MD/MBA vs MD/MPH

[vyc]

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there's a thread going on about MD/MPH joint degree programs but i'm wondering what the difference between getting an MBA along with an MD, or an MPH along with an MD, would be.

i'll be starting med school this fall and i know i'm interested in public health issues. but specifically, if i did an MPH, i'd probably to something like health administration.

so what's the difference between doing that and getting an MBA?

also, business schools usually want a couple years of experience... does that stand for med students who are applying into business schools?

 

[oldman]

my buddy is doing that. he'll have 2 years of i-banking under his belt prior to going into the md/mba program. you have to take the GMAT. i'm not quite sure what they do though. perhaps hospital administration, or start-up biomed companies.

 

[sandflea]

with the MPH, regardless of what you get it in, you'll have to take a range of general public health courses in addition to those specifically in health administration (such as epidemiology and biostatistics, community health planning, etc, etc). so it's truly a public health degree, just with whatever focus you gear it towards. with the MBA, it's all business, although there are MBA programs with a healthcare management focus.

 

[Incendiary]

vyc, I don't know if you're still looking at Chicago, but they don't have an MPH. I think they only have the MPP with a health care focus. They do offer the MBA, however.

 

[vyc]

incendiary, yep, i know UChicago has no school of public health. i'd take a year off and go some place else. if i chose to do an MPH, that is.

right now, i'm leaning toward the MBA but that means i have to take the GMAT.

does anyone know how long it'll take to get both the MD and the MBA degree? i don't want to be in school forever.

 

[coop]

hey vyc,
u chicago doesn't have an MPH school, but they DO have a program set up whereby Harvard's MPH program will take up to a certain number of interested pritzker students a year. So there is some type of program in place, ask about it.

If you take a couple business school classes during your first 2 years it's possible to finish an md/mba in 6 years. from my dad (a b school prof at a school with an md/mba program) the most useful thing to do with an md/mba is start your own group or private practice, it is not as well designed for hospital administration (he was wuite surprised when I told him that's what most premeds seem to think of when they say md/mba).

 

[vyc]

coop, there is no such official set up with Harvard. i asked about that already. 🙂

but many UChicago students to go to Berkeley, UIC, or Harvard for their MPH degrees.

so if i don't want to set up a private practice but am more interested in health administration, i should go for the MPH???

i'm not really interested in epidemiology or biostats or environmental health or any of the other areas of MPH concentrations...

 

[surg]

I've covered this before in other threads, but here is the short version.

An MBA can be valuable if you know what you want to do with it (it sounds like you do in this case). If you want to do Hospital Admin you can be very successful with an MBA as it can be a quite general degree.

An MPH is a Public Health degree, which is what it sounds like. If you want to do straight admin, you either want to find an MPH with a Hosp. Admin concentration, OR a Masters of Health Science Administation (MHSA). Top programs can be found in the most recent US News and World Report Rankings. As I recall the top is U-Michigan, followed by Johns Hopkins Univ.

As far as time, for integrated programs you can do either degree with an MD in 5 years with careful planning. By necessity this means giving up a lot of electives in both schools so weigh that carefully before you go that route.

As far as getting into an MBA school. You will find that the top 20 business schools (which is all you really should be interested in if you want brand recognition, but is a moot point if you are just trying to get an education) do ask for 3 years of experience, however, that is not a hard and fast rule and if they are familiar with medical students, they often will accept med school as a substitute, or consider you a special case. However, I will say that the more experience you have, the richer your business school experience will be.

hope this helps

 

[Incendiary]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by vyc:
•incendiary, yep, i know UChicago has no school of public health. i'd take a year off and go some place else. if i chose to do an MPH, that is.

right now, i'm leaning toward the MBA but that means i have to take the GMAT.

does anyone know how long it'll take to get both the MD and the MBA degree? i don't want to be in school forever.•••••Why not get both? 6-7 years isn't forever... :wink:

 

[vyc]

you mean get an MD, an MPH, and an MBA?
ha.

riiiiight.

i don't want to become a degree-collector.
i don't need all three!

 

[Incendiary]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by vyc:
•you mean get an MD, an MPH, and an MBA?
ha.

riiiiight.

i don't want to become a degree-collector.
i don't need all three!•••••I'm actually planning on getting an MD, MPH, MA, and perhaps an MPP and/or MBA later. (Yes, I know I'll be in school for a long time.) I wouldn't do it just to get more M's after my name, like I sometimes joke, but rather because there are just a lot of things that I'd like to do, and I feel that the education and the degree(s) will give me more credibility.

It's true though that for some things, perhaps many of the things that I'd like to do, the degrees won't be necessary. But I like to learn anyway, so what the hey? 🙂