Public Health Minor

The Public Health cross-school minor provides students with an introduction to thinking about health issues across populations, the major causes of poor health outcomes, as well as approaches to protect the health and wellbeing of populations domestically and globally.  Exploring the interdisciplinary nature of the field, students will be exposed to health promotion strategies, disease prevention interventions, epidemiological theories and more.  Completion of the minor is useful preparation for careers in many fields including the health professions, social work, business, law, psychology and others.  

Students completing the minor enroll in two core courses, UGPH-GU 10 Health & Society in a Global World and UGPH-GU 30 Epidemiology for Global Health, and select two electives from the list below to reflect their interest in the field. 

Double Counting: In some cases, courses may be applicable to both major and minor requirements. For the Public Health Minor elective requirements only, we honor the double-counting policy stated by a student's home school. It is also the student's responsibility to ensure they are meeting the credit minimum in order to graduate with declared degrees (major/minor). Students are encouraged to email their home school advisor to ensure the courses will double count so we can do the same.

Required courses:

UGPH-GU 10 Health and Society in a Global Context (4)
UGPH-GU 30 Epidemiology for Global Health (4)

Note: these courses may be taken at other NYU campuses as UGPH-GU 9010 and UGPH-GU 9030, respectively.

Please note that the following courses may NOT be counted towards the minor:

  • UGPH-GU 20 Biostatistics for Public Health 
  • UGPH-GU 40 Health Policy in a Global World
  • UGPH-GU 50 Environmental Health in a Global World
  • UGPH-GU 60 Experiential Learning

Electives (choose two courses from the following list):

Anthropology (CAS)
ANTH-UA 35 Medical Anthropology
ANTH-UA 36 Global Biocultures

Applied Psychology (Steinhardt)
APSY-UE 1272 Adolescent Development
APSY-UE 1081 Psychosexual Aspects of Human Behavior
APSY-UE 1041 Women and Mental Health: A Lifecycle Perspective
APSY-UE 1110 Sexual identities across the Lifespan
APSY-YE 1038 Abnormal Psychology

Biology (CAS)
BIOL-UA 30 Genetics
BIOL-UA 31 At the Bench: Laboratory in Genetics
BIOL-UA 38 Genome Biology
BIOL-UA 45 Quantitative Methods in Human Genetics
BIOL-UA 44 Microbiology and Microbial Genomics
BIOL-UA 50 Immunology
BIOL-UA 70 At the Bench: Microbiology
BIOL-UA 1023 Hot Topics in Infectious Diseases
BIOL-GA 1080 Animal Virology
BIOL-UA 64 Ecological Analysis with GIS
BIOL-UA 1066 Toxicology

Global Liberal Studies (GLS)
GT-UF 201 Globalization and the Environment
GT-UF 201 HIV/AIDS: A Global Perspective
GT-UF 201 Sustainable Human Rights: Food, Water, Health and Environment 

Global Public Health (GPH)
Any UGPH-GU course may be used as an elective, with the exception of UGPH-GU 20, 40, 50, or 60

History (CAS)
HIST-UA 743 Power and Poverty
HIST-UA 202 History of Western Medicine
HIST-UA 293 Global Medicine & Medicine: The Challenges We Face

Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health (Steinhardt)
NUTR-UE 1209 Community Nutrition
NUTR-UE 1187 International Nutrition
FOOD-UE 1033 Food Systems: Food and Agriculture in the Twentieth Century
NUTR-UE 9187 Global Nutrition: The African Perspective [offered in Accra, Ghana]

Philosophy (CAS)
PHIL-UA 50, Medical Ethics

Public Policy (Wagner)
PHIL-UA 50, Medical Ethics (4 credits)
UPADM-GP 236 Topics in Health: Policy, Politics and Power

Social Work (Social Work)
UNDSW-US 0082 Global Poverty

Sociology (CAS)
SOC-UA 139 The American Ghetto
SOC-UA 451 The Family
SOC-UA 135 Race and Ethnicity 

Ready to Minor in Global Public Health?

If you want to incorporate a public health perspective to your chosen major to enhance both your education and your marketability to employers and graduate schools, you can:

1. Schedule an appointment with Alicia Ocasio, Program Administrator, Student Affairs at ao58@nyu.edu to learn more about the  requirements. (Note: An initial appointment is required in order to declare the GPH minor)

2.  Apply for the GPH minor here under the “Minor Application” section.