Purpose
The UC Berkeley concurrent degree program trains professionals to engage in transdisciplinary research, practice, and advocacy at the intersection of design professions, public health, and public policy. Students and alumni work to promote healthier cities and regions, placing an emphasis on strategies to address persistent health inequities in urban areas and their surrounding regions.
Program Description
Berkeley's concurrent program in city and regional planning and public health is one of the oldest such programs in the United States. Building on the leadership and vision of program founders such as public health professors Leonard Duhl and Trevor Hancock and architecture professor Rosyln Lindheim, the MCP+MPH program grapples with understanding how urbanization and characteristics of urban life influence well-being, and what practices and policies can improve the lives of the majority of the world's population now living in cities. The urban environment - and the planners and policies who shape it - influence many systems and aspects of daily life that impact health and well-being, including: food environments, air and water quality, (un)employment, housing, transportation, health care, public safety, social networks, financial security, and the distribution of political power and public resources. Students combine work within one of four Public Health departments: Health and Social Behavior; Health Policy and Management; Environmental Health Sciences; Epidemiology/Biostatistics and one of four degree concentrations in City and Regional Planning: Environmental Planning and Healthy Cities; Housing, Community , and Economic Development; Transportation Policy and Planning; Urban Design.
While the fields of modern city planning and public health emerged together in the 19th century to address urban inequities and infectious diseases, they were largely disconnected for much of the 20th century. In the 21st century, planning and public health are reconnecting to address the new health challenges of urbanization and globalization — from racial and ethnic health inequities to land use sprawl to providing basic services to the millions of urban poor around the world living in informal slum settlements. How to reconnect the fields of planning and public health to address these and other urban health challenges is the focus of this program.
Faculty
- Jason Corburn, Professor of City and Regional Planning
- Daniel Rodríguez, Chancellor's Professor of City & Regional Planning
- Rachel Morello-Frosch, Professor of Public Health and Environmental Science, Policy & Management
- Mahasin Mujahid, Professor of Epidemiology
- Amani Nuru-Jeter, Professor of Community Health Sciences and Epidemiology
Prospective students can apply to begin both programs at the same time or students currently enrolled in one program can apply to add the second program (dual degree) during their first year. See Graduate Admissions — Apply — Concurrent Programs for information on how to apply to the concurrent degree programs.
NON-BERKELEY STUDENTS
- Fulfill deadlines and requirements for both program applications (for more information, see: College of Environmental Design Graduate Admissions Information, MCP application prerequisites, and School of Public Health Admissions Information).
- Explicitly mention in your program statement that you are applying to the Concurrent MCP+MPH Degree Program.
- Directly contact program directors to express interest.
- One or more years of relevant professional experience is encouraged.
CURRENT BERKELEY STUDENTS
- Be sure to complete the section of the online graduate application designated for current UC Berkeley students and select the MCP/MPH program.
- Contact your current department office to send an electronic copy of your Admissions Packet to the department to which you are applying. This should include statements, letters of recommendation, GRE and TOEFL scores (if applicable), and transcripts. Your unofficial transcript can be uploaded from BearFacts after semester grades are received.
- Up to two letters from your previous application can be used but the third letter should be new. You may have to submit the names of recommenders from your previous application to fill required fields, and you will be able to view in your application when these have been uploaded from your previous application.
- You should write a new Personal Statement but you may choose to submit the same Personal History Statement that you used for your first application.
- You are not required to pay the application fee. Please select the fee waiver option instead. You will not need to complete the supplemental form.
- If admitted to the second degree program, you will be required to submit a Change of Degree Form with the appropriate signatures.