MBA degree in addition to a PhD

[iwannabeaproducer]

Hey! I am a licensed psychologist with a PhD in school psych. I have worked in a variety of settings. I have always been very interested in gaining more business/managerial skills, out of both professional and personal interest, so decided to start an MBA program. Long-term, I am interested in more systems-level administrative/managerial/consultative roles, and want to make sure I have enough background knowledge to be successful.

I haven't been able to find many peers who have gone the MBA route, although I have talked to 1 or 2 people who were program directors or opened their own practice who said that more business knowledge would have helped because the learning curve was steep.

I'm wondering if anyone here has earned both degrees, and what role they have now? Do they believe it's an asset? I also have the option to have a concentration in specialties such as finance, health care administration, marketing, business analytics, and human resources. I'm wondering which of these might be of greatest use in the field.

Thanks!

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[MCParent]

In my experience is an MBA is a massive asset. A former student of mine got one during his doc program and is now fielding admin position offers of $200k before he's done his PhD. I plan one getting on in the next few years (I don't want to move into admin, but the knowledge is useful as a lab administrator and running a small PP, and the degrees are fairly cheap if you are faculty and you are allowed to take courses with fees waived at your own institution). Nearly all MBAs now have tracks made for people who work full time (evening and weekend classes).

 

[PsyDr]

It seems to depend.

A real MBA from a real school where you immediately go into the business sector? Absolutely helps.
A night school MBA from a satellite campus on the weekends? 50/50
An online school MBA from a BS school? waste of money.


It would be useful to know exactly what you want to do.

Consulting for psychology practices? That would be laughable because the successful ones don't need it at that level and the nonsuccsesful ones seem to be cheap as hell.

Moving completely to business where you have a nifty psychology extra? Probably an asset so long as you think of it that way.

If you want to go into healthcare admin, there was that study in like WSJ or something that showed like 80% of healthcare administrators are EdDs.

 

[WisNeuro]

If you want to go into healthcare admin, there was that study in like WSJ or something that showed like 80% of healthcare administrators are EdDs.

In our system, they are all SWs (at lower mgmt. levels) and MDs. I am not aware of any PhDs in our admin, unless they are also an MD. I'm sure it differs by region and possibly hospital system, but in my metro area, the MBA won't help you much in institutional settings.

 

[MCParent]

It seems to depend.

A real MBA from a real school where you immediately go into the business sector? Absolutely helps.
A night school MBA from a satellite campus on the weekends? 50/50
An online school MBA from a BS school? waste of money.


It would be useful to know exactly what you want to do.

Consulting for psychology practices? That would be laughable because the successful ones don't need it at that level and the nonsuccsesful ones seem to be cheap as hell.

Moving completely to business where you have a nifty psychology extra? Probably an asset so long as you think of it that way.

If you want to go into healthcare admin, there was that study in like WSJ or something that showed like 80% of healthcare administrators are EdDs.

You probably know more of them than I do, so I'd trust your opinion and experience over mine, but even the low-ranked-school MBAs I know are doing fantastic. They're all really good fits with those professions, though.

 

[iwannabeaproducer]

Thanks for your replies! I'm in a midwestern city. The university is a major university, and the program is accredited by the b-school accreditation board. It's a hybrid program to offer flexibility to traveling students, and going to classes in person to learn directly from people in the field is very important to me. All classes are at night.

As I said, I'm doing this as much for personal reasons as professional ones, and not getting an MBA earlier has always been a regret. I'm especially interested in economics and organizational behavior classes, which I've spent a lot of time learning about in my spare time already.

Initially, my first thought was to pursue the health care admin or human resources track, although I'm now wondering if marketing or data analytics might have more utility with a psychology degree. I'm only one semester in, and early in my career, so I'm still trying to see what my strengths will be. It's good to know that there are others who have done both!

 

[sfgucadoc]

A cheap(er) alternative to going back to school right now might be to join the American College of Healthcare Executives for a year or two and see what they do. Maybe attend their annual meeting. Network. Chat people up and find out what it's like to do what they do. They're the group that gives out the FACHE credential if you've done the requisite years of experience and pass their certification exam. I can tell you that anyone in the VA interested in medical center administration joins ACHE and gets their FACHE credential after putting in the time. I don't know of any VA hospital director who DOESN'T have the FACHE credential. Not sure if it's that critical in the outside world.

You also might consider a Master of Health Care Administration. As one might expect, it's much more specific to health care. Like most degrees these days, it's easy to get snookered by the online Bill & Ted's Excellent School of Healthcare Administration, etc. Look for MHA programs that are accredited by CAHME. Some programs offer a dual MHA/MBA where some courses will count for both degrees.

Also be aware there are several different MBA accrediting agencies. There are three top accrediting agencies for MBA programs: the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), and the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE). AACSB is the most prestigious. I would say don't bother if the MBA isn't accredited or if it's accredited by a group other than AACSB.

My .02

SFGUCaDoc

 

[iwannabeaproducer]

Thanks for your reply! I had never heard of this organization or credential, so I will be checking them out. I considered the MHA, but I thought the MBA would be more broad and keep my options open a bit, especially if I can still take classes/specialize in healthcare admin within my program. My program is accredited by the AACSB, which was a big deal to me (especially after seeing firsthand how vital accreditation is for the psychology field).