Public health?

Public Health is a wonderful field to get in to. I suggest going to the CDC and looking at the different jobs they have listed, many of which you will find are for new graduates. You can consider epidemiology, or some other form of disease surveillance. It really depends on what your interests are; people in public health do so many different things, from checking restaurants and pools for compliance, to tracking a variety of diseases, to more hands on work like testing the public for TB or HIV. The sky is the limit in this field.

I worked in public health for about 4 years as a communicable disease surveillance specialist and loved it! Consider the University of Washington, they have an excellent undergrad as well as grad program. Call your local or state health department and ask if you can do a professional interview with someone, that's what I've done in the past. That way you can talk with someone who is actually doing a job that you are interested in, and here things directly from them about the path they took to get where they are.

If you like healthcare, consider looking into Health Information Management. That ended up being where my interests turned after working in public health and I find that I have the best of many worlds. Good luck!

Public Health is a great, diverse field that is perfect for scientifically-minded people who also want to go into communities and make a difference on a large scale. Public health professionals can work with the government to create health-related policy, they can run studies and crunch data, and they can even go abroad and assist in the development of third-world countries.

Some people say public health workers are like doctors for a whole society, which is really the best way to describe the work of those in the field. Instead of dealing one-on-one, public health workers deal with the community. Most public health jobs require an MPH (Master's of Public Health) along with the bachelor's, which is a two/three year extra commitment. If you're interested in global public health working in third-world countries or with the UN, you'll need to know at least one language other than English. You'll also probably be required to visit/work in a third-world country, no matter what kind of career track you're interested in. Global health is a huge part of the field.

The jobs do pay well. The median is in the high five figures, I believe. You can get a job in the government, too, like at the National Institutes of Health or the Department of Health, in which case the hours and benefits are also great.

Thanks very much for the answers, they were really useful!
I would also like to know what the best universities are in Europe to study a masters in public health. I have read really good comments about the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, but I haven't really found much information about others. Does anyone know other good universities in Europe?

Thanks guys for the answers. I've also been interested in getting a master's in public health management.