Environmental quality clearly affects human health. Increasingly, climate change complicates our attempts to predict the effects of the environment on human morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, public perceptions of the connections between health and the environment have been key drivers of environmental policy and legislation worldwide.
To train students to understand these complex issues, Yale offers a joint-degree program that pairs a master’s degree from its School of the Environment with a master’s from its School of Public Health.
Degrees
Students earn one of four environment degrees – the
Master of Environmental Management (MEM) or the
Master of Environmental Science (MESc), the
Master of Forestry (MF), or the
Master of Forestry Science (MFS) – and the
Master of Public Health (MPH).
Within public health, students choose among seven divisions: biostatistics; chronic disease epidemiology; environmental health sciences; epidemiology of microbial diseases; health care management; health policy and administration; and social and behavioral sciences.
The joint program reduces the total time of study by one year.
Course of Study
The joint-degree MEM program requires a completion of 36 credits as well as a summer internship and a thesis or a capstone project. In addition, all joint-degree students are required to attend three weeks of technical skills training before beginning their studies at YSE. These are hands-on workshops, offered every August, that teach plant identification, ecosystems management, land measurement, and urban ecosystem analysis. Please see
Degree Programs at YSE for more information.
At the
School of Public Health (YSPH), students take 15 course units, which include the core curriculum, departmental requirements and electives. Please see
Academic Programs at EPH for more information.
Admissions
Each school individually admits students in accordance with its own criteria. Prospective students may apply to the program prior to matriculation by submitting a separate application to each school during a single admissions cycle. For more information on admission, please visit
YSE Masters Admissions and
YSPH Admissions.
Tuition
Students pay tuition for three semesters at YSE, and three semesters at YSPH. For more information on applying for financial aid at YSE, please see the
YSE financial aid website. For information on financial aid at Public Health, please see the
YSPH financial aid website. Students must apply for financial aid at each school, and any aid awarded will apply to the semesters in which a student is enrolled at that particular school.