Being a dual-degree student is a very unique and fulfilling experience. If you are thinking about applying for an accelerated master’s program at UMD, I am here to give you a little summary of what a day in my life looks like! A common misconception about attending a program at USG is that you are bound to only taking classes at the Shady Grove campus, but that is not the case. As a USG student, you are able to take advantage of resources offered both at USG and at the home campus of your institution!

12:00 PM: Time to start the first class of the day, KNES320: Physiological Basis of Physical Activity and Human Health. When the semester first started, I was shocked to walk in and find a gym as my classroom. This room in building IV serves as a laboratory for exercise science courses. Today, our lab was focused on identifying our blood lactate threshold before and after exercise.

2:00 PM: After my KNES320 lab, I always have some free time before my next class at the College Park campus. I love to use this free time to meet up with my friends at USG and get some work done. Reserving a group study room in building IV is my go-to, as these rooms are a popular spot to be at USG!

If you find yourself wanting to reserve any group study room on campus, you can do so at this link: https://schedule.sgrove.usmd.edu/EmsWebApp/Default.aspx 

4:00 PM: After the commute to College Park, it’s time for my next class of the day! This class begins the master’s level coursework of my day. This class is SPHL602: Foundations of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. The course is set up for the first half of the semester to be focused on epidemiology, and the second half of the semester is focused on biostatistics. We just ended the first half of the semester after taking our epidemiology midterm, so today we began with learning about data basics and measures of dispersion in biostatistics.

6:30 PM: After class, my favorite thing to do is walk over to McKeldin Mall. I hung out with my friends during the break between classes and enjoyed watching the sunset before heading back over to the School of Public Health.

7:30 PM: Last class of the day! This class is definitely the best way to end my long day. It is also part of the master’s level curriculum and is taken concurrently with SPHL602. This is SPHL603: Public Health Data Laboratory. I’m learning how to code using SAS Studio. Since we are learning about biostatistics now in SPHL602, we are now learning about how to calculate summary statistics of data in SAS. 

And that’s it! Wednesday’s are definitely long days as a BS-MPH student, but they sure are rewarding. After a busy day like today, I always make sure to catch up on rest since I don’t have class on Thursdays. If you are considering doing an accelerated program, I do recommend it, as you are saving yourself an extra year of school as well as money. It is hard work, but I love this field and learning something new every day!