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Application Tips

  • The School of Public Health and Community Medicine offers 50 degrees/tracks and 15 graduate certificates. Carefully consider which program best matches your qualifications and goals before applying as you will have to start your application over if you decide to change your program or track. Complete list of degrees and certificate programs offered by the School.


  • Epidemiology is the study of the distribution of disease in populations and the study of risk and preventive factors for disease.


  • If you are interested primarily in program design, implementation, or management, health education, law, or policy, or health services research, you should apply to Health Services (requires about 2 years health sciences work experience) or Global Health (requires about 2 years health-related work experience in a developing country) instead of Epidemiology.


  • Read the Admissions Criteria in advance of applying.


  • Relevant work (especially research) experience in epidemiology, health sciences or related fields (e.g. quantitative social sciences) is especially important. If the applicant has no or limited health sciences work/research experience, more emphasis will be placed on appropriate educational background, health-related research experience as a student, and excellent grades, GRE, statement of purpose and references.


  • Read the SOPHAS and/or Direct UW application directions carefully well in advance of the deadline. Click on each item to learn what is expected.


  • Select recommenders well in advance after reading the criteria for recommenders and reference letters.



  • Send recommenders the information we seek in reference letters and give them AT LEAST a month to write the letter.


  • Read the Statement of Purpose information concerning what to include in your statement.


  • If you do not have a health sciences background, we recommend the following courses to provide some of the knowledge needed in public health:
    • Human Physiology
    • Human Genetics
    • Statistics
    • Public Health (especially epidemiology, environmental health or survey courses in public health)
    • Nutrition
    • Microbiology (if interested in infectious diseases)
    • Molecular/Cellular Biology

  • Study hard for the GRE and take it the prior summer so you can retake it if your scores are lower than our preferred GRE scores. Early November is the latest you can take the GRE to reach us in time.


  • TOEFL/IELTS: See recommendations under GRE above. It is strongly recommended if your GRE verbal score is not in the 600s, that you take the TOEFL/IELTS to improve your admission chances, even if it is not required.


  • SOPHAS: You MUST apply to UW Graduate School as well. Read the UW Application through SOPHAS directions carefully. Many of the application pieces DO NOT need to be re-submitted.

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    This page was last updated on October 28, 2009