Meet Your Major

As a public health major, you’ll learn how to protect and improve the health of families, communities and entire populations.

By exploring population-specific health issues, health-education principles and preventive-health measures, you’ll gain the skills you need to promote health; prevent injury and illness; and control the spread of infectious diseases.

Photography for Merrimack College graduate programs.


What You’ll Learn 

In the public health program, you will:

  • Learn the best practices of collecting and analyzing data for evidence-based approaches in public health.
  • Explore complex socioeconomic, behavioral, environmental and organizational factors that impact health and contribute to disparities in the U.S. and around the world.
  • Use critical-thinking and problem-solving skills to design, implement and evaluate public-health initiatives.
  • Examine and interpret the legal, ethical, economic and regulatory dimensions of healthcare and public-health policy and their implications in government.

Hands-on Learning

In the public-health program, you’ll have the chance to apply your classroom learning in the laboratory and out in the field. In fact, 100% of public health majors participate in at least one internship, co-op, fieldwork or practicum. Real-world learning experiences will give you the skills you need for professional success as well as admission to graduate programs. You can work with faculty on advanced research projects or intern at top institutions like Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital or the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Interested in volunteering? You can join service projects that support community programs or get involved with Active Science, Merrimack’s interactive mobile app that gets school-age kids moving and learning about fitness and health.

Career Options

With a degree in public health, you’ll be well-positioned to pursue a professional career in this rapidly expanding field or go on to graduate school. Public-health positions may include:

  • Public-health analyst
  • Hospital administrator
  • Epidemiologist
  • Biostatistician
  • Health inspector
  • Health educator
  • Marketer in a health-related organization
  • Practitioner

What You’ll Take

All public-health majors take a combination of mandatory and elective courses to satisfy the 126-credit and 32-course requirements. To remain in good academic standing, you must maintain at least a 2.5 GPA.

See the online course catalog for more information.  

Professional Programs

Students interested in professional programs in medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, nursing, physician assistant, etc., should  consult with their adviser to be sure that they are meeting all necessary prerequisites.