MPH vs. MSPH vs. MHS: Which Public Health Degree Is Right for You?

Most people who research public health studies and graduate programs in areas like epidemiology, biostatistics, health policy, and environmental health will come across the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. 

That said, the MPH is only one path toward these disciplines. There’s also the Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), which leans toward research, with a greater emphasis on methods and analysis, and a Master of Health Science (MHS), which is built around a single focus that can vary by institution. For example, Johns Hopkins University offers the following MHS tracks:

The job outlook for public health that is published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) helps explain why public health degrees are so popular. Public health careers are projected to grow faster than job growth in other industries in the next decade. With the national average for all occupations at 4%, projections for jobs in the public health field are either equal to the average or higher: 4% for health education specialists, 11% for community health workers, 12% for occupational health and safety specialists, and 16% for epidemiologists^2-5.

This is why, as a prospective student, your challenge is not figuring out whether public health matters. It clearly does. The real question is which path of public health studies and degree structure will best fit your academic and career goals. This guide breaks down the distinctions in focus and typical outcomes for MPH, MSPH, and MHS degrees.

The Master of Public Health is a common graduate degree for people who want to work in health departments, nonprofit organizations, international agencies, or hospital systems. The training is structured to cover multiple angles of the public health sector. 

Students take core courses in areas like epidemiology, health policy and management, biostatistics, environmental health, and social and behavioral sciences⁶. From there, you can choose to specialize in specific content areas like global health, nutrition, or health promotion.

The CEPH (Council on Education for Public Health) is the national accrediting body that sets the educational standard for public health education¹⁰. Every CEPH-accredited MPH program must include practical training and meet core competencies set by the independent agency. The accreditation requires institutions to adhere to strict foundational and concentration competencies that include an Applied Practice Experience (APE) and an Integrative Learning Experience (ILE)¹¹. 

At Yale, the APE usually takes place in the summer after the first year and often involves an internship or applied project with a local, national, or international organization¹². Yale also requires a master’s thesis or capstone project in the second year, which allows students to integrate what they learned across the MPH curriculum into a final project¹³. At Johns Hopkins, students complete at least 100 hours of hands-on work, plus a capstone project that connects their foundational education with real-world application¹⁴. The MPH capstone topic and format are flexible and range from public health program planning and evaluation to policy analysis.

For many public health professionals, the MPH serves as a terminal degree. MPH graduates who want to run a research lab or become faculty at a university often need to complete either a PhD or a DrPH (Doctor of Public Health).

While a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) can be confused with an MPH, the two have slightly different goals. The MPH is a more practice-oriented education, while the MSPH degree leans more academic. MSPH degrees attract students who want to dig into research methods and statistics, and many of them see this pathway as a step towards a doctoral degree or a career that is centered around public health research.

In both degree pathways, students will learn public health fundamentals, like epidemiology and biostatistics. While the MPH treats research as one of several competencies, the MSPH places greater curricular emphasis on research design and data analysis. At Johns Hopkins, for example, getting an MSPH in Population, Family and Reproductive Health requires a faculty-supervised Master’s Essay. This culminating project often draws from the student’s extended field placement and may involve original data analysis or applied research¹⁷.

Other departments within JHU’s Bloomberg School of Public Health have a different focus. The MSPH in Health Policy within the Department of Health Policy and Management includes a full-time, paid field placement in the second year, that is often completed within research or policy organizations. Though practice is part of the experience, the emphasis remains on applying analytical methods in a structured academic context²⁰.

MSPH programs across departments typically include a faculty-mentored essay or thesis, which is designed to demonstrate the student’s research ability and analytical depth. For doctoral students in International Health, Johns Hopkins even offers a concurrent MSPH option, which is awarded through the completion of their dissertation research²¹. Across departments, the MSPH structure favors public health science over generalized practice, especially when the degree is used to strengthen applications for PhD or DrPH programs.

The Master of Health Science (MHS) is an academic graduate degree that is offered in both schools of public health and medicine. While the MPH is designed for practice and the MSPH leans into research, the MHS degree is built around concentrated study in a single field of health science. The MHS usually requires fewer practice-based courses than the MPH does and it may include less advanced research training than the MSPH, depending on whether it follows a professional or academic track. It may be offered at CEPH‑accredited schools, but the degree itself is not CEPH‑accredited. Depending on the school, MHS programs may cover areas such as mental health, environmental health, molecular microbiology, public health policy, or global health economics.

The structure of an MHS varies by department and institution, but most programs replace the practicum component that is seen in MPH and MSPH degrees with a culminating paper, project, or essay. Additionally, most MHS degrees are less of an overall time commitment compared to MPH and MSPH programs. Often, students can complete these degrees in 1-2 years of full-time study, like at Johns Hopkins University and Nova Southeastern University Florida. Touro University Nevada’s program is even shorter, wrapping up in about ten months.

No matter the school, an MHS degree culminates with a project that showcases how you have mastered your chosen subject area. At Johns Hopkins, the Department of Mental Health has students move through four terms of classes and wrap up with a research paper that is shaped around their focus area, like psychiatric epidemiology or global mental health²². At the University of Florida, the MHS in Environmental and Global Health culminates in an applied capstone experience that students co-design with a faculty advisor. These capstones are hosted at institutions like CDC or NIH, which underscores the degrees focus on scientific inquiry rather than the MPH-style broad public health synthesis²³.

Because of its narrower focus, the MHS is not equivalent to an MPH. The degree is often a stepping-stone for doctoral study, or an opportunity for additional academic training in a specific subject for those coming from clinical or professional backgrounds.

If you’re searching for a clear public health degree comparison, this table breaks down how the MPH, MSPH, and MHS actually work:

There is no perfect degree out there, but one of these will likely be a better fit for you based on your career goals. If you’re choosing a public health degree and still trying to narrow down which path will be best for you, ask yourself these simple questions:

Some people go straight for an MPH program since it’s more widely known in the industry. This degree is useful if you’re switching careers or planning to work in a local health department or hospital. You’ll cover a bit of everything, and you’ll get experience in the field before graduating.

The MSPH is more academic and built around research. Students who choose this pathway usually care more about methods and study design than running programs. 

MHS programs are even more narrow. They’re not built for generalists, like many MPH programs are. Students pick a subject and dive into that area of study.

Here’s one way to think about it:

Most people hear “public health degree” and think of the MPH, since it’s the one that leads straight to the action in public health administration. If you enjoy writing response plans and running teams, you could be a public health program manager and earn around $113,000 a year²⁴. As an epidemiologist, you wouldn't be too far behind, earning around $84,000, while health educators earn around $63,000^25,26. 

MSPH grads are usually somewhere in the background, adjusting the methods and rewriting the assumptions. As public health analysts, they get paid about $76,500 a year²⁷.

And the MHS? That’s a whole different story. If an MPH is about doing and an MSPH is about proving, the MHS is more… choose-your-own-path. You pick a subject and you stay with it. This subject could be microbiology, health economics, global health, or really anything that you are interested in. If you have an MHS in microbiology, the annual pay would be around $87,000²⁸. Someone working in policy modeling could earn more, but there’s no clear formula attached to the degree. Just you, your niche, and what you make of it.