Masters in Health Education vs MBA

[pharm B]

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So I've signed up for an MBA through a school that's pretty flexible with the degree plan, but now I see another program that's offering an MS in Health Education from a bigger institution. All other things being equal, would the MBA from a smaller college be better than the MS from the bigger one? Vice versa, or does it not even matter?

I figure the Health Education masters plays into our role in community and hospital settings of providing education to patients and staff, but I've also been told the MBA is a good thing to have in your pocket.

 

[joetrisman]

If I had my choice, I would have gone MHA or MPH but its not an option at my institution and doing the dual I get GRE/GMAT waived, pre-reqs waived, and two classes from my pharmd program count towards my MBA. I've only finished two classes so far. One was a MGT class and was so-so. The other was a stats and business decision making class. I can't say I learned as much as I should, but I definitely have learned volumes about developing business solution models in excel. I was also pleasantly surprised when one of the models we used to forecast the most realistic scenario was presented in an ID lecture as a tool for developing better antibiograms 👍

 

[rxlea]

So I've signed up for an MBA through a school that's pretty flexible with the degree plan, but now I see another program that's offering an MS in Health Education from a bigger institution. All other things being equal, would the MBA from a smaller college be better than the MS from the bigger one? Vice versa, or does it not even matter?

I figure the Health Education masters plays into our role in community and hospital settings of providing education to patients and staff, but I've also been told the MBA is a good thing to have in your pocket.

With the way things are going in health care, patient education, preventive medicine, quality improvement, and medication adherence are going to be huge. I would go with the masters in health education.

 

[whatbout2morrow]

So I've signed up for an MBA through a school that's pretty flexible with the degree plan, but now I see another program that's offering an MS in Health Education from a bigger institution. All other things being equal, would the MBA from a smaller college be better than the MS from the bigger one? Vice versa, or does it not even matter?

I figure the Health Education masters plays into our role in community and hospital settings of providing education to patients and staff, but I've also been told the MBA is a good thing to have in your pocket.

I guess it depends what you are interested in.

In my personal opinion, in terms of getting your foot in the door for residencies/jobs in the future, I think the Health Education degree would set you apart especially because of the reform on the way (accountable care, etc).

In terms of getting into management positions, the MBA might help. However, considering a good 5-10 years of experience at the staff level would probably be needed to be considered for management positions, I would postpone taking the MBA unless you do not plan to go back to school at all once you are out. MBA programs are quite flexible nowadays, and there are plenty of one year working professional MBAs designed to work with full-time work schedules. At the same time, when it comes to MBAs, one must not make a huge bargain in the name of convenience, unless you want an MBA for the sake of getting an MBA. There are many MBA programs out there, and most of the time, the content of what is taught will be the same. What really must be looked at is where graduates of the program end up, what kind of networking opportunities the program provides, etc. If you hope to someday become a pharmacy director in a leading hospital or CEO of a major pharmaceutical industry, those things probably will matter. If you want to open up an independent pharmacy or become district manager in a retail chain, probably not so much.

 

[Oren]

Unfortunately, an MBA is a dime in a dozen. There are so many MBA schools now. Many of them are online program which employers don't see much value. Whether this is right or wrong is another issue.

I know 3 MBA graduates: one is making 35 k a year, the second has been unemployed for a year and the third decided to try law school. All are in knee deep in student loans. It's not easy at all.

Think carefully especially about student loans before you decide to enroll into another program. It may not be worth it. Wish you well.

 

[pharm B]

Thanks for the feedback everybody. I agree with the statement that MBA's are a dime a dozen. I'm not really a "business" person, so I felt like I would just be forcing myself to keep plodding forward in the MBA. Thanks to veterans benefits, the extra degree won't cost much. I'm grateful!