MPH or MBA: better master's option?

[studentathlete5]

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Interested in hearing some opinions:

Which degree - Masters in Public Health or MBA in Health Services Administration - would be more useful for a primary care physician to have? And why?

What would be the biggest advantages of having either?


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[samac]

Neither will help you get into medical school. But it really depends on what you want to do. Want to run your own practice? An MBA could help.

 

[studentathlete5]

Not necessarily to help get into school. Just wondering the uses for each, whether the physician earns the degree before or during medical school


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[NecrotizingFasciitis]

I'd be interested in this topic discussed as well, especially since so many schools offer dual degrees for both.

There is a YouTuber I enjoy watching called DocOssareh who discusses the pros and cons of the MBA. He did an MD/MBA and says you gain strong teamwork and communication skills for the clinical setting that can help you in your 3rd and 4rth year rotations. Seems like a solid argument for the MBA to me, in addition to being able to potentially help open a practice of your own someday. Here's the video if you're interested:

 

[DrMikeP]

Not necessarily to help get into school. Just wondering the uses for each, whether the physician earns the degree before or during medical school


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Some students before, some during, and some after. It just depends on you and your path. Some med schools offer concurrent MBA or MPH programs with summer classes (as mentioned neither help significantly with med school admissions). An MBA is more flexible in business and can help greatly with running a practice or in hospital admin positions, but make sure you pay attention in the finance courses. Most hospital execs I know strongly recommend MBA over MPH, but if you want to do government public health stuff an MPH is valuable (e.g. CDC, NIH). Some MPH degrees are VERY pubic health research oriented and teach almost no real business courses, so useless in the business of medicine. Ultimately, it depends on what you want to do, but both degrees have very saturated positions in the market and both have their limited uses but you actually may not need either to accomplish your goals.

 

[OrdinaryDO]

You can do a dual degree. Look to see if your schools offers a dual DO/MHA (Masters of Healthcare Administration). I can only speak to what I have heard, personally, and that is that both the MPH and MBA are saturated and useless for any reason other than your own personal knowledge. The degree itself won't help you much on paper. However, out of the two? I would go MBA if you ever thought about partnering in a clinic or another physician owned setting; MPH if you just want to do it and learn a little. Public health isn't really a huge part of medicine so far as medicine goes.

 

[iamdragonborn]

I would go with MPH. My program offered a social and behavioral sciences track, and I learned a lot about conducting health interventions, understanding external influences that affect health (e.g. social factors), and better interpreting data on research publications. It also required a bunch of collaborative work and presentations, so it really improves your communication and teamwork skills.

I highly recommend getting an MPH to anyone, specifically with that track. Personally it's helped expand my perspective of healthcare practices.


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[Grey Storm]

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[Clydesdale]

Honestly the MBA is more useful. There's no guarantee you'll get into medical school and if that's the case I'd rather you have a degree that you can use to earn a decent living with. That being said, by the time you finish a 2 year degree 2.5-3 years from now you may not want to do medical school. It's 7-11 years of additional schooling so I'd say MBA.

I second that. I am myself considering MBA incase if DO school plan craps out, I have something to fall back on. Some programs match you with jobs and internships. But in the case if everything works out, it is something that will be good for my personal growth or when I would like to start my own practice.


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[studentathlete5]

Thank you for the awesome feedback everyone!

I would definitely consider doing either program, especially during medical school. My interests/personality leads me more toward the MPH because I enjoy learning about sociology/behavioral sciences and how it fits into medicine. But when considering which degree would provide the most professional and personal development for me, I think the MBA would be a better option.


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[Wjldenver]

The MPH vs MBA decision is totally contingent upon how you want to use the degree. If you are coupling it with an MD or DO degree, my recommendation is to get an MPH because there is some synergy between both degrees.

http://www.usnews.com/education/blo...ants-who-would-benefit-from-an-md-mph-program

However, if you are looking at an MBA or MPH degree as a Plan B option, in lieu of getting into medical school, an MBA is by far the best choice. Note that MBA's from the top 20 schools are making between $120K - $200K right upon graduation. That is a great ROI when comparing it to med school which is four years coupled with a low paying residency thereafter.

 

[roaringunicorn]

Honestly nowadays an MD isn't enough to stand out, every average joe seems to be a doctor. Don't become the laughing stock of the medical community and get both a MBA and MPH for the street cred.

 

[DrMikeP]

Honestly nowadays an MD isn't enough to stand out, every average joe seems to be a doctor. Don't become the laughing stock of the medical community and get both a MBA and MPH for the street cred.

LOL... Why not go for both an MD and DO? Then you'd really be showing ur cred.

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[AlbinoHawk DO]

Both those degrees are garbage. The only reason to get an MPH is if you want to do research in that field. Only reason to get an MBA ever is if you're forced to for your next career move. It's like the airhead graduate degree like communications is for undergrad.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Neither. You should get this degree after medical school and residency. You will have no clue how to utilize these degrees to their full potential until after you know where you are going with your life. You don't know if a field like surgery will interest you and then realizing that the MPH doesn't help you as much with this specialty. As for the MBA, what type of practice are you looking for private, group, or managing a hospital? Doing it prematurely without true knowledge of how you will be practicing will weaken the education you get from the MBA. Plus 7-10 years of being in medical education will make you forget a lot of stuff from both programs.

 

[Peach Newport]

Both can be helpful in your career as a doctor.

Neither will do you any good for getting into medical school.

The entire point of a masters, in this case, is to prove to the admissions committee that you can handle a brutally demanded, upper-level biomedical science class load. You probably need this if your undergraduate GPA is low.

Some people may tell you that an MBA or an MPH helped them get into medical school. These people almost always already had high undergraduate GPAs.

You have 3 realistic options.

1. MS in a field like immunology, physiology, pharmacology, etc. This is typically a 2-year research degree.
Pros: comprehensive, good preparation and research experience, most impressive of all these. Best for enployment if medical school doesn't work.
Cons: it takes 2 years.

2. Master of Biomedical sciences (MBS). This is typically a 30-credit, 1-2 year program that teaches you a variety of subjects relevant to a medical school curriculum. No research is required, though it is often offered.
Pros: not as long as an MS, you learn about interesting topics, lots of room for electives.
Cons: can often be poorly structured.

Special Masters Program ("SMP") is a 1 year program where you pretty much just do the first year of medical school, minus the clinical prep (usually). It's the most demanding option.
Pros: only 1 year, best prep for 1st year, helps medical school performance, some schools like the Touros offer guaranteed acceptance if you do well.
Cons: It's much harder to get the straight As you need to need to build your medical school application. Least enployment options if you don't go to medical school. The SMP is the "high risk, high reward" pathway.

 

[FutureD.O]

Both those degrees are garbage. The only reason to get an MPH is if you want to do research in that field. Only reason to get an MBA ever is if you're forced to for your next career move. It's like the airhead graduate degree like communications is for undergrad.

I can't tell if you're being serious or not..

But in the event that you are, calling an MBA a garbage degree and comparing it to a communications degree may be one of the most ridiculous things I've read on SDN..and I've read some really stupid **** on here.

OP, if you're actually considering pursuing one of these degrees, you'd better have a plan. Degree collecting and expecting it to do anything without a plan is a complete waste of time.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

I can't tell if you're being serious or not..

But in the event that you are, calling an MBA a garbage degree and comparing it to a communications degree may be one of the most ridiculous things I've read on SDN..and I've read some really stupid **** on here.

OP, if you're actually considering pursuing one of these degrees, you'd better have a plan. Degree collecting and expecting it to do anything without a plan is a complete waste of time.

I am 100% serious. Maybe you don't know enough about MBA degrees. The only time they are worth anything is if your work in business and they come from an elite institution because it takes you to the next level. In itself, the degree has no real value. You can learn business on your own and most people that run businesses don't have an MBA. Comparing it to communications is precisely what it is.

 

[Wjldenver]

Apparently you did not read my earlier post on this thread, so I will view this as a teaching moment. I've worked in the management consulting industry for a number of years, and new MBA hires are currently being given offers between $150K - $200K. Admittedly, these are graduates from the top twenty schools, not MBA's from LMU. (No intentional LMU dissing on my part, but it is an illustrative example.) I think you are the one who does not know enough about MBA degrees, so here is a link to an article to bring you up to speed.

http://poetsandquants.com/2017/01/13/consulting-salaries-just-keep-going/

And just so you know, the intrinsic value of Law degrees work in a comparable fashion. It's not as much as whether you have one, it's more about where you get it from. So the main take away is: The DO=DO=DO refrain which is commonly used on this site is not applicable to MBA or Law degrees. In Business and Law, it's more about where you get your degree from. Saying MPH and MBA degrees are garbage degrees is a very misinformed comment. PM me if you have any further questions.

 

[impervious0ne]

I can't tell if you're being serious or not..

But in the event that you are, calling an MBA a garbage degree and comparing it to a communications degree may be one of the most ridiculous things I've read on SDN..and I've read some really stupid **** on here.

OP, if you're actually considering pursuing one of these degrees, you'd better have a plan. Degree collecting and expecting it to do anything without a plan is a complete waste of time.

My uncle works in finance and he said MBAs are worthless nowadays because there are too many of them. Degrees don't get you in; your skillset does. Some workplace might require MBA but that's for completing a requirement for promotion. If you check out the HPM forums, people have said getting degrees can also block your career because you might be too overskilled (or have to be compensated more than non-MBA graduates).


Furthermore, as others may have pointed out, academic elitism is a real thing. It's especially true in Law (top 14), business, doctorate, etc. You might notice that lot of the faculties at desirable institutions also have very similar pedigree (ivy, ivy-equivalent, or top tier public). It might not be as relevant in medicine because of huge demand for them. It seems like elitism is prevalent too in medicine as far as research is concerned, but I think physicians and faculty from the forums can offer a better insight far better than I can.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

Apparently you did not read my earlier post on this thread, so I will view this as a teaching moment. I've worked in the management consulting industry for a number of years, and new MBA hires are currently being given offers between $150K - $200K. Admittedly, these are graduates from the top twenty schools, not MBA's from LMU. (No intentional LMU dissing on my part, but it is an illustrative example.) I think you are the one who does not know enough about MBA degrees, so here is a link to an article to bring you up to speed.

http://poetsandquants.com/2017/01/13/consulting-salaries-just-keep-going/

And just so you know, the intrinsic value of Law degrees work in a comparable fashion. It's not as much as whether you have one, it's more about where you get it from. So the main take away is: The DO=DO=DO refrain which is commonly used on this site is not applicable to MBA or Law degrees. In Business and Law, it's more about where you get your degree from. Saying MPH and MBA degrees are garbage degrees is a very misinformed comment. PM me if you have any further questions.

I'd argue you are at least learning out the law and you can still practice on your own if you choose to, but overall, I agree.