If you want to earn a graduate public health degree, you’ve got your eye on the prize: a promising career in public health. One of the major areas of public health is Biostatistics. Professional biostatisticians use statistics collected from living organisms to answer important questions about disease, resilience, emerging drugs, medicine and treatments, and so much more. Obviously, if you’re interested in a Master’s public health degree focused in biostatistics, working as a biostatistician is a great choice. In this job, you’ll create and conduct surveys, experiments and opinion polls that collect and process important public health data. Building a study or survey that will measure crucial, formative information that can solve real public health problems is extremely difficult, but also fascinating and rewarding.
If you want to become a Biostatistician, a Master’s degree in public health with a concentration in the field is your way in. Fortunately, there are top programs in this field that can be taken mostly, if not entirely online. We’ve ranked the Top 15 Best Online MPH Degrees in Biostatistics based on a number of metrics including national prestige, affordability, graduate rates, retention rates, among others. In these programs you’ll learn how to figure out what problems or questions should be studied in public health, decide what data needs to be gathered to answer/solve them (and how to get it), build vehicles to gather the data (surveys, experiments, etc.), analyze what you’ve found, and communicate conclusions on it to those above you in a way that motivates positive action.
Biostatisticians aren’t just number crunchers. They’re communicative, versatile public health professionals that can thrive in a number of environments while working on complex problems for government agencies, universities, medical centers, corporations and more. In these roles, you’ll often need to interact with populations who are at risk for certain diseases or health problems. The most significant challenges biostatisticians face are in deciphering what the data they’ve collected shows, often with the aid of state of the art processing tools that require intense study and experience to use properly.
Perhaps most pertinently, the job market for biostatisticians is expected to grow 34% over the next decade. In 2015 the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that biostatisticians make approximately $84,440 on average annually, while those working in pharmaceuticals averaged approximately $94,740 a year. Salary.com has recent average salaries in the field as high as $169,000, depending on experience, education, location and organization. Statisticians who work in the federal government have approximate median wages of just under $95,000 per year.
A Master’s degree in public health is a great path to many careers within the field, not just in Biostatistics. However, if you value finding and solving important issues, this is a great choice. As empirical approaches become more important with the help of evolving processing tools and finely educated professionals, Biostatistics will play a larger and larger role in public health organizations, pharmaceuticals, and related efforts. To get the education you’ll need to build a career in the field, check out our Top 15 Best Online MPH Degrees in Biostatistics to find a program that works for you.
