Harvard University Health Policy Program
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~healthpl/
Overview: The Harvard PhD in Health Policy, awarded by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, is a collaborative program among six Harvard University faculties: Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Business School, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School.
Key Faculty and Administration: The faculty chair of the program is Joseph P. Newhouse, John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy and Management, Harvard University. The Director of Graduate Studies is Katherine Swartz, Professor of Health Economics and Policy, Harvard School of Public Health. Debbie Whitney is the Administrative Director of the program, and the Administrative Office is located at 14 Story Street, 4th floor, in Cambridge, MA.
Approximately one hundred thirty faculty members from schools within the university are actively involved in the program. Students are free to take classes throughout the university. A hallmark of the program is the accessibility of faculty members to students and the commitment of faculty to students enrolled in the program.
Program Structure: Within health policy, a student selects one of seven concentrations or disciplines in which to specialize. The concentrations are: decision sciences, economics, ethics, evaluative science and statistics, management, medical sociology, and political analysis. In addition, at the dissertation stage, a student chooses one of the following policy areas: environmental health, health care services, international health, mental health, or public health.
Usually, students take courses during the first two years and work primarily on the dissertation for the next two to three years. Most students complete the entire program within four to five years. The PhD program is a full-time program, in-residence program. There are no opportunities for distance learning.
The program started in 1992, and there are now approximately 120 graduates and 60 students currently enrolled.
Application & Financial Aid: The application deadline is mid-December each year. For matriculation in Fall of 2011, completed applications must be received at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences by 5pm on December 15, 2010.
Most students have either a prior graduate degree (master's, MD or JD) in a related field and/or some relevant work experience in health policy.
Although both GRE and GMAT scores are acceptable, GRE scores are preferred. MCAT scores cannot be substituted. Recent median GRE scores for entering students: 740 Quantitative, 660 Verbal, and 5.5 Analytical Writing.
The PhD Program in Health Policy is able to offer financial aid to students enrolled in the program. For example, thanks to grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), traineeships are available to some students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
The PhD Program in Health Policy is committed to increasing the diversity of its doctoral student population. Minority candidates, including African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans, are especially encouraged to apply. Financial aid (full tuition for 5 years and stipend for 3 years) is available for those admitted minority applicants with financial need.
Combined Degrees:
MD/PhD: Those wishing to combine the MD and the PhD in Health Policy must apply separately to the MD program at the Harvard Medical School and to the PhD Program in Health Policy through the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. An admitted student may combine the two programs, which saves approximately one year of coursework.
JD/PhD:Applicants interested in the coordinated JD/PhD Program must first apply to and be separately admitted to both the Harvard Law School and the PhD Program in Health Policy. Combining both programs saves approximately a half year of coursework.
Applicants to either combined degree must notify the PhD Program in Health Policy as early as possible in the process, as well as indicate on the application to the PhD Program that a concurrent application has been submitted to Harvard Medical School or Harvard Law School. There is limited financial aid for the professional school component of the combined degrees.
Graduates: The purpose of this program is to train students primarily for academic positions in graduate schools and research positions in government agencies and research institutes. Many of our graduates eventually lead interdisciplinary research teams; therefore, we feel it is important to provide training that is interdisciplinary in content.
We believe that there is a demand for individuals trained at the doctoral level with expertise both in US domestic health policy and in international health policy. We are therefore committed to providing individuals not only rigorous training in research methods applicable to all areas of health policy but also opportunities to work with the many Harvard faculty whose research focuses on domestic or international policy or both. Among the faculty affiliated with our program, roughly one third are engaged in international health research, much of which focuses on developing countries.
Examples of positions held by graduates include:
Vice President and Director of Public Opinion and Media Research, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
Assistant Professor of Health Care Management, Wharton
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, Yale School of Medicine
Assistant Professor, Duke Global Health Institute and Department of Economics
Principal Analyst, Health and Human Resources Division, Congressional Budget Office
Professor of Medicine, Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto
Louis and Myrtle Moskowitz Research Professor of Business and Law, University of Michigan Law School
Associate Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation
Assistant Professor, Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, Tufts University School of Medicine
Senior Program Office, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Associate Professor of International Health, Harvard School of Public Health
Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy, NYU Wagner
Associate Professor of Public Health and Chief, Division of Health Policy, Weill Cornell Medical College
Health Financing Specialist, Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia, World Health Organization EURO
For additional information and an information packet on the program, please contact Ayres Heller at: ayres_heller@harvard.edu (617) 495-1357.
For access to all of Harvard's resources in Health Policy, please visit: www.healthpolicy.harvard.edu.