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What are the reasons to go MD/MBA? Administration?
Joint MD/MBA
- Thread starter Kashue
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not becoming donald trumps apprentice
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Health Venture Capital!
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At one interview I went to the head of admissions fielded a question on the possibility of doing an mba at the business school while doing the md. He seemed to indicate that an mba/md without prior business experience would be pretty worthless from the business perspective.
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I don't necessarily agree. I just graduated from an MBA program in health administration. There were several current med students in my program who were doing the combined degree. Those students had hospital CEOs approach them and ask them if they wanted to meet, do internships, tour facilities, etc.; these were privileges not always accorded to the "regular" students. The impression from the CEOs was that the MD program gave the students clout that more than made up for the lack of prior business experience, and that they considered the students worth grooming for the future.
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Snapdad:
Did you graduate from an 'upper tier' school? I have heard that MBAs with or without the MD are not worth much, unless from a top rated program. I'm interested in your perspecitve as a recent MBA grad. Thanks in advance.
Did you graduate from an 'upper tier' school? I have heard that MBAs with or without the MD are not worth much, unless from a top rated program. I'm interested in your perspecitve as a recent MBA grad. Thanks in advance.
the MBA lets you have the "how to get to point B" mentality. ok, say you want national health care and can cite 1000000 reasons why it's better. But unless you know how to even start to get there - management, money, finance, practicality - you will just end up being powerless.
you come in wanting to help people (maybe unlike other money hungry driven people), and hopefully you come out better able to help!
you come in wanting to help people (maybe unlike other money hungry driven people), and hopefully you come out better able to help!
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I seem to remember reading in usnews that the program was in the top 25. I did a clerkship with a hospital CFO, and we discussed this. His take was, and I agree with this, that the MBA is what "gets you over the hump" if you want to be in a leadership role. In other words, years of experience get you in the door, but there's a ceiling that you need the MBA to get past if your goal is leadership of some sort. As an entry-level degree, it's not worth much. However, Bongsen raised a really good point that combined with an MD, an MBA provides knowledge about the "workings of the system" that, at the end of the day, can really help you get past roadblocks and get down to what counts: helping patients.
The other good thing about an MBA is that it gives you a certain credibility in the system. For instance, I also worked with a surgeon who was also an MBA, and his degrees, combined with his years in the trenches, enabled him to affect the system in a positive way for doctors and patients by allowing him to sit on various boards and committees. He was able to act as a bridge between the doctors and the administrators, two groups that are often at odds with each other.
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The Lazarus book is a good overview. My general gist on this is: If you don't know why you would want both degrees at this point, don't get them. There will be plenty of opportunities later to get an MBA if you should find it necessary or helpful in advancing your career or managing your career goals.
An MBA is not a magic degree. It is a baseline degree that involves an basic understanding of business concepts (finance, accounting, operations management, marketing, strategy, etc.) and depending on the school that you go to, a wide variety of in depth knowledge of various aspects.
Since virtually every institution offers MBAs (it is no semblance of the strict regulation that medical schools undergo to stay accredited, despite the AACSB accredition stamp), a top MBA is qualitatively considered to be very different than a run of the mill MBA in the business world. Does that mean that it makes a difference in your career? Maybe, maybe not. If you want to be an IBanker at Goldman Sachs directly out of business school, unless you already know someone working there, it's going to be tough outside of the core schools that they recruit at (<10 schools nationwide) to get a job. If you want to advance in your hospital admin, University of Phoenix may do the trick to get your ticket stamped.
The other thing to consider between a top MBA and a non-top MBA is the networks that you make. At the top schools you interact with people who generally are seeking high profile positions around the country and may provide valuable business contacts in the future in the usual B-school feeders (IBanking, Consulting, Brand Management, etc). Smaller schools tend to provide more regional contacts, but may be stronger in some industries than others (e.g. Rutgers has a good pharmaceutical marketing program, but certainly would be on anyone's top 10 list of Business schools).
As to when to do the MBA: There is a good reason why most top 10 MBAs generally only admit students with at least 3 years of work experience. The more you already know, the better you are able to utilize those experiences to apply to the conceptual frameworks they are giving you. Thus, if you are going to do high school then college then a MD/MBA I would probably argue that you would have gotten more out of it by doing your MBA later, especially after you have some hospital experience so you know where the warts are first hand. Obviously situations will vary.
Oh, and to one other poster's comments: yes, no business people seem inordinately impressed with an MD. They assume that it means that you are insanely smart (as opposed to just willing to work insanely hard). Either way, having both, occasionally will open up a door that isn't available to you, although sometimes it will close a door, since they may question why you are leaving medicine.
For one MD's journal of business school you can read:
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/mbajournal/01mathew/1.htm
An MBA is not a magic degree. It is a baseline degree that involves an basic understanding of business concepts (finance, accounting, operations management, marketing, strategy, etc.) and depending on the school that you go to, a wide variety of in depth knowledge of various aspects.
Since virtually every institution offers MBAs (it is no semblance of the strict regulation that medical schools undergo to stay accredited, despite the AACSB accredition stamp), a top MBA is qualitatively considered to be very different than a run of the mill MBA in the business world. Does that mean that it makes a difference in your career? Maybe, maybe not. If you want to be an IBanker at Goldman Sachs directly out of business school, unless you already know someone working there, it's going to be tough outside of the core schools that they recruit at (<10 schools nationwide) to get a job. If you want to advance in your hospital admin, University of Phoenix may do the trick to get your ticket stamped.
The other thing to consider between a top MBA and a non-top MBA is the networks that you make. At the top schools you interact with people who generally are seeking high profile positions around the country and may provide valuable business contacts in the future in the usual B-school feeders (IBanking, Consulting, Brand Management, etc). Smaller schools tend to provide more regional contacts, but may be stronger in some industries than others (e.g. Rutgers has a good pharmaceutical marketing program, but certainly would be on anyone's top 10 list of Business schools).
As to when to do the MBA: There is a good reason why most top 10 MBAs generally only admit students with at least 3 years of work experience. The more you already know, the better you are able to utilize those experiences to apply to the conceptual frameworks they are giving you. Thus, if you are going to do high school then college then a MD/MBA I would probably argue that you would have gotten more out of it by doing your MBA later, especially after you have some hospital experience so you know where the warts are first hand. Obviously situations will vary.
Oh, and to one other poster's comments: yes, no business people seem inordinately impressed with an MD. They assume that it means that you are insanely smart (as opposed to just willing to work insanely hard). Either way, having both, occasionally will open up a door that isn't available to you, although sometimes it will close a door, since they may question why you are leaving medicine.
For one MD's journal of business school you can read:
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/mbajournal/01mathew/1.htm
