MHA and Job Expierience.

[xDennis]

Hello,
I just graduated in the spring, I didnt fully decide on what I wanted to do until a month or 2 after I graduated.

I have not worked in the Public Health field, however I want to pursue a career in Health Administration. I management, that's why I want to pursue a MHA vs MPA.

Now, I don't have any job experience in the field. I've turned in my volunteer application for the local department of public health.. but that will be about all.

When applying to these MHA programs, what are the largest factors on your application they look at? I have a 3.1GPA and have not taken the GRE yet however I am going to start studying for that soon. I was very active in the community and have a lot of volunteer hours (not necessarily in the health field) and I can provide stron letters of rec's

I'm just worried my GPA is too low, and I don't have any experience in the field.

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[xDennis]

anyone?

 

[mphHuskie]

I can't say to specifics for MHA programs since I was applying to Community Health and Epi programs, but I did have very similar stats to yours prior to taking the GREs. I did do well on them, but undergrad GPA and prior work experience were very similar.

I was accepted at all but one of the programs that I applied to and if you want to get an idea of what school range I was shooting for I applied to programs within the top 20 but outside of the top 10 based on US News rankings. I've heard people on here say they got in with similar stats though to higher ranked programs (though I have to say I didn't make any kind of final decision based on those rankings because I'm not sold on them).

 

[mphcand]

XDennis - I too am interested in going into Health Administration.

I have heard that schools focus more on undergrad curriculum and work experience and less heavily on gres...However I am not sure how much of this is true.

What made you decide on MPA or MHA as opposed to MPH? I am having a tough time deciding.

 

[jung]

I'm interested in Health Admin as well.

I'm pretty sure experience (FT or volunteer), rec letters and GRE/GMAT's will help your application if you have a low GPA. As for what GPA you need to be competitive, we're going to need an MHA student to comment on that.

 

[jung]

What made you decide on MPA or MHA as opposed to MPH? I am having a tough time deciding.

I believe the OP chose to pursue an MHA over an MPH/MPA. The MPH's are focused on Public Health/Policy issues where one can specialize in Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health, Global Health or Health Management (there maybe more specializations).

So if you know you want to specialize in Health Admin or Healthcare Management, your options are basically an MPH (with specialization in Healthcare Admin/Management) or an MHA. Another option is to pursue an MBA (Healthcare stream) which are offered by some notch top b-schools. Some schools offer both degrees (MHA and MPH), some only the MHA and others offer only the MPH.

If you take an MPH (with the Healthcare Management option), you may have to take a couple courses from the other areas I mentioned earlier whereas in an MHA, everything will be "relevant". But, "relevant" means that you'd like to know everything the school has to offer in the Healthcare admin/management field, whereas the MPH may introduce you to other interesting areas in Healthcare.

I hope that wasn't too confusing and clears some things up. Maybe the OP would like to shed some light on why the MHA over the MPH?

 

[xDennis]

Hello,
I decided to go the MHA route as to the MPA because I am more interested in the Administrative aspect of health. I am interested in managing a health facility.

What people say they do "well" on the GRE, what is considered well? 900, 1000 , 1100 ?


Will an MPA with a strong policy administration tract hold up the same weight as a MHA ?

Dennis

 

[wanttoPH]

What people say they do "well" on the GRE, what is considered well? 900, 1000 , 1100 ?

I'd say a 1200