MPH MPH/MBA dual degree admits

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prashgopal

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Hey there!

So I was accepted into the MPH/MBA at Hopkins couple weeks back. I haven't found a lot of people on this forum who have applied/got in to a similar program. For starters, Hopkins, Yale and Dartmouth offer accelerated MPH/MBA degrees besides Columbia, Berkley Haas, UCLA Andersen, Virginia Darden, Michigan and a couple of other schools which offer a 2.5 - 3 year program.

Anybody on this forum who has been admitted to the dual degree and would like to offer your two cents on the usp of the program you've been accepted to?

Hopkins:
MPH - by far the best public health program. Great local and global recognition and networking opportunities.
MBA - a new school which is yet to be accredited and a smaller alumni base. The Global MBA students have landed some great job offers upon graduation although I don't have enough data on the MPH/MBA cohort.

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I saw one other person, @prashgopal. You're not going to find many other MPH/MBA candidates online, because these programs are the most selective. They accept 15-20 applicants a year. Depending on what area of public health and sector you'd like to go into after graduation, I highly suggest the MPH/MBA. While I was rejected by Hopkins, I do plan on getting my MPH and then getting an MBA in a few years .Having the two degrees versus the one will make you a lot more marketable in our expanding job market.
 
Yes there is the other person who I've been in touch with. Just wondering if there were more prospective dual degree students who might want to start talking about their decision. Although Im in at the dual degree Im still contemplating just doing the MPH for now and applying to MBA later but I guess I'll talk to a couple present students before I make my decision.
Good luck with your application process!
 
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Definitely not the MBA/MPH program at hopkins. Their MBA is not accredited, not ranked, and not well known. You'd be better off just doing your MPH from their, adding an MBA would give no other benefits or connections. In fact, it may make you less employable because employers may see you as "overqualified" for the position or that you'll expect a higher salary because of your 2-degrees.

I think it's only worth doing the MPH-MBA if both are ranked in the top 10 and the only ones that fit that is Berkeley and Michigan. Maybe Yale and UCLA would be second options. All the MBA-MPHers here at Berkeley seem to want to go into biotech/pharma or healthcare consulting and the MBA at Berkeley would provide you connections in those fields, but if you don't want to go into those fields, doesn't seem like there is any other benefit the MBA can provide.
 
I'm hoping to earn an MBA/MPH dual degree, but my application seems weak in comparison to others. I know I want to go into the field of public health and hopefully work for a healthcare consulting company. However, being a recent graduate, I only have two years experience in Research (one of the projects I worked on involved applying the Lean Sigma Six Method in a hospital's NICU and I'm currently coordinating a study sponsored by Columbia University). I also graduated with a 3.79 total GPA and 3.81 Major GPA. My top choice is UC Berkeley, which seems almost impossible with my background. Should I wait and gain more experience in a consulting firm before applying? Or should I apply to UC Berkeley's MPH program first and then pursue my MBA further down the line?

Btw, Berkeley is my top choice for both programs, which is why I mentioned it. However, for an MPH, I'm also looking into Columbia, John Hopkins, Rutgers (safety), and Yale.
 
I'm hoping to earn an MBA/MPH dual degree, but my application seems weak in comparison to others. I know I want to go into the field of public health and hopefully work for a healthcare consulting company. However, being a recent graduate, I only have two years experience in Research (one of the projects I worked on involved applying the Lean Sigma Six Method in a hospital's NICU and I'm currently coordinating a study sponsored by Columbia University). I also graduated with a 3.79 total GPA and 3.81 Major GPA. My top choice is UC Berkeley, which seems almost impossible with my background. Should I wait and gain more experience in a consulting firm before applying? Or should I apply to UC Berkeley's MPH program first and then pursue my MBA further down the line?

Btw, Berkeley is my top choice for both programs, which is why I mentioned it. However, for an MPH, I'm also looking into Columbia, John Hopkins, Rutgers (safety), and Yale.

Get at least another year, preferably 2 more years of experience before applying to Berkeley's MBA-MPH program. There is almost no way of getting accepted to their MBA program on just 2 years of experience, especially since yours is research related not professional work experience. I know all the MBA-MPHs and they have about 5 of professional experience on average. If you want to go into consulting, then def do the MBA-MPH program at Berkeley and not just the MPH. Not many MPH go into consulting and there are not many connections there just because that's usually not what MPHers are interested.

I would also recommend the MHSA at Michigan instead of the joint degree. That program is a big feeder into consulting companies and many graduates follow that path. Michigan has great connections in that field too.

Good luck!
 

I'm a second year MPH/MBA student at Claremont, my experience so far has been good if not great. My MPH program has been a 10/10, B-school 10/10. Both are very new schools, both accredited, both interested in raising their rankings; they share common interests. Claremont's Public Health school (School of Community and Global Health, SCGH) is comprised of almost all former faculty from USC's Price School of Public Health (like 90%, there was drama at USC about a decade ago and pretty much the entirety of their faculty jumped ship to teach at Claremont. The other 10% of the faculty is drawn from UCLA/UC's/Ivy leagues) and they are all well connected... they will make sure you are adequately prepared to be at a competitive level by graduation and will bend over backwards to help you land a gig if you ask them to. Drucker's nuts and bolts classes (corporate finance, accounting, organizational theories and such... the boring stuff) are taught by mostly mid-career Harvard MBA's from LA for some weird reason, the concentration classes will be taught by PhD's from various backgrounds with a crap ton of industry experience. Personally, I find the SCGH classes to be a little more interesting, but different strokes for different folks... Business school gets better after you finish most of your core (be prepared to do math for both schools. Grad school level biostats and corporate finance will kick your ass).

SCGH is a very nurturing environment where most of the student body is concerned with making the world a better place and curing AIDs etc., while Drucker is a very traditional cut-throat business school with 95% of their students caring about making more $$$ and advancing their careers... the two schools complement each other quite nicely actually if you are a dual degree student. Drucker can be intimidating at times, but everyone has to pay their dues in order to get that MBA, so just power through it.

As a dual degree student you have access to two separate giant networks (SCGH & Drucker) as opposed to one because you are actually enrolled in two different schools, which is something I am very grateful for. In SCGH you will have MPH, MD, DDS, PhD students in your classes, at Drucker you will have students from the traditional MBA, joint JD/MBA students, and FE programs. Network with them and make friends, a lot of the MBA students are already very well connected (I got my paid gig at Kaiser through a friend in the MBA, go figure). Not many people can afford the 62k/year tuition at Claremont, a lot of the student body is incredibly wealthy or their tuition is paid for by their employer (hence, they have connections).

I started out solely in the MPH program, but later I decided it would be a smart move to pair my MPH in Leadership and Management with an MBA in Finance and Strategy because it aligned with my career goals. Drucker's application process isn't very fun if you're doing a dual degree, they will basically interrogate you about why you want to do it because there were only about 10-15 slots allotted to the MPH/MBAs (Claremont is a very small school in comparison to others, there are about 2000 students total, all programs, in the graduate university). I had a 3.7 undergrad GPA (Bio from Claremont McKenna College), 2 years industry experience, and 157V/160Q on the GRE so I wasn't worried about my stats; what scared me were my 3 interviews (1 was good, 1 was bad, 1 was so-so). Basically, Claremont is a liberal arts graduate school and their philosophy for teaching is that of a liberal arts undergraduate college. They will make sure that you are a fit for them and that you will be a good ROI before they admit you.
 
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I'm a second year MPH/MBA student at Claremont, my experience so far has been good if not great. My MPH program has been a 10/10, B-school 10/10. Both are very new schools, both accredited, both interested in raising their rankings; they share common interests. Claremont's Public Health school (School of Community and Global Health, SCGH) is comprised of almost all former faculty from USC's Price School of Public Health (like 90%, there was drama at USC about a decade ago and pretty much the entirety of their faculty jumped ship to teach at Claremont. The other 10% of the faculty is drawn from UCLA/UC's/Ivy leagues) and they are all well connected... they will make sure you are adequately prepared to be at a competitive level by graduation and will bend over backwards to help you land a gig if you ask them to. Drucker's nuts and bolts classes (corporate finance, accounting, organizational theories and such... the boring stuff) are taught by mostly mid-career Harvard MBA's from LA for some weird reason, the concentration classes will be taught by PhD's from various backgrounds with a crap ton of industry experience. Personally, I find the SCGH classes to be a little more interesting, but different strokes for different folks... Business school gets better after you finish most of your core (be prepared to do math for both schools. Grad school level biostats and corporate finance will kick your ass).

SCGH is a very nurturing environment where most of the student body is concerned with making the world a better place and curing AIDs etc., while Drucker is a very traditional cut-throat business school with 95% of their students caring about making more $$$ and advancing their careers... the two schools complement each other quite nicely actually if you are a dual degree student. Drucker can be intimidating at times, but everyone has to pay their dues in order to get that MBA, so just power through it.

As a dual degree student you have access to two separate giant networks (SCGH & Drucker) as opposed to one because you are actually enrolled in two different schools, which is something I am very grateful for. In SCGH you will have MPH, MD, DDS, PhD students in your classes, at Drucker you will have students from the traditional MBA, joint JD/MBA students, and FE programs. Network with them and make friends, a lot of the MBA students are already very well connected (I got my paid gig at Kaiser through a friend in the MBA, go figure). Not many people can afford the 62k/year tuition at Claremont, a lot of the student body is incredibly wealthy or their tuition is paid for by their employer (hence, they have connections).

I started out solely in the MPH program, but later I decided it would be a smart move to pair my MPH in Leadership and Management with an MBA in Finance and Strategy because it aligned with my career goals. Drucker's application process isn't very fun if you're doing a dual degree, they will basically interrogate you about why you want to do it because there were only about 10-15 slots allotted to the MPH/MBAs (Claremont is a very small school in comparison to others, there are about 2000 students total, all programs, in the graduate university). I had a 3.7 undergrad GPA (Bio from Claremont McKenna College), 2 years industry experience, and 157V/160Q on the GRE so I wasn't worried about my stats; what scared me were my 3 interviews (1 was good, 1 was bad, 1 was so-so). Basically, Claremont is a liberal arts graduate school and their philosophy for teaching is that of a liberal arts undergraduate college. They will make sure that you are a fit for them and that you will be a good ROI before they admit you.


Wow.Very Very Insightful! thank you!
 
Wow.Very Very Insightful! thank you!
Any time. I had a really hard time figuring out if a joint MPH/MBA was right for me, and if it was right, how to get in because there is no concrete formula for how to do it. I pretty much know everything about most of the MBA/MPH programs & what to do with the degrees, so if you have any more questions feel free to message me on here... I don't know how often I'll check my mail, but I'll eventually get back to you! Good luck :)
 
Hi..I have done my MBBS from India. I have worked for more than 2 years in Doctors Without Borders (MSF) as Assistant Medical Coordinator. I have given my GMAT and secured a score of 700 (90 percentile). I wanted to know if I would be competitive enough to get admitted in the Johns Hopkins MPH/MBA program. I have not got my GPA evaluated because the percentage that you get in Indian system and that in US do not corroborate. I have also heard from a lot of people that I should not try getting it evaluated. My average percentage would be 63% as per Indian scoring systme. Also I wanted to know if anyone has tried UNC-Chapel Hill and if that would be a good college to pursue?
Thanks
 
Hi..I have done my MBBS from India. I have worked for more than 2 years in Doctors Without Borders (MSF) as Assistant Medical Coordinator. I have given my GMAT and secured a score of 700 (90 percentile). I wanted to know if I would be competitive enough to get admitted in the Johns Hopkins MPH/MBA program. I have not got my GPA evaluated because the percentage that you get in Indian system and that in US do not corroborate. I have also heard from a lot of people that I should not try getting it evaluated. My average percentage would be 63% as per Indian scoring systme. Also I wanted to know if anyone has tried UNC-Chapel Hill and if that would be a good college to pursue?
Thanks

If you're a doctor who's worked with MSF and have good standardized test scores, you should definitely apply. Hopkins is competitive, no doubt, but you have great experience that looks really appealing, as well as a medical background, which they like to see.

Might also be good to apply separately to the Hopkins MPH program. You can always do a separate 1 year MPH and a 1 year MBA if you don't get into the combined program. Emory has a great combined program that you should look into.
 
@bs2407, while Johns Hopkins is definitely well-known and a leader in public health, you should consider other programs that have strength in both their graduate public health and business programs. As Solara mentioned above, Emory has a great MBA/MPH dual degree program, and both Rollins and Goizueta are ranked highly in their respective categories. In addition, you should also look at UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UNC-Chapel Hill.

I think it's important for us to understand where you hope to be post MBA and MPH. Most MBA/MPH program are focused on health policy and management.

Hi..I have done my MBBS from India. I have worked for more than 2 years in Doctors Without Borders (MSF) as Assistant Medical Coordinator. I have given my GMAT and secured a score of 700 (90 percentile). I wanted to know if I would be competitive enough to get admitted in the Johns Hopkins MPH/MBA program. I have not got my GPA evaluated because the percentage that you get in Indian system and that in US do not corroborate. I have also heard from a lot of people that I should not try getting it evaluated. My average percentage would be 63% as per Indian scoring systme. Also I wanted to know if anyone has tried UNC-Chapel Hill and if that would be a good college to pursue?
Thanks
 
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