Special Standing Courses

Non-degree special standing courses are an affordable and convenient opportunity for students to take select public health classes without the commitment of enrolling into a degree program.

Special standing students are admitted Rollins School of Public Health students, but they are not seeking a degree. These students may enroll in courses of interest, after they have been admitted to Rollins, if there is space available in the course and their academic backgrounds meet course prerequisites.

Those interested in applying for Special Standing Status are encouraged to follow the application process below as soon as possible. The application deadline for Spring 2024 courses is December 15th. The traditional Spring term begins January 16th.

APPLY (STEP 1): If you have never applied to Rollins School of Public Health as a non-degree student OR have not done so in the past five years, you must complete and submit an application.  Emory University employees and graduates interested in registering for special standing courses are also required to submit an application for admittance.

REQUEST ENROLLMENT (STEP 2): If you have been admitted to Rollins School of Public Health as a non-degree student within the last five years, follow Step 2.

NOTE: If you submitted an application and were admitted as a special standing student to the Rollins School of Public Health within the past five years, you are NOT required to submit another admissions application to register for courses.  Students can register for public health classes onlyEnrollment in classes within another Emory University school will require admittance to that school. 


Questions regarding applying for special standing should be addressed to the Office of Admissions & Student Services at sphadmissions@emory.edu.

Questions about enrolling in classes after being admitted should be addressed to the Office of Enrollment Services at rsphenrollmentservices@emory.edu.

step1  Apply

Admission Requirements 


Domestic Applicants

U.S. applicants need to submit: 

  • Special standing application 
  • Official bachelor's transcripts 

International Applicants

International applicants need: 

  • Special standing application 
  • Official bachelor's transcripts 
  • TOEFL scores. Scores should be sent to institution code 5187.

Transcripts

Rollins must receive official transcripts from the registrar of the institution at which you received a bachelor's degree or its equivalent. It is preferred that applicants submit official electronic transcripts from their undergraduate institution to sphadmissions@emory.eduAlternately, transcripts may be mailed and are not "official" unless received in the academic institution's sealed envelope. All documents must be in English or accompanied by an official notarized literal translation. 

Special standing application materials must be submitted to the Admissions department at the Rollins School of Public Health located in the Office of Admissions and Student Services on the seventh floor of the Grace Crum Rollins Building. Materials may also be mailed to:

Rollins School of Public Health
Emory University
Office of Admission and Student Services
1518 Clifton Rd NE
Mailstop 1518-002-1AA
Atlanta, Georgia 30322

For additional questions or concerns regarding the admissions process please contact the Admissions Office by e-mail at sphadmissions@emory.edu or call 404-727-3956.

Admission Application Deadlines

Spring

The deadline to apply for spring admissions is December 15. The deadline to apply for EMPH admission is December 1.

Summer

The deadline for summer admissions is April 30. The deadline to apply for EMPH admission is April 22.

Fall

The deadline to apply for fall admissions is August 14. The deadline to apply for EMPH admission is August 1.

step2 Register for Classes

Registration Requirements

Students who were recently admitted and/or admitted in the past five years should email the Office of Enrollment services at rsphenrollmentservices@emory.edu for the Special Standing Registration form. If you have not submitted an application for admittance to Rollins you may not register for special standing courses.

Enrollment forms will be processed in the order they are received. Registration is based on students meeting pre-requisites and space availability.  On the Registration Form, we ask students to share how they have met the pre-requisites of the course via previous coursework and/or professional experience. 

All students in special standing status enrolled in a courses, even if enrolled in an online class, must abide by all information on the Emory Forward website and submit complete immunization records including both flu and COVID-19 vaccinations.  Detailed information will be sent to students after registration. 

NOTE: The registration processing dates listed below are the start dates for processing special standing registration forms. Student's registration will be confirmed by email after processing has begun. 

Registration Processing

Spring

Processing of registration forms for spring semester courses will begin December 15.

Summer

Processing of registration forms for summer courses will begin April 15 date.

Fall

Processing of registration forms for fall courses will begin after incoming students pre-register.


The Spring 2024 course schedule is available here. For information on how to navigate Atlas, click here. RSPH courses will be offered in person and online. Additional information, including details about online and/or asynchronous online components to in person classes, may be found on Atlas.

Students interested in Executive MPH program courses must be enrolled no later than December 15th and complete a self-paced orientation. For all other programs students may be enrolled through the add/drop/swap period for traditional term classes ending January 23rd. To view Spring 2024 Academic Dates, click here.

Students who are interested in applying for course enrollment should email  rsphenrollmentservices@emory.edu.

 

Courses Available by Department:

Hubert Department of Global Health (HDGH)

Course Number & Title: 
GH        508      Health & Human Rights Seminar
GH        509      Transl&Implementation Sciences
GH        531      Quant.Methods1:Data Collection
GH        534      Diabetes:Global Dis Prev&Cntrl
GH        535      Field Epidemiology
GH        536      Religion&Health in Context:HIV
GH        537      SRH in Humanitarian Emerg.
GH        545      Nutritional Assessment
GH        546      Maternal And Child Nutrition
GH        550      EPI and Dynamics of STDs
GH        559      Gender and Global Health
GH        564      Intl Infectious Diseases
GH        565      Hlth.in Humanitarian Emergens.
GH        566      Immunization Prog&Policies
GH        574      Malaria Prevent Cntrl & Treat
GH        577      Maternal Mortality - Abortion
GH        580      Ctrl.of Food/Waterbrne Disease

 

Executive MPH (EMPH)

 Course Number & Title: 
      AEPI      537D   Intro.to SAS Programming
EPI        504D   Fundamentals Of Epidemiology
GH        500D   Addressing Key Iss Global Hlth
PRS       530D   Quantitative Analysis
PRS       532D   Qualitative Research Methods
PRS       533D   Qual. Analysis & Mixed Methods

 

Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics (BIOS)

 Course Number & Title: 
      BIOS     501      Statistical Methods II w. Lab
BIOS     505      Stats For Experimental Biolog
BIOS     507      Applied Regression Analysis
BIOS     509      Applied Linear Models
BIOS     511      Intro.to Statistical Inference
BIOS     520      Clinical Trials
BIOS     530      Observational Studies
BIOS     532      Statistical Computing
BIOS     545      R Programming (BIOS Students)
BIOS     581      Statistical Practice II
BIOS     590R    Seminar In Biostatistics
BIOS     591P    Biostatistics Methods II
DATA     530      Introduction to GIS
DATA     532      Advanced GIS
DATA     550      Data Science Toolkit

 

Department of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences (BSHES)

 Course Number & Title: 
      BSHES  522      Princ.of Curr&Instr in Hlth.Ed
BSHES  554      Social Marketing
BSHES  560R    BSHE Seminar
BSHES  567      LGBTQ + Public Health
BSHES  583      Mindfulness and Health

 

Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health (EH)

Course Number & Title: 
EH         500      Perspectives/Environ Health
EH         510      Foundations-Exposure Science
EH         515      Air Quality in the Urban Env.
EH         523      Neurotoxicology
EH         527      Biomarkers and Env Pub Health
EH         530      Occuptionl/Environmtl Epi
EH         548      Rsch Methods for Water& Health
EH         570      Envt.Health Law & Policy
EH         571      GEH Policy:Power,Sci.&Justice
EH         572      Environmental Justice
EH         573      Climate Change Communications
EH         586      Adv Sem Clm Chg&Hlth:Rsrch&Pol
EH         587      Intro.toSatellite Remote Sens.
EH         587L    Satellite Remote Sensing Lab
EH         590R    Environmental Health Seminar
EPI        504      Fundamentals Of Epidemiology

 

Department of Epidemiology (EPI) 

 Course Number & Title: 
      EPI        523      Hlth.Prom.Crim.-Legal Settings
EPI        531      Field Epidemiology
EPI        533      Programming In SAS
EPI        539      EPI Concepts & Analysis
EPI        541      Hospital/Healthcare Epidemiol.
EPI        543      CVD Epidemiology
EPI        546      HIV Epidemiology
EPI        547      PH App of Molecular EPI
EPI        548      SystematicReview/Meta Analysis
EPI        552      Human Genome Epidemiology
EPI        560      Epidemiologic Methods IV
EPI        561      Obesity Epidemiology
EPI        565      Data Sources & Methods MCH EPI
EPI        570      Infectious Disease Dynamics
EPI        590R    EPI Seminar
EPI        591S    Social Epidemiology
EPI        594      Adv. Methods in Social EPI

 

Department of Health Policy and Management (HPM)

Course Number & Title: 
HPM     500      Intro To US Health Care System
HPM     511      Fin Manage/Health Care Org
HPM     522      Econ Eval of Hlth Care Prog
HPM     523      Pub Financing/Health Care Syst
HPM     525      Health Services Data Analytics
HPM     540      Hum Rsrce Mgmt In Health Care
HPM     545      Health Care Marketing
HPM     554      Qual Improvment Meth/Hlth Care
HPM     556      Physician Performances
HPM     557      Healthcare Administration Law
HPM     559      Negotiation and Conflict
HPM     561      Fund Of Public Health Law
HPM     562      Health Insurance Concepts
HPM     569      Women's Health Policy
HPM     592      Case Studies Public Mental Hlt

Everyone taking courses at Emory University must adhere to Emory's Honor Code and is responsible for adhering to its contents. A copy of the Emory Honor Code may be accessed here.

The cost per credit hour for academic year 2023-24 is $2,370 per credit hour plus additional fees.

After a student registers for the desired courses, payment must be made to Emory University via the Student Accounts and Billing Office.  Details of how to pay a bill are found here.

All fees must be paid by the payment deadline.  

No special standing public health fellowships/scholarships or other financial assistance program are available to students in special standing. Students must be enrolled in degree programs to be considered for financial aid at Emory University. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact the Office of Financial Aid at 404-727-6039.

Emory employees should contact Human Resources for questions regarding their courtesy scholarship eligibility. The courtesy scholarship application will become available once the employee has submitted an application for admission.

Learn more

Books for all courses can be purchased at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore located in the Oxford Road Building.

See a map of Emory University

If the special standing applicant is accepted the first time, but does not enroll for the initial semester of acceptance, and that applicant wishes to take classes during a subsequent semester, the applicant may write to the Rollins Admissions office to request that his or her file be reactivated for the semester he or she wishes to enroll.

Acceptance into special standing does not guarantee acceptance into the degree-seeking category. Special standing students who decide to apply as degree-seeking candidates must complete and are bound by the same application/admission process as other Rollins degree-seeking applicants. This includes the degree-seeking fall admission policy as outlined in the catalog and on the Admissions section of the website. Therefore, should you decide to apply as a degree-seeking student, you will need to apply online through SOPHAS, the centralized application service utilized by Rollins.

If a special standing student decides to apply to a Rollins degree program and is accepted as a degree-seeking candidate, up to nine (9) credits taken as a special-standing student may be transferred to the degree-seeking status. The transfer of individual course credits will transfer as long as the credits fulfill program degree requirements.

If a special standing student is considering eventually applying to be a degree seeking student, he/she should talk with the department ADAP to assure that the course selection is appropriate for the degree program and will transfer.

Special standing students will have school email addresses, access to Canvas (the learning management system), as well as access to online library resources.  ALL students, including those in Special Standing Status are required to have a laptop for use during class.