MPH in Biostatistics Information Session
Description of the video:
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you have that one semester of linear
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algebra you have that and at least one
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semester of introductory advice that
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statistic by statistics courses which
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you already mentioned you have
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uh the main part that you need to have
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are these guys here the three semester
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stock and one semester linear algebra
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and their only reason for that is that
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so that you will have all the
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prerequisites
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to go to
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the um
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to the to the math uh course which i
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will describe in the next slide so the
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curriculum now has uh is a 36 credit
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hour curriculum it's pretty rigorous um
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the uh
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the
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what everyone in my in public health has
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to take is an introductory course to
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public health so basically it's of
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course that
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um
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exposes you to the various uh
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disciplines in public health and public
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health thinking and so on
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so that's that and that usually is a
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readings course in public health like
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pbhl 510 which is called the
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introduction to public health
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there's also a required epidemiology
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course
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at a minimum and
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there's the course
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by staff courses
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and in addition um
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you will have to
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uh
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have a
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uh three credits of thesis research and
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we'll talk about that this is option
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because we've they're discouraging it
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um but it's it's there it's in the books
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and so on and one for one elected course
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uh if you decide not to do a thesis and
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uh and just complete your coursework uh
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the uh for more information you can go
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to the website out here um
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which i will do just to show you
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um
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i don't think you can see this so let me
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actually stop sharing and share my
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entire screen so you can actually see
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exactly what i see
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um
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so what i what i'm showing you is the ms
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biostatistics curriculum here and that
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link that was
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that transferred me here was from the
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actual um
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from the actual um
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uh
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powerpoint here so this link took me
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here right
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all right so uh
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the required pub public health course is
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usually the pbhl 510 which is
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introduction to public health it's a
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readings course it's triggers from
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perspective it's a lot of reading and a
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lot of information and so on so you
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basically come here for a semester and
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you just get inundated with this stuff
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but
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it's actually very useful because public
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health thinking is somewhat different
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from just technical thinking or
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even clinical thinking um
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then there's also a required
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epidemiology course which you can take a
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pretty much any of the semester so
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um you might
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decide to take it at a subsequent
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semester we're going to talk about the
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plan of studying a little bit it's
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called fundamentals of epidemiology and
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basically
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it supplements all i mean several of the
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concepts in this course are also going
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to be
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inculcated
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in your head
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throughout the
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curriculum but
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this also
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is a complementary course to
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reinforce some of the
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concepts in epidemiology usually i would
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recommend taking the course second
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semester or later and you will see the
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plan of study in a minute um so these
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are seven courses which you will have to
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take the
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stat any when you see a stat
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code that that is a course that you must
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take in the math department
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um so 519 is essentially a
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calculus-based probability
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and all these semesters of math
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basically
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are there in order to allow you to
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enroll in that course now if you
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have aspirations to
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obtain a phd especially here uh you need
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to take 519 which is the higher level uh
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introduction probability it's not
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indirect to probability two or anything
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like that it's just caught at a higher
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level compared to
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uh stat 516. 516
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is
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designed for
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terminal
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master degree
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students
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i you should not take 516 if you ever
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want to take to get a phd because it
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would be kind of a
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waste of time because then you will have
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to take 519 which is essentially the
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same course just a higher
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level of teaching and difficulty
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uh the same thing is the case in the
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spring when you have to take 528 which
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is the mathematical statistics course
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this one has a
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lower level uh
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course corresponding course which is
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called 517 again if you want to
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obtain a phd in our program you have to
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take 5 28 because if you take 5 17 you
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will have to take 5 28
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again in our program if you
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think you might not want
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to continue and obtain your phd in our
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program and apply elsewhere i'm sure
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they will accept 516 or 517 as
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probability and math stats elsewhere
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because the
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syllabi uh are identical uh however in
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our program the handbook
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explicitly states that 519 and 528 must
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be the courses that someone has to have
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in order to continue on
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to the phd program
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uh with that complicated description out
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of the way there is a four course um
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sequence of 571 572 573 574
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571 is basically your regression course
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572 is a generalized linear models
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course but really at the lower levels
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like a baby glm
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um it exposes you to uh regression
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models like uh
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uh logistic regression negative binomial
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regression and things like that
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uh 573 is a survival analysis course
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there was a couple of monocoques
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regression things like that
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574 is an applied longitudinal course
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there is a basically massive level on
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the first
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first
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level lower level uh longitudinal course
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which would
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be good for people who especially like
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yourself who want to
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work in clinical trials because
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it
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explicitly
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addresses
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analyses uh of data that
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that includes the repeated measurements
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on people so usually in the clinical
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trial when you have clinical uh visits
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you have all these repeated measurements
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and you can use a special
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um theory to analyze them um
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we also have a course called pbhl 581
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which is
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this computing
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um
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[Music]
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this
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so you have to take
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either 581 which by statistical
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computing or 552 which is introduction
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to a data management if you want to do
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um if you this is the second course
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particularly useful
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if you want to
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[Music]
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uh be uh like a master level
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statistician in a clinic in a cro
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clinical research organization or a
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clinical trial shop
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uh where you will be
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um
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required to do some data manipulation
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and
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so on
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one thing i should say is that our
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program
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to the at this point and at present is a
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is based on this difficult software
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called sas
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um and the reason for that is because
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most uh
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graduates work either in the state
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or in pharmaceuticals and
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sas still dominates pharmaceutical
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research and clinical research
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the exception to that is course 581
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um which is an r based course so
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basically it exposes you to uh
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statistical computing with vr
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uh package 552 is also sas based but we
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have and we're developing a graduate
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level data management course based on
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our so far we have only an undergraduate
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level
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online data management course based on
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the heart or it's um
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um
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prerequisites you see are uh calculus
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ii uh vector calc and uh
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uh and this one is the lower level
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linear algebra of course uh all these
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are undergrads of course
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and these will allow you to get into 517
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or
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um
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519. um
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and also and five-second one is the
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prerequisite for everything and the
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director for that is any introductory
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really by statistics course or
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equivalent
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um
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the um
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another one anyway so let me let me just
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go through a typical study plan the
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first year you will take either the
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probability for sure you have to take
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that
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uh more important because this can also
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be taken out here in the third semester
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um but it's critical that you take 571
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if you miss that you will stay longer
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than two years in the program because
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there will be no
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problem no option of taking that until
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your third semester
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uh usually people take 581 or 552
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in in
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their uh first semester
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uh then uh people
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you take five seven uh in the second
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semester or spring of the first year you
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take 517 north 28th
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uh you take 572 just
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because you have to and then if you took
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uh 581 here you can take 552 here
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because that is throughout every
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semester or an elective and as elective
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um one of the elections we could take is
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uh clinical trials although i would um
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which is started in the fall so i guess
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that would go here so anyway so this is
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ten
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of these courses this one
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is it's four credit courses at three
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plus three so that's 10 hours here 10
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hours here and then you go to your fall
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semester or third semester so you're
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going to take your either your
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epidemiology core course or the readings
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in public health course here
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and you're going to take the
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survival analysis course and then you
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can take either an elective or if you
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have taken 552 you can take 581 which is
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only taught in the fall
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you can also take 582 which is clinical
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trials if you want to stay but
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the clinical trials courses talking are
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um this is actually the course i'm
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teaching this fall
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um so
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taking this course here without having
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taken 581 here will be
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might be traumatic so
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uh you might want to consider that and
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obviously this discussion you will have
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with your advisor again this is a 10
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credit hour semester and then in the
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spring you take two courses
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which include your either your
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epi or
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public health
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prerequisite and the fourth uh
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course of the four semester sequence in
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um
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by a station of if you want you can take
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another course here another elective but
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you can end here um
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um
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with six credit hours in the last
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semester um
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what else
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the uh if you do a thesis option
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you can do
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this is you can take a
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b7 11 in your last semester which is a
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three credit hour thesis
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um
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we discourage that for many reasons um
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i should say i'm sorry uh the non-thesis
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option
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means that at about the end of your uh
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of your
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third semester you will have to pass a
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competency exam so for example for
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people who are finishing uh this fall
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uh they will have come in january a week
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before the start of the spring semester
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and take competency exam which basically
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is based on the curriculum of those
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first semesters
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um
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the competency exam has a theoretical
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size so you solve some theoretical
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and an applied side where you interpret
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data because obviously you cannot do
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analysis live during that exam you pass
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that
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and you pass these last two courses you
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graduate
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in the thesis option you don't take the
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exam but then you have to find an
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advisor
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um i we have found that uh
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most people take more than a semester to
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finish their thesis so even if you start
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in the fall semester you may not be able
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to complete it by the end of the spring
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semester so that is also consideration
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for example i have a student who is in
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their fourth
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semester doing their thesis
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uh and i think they will
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take two years to finish it it's a very
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substantial
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um project and
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it's a project that is both it takes a
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huge amount of time both with your
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advisor and
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uh yourself so that's an option that
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even though it's on paper
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it is discouraged um
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that's it so i'm happy to entertain any
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questions lisa
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you