Master's Program

The ScM in Epidemiology will no longer be offered beginning with the Fall 2020 application cycle.

Prospective students are encouraged to explore the rigorous, research-intensive Epidemiology concentration in the Brown MPH, a two-year professional degree that includes an internship, thesis, and the option of customizing your degree with one of several specialized concentrations.

Currently-enrolled ScM in Epidemiology students, please refer to the resources below.

Coursework

The Master’s program requires 12 courses to complete. Students must complete at least 8 credits of didactic coursework. The remaining 4 credits may be fulfilled through a combination of didactic coursework or independent studies. Of the 8 classroom courses required, at least 4 will be epidemiology courses with substantial methodological focus and at least 2 others will be in biostatistics.

Students pursuing an ScM in Epidemiology are required to take the following courses:

PHP 2150 – Foundations in Epidemiologic Research Methods
PHP 2200 – Intermediate Methods in Epidemiologic Research
PHP 2130 - Human Biology for Public Health

AND at least two of the following:

PHP 1560/2560 – Statistical Programming in R PHP
1895 - Mindfulness Epidemiology
PHP 2030 – Clinical Trials Methodology
PHP 2040 – Applied Research Methods
PHP 2118 – Genomics Epidemiology
PHP 2180 – Interpretation and Application of Epidemiology
PHP 2220B - Nutritional Epidemiology*
PHP 2250 – Advanced Quantitative Methods in Epidemiologic Research
PHP 2260 – Applied Epidemiologic Analysis Using SAS
PHP 2430 – Analysis of Population Based Datasets
PHP 2440 - Introduction to Pharmacoepidemiology
PHP 2455A – Health Services Research Methods I
PHP 2455B – Health Services Research Methods II
PHP 2465A – Introduction to Health Decision Analysis
PHP 2520 – Statistical Inference I
PHP 2530 – Bayesian Statistical Methods
PHP 2540 – Advanced Methods for Multivariate Analysis
PHP 2550 – Practical Data Analysis
PHP 2601 – Linear and Generalized Linear Models
PHP 2602 – Analysis of Lifetime Data
PHP 2603 – Analysis of Longitudinal Data
PHP 2610 – Causal Inference and Missing Data
PHP 2620 – Statistical Methods in Bioinformatics I

Required Biostatistics Courses:
PHP 2510 – Principles of Biostatistics and Data Analysis
PHP 2511 – Introduction to Applied Regression Analysis

The remaining courses can be selected from among various offerings in Public Health, Sociology, Environmental Studies, or related disciplines, with approval from the student’s academic advisor.

In addition, master's students are required to take the following non-credit courses during the first semester:

Graduate Student Course on SAS Data Management

Responsible Conduct in Research (RCR) Course

Thesis Requirement

All Epidemiology master's students must complete a thesis involving original data analysis. The thesis may involve original data collection, analysis of secondary data, or meta-analyses. The thesis will be a publication-quality manuscript suitable for submission to a recognized, peer-reviewed journal.

Master's Thesis Timeline

Students are encouraged to become familiar with potential thesis topics and to develop their own interests before investing major effort into the thesis work.  Students should begin to narrow their thesis topic by reading the literature and meeting with potential thesis advisors during the first semester. The thesis plan must be finalized by May 23rd of the second semester, with plans to begin research by the beginning of the third semester.

Oral presentation

As part of the thesis process, the Department requires all students to orally present the completed project. This is a capstone experience – not a formal defense – and is to be scheduled after the written version of the thesis has gained at least tentative approval by the faculty advisor and reader(s) but well before the deadline for submitting the thesis to the Graduate School.

Program Handbook
Student Resources