Nestled behind the columns and pristine buildings of the Harvard Medical School is another small graduate institution--Harvard's School of Public Health (SPH).

SPH has a total enrollment of 778 for the '96-'97 school year, making it a "considerably small school" in comparison to other Harvard schools, says Dean of Academic Affairs of SPH Jim H. Ware. The Business School registrar's office reports their '96-'97 enrollment as 1,782 students and the Law School's youngest class had 1,646 JD students.

With a total of 11 academic departments, the programs offered by SPH encompass a wide area.

The departments are oriented toward careers in health care, allowing students to work for such institutions as the Center for Disease Control and international health care ministries, students say.

While undergraduates can apply to the SPH to receive a Master of Science (M.S.) or a doctoral degree, applicants for the Master of Public Health program must have received an advanced degree--mostly MDs and JDs.

In addition, SPH offers a Master of Occupational Health (MOH) degree.

Carrie B. Daniels, assistant director of admissions to SPH, says that many people come to the SPH because they want to be involved in the health care field.

"People find the issues we are looking at to be important," Daniels says.

Ware says there is a fundamental difference between medicine and public health.

"The core organizing concept of medicine is to care for the individual patient [while] public health has a population perspective," he says.

The goal of public health is to "improve the health of a community as a whole [with a] greater emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention" Ware says.

Daniels agrees, saying SPH gives students an "opportunity to apply [their] skills to do something positive."

Despite the differences between public and individual health care, Daniels says SPH maintains a "strong connection" with the Medical School. Both schools share professors as well as having close ties through the MD/MPH program, allowing some students to take classes at both schools.

James B. Mase '79, a student at SPH, says that it is helpful for medical school students to enroll in SPH to get a more global view of medicine.

In addition to working with the Medical School, SPH works with other Harvard graduate schools, such as the Kennedy School of Government, to form joint degree programs.