Degree Requirements

Doctorate of Philosophy
Students seeking admission to the program should have an MSPH degree or equivalent and two years of training and/or experience in a field related to parasitology (other than the time spent in a degree program). A personal interview is required if the applicant is located in or near New Orleans. Graduates are qualified to work as laboratory directors of control, training or research programs in parasitic and other tropical infectious diseases.

Completion of the degree requires a minimum of two years and normally three or more years of course work and dissertation research. Students will have satisfied core requirements for the MSPH degree, and the specialty requirements. Both the practice and Capstone experiences will be fulfilled by the laboratory/field work and thesis requirements for the PhD degree program.

The doctoral program requires 60 credits of graduate coursework of which not more than 24 can be transfer credits, and, depending on the student’s career focus, may require demonstrated proficiency in one foreign language.