Hi guys,

I'm about to start my 3rd year of Health Studies at Lincoln Uni and don't know what I want to do afterwards. I have just received my year 2 results and I got a 2:1 so I think i'm on the right tracks. After enjoying our epidemiology unit I decided I would like to undertake a Masters in Applied Epidemiology at Notts uni. Although the head of department said I would not need a GCSE Maths in order to do the course because I am doing a relevant subject, maths is a great part of Epdeimiology and I would struggle without Maths. Now I'm thinking of looking into a research degree but I'm so confused and bewildered of what I can do.

Any help out there? :-)

Not my area, but I'd guess statistics are going to be a biggish part of any science degree at that level. So whether you formally need a GCSE or not I would think you'd have to be reasonably confident in maths.

I don't know your subject area, but maybe you should be asking yourself if there are directions you could go that are less science-based (and hence less maths/stats based) - e.g. Health Care Ethics?

Epi will be quite mathsy. You could probably minimise the number of stats units you do, but it depends on what your goals are the other side of the course as to how helpful this would be. Prior knowledge is probably less important than confidence with numbers and feeling happy about getting to grips with statistical concepts.

As an alternative, how about Public Health? A Public health MSc (or MPH) has a bit of a broarder overview, taking in epidemiology, health economics, policy issues etc. If you wanted to go down the Public Health trainee route, a masters degree would be incorporated into that. But I think you have to have some relevant experience (3 years worth?) before you can get accepted onto that scheme (http://www.publichealthconferences.org.uk/careers/). Nothing stopping you doing a stand alone Masters though.

I wouldn't rule out epidemiology though, as it would give you a very good basis for future research, and if you can develop those kind of quantitaive skills it would stand you in good stead. How about trying to do some kind of crash course over the summer to get you up to speed? Or talking to students who may have had a similar level of maths experience to you before they starte and see what their perspective is. You might even find some online resources that might help you improve your confidence (e.g. http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~mb55/msc/maths/maths.htm)

Ultimately, if you want a research career, feeling comfortable with stats is really really helpful. In many scenarios you may well defer to a statistican for complex analyses, but if you can at least ask him/her the right questions in the first place that will be really helpful to you.

Good luck! :-)

yeah that's a possibility. i didn't like my ethics unit though. so what's your subject area?

Jade

Hi Jade

My subject area's philosophy - hence Health Care Ethics popping into my mind I guess.

No stats to worry about for us chin-stroking philosopher types - it's airy-fairy pontificating all the way! (Well, maybe not, but I don't think what we do could be described as 'quantitative'. The closest I get to maths is the occasional bit of formal logic in a paper I need to get my head around.)

I did philosophy and ethics for a-levels. didnt do too well but i found philosophy really interested. it helped having a really funny teacher!

the head of my course said he'd support me if i wanted to do a masters in epidemiology but we only covered the basics in the unit. ive ordered some prospectuses so ill see what sort of things are in store.

[HazyJane]

Thanks for the advice. Public health is a very effective area to work in i will look into that :)