisions will probably shock you.
If cost is a major influence in your decision on where to go to school, you might consider avoiding Tufts University. Tufts University appears to be the most expensive college for public health, at least for out of state students. We do have a list of the most expensive colleges that might put the price tag at Tufts University into perspective. For more context, you may want to know that public health is the 122nd most expensive program in the United States, with an average cost of $36,600. On a broader scale, the most costly state for public health nationally is Rhode Island at Brown University and Roger Williams University, the primary colleges in the state, of $57,112 and $32,789. Even more broadly, the most expensive region of the U.S. for public health is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Hampshire College with a cost of $50,030, Tufts University with a cost of $57,324, and Brown University with a cost of $57,112.
Our cheapest region for public health is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Brigham Young University-Idaho with a cost of $4,208, Brigham Young University-Provo with a cost of $5,790, and Independence University with a cost of $14,585. More optimistically, the most affordable school for public health is University of South Florida-Main Campus. Our full list of the most affordable colleges can be found here.
In-state students can expect to pay in the neighborhood of $9,900 for a degree in public health. That price inflates dramatically to an average of $23,500 for an out-of-state public-school student. On that note, our choice for the university representing the best value for public health: Duke University. Through this link you can find our comprehensive list about the schools we believe to be the best value in general. With that said, this idea is predicated on out-of-state tuition costs. The value proposition changes when in-state tuition is considered, but as we do not know what state(s) you might qualify for in-state tuition, we are approaching this discussion through out-of-state tuition costs.
Earnings for public health students differ widely, but within two years completing the major graduates will regularly make in the neighborhood of $45,800. There is a lot of variation in earnings potential; top earners can experience pay up to $85,200. Even straight out of university, the lowest end positions within the public health field make $25,100, which isn't that bad. The highest earning graduates for public health have come from Duke University and if you want to find the schools with all of the highest earning graduates, Authority has that too.
The overall diversity of public health sits high, coming in the 91st percentile of majors nationally. The university with the most composite diversity for public health is New York University and here you can find our general list for the colleges with the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of Public Health only sits in the 62nd percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, in the 96th percentile. White students compose the largest proportion at 45% of scholars studying public health. Additionally, 78% of undergrads seeking a public health major are women.
The median score of public health professors is 4 stars, which is surprisingly the median across all majors; this is a fine. If you are interested in the most popular public health instructor nationally, consider looking up Tamara Hill from Brigham Young University-Provo. It may be a shock, but the highest ranked public health professors from student rankings are found at Arizona State University-Tempe. As we consider data beyond just rankings it becomes clear that the school with the overall best instructors for public health is Johns Hopkins University. You can find more detail on our ever evolving ranking methodology for the best overall professors here, along with many of the top instructors nationwide.
Finally, the most difficult college to get into for public health is Harvard University. While we think of this list more as a novelty, we have a general page of the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, we do hope you understand that looking at higher education with context mainly shaped by superlatives might cause issues. We at Authority hope you read our more nuanced pages on different colleges and peruse a few of Authority's helpful background articles on essential things to consider as you continue your school search.