Public Health Degree Programs Available at Loma Linda University
Loma Linda University appears in our ranking of the 10 Cheapest MPH Degrees in California.
The School of Public Health at Loma Linda University offers programs designed for students with an interest in public health. In the Master of Public Health (MPH) program, students choose a concentration such as epidemiology, global health, nutrition or population medicine. All MPH students must complete the public health core that includes Public Health for Community Resilience, Public Health for a Healthy Lifestyle and Public Health and Health Systems.
Each MPH program includes concentration courses too. In the epidemiology concentration, students take Principles of Epidemiology, Data Collection Methods, Biostatistics I and II and Grant and Contract Proposal Writing. Most programs include a practicum that consists of 200 hours of fieldwork too. Students entering one of the university’s doctoral programs can transfer their fieldwork into a new program. Loma Linda University also requires that MPH students take Applied Research, which is a class that is worth one credit hour and prepares students for doing a thesis or dissertation later. The health education and wellness concentration is only available online.
A Master of Health Care Administration (MHA) is a similar program that is open to full-time and part-time students. It takes them between two and four years to finish the program and do the 200 hours of fieldwork that it requires. This is the only program of its type in California with accreditation. Students can also earn a Master of Science (MS) in Nutrition from Loma Linda University, which goes beyond what they would study in the MPH concentration in nutrition. It includes a dietetic internship too.
The university now has a Doctor of Philosophy in Epidemiology that takes up to five years to complete. Though it includes 18 credits of prerequisites, students can skip some or all of those classes based on their transcripts. Biostatistics II and III, Molecular Epidemiology, Concepts of Nutritional Epidemiology, Epidemiology of Cancer and Wholeness and Health are some of the program’s required classes. The university’s Doctor of Health Education is an online program that prepares students for educating patients and health care professionals. Other doctoral programs are available in nutrition, preventive care, and health policy and leadership.
About Loma Linda University
Loma Linda University is a private university affiliated with the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Founded in 1905, the university originally served as the Loma Linda Sanitarium and was named after the city of Loma Linda, California. It later became the Loma Linda College of Evangelists and offered sewing, cooking, math, Bible, anatomy and nursing classes. The college then became Loma Linda College and the College of Medical Evangelists of Loma Linda. Early students had the chance to work in the Los Angeles Hospital to gain practical experience. Now called Loma Linda University and LLU, the university offers fieldwork experiences at the Loma Linda University Medical Center for its more than 3,500 students.
Loma Linda University Accreditation Details
The School of Public Health at LLU has accreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), which covers all the public health and related degree programs as well as the practicums and internships that majors do. Students who do dietetic internships receive accreditation from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) too. LLU also holds accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), which covers its undergraduate programs and the tracks designed for graduate students. This is the same accreditation needed for any student who wants to get financial aid and plans to use the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Loma Linda University Application Requirements
LLU works with the SOPHAS website and requires that students applying to an MPH program or any degree available through the School of Public Health use that website. They need to submit a minimum of three letters of recommendation, academic records, and a personal statement. The SOPHAS site includes detailed instructions on how to write the statement and what it should cover. Their academic records should come from schools where they earned credits. LLU asks for at least one letter from a former professor. Students can submit letters from other teachers as well as their employers, but they cannot use letters from their friends or relatives. The MPH and MHA programs require a GRE or GMAT score too. Those with a GPA of 3.2 or higher do not need to submit a score.
Students applying to a doctoral program need a master’s degree in public health or a related field and a GPA of 3.5 or higher. If the student does not have an MPH degree, the university may require that he or she take up to 15 credits of prerequisites. They should also submit an official GRE score to show that they scored highly on the exam. LLU will not accept scores that are more than five years old. All students pay a $50 application fee too. Though the MPH program has a rolling admissions policy, other programs have an application deadline near the middle of February. LLU asks for an enrollment deposit of $100 for graduate students and $250 for doctoral students.
Tuition and Financial Aid
In the School of Public Health, LLU students pay $895 per credit in any MPH or graduate program, which is the same rate that online graduate students pay. Both the online and traditional doctoral programs charge $975 per credit. Graduate students also pay a $725 fee when they do their first 100 hours of fieldwork. LLU charges another $833 in fees that are due each quarter also.
Students who work for some Seventh Day Adventist employers and organizations may qualify for a tuition discount. Discounts are also available for Peace Corps volunteers and current students who recruit new students into a School of Public Health program. Thirteen awards go to worthy students each year but require that students submit the FAFSA and then apply for each award. LLU students can also get loans after they go online to accept their loans, complete entrance counseling and sign a lender agreement. Those who apply by the beginning of March qualify for early bird funding and special awards. Loma Linda University encourages students applying to its public health programs to apply for early bird funding.