Why does BU get talked about negatively on these forums? Is it a good option for health policy/mgmt?

[WinsIII]

Deleted

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Stories]

Alumnus here.

I think the biggest knock people have against BU is that it's expensive. There's no question it's expensive. It's a private school in an expensive city, so it will be expensive. Many people on the forum like to think that expensive schools should be the best, but since BU isn't 'the best', it's a rip off. That's sort of what some of the detractors are saying.

BU has it's strengths and weaknesses. It's not as rigorous on straight research. They've positioned themselves as a more practice based school, with a wide focus on local and global health. There's much less focus on things that say... Harvard and Hopkins researchers focus--causal and Bayes methodology or genomics. But they have a lot of flexibility in the program, there's many disciplines that aren't covered at many schools (Maternal and Child Health, Health Law), and there's flexible times (night and day) which classes can be taken to accommodate people who work. MPH was traditionally a working professional degree, and BU's was designed around these scheduling constraints. With that, there's the negative perception that it isn't as 'elite' as those programs which require all students to be enrolled full-time. I think those perceptions are misguided, but that's me.

I'd say overall, I had a good experience at BU. I would definitely recommend it to someone interested in a holistic and well-connected (to New England) program that focuses on practice and implementation. For someone focused on research, I'd suggest a more research-focused institution such as Harvard or Hopkins.

 

[WinsIII]

Alumnus here.

I think the biggest knock people have against BU is that it's expensive. There's no question it's expensive. It's a private school in an expensive city, so it will be expensive. Many people on the forum like to think that expensive schools should be the best, but since BU isn't 'the best', it's a rip off. That's sort of what some of the detractors are saying.

BU has it's strengths and weaknesses. It's not as rigorous on straight research. They've positioned themselves as a more practice based school, with a wide focus on local and global health. There's much less focus on things that say... Harvard and Hopkins researchers focus--causal and Bayes methodology or genomics. But they have a lot of flexibility in the program, there's many disciplines that aren't covered at many schools (Maternal and Child Health, Health Law), and there's flexible times (night and day) which classes can be taken to accommodate people who work. MPH was traditionally a working professional degree, and BU's was designed around these scheduling constraints. With that, there's the negative perception that it isn't as 'elite' as those programs which require all students to be enrolled full-time. I think those perceptions are misguided, but that's me.

I'd say overall, I had a good experience at BU. I would definitely recommend it to someone interested in a holistic and well-connected (to New England) program that focuses on practice and implementation. For someone focused on research, I'd suggest a more research-focused institution such as Harvard or Hopkins.

Thanks Stories, I really appreciate your perspective. Fortunately, I really don't care much about research, I'm viewing this as a practical degree, so that aspect is actually preferable.

I also assumed that BU would be well-connected to Boston-area employers, so it's good to hear that is the case.

I notice you were Epi/Environmental Health. Have you stayed in touch with anyone that did health policy/management? Do they feel like the program prepared them well to work in the policy arena?

 

[Stories]

Thanks Stories, I really appreciate your perspective. Fortunately, I really don't care much about research, I'm viewing this as a practical degree, so that aspect is actually preferable.

I also assumed that BU would be well-connected to Boston-area employers, so it's good to hear that is the case.

I notice you were Epi/Environmental Health. Have you stayed in touch with anyone that did health policy/management? Do they feel like the program prepared them well to work in the policy arena?

I sort of passively followed one friend for a few years, but she's since moved to other parts of the country and haven't kept in touch. She was employed at a health management company and seemed to enjoy her job right out of MPH. She always said that she only did the degree because she knew she would have a glass ceiling over her head if she didn't. We didn't really talk about our programs, though.