How to Apply

Students interested in the Industrial Hygiene training program and who receive CARERC funding will be required to be enrolled in the Master of Public Health degree program (MPH) at Eastern Kentucky University.

The Master of Public Health Program seeks to admit students who demonstrate the potential to be successful in graduate school, and who are committed to the public health profession, as evidenced by their interests, backgrounds, and experiences.

For admission into the Program, applicants must meet the following minimum requirements

Baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution with a GPA of 3.0 or better;
Combined score of 291 with a minimum 143 on each area of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). Applicants may use the Miller Analogy Test with a score of 385 or higher as a substitute for the GRE. Applicants with a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher, or a 3.25 or higher in their last 60 hours of undergraduate work, are exempt from the GRE/MAT requirement.
Submission of the graduate school application and related fee;
Submission of a statement of personal and professional objectives (1½ to 2-pages);
Submission of three letters of recommendation (from) employers or previous professors; and
(for International applicants) TOEFL score of at least 580 for paper-based test, 237 for the computer-based version, and 92 internet-based.
Industrial Hygiene prerequisite coursework: At least 1 physical science plus a physics course; 2 chemistry with lab; 2 biology with lab; college algebra; and 1 microbiology course at the undergraduate level.

Applicants are encouraged to begin the application process at least 4 weeks (6 weeks for international applicants) prior to the deadline to ensure that all supporting materials are available by the deadline. Once the Office of Graduate Education and Research has received, and processed required materials, an applicant’s file is forwarded to the MPH Office. The Program Director will send a notification to the applicant acknowledging receipt of all required (or missing) materials. A copy of the completed file is then sent to the appropriate Option Coordinator. Summary data on all applicants for a given semester is updated and distributed every few weeks to all MPH Admissions and Recruitment Committee Members. MPH faculty of each program option review applicants for that respective option and make recommendations regarding eligibility for admission of each applicant. The Option Coordinators then bring these recommendations forward to the MPH Admissions and Recruitment Committee, which meets within approximately three weeks of application deadlines to vote on each application for admission into the Program. Within the week following the MPH Admissions and Recruitment Committee meeting, the Program Director provides written notification to the graduate office (Recommendation for Admission form) regarding the decision for each applicant. The Graduate School office then sends an official notice to the applicant, indicating whether s/he has been accepted for admission to the Program. Shortly thereafter, a welcome letter is sent to the applicant from the Program Director, on behalf of the MPH Admissions Committee.

The MPH in Industrial Hygiene is designed to meet the needs of students planning careers in occupational health. The degree is a generalist degree and requires core courses in industrial hygiene principles, occupational health sampling, hazard controls, air quality, and environmental and industrial toxicology. Students are also required to complete an MPH core consisting of courses in biostatistics, epidemiology, public health administration, human behavior change, public health planning, environmental health, and research methods. The degree awarded upon successful completion of the Industrial Hygiene Program is the Master of Public Health (MPH) Industrial Hygiene. The MPH degree program or equivalent professional master degree must be at least 42 semester credit units in length. EKU MPH-IH is 43 hours which includes 36 hour of didactic course work, 3 hours of Practicum, 3 hours of Independent research and one hour of the capstone. Students receiving CAERERC funding must also complete 7 hours considered a CARERC core at the University of Kentucky, College of Public Health. Industrial Hygiene students must complete an original research project which should be presented as part of their capstone course.