Certificate & Degree Details

• Public Health AS Degree

  Natural Sciences Division
  Degree S0428

  The AS degree in Public Health at Mt San Antonio College is an interdisciplinary program grounded in the biological sciences and designed to prepare students for entry level employment in public health fields. Students completing this program will exemplify a high level of health literacy and will be exposed to a large variety of disciplines.  Through this preparation, they will improve their understanding of the relationship of the environment to health, recognize and evaluate the economic impact of changing demographics on health care, identify and control disease outbreaks, and develop interventions to promote healthy behavior. Successful completion of this degree can lead to employment opportunities as a community or public health care worker, health educator, epidemiologist, and occupational and safety technician, as well as other health-related careers.  In addition, this program can provide advancement opportunities for those completing other CTE programs in health care, such as nursing. In order to ensure adequate preparation in this field and to allow for training in specialty areas, such as environmental health, program completion requires a minimum of 61 and maximum of 64 unit credits, depending on which required courses students complete. 

  This suggests that some students may require an additional semester or more for completion, depending on their level of preparation on entering the program.  Community college programs in public health are not yet accredited by ASPPH.  This program follows the guidelines of the ASPPH in hopes that accreditation will follow as more associate level students enter the public health workforce.

  This degree requires the completion of General Education coursework plus the following:

  Correction: Corrected units for (PSYC 10 or SOC 23 or STAT C1000 or STAT C1000H) to include unit range 3-4 units. Total units for degree adjusted to 48-52 units 9/15/2025.

  Required Courses

  Course List

  Course Prefix	Course Name	Units
  Select one of the following sequences:		8-10
  ANAT 10A	Introductory Human Anatomy
  or ANAT 35	Human Anatomy
  ANAT 10B	Introductory Human Physiology
  or ANAT 36	Human Physiology
  ANTH 5	Cultural Anthropology	3
  or SOC 1	Introduction to Sociology
  or SOC 1H	Introduction to Sociology - Honors
  BIOL 1	General Biology	4
  or BIOL 4	Biology for Majors
  or BIOL 4H	Biology for Majors - Honors
  CHEM 10	Chemistry for Allied Health Majors	5
  or CHEM 40	Introduction to General Chemistry
  MICR 1	Principles of Microbiology	4 - 5
  or MICR 22	Microbiology
  PUBH 22	Introduction to Epidemiology	3
  PUBH 24	Introduction to Public Health	3
  PUBH 26	Introduction to Global Public Health	3
  PUBH 27	Public Health and the Environment	3
  PUBH 28	Public Health and Bioethics	3
  PSYC 10	Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences	3-4
  or SOC 23	Introduction to Statistics in Sociology and Social Sciences
  or STAT C1000	Introduction to Statistics
  or STAT C1000H	Introduction to Statistics - Honors
  Choose two courses from the following		6
  ANAT 38	Pathophysiology
  BIOL 5	Contemporary Health Issues
  MICR 26	Introduction to Immunology
  NF 25	Introduction to Nutrition Science
  or NF 25H	Introduction to Nutrition Science - Honors
  PUBH 20	History of Western Medicine
  PUBH 29	Public Health Microbiology
  PUBH 30	Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Outbreak Investigation
  Total Units		48-52