Community Health and Preventive Medicine

Types of Degrees Community Health and Preventive Medicine Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many community health and preventive medicine graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Bachelor’s Degree	1,388
Master’s Degree	336
Basic Certificate	178
Associate Degree	55
Graduate Certificate	46
Doctor’s Degree	25
Undergraduate Certificate	14

What Community Health and Preventive Medicine Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to community health and preventive medicine and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Community Health and Preventive Medicine Majors

Community Health and Preventive Medicine majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.

Skills for Community Health and Preventive Medicine Majors

A major in community health and preventive medicine prepares you for careers in which the following skill-sets are crucial:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Abilities for Community Health and Preventive Medicine Majors

As you progress with your community health and preventive medicine degree, there are several abilities you should pick up that will help you in whatever related career you choose. These abilities include:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.

What Can You Do With a Community Health and Preventive Medicine Major?

People with a community health and preventive medicine degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Community Health Workers	17.9%	$39,540
Medical and Health Services Managers	20.5%	$99,730

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Community Health and Preventive Medicine?

The major attracts more women than men. About 83% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of community health and preventive medicine majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	165
Black or African American	232
Hispanic or Latino	251
White	602
International Students	23
Other Races/Ethnicities	115

Geographic Diversity

Americans aren’t the only ones with an interest in Community Health and Preventive Medicine. About 1.7% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Community Health and Preventive Medicine

Some careers associated with community health and preventive medicine require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

Find out what the typical degree level is for community health and preventive medicine careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	3.5%
Some College Courses	1.2%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	21.0%
Bachelor’s Degree	59.3%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	2.1%
Master’s Degree	13.4%

Online Community Health and Preventive Medicine Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	10	1
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	0
Associate’s Degree	29	1
Bachelor’s Degree	11	5
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	37	10
Post-Master’s	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	13	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Community Health and Preventive Medicine

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to community health and preventive medicine.

Major	Number of Grads
General Public Health	25,558
Public Health Education and Promotion	4,112
Other Public Health	3,157
Health Services Administration	3,047
International Public Health/International Health	1,696
Environmental Health	1,439
Behavioral Aspects of Health	633
Maternal and Child Health	275
Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene	261
Health/Medical Physics	244
Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality	87

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Article 25 Flickr under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.