Public health undergraduates: Is the curriculum preparing them for their career?

The Johns Hopkins University has been home to an undergraduate major in Public Health Studies (PHS) for more than a decade, and has provided the means for students at the undergraduate level to study public health since the 1970s. From a modest group of committed students, PHS is now the largest major at the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences. But what do our students do after graduation? And how effectively is the curriculum preparing them for their careers? Senior surveys, conducted annually, point to a general breakdown as follows: 30% attending medical school, 30% attending graduate public health programs, 30% entering the work force, and 10% attending graduate school in other areas (law, policy, nursing, etc.). With an eye towards the increased interest in public health among undergraduates, and the concurrent conversation about the need to differentiate skill sets between levels of study, this paper will analyze alumni data from the PHS program. Information will be collected on graduates at the 1, 5 and 10 year marks, and will be linked to the corresponding senior survey. The intention of this review is 1) to find out how the students' self- projections manifest (are they well-equipped to articulate their interests upon graduation?), 2) to consider trends that may be evident in terms of shifting areas of interest or emphasis, and 3) to consider the longer-term career paths for graduates of an undergraduate public health program in an effort to anticipate the needs of tomorrow's PHS majors.