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Major · Health Professions

A pre-MPH ramp into community-based public health work

Community Health and Preventive Medicine (CIP 51.2208) prepares students to plan and run health services in local settings — county health departments, FQHCs, NGOs, and corporate wellness teams. Roughly 1,494 students complete the major across 88 colleges, with bachelor’s graduates earning about $58,487 in five-year tracked wages.

Schools offering
88
Annual completions
1,494
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$58k

About this major

Community Health and Preventive Medicine (CIP 51.2208) prepares public-health specialists to plan and run health services in local community settings. The CIP definition organizes coursework around public health, community health services delivery, health behavior and cultural factors, local government operations, human services, health communication, environmental health, epidemiology, biostatistics, and applicable law. Programs lean applied — students learn to design outreach campaigns, read county-level health data, evaluate community programs, and complete practicum hours with health departments, FQHCs, or NGOs.

The major fits students drawn to population-level health rather than one-on-one clinical care. Background interests in social science, public policy, health equity, and behavior change line up well; basic comfort with statistics helps once biostatistics and epidemiology coursework arrives. Students who like reasoning about systems — why a neighborhood has worse asthma rates, how a county rolls out a vaccination campaign — tend to find the work satisfying. The credential rewards careful reading of evidence and steady writing more than lab benchwork.

A grounded observation about scale: 1,494 students complete this CIP across 88 colleges nationally, modest compared with sibling Public Health, General (51.2201) at 10,951 completions. Bachelor’s graduates earn about $58,487 in five-year tracked wages versus $44,278 for associate’s graduates. The named labor-market destinations are mixed: community health workers ($51,030 median, 11.3% growth) is the realistic bachelor’s-only entry path, while medical and health services managers ($117,960, 23.2% growth) is a mid-career outcome and health specialties teachers ($105,620) requires a doctorate. Read the bachelor’s as a deliberate floor — the higher-leverage public-health work usually expects an MPH on top.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Medical and health services managers $118k +23.2% Bachelor's degree
Health specialties teachers, postsecondary $106k +17.3% Doctoral or professional degree
Community health workers $51k +11.3% High school diploma or equivalent
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$58k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$44k

Bachelor's

$58k

Who this major is for

Strong fit signals start with a draw toward population-level health rather than clinical bedside work, an interest in how local government and health departments actually run programs, comfort building basic biostatistics and epidemiology fluency, and a willingness to start at the community-health-worker tier ($51,030 median) or program-assistant roles after the bachelor’s. The pattern also fits students planning the bachelor’s as a deliberate ramp into an MPH for epidemiology, biostatistics, or health-policy careers — especially when the target school offers a strong practicum network with county health departments or FQHCs. Working comfortably with data, regulations, and community stakeholders together rounds out the profile.

Reconsider the path if you want clinical patient care; nursing, the allied-health CIPs, or medical school prerequisites serve that goal more directly. Pause before committing if you expect a bachelor’s-only credential to land you in epidemiology, biostatistics, or health-policy roles — those expect an MPH or doctorate, and the data shows the manager and faculty lines ($117,960 and $105,620) require either mid-career experience or a doctoral degree. Reconsider also if you’re betting on a continued post-COVID public-health hiring surge; county and state health-department hiring has cooled, so the school’s placement record and practicum partnerships matter more than the program’s headline curriculum.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Community Health and Preventive Medicine

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Western Governors University Salt Lake City, UT 0 188 188
George Mason University Fairfax, VA 0 157 157
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL 0 144 144
Indiana University-Bloomington Bloomington, IN 0 112 112
University of Florida Gainesville, FL 0 111 111
University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD 0 73 73
Portland State University Portland, OR 0 64 64
Tufts University Medford, MA 0 57 57
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse La Crosse, WI 0 48 48
National University San Diego, CA 0 41 41
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Public Health, General

10,951 completions/yr

Public Health Education and Promotion

2,520 completions/yr

Public Health, Other

1,457 completions/yr

Health Services Administration

1,283 completions/yr

Behavioral Aspects of Health

380 completions/yr

Environmental Health

320 completions/yr

International Public Health/International Health

308 completions/yr

Pharmacy

258 completions/yr

Considering this direction?

We've taken a hard look at the debt, earnings trajectory, and degree-level tradeoffs for the Community Health and Preventive Medicine field. Read our verdict before you commit.

Is Community Health and Preventive Medicine worth it? Read verdict
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What do Community Health majors actually study day-to-day?
Coursework follows the CIP definition: public health, community health services and delivery, health behavior and cultural factors, local government operations, human services, health communication and promotion, environmental health, preventive and comparative medicine, epidemiology, biostatistics, and applicable law and regulations. Programs lean applied — students design outreach campaigns, analyze county-level health data, and run practicum hours with public-health agencies. Expect a mix of social science, basic biostatistics, and program-management work rather than a heavy lab science load.
Is a bachelor’s enough, or do I need an MPH?
Both degree levels appear in the data — 88 colleges award associate’s and bachelor’s credentials in this CIP. A bachelor’s alone qualifies you for community health worker, health educator, outreach coordinator, and program-assistant roles, with bachelor’s graduates earning around $58,487 in five-year tracked wages versus $44,278 for associate’s graduates. Higher-leverage public-health work — epidemiology, biostatistics, policy analysis, global health management — typically expects an MPH (Master of Public Health) on top. Treat the bachelor’s as a deliberate ramp into graduate study if those roles are your target.
What jobs do graduates land — and at what pay?
The tracked destinations span three tiers. Community health workers ($51,030 median, 11.3% growth) is the realistic bachelor’s-only entry path; the role’s typical education is high school plus on-the-job training, so the bachelor’s is a competitive credential rather than a barrier. Medical and health services managers ($117,960, 23.2% growth) is a mid-career outcome reached after years of operations experience, not an entry-level job. Health specialties teachers, postsecondary ($105,620, 17.3% growth) requires a doctoral or professional degree.
How does this compare to Public Health, General?
Public Health, General (CIP 51.2201) is roughly seven times larger at 10,951 completions and serves as the broader umbrella for public-health bachelor’s programs. Community Health and Preventive Medicine (51.2208) sits as a more applied, community-facing variant — emphasis on local government, FQHCs, and direct outreach rather than the policy-and-research-oriented breadth of the General code. Public Health Education and Promotion (51.2207, 2,520 completions) and Health Services Administration (51.2211, 1,283 completions) are sibling specializations worth comparing program-by-program. CIP scope often matters less than the school’s practicum network and faculty research focus.
Where do graduates actually work?
Employment concentrates in state and county health departments, federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), hospital community-benefit and population-health teams, school-district health programs, and NGO/nonprofit organizations focused on disease prevention or health equity. Corporate wellness and population-health-management roles inside health insurers and large employers have grown as a parallel track. The post-COVID public-health hiring surge has cooled, and many county and state health departments face renewed budget pressure — making the practicum network and the school’s placement record meaningful filters when choosing a program.
Which schools graduate the most students in this major?
Western Governors University leads with 188 bachelor’s completions, followed by George Mason University (157), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (144), Indiana University-Bloomington (112), and University of Florida (111). University of Maryland-College Park (73), Portland State (64), Tufts (57), University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (48), and National University (41) round out the top ten. The mix spans large online programs, R1 public flagships, and mid-sized regional universities — read the practicum requirements and local-agency partnerships closely, since fit with your target geography matters more than ranking.