Overview
Harvard University School of Public Health Advances the Public Health by Direct Action and by Training Future Leaders
Harvard University is an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with 10 schools including the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Harvard University holds 10,000 academic appointments in affiliated teaching hospitals, making the Harvard School of Public Health a well-connected place to receive a medical education.
The mission of HSPH is to help advance public health, both through direct action in the community and through training public health advocates and researchers. HSPH offers a vibrant intellectual learning community in which students are trained to become future leaders in the science of public health, with both the ability and knowledge to solve future public health problems, and the communication skills and experience to communicate those solutions to others and ensure that they are enacted.
The Harvard School of Public Health also places a high value on public service, encouraging students to participate in community service activities by leading the way with university-sponsored service activities that help communities to advance the health of their own populations, whether by assisting with clinics or simply raising awareness.
The faculty and students at HSPH have a wide range of interests and areas of specialization, as befits an interdisciplinary field such as public health. Students learn the scientific biological foundations to help study complex modern diseases such as AIDS and cancer, learning about how they work. Students are also trained in quantitative disciplines such as biostatistics and epidemiology, enabling them to take a broader view when analyzing the larger impact of health problems across a population.
In addition, students at HSPH study social sciences to gain insight into societal influences on health-related behavior, allowing them to better understand how people think and how they might be educated to make healthier lifestyle choices.
The Harvard School of Public Health not only trains future leaders, but also is a leader in research that contributes globally to public health. Harvard University's extensive resources are brought to bear on the problem of public health, providing HSPH with the resources, funding, laboratories, and experienced faculty required to make a difference.
HSPH Offers MPH, MOH, and DPH Degrees Along with Ph.D. and Master and Doctor of Science Degrees in Numerous Fields
Harvard's School of Public Health offers a number of degree programs. The most widely recognized professional public health credential is the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree, which is designed for leadership in public health, whether in the government, international, or private sector.
The MPH degree focuses on giving students the wide, interdisciplinary background necessary to solve modern public health problems. Students cover a core curriculum of public health fundamentals, including biostatistics, health services administration, social and behavioral sciences, environmental health sciences, and epidemiology.
After the core set of classes, students choose a specialty focus to match their interests and career choice, following a program in clinical effectiveness, family and community health, health care management and policy, international health, law and public health, occupational and environmental health, or quantitative methods. The MPH program at HSPH has graduated a number of distinguished alumni, including five of the last seven directors at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Many other possible degrees are available at HSPH besides the Master of Public Health. There is also a Master of Occupational Health (MOH) degree and a Ph.D. in biostatistics, molecular and integrative physiological sciences, genetics and complex diseases, health policy, nutrition, and immunology and infectious diseases.
In addition, a Doctor of Public Health (DPH) degree is available in the fields of nutrition; occupational health; epidemiology; global health and population; society, human development, and health; and health communication.
Students may also earn a Master of Science degree in the following fields: biostatistics; exposure, epidemiology, and risk; epidemiology; occupational health; health policy and management; global health and population; healthcare management; society, human development, and health; and health communication.
HSPH also offers a Doctor of Science degree in the fields of exposure, epidemiology, and risk; molecular and integrative physiological sciences; epidemiology; immunology and infectious diseases; nutrition; occupational health; global health and population; health policy and management; society, human development, and health; and health communication.
Harvard University School of Public Health Offers a Wide Variety of Special Interdisciplinary Concentrations
The Harvard University School of Public Health has a number of special interdisciplinary concentrations that take a broad-based approach to public health education.
A special maternal and child health concentration prepares students to be leaders in improving the health of children and their families, while a related concentration in obesity epidemiology and prevention gives students the theoretical, methodological, and applied knowledge and skills to study the modern health problem of obesity. Women, gender, and health gives students a broad interdisciplinary background to help research and teach health issues related to women and gender.
HSPH's institutes and health centers take multidisciplinary approaches to public health research, assuring that knowledge and discoveries benefit students in many disciplines, and eventually the health of the public at large.
Harvard School of Public Health Students Receive Aid from Federal Loans, Fellowships, Assistantships, and More
Students have a number of options for financial support at HSPH. Academic departments are the primary source of grant support, while most financial aid is obtained through federal student loan programs. Students may also apply for school-wide scholarships, fellowships, training and research grants, institutional funds, and teaching or research assistantship positions.
