Man o Man,
After seeing someone post about the MPH/MBA from JHU, I was curious and decided to check it out. Then I saw the cost and was literally like
Checked out a few other schools, and good God, how are all of you paying for all of this!? I really hope many of you got scholarships!
Haha, I agree. The MPH/MBA program at JHU is a lot of money, but allow me to offer my explanation for pursuing the joint degrees. (Anyone is welcome to PM me if you want to discuss further and not crowd this thread):
Figures for the 2012-2013 school year:
The cost of the MPH/MBA program is $88,608 (8 terms)
The cost of a stand-alone 11-month MPH at JHU is $55,380
One way to look at it is that I am getting an MBA for $33,228. Not bad.
I understand that an MBA from Hopkins is not an MBA from Penn, MIT, Chicago, UVA, Harvard, not even close. I get that. But my point being, you are getting arguably the best MPH in the country with an MBA (that will get stronger/ranked over time...) for a cheap price. If you were to get an MPH from Hopkins with an MBA from any of the schools I just named, you're talking costs in the 135K+ range. I don't know off the top of my head, but I would think that even an MBA from an average state-school program for in-state tuition will cost you more than 33K...
So you probably shouldn't get an MBA from Hopkins if you want to go work on Wall-Street or go into banking or finance. However, an MBA from Hopkins coupled with one of Hopkins' strengths (public health)...and you have a pretty sweet combo if you want to go into healthcare consulting, global health management, international development, federal jobs, private, etc. etc.
I have talked with several students from the current MPH/MBA class who just finished in December or who are graduating this semester and ALL of them have job offers and are looking at starting salaries in the 75,000-110,000 range. Not bad.
Finally, the program is 18 or 21 months and this just means you have higher earning potential sooner (because most MPH/MBA programs require a minimum of 3 years, or if you got the degrees separately, 4 years). That's one extra year to earn that 75,000-110,000.