Experiences

Overview

In this section, you can enter your professional experiences in several categories, or types. Review the definitions below, consider the duties you performed, and choose the category that you think best fits the experience.

Note that since each program's definitions and requirements vary, SOPHAS Express has no specific preference as to which category you choose. These categories are broadly based on feedback from various public health programs and are not a comprehensive list of every type of experience. Your experience's individual job description and responsibilities should determine the category you select; however, it is not guaranteed that your experience will be accepted by every program in the way you categorize it.

If you have any questions about your experiences fulfilling an individual program's prerequisite requirements, contact that program directly.

Although you can enter any experiences that you believe are relevant to your application, we recommend focusing on those experiences within the last 10 years and at the collegiate level and above. Enter only current and in-progress experiences (not planned experiences), and check your program's requirements regarding documentation.

Experience Types

Employment

Paid work done outside of the health care field or a research lab; for example, a retail or restaurant job.

Research

Any experience working on a research project, preferably in addition to or outside of regular classroom work. This may include student research positions, research technician positions, summer research student, master’s rotational student, etc.

Training Attended

Identify any training or development received, preferably in the public health field.

Shadowing

Time spent officially following and observing a health care professional at work, preferably in the public health field.

Volunteer

Volunteer work done outside of the health care field; for example, working for Habitat for Humanity, tutoring students, participating in or working for a fundraiser walk or blood drive, etc.

Enter Your Experience

  1. Click Add an Experience.
  2. Select the appropriate experience type from the drop-down.
  3. Enter information about the organization where the experience took place.
  4. Enter information about your supervisor at the organization. This is a person that programs can contact to verify that this experience occurred. If the experience was a student-organized group and there was no advisor, list a member who can verify your experience.
  5. Enter the date or date range in which the experience took place. Note that your experiences will not display on your application in any specific order, regardless of the dates entered.
  6. Enter additional details about the experience, including the title of the experience and the time commitments. Enter the average weekly number of hours that you completed for this experience during the date range that you indicated.
  7. Select Yes or No to indicate a release authorization to allow your selected programs to contact the organization.
  8. Click Save & Continue.

Note that you cannot repeat hours between experience types. So, if position duties encompass more than one section, enter the position in both sections and divide the hours and duties accordingly.