Each spring, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health hosts a career fair where recruiters connect with soon-to-be graduates. Last year's event was quieter than usual. Roughly a quarter of the usual 50 to 90 employers—including every federal government agency and its contractors—were missing.

The poor turnout was a harbinger of difficulties to come, says Heather Krasna, a public health workforce researcher at Columbia, who also leads employer outreach for the school. "The class of 2025 graduated into one of the worst public health job markets I've seen."

Since President Donald Trump reassumed office, the United States has endured a flurry of governmental blows to public health and science in general, including job losses and budget cuts at federal agencies; slashing of research grant funding; the dissolution of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); and a retreat from evidence-based policies on issues ranging from vaccines to pollution.

To gauge how this tumult is affecting public health students and their job prospects, Think Global Health spoke with seven public health schools and three national education organizations. Their testimony paints a mixed picture, where enrollment has dropped for some but not all programs—amid eroding confidence in public health post-pandemic, a challenging job market, and new student loan caps in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The question is whether their observations represent the start of a worsening trend or a temporary blip.

Even before Trump reassumed office, master's-level enrollment had dropped for the 2024-2025 academic year at accredited schools and programs of public health compared to the previous year, according to data provided by the Council on Education for Public Health. Master of public health (MPH) programs witnessed a 15% decline, and similar fields involving a master of science saw a 12% reduction. But programs for doctorates in public health (DrPH) recorded a 14% increase. 

Compared to doctoral candidates, MPH students are more likely to self-fund or take on substantial debt to finance their degree. MPH students typically seek employment within just one to two years of beginning a program—meaning today's market will likely affect them. For many, employment prospects at the end of those degrees have become "an overwhelming psychological concern," says Diane Lauderdale, chair of the department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago.

MPH students have watched these events unfold and "are making decisions based on what they see in front of them—what they see happening in the labs and to the faculty and at the universities they are training at," says Heather Pierce, senior director of science policy at the Association of American Medical Colleges.

For now, representatives from public health schools say they plan to offer the same number of slots in MPH programs.

But for the current school year beginning in fall 2025, Johns Hopkins saw slightly fewer students enrolling following "modest declines" in MPH admissions, says David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Applications were still at normal levels, he says, but more students than usual chose not to enroll after receiving an offer.

"We don't know exactly why," Dowdy says. "But my guess is that when it comes to making a final decision of 'Am I going to get a degree in public health or just go out and get a job?', people are choosing other jobs." 

Experts at other universities said the feeling in the field is not good. "I think applications for MPH programs are down across the board, both for international and domestic students," says Maria Glymour, chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Boston University. "Some of that is absolutely to be expected."

"Others are seeing growth."

Tim Leshan, Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health

The Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) tracks application and enrollment data for more than 150 accredited schools and programs of public health in the United States.

"Some of our schools and programs of public health are concerned about the number of applicants and those matriculating at their institutions, but others are seeing growth," said Tim Leshan, chief of external relations at the ASPPH, in an email. For example, at the University of Chicago, Lauderdale and her colleagues have so far seen no change in the number of applications they have received this year compared to the same time last year.

Worrisome trends for the field include fewer master's-level students in general, backlash against public health, and fewer government jobs, Leshan continued. "But we believe now is the time to enter the field of public health because of the great need for people who have a public health perspective, no matter where students end up working."

When pressed for details, Leshan declined to share specific numbers with Think Global Health. "This is proprietary information that our members share with us confidentially," he said. The association does permit researchers to access this data for academic study. 

These changes have not yet resulted in declines on "a scale sufficient to dramatically alter the way that public health education is delivered," says Dowdy. "But the messaging all around us is that public health is a hard place to work right now," he says, and "we want to make sure this is not the start of a broader trend of people shying away from public health as a field." 

Programs Under Pressure

Interest in MPH degrees has always tended to track with current events and politics. In fall 2021, for example, programs saw a spike in applications following the COVID-19 pandemic. "In the midst of COVID, it was the first time somebody on the street would know what an epidemiologist was," says J.P. Leider, director of the Center of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.

The number of people graduating with a master's degree in public health jumped from around 18,000 in 2020 to 21,500 in 2023, according to data Leider compiled from the National Center for Education Statistics. By 2024, however, the number of graduates had dropped to around 20,000. Some leveling-off was to be expected, experts say, but the fear now is that the numbers will continue to decline. Part of this is because public sentiment about the field has begun to swing the opposite way. "There has been backlash against public health," Leider says.  

"One current challenge is trust," agrees Susan Swider, a professor of nursing at Rush University. "The public doesn't necessarily know what public health does and doesn't necessarily believe in it."

Erosion of public trust is just one of many factors that might discourage students from pursuing an MPH. Affordability is another issue. In July 2026, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will terminate a federal loan program that previously allowed students to pay for the full cost of graduate school; it will instead cap the amount they can borrow at $20,500 per year, with a lifetime limit of $100,000. Estimates predict one-third of graduate-student borrowers will be impacted by these restrictions.

Schools are anticipating the effects of this change to start showing up in the number of applications they receive in fall 2026 for the following school year, Krasna says.

International students—who tend to be strongly represented in MPH programs in the United States—are also being affected by uncertainty surrounding whether visas will be issued or renewed. Additionally, these students might think twice about applying to U.S. programs because they feel unwelcome, Leider adds, especially if their university is in "a city being policed by immigration authorities."

Some schools are trying to respond to these challenges with practical solutions. Boston University, for example, offers an MPH with an accessible pricing scheme and classes that are fully available online. The goal, says Adnan Hyder, dean of the School of Public Health, is "to bring public health to learners across the world."

Always a Battle

Around the world and in the United States, the need for public health professionals is as strong as ever, Dowdy says. "This is for everything from research identifying new interventions for chronic disease, infectious diseases, and environmental health threats, to advocacy and policymaking so people have the policy support to live healthier lives."

The job market does not reflect that reality; instead, "it is constricting in some ways," Dowdy says, citing cuts to federal programs. Fewer jobs means more competition. In some cases, recent graduates are being pitted against people with years of experience who were laid off from federal jobs at USAID or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Graduates are struggling for longer to find a job and are having to apply to more positions before they get an offer. "A number of students here and elsewhere have been looking for a job for eight months or more," Leider says.

Public health is a sprawling field, though, with diverse industries that include pharmaceutical companies, health insurers, and hospitals—many of which are hiring. "Many of the fastest-growing occupations in the United States are ones where a public health degree would be the key qualification," Krasna says. In 2025, for example, the health-care sector led job growth in the U.S. economy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national number of epidemiologists has risen, from 7,500 in May 2020 to 11,460 in 2025. "There is still a very robust job market for people with these skills," Krasna says.