Harvard School of Public Health

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Hi behealthy,

I know it's almost a cliché now but I don't think you can use hard stats to analyze who can and can't get into a program. I've seen post in this forum where people say: "I lowered my GPA" or "I didn't do well on the GRE" "so now I'm not applying for my top choices anymore". That is crazy! If you want something, go for it.

I am accepted for a MPH at Harvard with grades from a pass/fail university and a GRE that is average for both verbal and quant, and I mean the real average (1100-1200). How? I guess there are always other sides that can weigh up an application.

Pick your favourite programs and apply!
Members don't see this ad.
 
Hello,

I have (very luckily) received acceptances from the MPH program at Johns Hopkins and Harvard. Also, I have been accepted into the MSc program in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Since the LSHTM is far cheaper than Hopkins and Harvard (and since I like London), I have been considering attending the LSHTM, but I am not sure what sort of reputation it has. The problem seems to be that few people in the US have heard of it. So my question is: is the LSHTM considered to be as good as Harvard and Hopkins? Would you consider going there over going to Harvard or Hopkins or is not considered to be on the same level as they are?

One more question: is it a problem that the degree offered by the LSHTM is the MSc in Public Health and not the MPH? It seems that at the London School, the MPhil is equal to an MS in the US, because both are more geared towards research, while the MSc is on a par with the MPH because both are geared towards policy. Is this correct? Or is an MPH preferable to an MSc (as opposed to being equal to it)?

Thank you very much for your help. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much!
 
If you knew me, you'd know I'm not one of those anal-retentive number crunchers, but I am still curious.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I will be joining the MPH – Global Health and Population program.I am an international student. I attended the Open House today and wanted to convey some of the info I received there to those of you who couldn’t attend. This is not complete information; I am just listing things that you could check-out/consider. And please reconfirm/recheck all the information I’ve written here, since I got it verbatim it might not be very accurate.

The MPH is 42.5 credits. You have a certain number of core courses that you are required to take. You can either take them individually or you may enroll in an integrated ‘foundation course’ (Some divisions are not eligible for this, so please check the details). The foundation course (from what I was told) uses up less credits than taking the same courses individually would, and it is a case based integrated format of study. So people who do not need/want much quantitative skills could consider this as it saves your credits for the elective courses that you might wish to take. This is offered in Fall. I don’t know the details please check website or contact HSPH for details. Not all divisions are eligible for this, Some people said that it may not give you sufficient depth into the quantitative subjects but others were quite happy with it.

The summer session starts on July 1st. And it is divided into summer - 1 (July 1 – 24) and Summer 2 (July 27 – August 14). The deadline for registering for this was March 1st but since we asked about it we were told that we should let them know by today itself if we still want to join. I asked if I can tell them by Monday and they agreed. Please write to them if you are interested in this. It is very intense – classes from 8 am to 5 pm - 5 days a week in the core subjects. So essentially you will have covered most of the core requirements by the time the fall session starts – freeing up you time later on a little bit.

Most students I spoke to were not doing part time work. It may be possible to work part –time but I personally don’t think it is wise to stress yourself out on it unless it is something directly related to/adding to your interests/profile. It is not a matter of availability; you would find jobs if you look for them but it’s a question of whether you want to spend time from your precious 9 months to work.

Housing – Please fill the Shattuck application ASAP as it fills up very fast. No cost to apply so do apply in order to have a backup. Vanderbilt is Dormitory style – you have your own room but you share the kitchen and bathroom with the other people on the floor. Also explore and apply on the Harvard Real Estate Services website. You can also find roommates there. If you do look for other housing on craigslist or otherwise try to get housing which includes heating in the rent because heating bills can be very high like 200-250 for winter.

There are a lot of student clubs – Toastmaster club, Tango club, South Asian Club etc. You can also get involved in Student Government and other activities.

Academic Advisors will be assigned to you by June sometime.

If you want to change your concentration once you come here – you can do it within the first two weeks of classes. There also seems to be some possibility of converting MPH to SM2 etc.

Student Financial services said that they are in the process of reinstating the loans for international students that did not require a co-signer. She said that the bank contract hadn’t been signed yet so she could not talk about it or commit anything right now. But she will send out an email within a week with details about it. So all international students should be able to apply for loans without a US cosigner.

The one thing I didn’t like about the day was the fact that being an MPH student I didn’t get much time with faculty. It was just a half-an-hour session with no interaction, the faculty just introduced themselves and spoke about their courses. Although they did spend more time with the PhD and SM2 students. They did appear quite friendly and approachable and current students also said that faculty is indeed very approachable. This was one of the facts that had bothered me – I had wondered whether faculty at a place like Harvard would be student-focused or not. But it appears to be pretty ok. I felt a bit starry-eyed seeing some of the great figures in their fields in the same room as me , so I guess even if I was given more time to interact I would have ended up babbling nonsense 😛.

Trivia - All students get lockers in the school.

By the way, the subway in Boston is splendid, I am in love with it.

I will be joining the MPH – Global Health and Population program. I attended the Open House today and wanted to convey some of the info I received there to those of you who couldn’t attend. This is not complete information; I am just listing things that you could check-out/consider. And please reconfirm/recheck all the information I’ve written here, since I got it verbatim it might not be very accurate.

The MPH is 42.5 credits. You have a certain number of core courses that you are required to take. You can either take them individually or you may enroll in an integrated ‘foundation course’ (Some divisions are not eligible for this, so please check the details). The foundation course (from what I was told) uses up less credits than taking the same courses individually would, and it is a case based integrated format of study. So people who do not need/want much quantitative skills could consider this as it saves your credits for the elective courses that you might wish to take. This is offered in Fall. I don’t know the details please check website or contact HSPH for details. Not all divisions are eligible for this, Some people said that it may not give you sufficient depth into the quantitative subjects but others were quite happy with it.

The summer session starts on July 1st. And it is divided into summer - 1 (July 1 – 24) and Summer 2 (July 27 – August 14). The deadline for registering for this was March 1st but since we asked about it we were told that we should let them know by today itself if we still want to join. I asked if I can tell them by Monday and they agreed. Please write to them if you are interested in this. It is very intense – classes from 8 am to 5 pm - 5 days a week in the core subjects. So essentially you will have covered most of the core requirements by the time the fall session starts – freeing up you time later on a little bit.

Most students I spoke to were not doing part time work. It may be possible to work part –time but I personally don’t think it is wise to stress yourself out on it unless it is something directly related to/adding to your interests/profile. It is not a matter of availability; you would find jobs if you look for them but it’s a question of whether you want to spend time from your precious 9 months to work.

Housing – Please fill the Shattuck application ASAP as it fills up very fast. No cost to apply so do apply in order to have a backup. Vanderbilt is dormitory style – you have your own room but you share the kitchen and bathroom with the other people on the floor. Also explore and apply on the Harvard Real Estate Services website. You can also find roommates there. If you do look for other housing on craigslist or otherwise try to get housing which includes heating in the rent because heating bills can be very high like 200-250 for winter.

There are a lot of student clubs – Toastmaster club, Tango club, South Asian Club etc. You can also get involved in Student Government and other activities.

Academic Advisors will be assigned to you by June sometime.

If you want to change your concentration once you come here – you can do it within the first two weeks of classes. There also seems to be some possibility of converting MPH to SM2 etc.

Student Financial services said that they are in the process of reinstating the loans for international students that did not require a co-signer. She said that the bank contract hadn’t been signed yet so she could not talk about it or commit anything right now. But she will send out an email within a week with details about it. So all international students should be able to apply for loans without a US cosigner.

The one thing I didn’t like about the day was the fact that being an MPH student I didn’t get much time with faculty. It was just a half-an-hour session with no interaction, the faculty just introduced themselves and spoke about their courses. Although they did spend more time with the PhD and SM2 students. They did appear quite friendly and approachable and current students also said that faculty is indeed very approachable. This was one of the facts that had bothered me – I had wondered whether faculty at a place like Harvard would be student-focused or not. But it appears to be pretty ok. I felt a bit starry-eyed seeing some of the great figures in their fields in the same room as me , so I guess even if I was given more time to interact I would have ended up babbling nonsense 😛.

Trivia - All students get lockers in the school.

By the way, the subway in Boston is splendid, I am in love with it.

That’s all I remember for now, if anything else comes up I’ll let you people know. Good luck with your decisions!

There is a facebook group HSPH - Entering class 2009 which you all could consider joining.
 
Some additional things I gathered from the visit day (from a Epi SM2 applicant):

Unlike UofW Seattle, where getting an RAship was encouraged to find funding, RAships are pretty much discouraged at HSPH so you can focus on courses.

Courses run both on quarter and semester systems, with most Epi courses on the quarter (8 weeks) and biostats courses on the semester.

University owned housing is a bit expensive and Shattuck House seemed quite basic as far as amenities, with no a/c and no parking.

For Epi, a faculty member has already been tentatively assigned to you - they basically agree to be your advisor when reviewing your application, based on similar research interests.

I'd have to disagree w/ the previous poster about the "T" (subway). I've ridden plenty of other subway systems (SF, NY, London, Paris) and it seemed to me poorly lit, packed with lots of shady people and constantly delayed. But then I only rode it twice so who knows.
 
ratonlaveur said:
Some additional things I gathered from the visit day (from a Epi SM2 applicant):

Unlike UofW Seattle, where getting an RAship was encouraged to find funding, RAships are pretty much discouraged at HSPH so you can focus on courses.

Courses run both on quarter and semester systems, with most Epi courses on the quarter (8 weeks) and biostats courses on the semester.

University owned housing is a bit expensive and Shattuck House seemed quite basic as far as amenities, with no a/c and no parking.

For Epi, a faculty member has already been tentatively assigned to you - they basically agree to be your advisor when reviewing your application, based on similar research interests.

I'd have to disagree w/ the previous poster about the "T" (subway). I've ridden plenty of other subway systems (SF, NY, London, Paris) and it seemed to me poorly lit, packed with lots of shady people and constantly delayed. But then I only rode it twice so who knows.
Click to expand...



If I want to switch my area of interests (different from my SOP), will they give me a new advisor? Will it cause any trouble if I want to do something different from my SOP?

Can SM2 students get tuition waiver in the second year like JHU?

Thank you very much for sharing!
 
yuank said:
If I want to switch my area of interests (different from my SOP), will they give me a new advisor? Will it cause any trouble if I want to do something different from my SOP?

Can SM2 students get tuition waiver in the second year like JHU?

Thank you very much for sharing!
Click to expand...

You can switch advisors at your will and they encourage you to do so if you find that your research interests or whatever do not fit with the one assigned to you.

There is no tuition waiver for the 2nd year. Bit of a bummer, but non-loan funding options appear to be very limited, especially for Master's students. If you haven't been notified of any scholarships by now, loans are pretty much it. The best funding options, e.g. training grants and fellowships, are pretty much for PhD students, which is not unusual..
 
has anyone figured out money stuff for harvard...i'd like to be at harvard but at this point i just dont know how i can afford it esp as an intnl student!
 
pharmaph -
what $ stuff specifically? a handful received funding of some sort and i had assumed the rest of us were offered loans as "financial aid" - but as an intl student, i guess that it might be different.
 
As an international student (who received no funding/grant), am waiting on d loans package which do not require a US co~signer. That seems to be my last resort. I hope its ready quick so we can have a look and decide. PharmaPH, Where are u from? U can PM me.
 
Finally officially accepted to Harvard today! Anyone else?
 
This is an old thread, but no sense in starting a new one since it's about the program.

Does anyone know if SM students and MPH students at Harvard take the same classes together? Both programs have more or less the same departments/concentrations (e.g., Bio, HPM, Global Health, etc.). I wonder if this means students from the two degrees take the same classes.

Anyone...? 😀
 
There is some overlap for sure since HSPH curricula are generally pretty flexible. But it depends which SM program you're talking about and what specialization one chooses for their MPH program. I did my 2-year SM in epi, and the people in my larger intro classes naturally came from a lot of different departments, but other classes were mostly other people in epi , followed by environmental health, and then MPH quantitative methods.
 
ratonlaveur said:
There is some overlap for sure since HSPH curricula are generally pretty flexible. But it depends which SM program you're talking about and what specialization one chooses for their MPH program. I did my 2-year SM in epi, and the people in my larger intro classes naturally came from a lot of different departments, but other classes were mostly other people in epi , followed by environmental health, and then MPH quantitative methods.
Click to expand...

This is slightly unrelated, but is an SM in epi from Harvard comparable to an MPH in epi at other schools? I can't apply to Harvard's MPH program because of the prerequisites, but I still think Harvard offers a great SM program.
When jobs ask for candidates to have an MPH, would an SM from Harvard qualify?
 
topshine said:
This is slightly unrelated, but is an SM in epi from Harvard comparable to an MPH in epi at other schools? I can't apply to Harvard's MPH program because of the prerequisites, but I still think Harvard offers a great SM program.
When jobs ask for candidates to have an MPH, would an SM from Harvard qualify?
Click to expand...

Employers shouldn't really distinguish between an MPH and MS - they are both epi programs at a Master's level. Though HSPH's program is very research and methodology-oriented, while MPH programs tend to be more geared to public health practice as well as require a practicum. So maybe an MPH would better "prepare" you for public health is that is your future job goal.
 
Who knows when Harvard starts sending out decisions for MPH (Health n Social Behavior). I'm really waiting on this reply before making my decision.
 
Doctor 234 said:
Who knows when Harvard starts sending out decisions for MPH (Health n Social Behavior). I'm really waiting on this reply before making my decision.
Click to expand...
Previous threads/post suggest that HSPH starts sending out acceptances from the last Friday of February, and every successive Friday from then on till late March. So 22nd could very well be the big day!
 
Doctor 234 said:
Who knows when Harvard starts sending out decisions for MPH (Health n Social Behavior). I'm really waiting on this reply before making my decision.
Click to expand...

Historically, it starts on the 4th Friday of February, which is this Friday. Generally, it's late February/early March.
 
Thanks for the replies, I guess we'll hope for good fridays then🙂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

F
CDC PHAP (Public Health associate program) 2025
Replies
0
Views
2K
Futurerx888
F
WildWing
[Announcement] Public Health Week Seminars for Students (April 7-11)
Replies
0
Views
307
WildWing
WildWing
Mr.Smile12
WEBINAR Pathways to Public Health (Student Panel)
Replies
0
Views
826
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
G
Admin Fellowship 10 years after Public Health degree - possible?
Replies
0
Views
1K
Gulmohar
G
J
2024 PHAP (CDC's Public Health Associate Program)
2
Replies
73
Views
16K
Jada Lanier
Jada Lanier
Top