Quick Links
Why Hartwick
Want to help prevent the next pandemic? Interested in developing far-reaching policies or overseeing the delivery of healthcare? Excited about teaching communities to protect themselves and others? Study Public Health at Hartwick College and you’ll develop the crucial skills and insights needed to succeed in this diverse and rapidly-growing field.
Many Career Paths
Hartwick’s interdisciplinary approach to public health sets us apart. Working with professors from across the natural and social sciences, you’ll gain an understanding of the complex influences on public health. You’ll see how religion, culture, and socio-political structures can determine how one community manages an infectious disease while another continues to suffer from its effects.
A set of core classes, including Global Health and Epidemiology, will help you build your foundation. As early as your first year, you can customize your major to your interests. Want to dive deep into science? Take classes in the microbiology of disease and reproductive health. Want to understand the breadth of contributing factors? Learn about the business of healthcare systems, the psychology of addiction, or cultural influences on decision making. You can even work with your Faculty Advisor to design your own concentration within the department!
Immersive experiences and networking are at the core of your Flightpath. You’ll be invited to our Hawk Career Hop, for example, to network with alumni working as researchers, teachers, and practitioners in both domestic and global public health. Your Career Coach and Alumni Mentor will guide you toward internships and opportunities that will build your in-depth understanding as you craft your Digital Resume.
Soon you’ll be ready to show off what you’ve learned with a Capstone project, which brings the opportunity to reflect on and present your findings. By the time you cross the Commencement stage and accept your degree, you’ll have an impressive Digital Resume that will propel you in graduate school and the field of public health.
Extraordinary Opportunities
As a first-year student, you’ll take short courses in Hartwick’s 21st Century Modules that will help you develop a critical understanding of the cross-cultural fluency vital to working across diverse populations. Your personal Success Coach and Faculty Advisor will help you chart your specific Flightpath. By your junior year, your Career Coach and an Alumni Mentor working in your field of interest will share their knowledge and experience as you pursue post-graduation opportunities.
Take your education to the next level with Hartwick’s international experiences. Our renowned J Term program could take you and your new friends to study nutrition and sanitation in Thailand or the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Take the lead of Hartwick students before you by winning an Emerson International Internship Scholarship. Like them, you might contribute to public health in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Thailand, Zambia, Zimbabwe, or another destination.
Many of our public health graduates build their credentials in graduate school before fully launching their careers - recent grads have gone on to top programs that include Yale University and UNC Chapel Hill. Hartwick has a new agreement with Boston University’s School of Public Health that gives our graduates special consideration in their master’s degree programs in Public Health or Population Health Research. Benefits include a GRE waiver, tuition scholarships, and opportunities to complete BU graduate courses as a Hartwick undergraduate!
An Education Built for You
Just as a career in Public Health is not one-size-fits-all, neither is Hartwick’s public health major. From the first day of classes, you’ll have the opportunity to customize your coursework toward what you’re most passionate about, whether that’s science, business, culture, or delivering healthcare to people in need. Immersive internships and global experiences show you the critical importance of your field both at home and abroad, and you’ll chart your personal Flightpath to realize your career goals.
Three-Year Bachelor’s Degree Program
Ready to move faster? Get the full Hartwick public health experience in three-quarters the time at three-quarters the cost. Learn more about the three-year program.
Learn More