PhD in Public Health Admissions

All applications are accepted in SOPHAS, an online application system where prospective public health graduate students can apply to multiple accredited schools using the same transcripts, letters of recommendation, and resume. 

The application deadline to submit in SOPHAS is December 1. Submitted but unverified or incomplete applications (including the supplemental application) will not be considered after December 8. Applicants will be notified no later than April 1.

When applying to the PhD in Public Health, you must include:

• Official U.S./Canadian transcripts from ALL schools attended
• Resume/CV
• A required statement of purpose (the formerly required separate research statement has been removed because that is now embedded within the statement of purpose) 
• Three letters of recommendation

Select applicants will be invited for a virtual interview.

No, the GRE is not required for the PhD in Public Health.

In addition to the requirements listed above, international students must submit:

• World Education Services (WES) ICAP course-by-course evaluation of academic records from institutions outside of the U.S. and English-speaking Canada.
• English proficiency test scores for applicants who attended post-secondary institutions outside of the U.S, Canada (excluding the province of Quebec), Commonwealth Caribbean, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand.

Read more about international student requirements.

We only have fall intake for the PhD in Public Health. There is no spring admission for this program.

There is one required Statement of Purpose and Objectives and one optional statement to provide additional information in SOPHAS.

The Statement of Purpose and Objectives asks the following questions:

• What is your focused area (s) of interest in public health research?  

• What are your previous academic, professional, extracurricular, research, and/or lived experiences that demonstrate your interest in public health research, including your focused areas of interest within the field of public health? 

• What motivates you to enroll in the PhD in Public Health program, including your concentration, at George Mason University? 

• Which Global and Community Health faculty would you like to work with? Specify two faculty whose research you are interested in. Include how your focused research interests are aligned with the faculty member (s) that you would like to work with.

• What are your career plans following completion of the PhD in Public Health? 

The Additional Information statement is OPTIONAL. This section allows applicants to provide any other information about their path to graduate school that may help to contextualize their academic record. 

The following list of GCH faculty will consider working with PhD student mentees.

• Helen Chin
• Rochelle Davidson Mhonde
• Ken Griffin
• Jenna Krall
• Anna Pollack
• Amira Roess
• Dongqing Wang
• Jaffer Zaidi

The application process asks applicants to name faculty members they are interested in working with. We strongly encourage you to reach out to these faculty members before applying, but be sure to do so thoughtfully. Begin by identifying faculty whose research aligns with your interests and familiarize yourself with their work and recent publications to understand their research focus.

Consider how your own research goals and experiences might complement their current projects. When contacting faculty, introduce yourself and clearly explain why you are interested in their work. Highlight how your research goals and experiences align with their research, and inquire about potential opportunities for collaboration as well as the qualities they seek in PhD students.

As this is a research-based degree, it is preferable to have letters of recommendation from former professors that speak to your intellectual and research capabilities.

There are many factors that make an application to the PhD in Public Health competitive, including:

• Clearly articulated public health research goals that align with an area of focus with of at least one GCH faculty member.
• Strong grades in quantitative reasoning courses.
• Relevant professional or research experience in public health or related fields.
• Strong letters of recommendation from academic or professional references.
• A well-written and compelling statement of purpose.
• Alignment with the department's and program's mission and values.

After you submit your application to SOPHAS, and all components of the application are complete (e.g., no missing transcripts), they will “verify” it. We only review applications that are verified and complete.

After verification, you will receive an email with a link and instructions to the supplemental application. It’s not an automatic process, but know that the supplemental application email will be sent in the order in which applications are verified. The supplemental application is the domicile questionnaire – it tells us if you will receive in-state or out-of-state tuition. Once that is completed, you will receive an email indicating that your application is compete and “ready for review” – where it is sent to faculty reviewers.

As is standard across graduate programs in the US, students must accept or decline our offer of admission by April 15. However, although it is nice to know earlier if you are coming or choosing to decline our offer so that we can make offers to other students, programs, including ours, cannot require that you make your decision before April 15.

In the offer of admission, your PhD advisor will be listed.

The program may support doctoral students who are in good standing and making adequate progress towards their degree through Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) or Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) contracts. GTAs/GRAs receive tuition waivers, fully subsidized health insurance, and a stipend for living expenses. Students receiving stipends must be registered as full-time students during the period that they are receiving their stipend. All applicants to the program are considered for GRA positions.

Students may choose to supplement their stipend by engaging in research or training beyond their required activities as a GRA or GTA.  This additional work, related to public health services or research/doctoral training, may not total more than 10 hours per week.  

Additional opportunities for funding include fellowships. Read more about graduate fellowship opportunities.

Our PhD program is designed for full-time study. Strong applicants are offered tuition and stipend support to complete the program in a timely fashion but are required to be enrolled full-time. As a PhD student, you will be involved in professional development opportunities, research, teaching, and coursework. Working closely with your faculty mentor and building a professional relationship are also key components of doctoral training. These commitments and relationships are difficult to fully maintain if you are working on your degree part-time.

Any reduction in credits for a prior degree is done on a case-by-case basis after a student is admitted into the program. Mason policy 6.5.2 allows a maximum reduction of 30 credits in a 72-credit doctoral program like the PhD in Public Health.

Review the University Catalog for current course requirements in the PhD in Public Health.

The qualifying exam is a written exam that covers the basic material included in the PhD core courses. Typically, it is taken the summer after the first year in the program and should be attempted at the first opportunity after all the core courses have been completed.

Students who complete all public health core and concentration core course requirements, pass the qualifying examination, and successfully defend their dissertation proposal may advance to candidacy. PhD candidates are permitted to enroll for dissertation credits and have certain privileges in determining full-time/part-time status. Candidate status is also a requirement to apply for certain competitive graduate fellowships and rewards.

See Program Policies on advancement to candidacy in the university catalog.

The dissertation is a scholarly work of independent research that contributes to the scientific field of public health. Often the dissertation is completed as three publishable manuscripts that all address a single, unifying research question. The question may be addressed in three different ways, using three different populations or addressing different aspects of the question. The specifics of each PhD in Public Health student’s dissertation are developed in consultation with the student’s faculty mentor.

The student will develop a dissertation committee, complete and defend a dissertation proposal, and complete and defend the dissertation. The student must also submit the dissertation to the University Library by the deadlines set for that semester in order to graduate. Review AP.6.10 in the University Catalog for more information.