MD/MPH

MD/MPH students must complete 39 credits in the MPH Program in addition to their MD courses. MD/MPH students are awarded three credits for the completion of their MD degree; these credits count toward the MPH 42 credit requirement.

The curriculum is integrated into the regular MD track so that combined degree students complete their MD requirements in the same sequence as their traditional MD colleagues. Students take their required MPH courses on Tuesday afternoons during their first two years. In the summer between the first and second year students complete a 200 hour field experience. In the following third and fourth years they spend late winter/early spring of each year taking elective courses as well as remaining required courses. Several students take an additional year to undertake independent research projects or study abroad.

MD/MPH students must complete a core curriculum that includes courses in epidemiology and biostatistics, human behavior, environmental and occupational health, health services, research methods and health care budgeting and management. They also complete an Applied Learning Experience, the program’s capstone experience, during their fourth year, take courses in public health law and quality improvement, and attend a monthly evening seminar—Integration of Public Health—that helps integrate their public health work and clinical studies. Students usually lose two clinical electives when undertaking their public health course requirements in years three and four.

Applicants for the MD/MPH apply to the School of Medicine in the same manner as all other applicants and additionally submit a separate combined degree program application. The online combined degree program application is accessible with the online secondary application on the Tufts School of Medicine secondary application web site. Applications for the MPH program will be reviewed only after admission to the Medical School.

What is the application time frame and process?

Applications to the MPH portion of the MD/MPH program may be done via the Tufts MD secondary application at any time from when an applicant first fills out that application up until the end of July, just before the MD program starts. The secondary application deadline is January 15, but students may return to the combined degree application after the MD application has been submitted. The structure of the program precludes students from joining the program after it starts.

Applying early has the advantage of assuring a seat in the MPH should a student get accepted and choose the Tufts MD program. Although we accept MPH applications until just before the program starts, it is on a space-available basis. Most years the numbers work out well and everyone who gets in and wants the MPH can matriculate, but we have had years when not all students could be accommodated. Also, late applicants are likely to be placed on a waiting list pending decisions made by students admitted earlier, and so an early application can reduce uncertainty about acceptance to the MPH at a time when an accepted MD student is deciding whether to attend Tufts or another school.

Applicants accepted to both the MD and the MPH will be offered a choice of either an MD or an MD/MPH seat. They are not committed to taking the MPH until they respond to that offer.

Additional interviews are not required for any of the MD/master’s degree programs. No additional standardized tests (such as the GMAT or GRE) other than the MCAT are required for any of our combined degree programs. Applying to our combined degree programs does not require any additional application fees.

The Tufts School of Medicine Committee on Admissions is the only body with the authority to admit applicants to our medical school. The combined degree program has its own program committee that is authorized to admit applicants; however, it may do so only after the applicants have been approved for admission to the entering class by the Tufts School of Medicine Committee on Admissions. Applying to a combined degree neither helps or hinders their MD application.

The following tuition rates are for 2020 – 2021 academic year* and apply to students enrolled in the dual MD/MPH program starting in Fall 2020. Students enrolled in the dual MD/MPH will be enrolled in the MPH program for each of the four years they are in the MD program, and are therefore billed at a flat rate of MPH tuition for each year.

The current academic year's cost of attendance budget (including not only tuition, but room and board, health insurance, books etc.) is available from the Office of Financial Aid.

* Tuition rates and fees are effective as of July 2020. Note that program cost is set each academic year (June to May) and typically increases a small amount from year-to-year. The Trustees of Tufts University reserve the right to change tuition rates or fees at their discretion.

Physicians with an MPH go into every specialty. All Tufts MD/MPH graduates have gone on to take and complete clinical residencies, and most continue to work as clinicians throughout their career. A small portion do leave clinical medicine, usually several years after residency, to work in public health full-time, but most will find a career that allows them to do both clinical work and to engage in work that uses their public health skills explicitly. Public health careers for physicians exist in government, in academia, in community settings, in clinical administration, and in the private sector. Some physicians never use their MPH for work separate from their clinical work, but rather use their MPH to be a somewhat different, and we would say better, clinician.

For more information about any aspect of the program, see MD/MPH FAQs or contact Anthony Schlaff, MD, MPH.