School of Medicine

Master of Public Health Curriculum

Turn Your Knowledge Into Real-World Impact

Tufts University crafted the Master of Public Health curriculum to nurture the next generation of compassionate and effective public health leaders. In this program, you embrace rigorous academic training with practical experience, specializations, and flexible learning formats. Online or on campus, you develop the expertise to address complex health challenges through evidence-based approaches that promote health equity and social justice. 

The Tufts MPH program equips you with the skills, knowledge, and real-world experience to make a lasting impact. Take the first step toward a meaningful career in public health.

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Online and On-Campus Classes Available

Whether you enroll in our on-campus or online program, our MPH curriculum maintains the same high standards across all formats. You also have the opportunity to cross-register, allowing you to take advantage of both modalities. 

Engaged Practice

The Tufts MPH curriculum incorporates two applied learning elements—Applied Practice Experience (APE) and Integrative Learning Experience (ILE). These experiences ensure that you put theory into action, transforming your knowledge into real-world impact.

STEP Courses

Chart your professional path in public health with confidence by taking our innovative Skills and Tools for Engaged Practice (STEP) three-course sequence. It provides mentorship and guidance to help you prepare for your practicum and capstone.

MPH Program Requirements Overview

Whether you choose to take classes online or on-campus, the Master of Public Health program consists of 42 credits, ensuring a comprehensive education with core courses, six concentration options, and electives. The curriculum is built upon key competencies encompassing:  

  • Evidence-Based Approaches to Public Health
  • Public Health and Health Care Systems
  • Planning and Management to Promote Health
  • Policy in Public Health, Leadership
  • Communication
  • Interprofessional Practice
  • Systems Thinking

View the full table of skills and competencies.

Core Courses

The Tufts MPH curriculum requires students to complete five core courses, which count as 15 credits toward the degree. They provide a robust foundation in the essential disciplines of public health:

  • This course provides an introduction to the epidemiological perspective on health and disease. Through lectures and real world examples, you understand a wide range of contemporary health problems. You master the principles and methods used to describe and evaluate the patterns of illness in communities and in population subgroups. Methods and research designs used in the investigation of the etiology of infectious and noninfectious diseases are presented.

  • This course introduces the profession of public health, the social ecological model, the social determinants of health, and health equity. You define complex public health issues and build skills to assess the root causes of problems that impact population needs, assets, and capacities within a community.

    Employing an equity lens, you reflect on your own biases, assumptions, experiences, and exposures. You examine critical public health challenges across an array of public health domains, including healthcare services and systems, environmental health, occupational health, and health behavior. You’ll learn practice-based tools for conducting needs assessments and characterizing public health problems using systems thinking.

  • This course equips public health professionals with the concepts, frameworks, and skills to address critical public health problems of our time and improve population health and health equity. Specifically, you engage in a variety of active learning scenarios, including case discussions, role plays, simulations, and project development and implementation.

    Throughout the class, you continue to examine how the public health infrastructure functions across multiple levels of government and the role of evidence, politics, stakeholders, and power in influencing public health action and social change. You practice public health strategies for action throughout the semester, including emergency management, teamwork, stakeholder engagement, coalition development, program planning, policy evaluation, health impact analysis, and advocacy. 

  • Learn the basic principles and applications of statistics as they are applied to problems in clinical and public health settings. This course delves into topics including the description and presentation of data, random variables and distributions, descriptive statistics, introduction to probability, estimation, elements of hypothesis testing, and one- and two-sample tests, ANOVA (including repeated measures), non-parametric tests, and an introduction to linear and logistic regression. Lectures, problem sets, and software output are used to develop these concepts.

  • In this introductory course, you learn how to evaluate public health interventions. Addressing formative, process, and outcome evaluation, the course explores commonly used planning tools and data collection methods. By the end of the semester, you have practiced data collection skills and are able to apply content and conceptual knowledge learned in the course to the development of an evaluation plan.

Concentration Courses (12 Credits)

Want to dive deeper into a specific topic of public health? The MPH program curriculum offers a range of concentrations, allowing you to specialize in an area that aligns with your interests and career aspirations. Depending on your chosen concentration, you take a set of required courses.

Please note that the online MPH program offers only the Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Health Management & Policy, Individualized, and Population Health Promotion concentrations.

Explore MPH Concentrations

Electives (12 Credits)

Regardless of the concentration you choose, our curriculum allows room for additional electives to customize your public health education. Moreover, we encourage interdisciplinary exploration by granting students the option to take two elective courses, equivalent to six credits, outside of the School of Medicine. This empowers you to broaden your perspective and enrich your learning experience by expanding your knowledge beyond the boundaries of your primary concentration.

View Electives List

Study Around Your Schedule

Designed with busy working professionals in mind, the MPH curriculum offers flexible class schedules. In-person classes are in the morning and afternoon, while online courses are offered in the evening. You have the freedom to design a personalized schedule that suits your needs.

Time to Degree Completion

While most full-time students complete the program in four semesters, you have up to five years to earn your degree, depending on your pace. For those seeking a faster completion, our accelerated path (summer entry only) allows you to achieve your MPH degree in just 12 months. Your journey to becoming a public health leader starts here, where flexibility meets excellence.

Take the Next Step: Begin Your Path to Public Health Leadership

Get ready for a transformative Master of Public Health curriculum at Tufts University that combines academic rigor with real-world application. Through comprehensive coursework, engaged learning experiences, and flexible program options, you develop expertise to drive social change in diverse communities. 

Have questions about the program or courses? Contact us!

Learn About Admissions

MPH Curriculum and Classes FAQs

  • The Applied Practice Experience (APE) is a field-based practicum where you apply public health knowledge in a real-world setting, creating practical deliverables for a community partner organization.

    The Integrative Learning Experience (ILE) is a culminating capstone project that demonstrates your ability to synthesize and integrate the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the program.

    Both experiences are the cornerstone of the Tufts Master of Public Health program, increasing your career readiness. 

  • Yes, all MPH students, whether enrolled in the online or on-campus format, complete the same Applied Practice Experience requirement. Online students can arrange practicum placements in their local communities.

  • Yes. You can cross-register to study in a hybrid format, which allows you to balance the flexibility of virtual learning and in-person connection.

  • Tufts’ online MPH program is designed for flexibility, combining live (synchronous) sessions with self-paced (asynchronous) learning. Each week, you can expect:

    • 90 to 120 minutes of live, instructor-led sessions
    • 60 to 90 minutes of self-paced activities

    That’s about 3 hours of direct instruction per week. In addition, you should plan for extra time for readings, assignments, and preparation—typically bringing the total to 9–12 hours of work per week, depending on the course and your learning style.