Opportunities with MBA

Alright folks,

I need a little bit more advice from you guys with MBAs out there.

I am faced with a semi-tough decision.

Do I go with a Bellevue MHA program or a Liberty MBA?

The Bellevue MHA would be a resident program...I'd be living near the Omaha area...so I could attend classes.

The Liberty MBA would be done at a distance (with the exception of one class) but Liberty is a much more well-known school.

Both are about the same in price.

I do not work in healthcare nor do I know what it is like to work in Healthcare Admin...so I'm a little tenative about getting an MHA degree and then I do not like it.

I have no business experience, but do have a few contacts in the business world.

With no experience in either business or healthcare admin I know I am very much underexperienced and if I had an MHA or MBA I'd be overqualified for an entry-level position.

So basically, what doors would an MBA open with virtually no experience?

 

Did you look into Colorado State University's MBA program?

CSU

From their Web site:

For 30 years, CSU has provided a distance MBA program that offers students:

AACSB Accreditation

No Residency Requirement

 

Short answer: Go with the resident MHA program.

Longer answer: The benefit of an MBA is the value-added it gives you combined with your work experience. In a DL MBA program, this is even more so, since you really don't have any chance to network with other classmates and school support for job placement is almost nothing. If you go with the MBA program, it might be many years before you start to realize the benefit from it.

With a resident MHA program, you have more of a chance to network, and most likely more job placement opportunities. Even if you don't want to work in healthcare, skills you learn in a MHA program transfer well into other fields. In fact, if you compared course syllabi between the MBA and MHA programs, you will find them to be remarkably similar. You would definitly have more doors open for you in that regard.

 

Short answer: Go with the resident MHA program.

Longer answer: The benefit of an MBA is the value-added it gives you combined with your work experience. In a DL MBA program, this is even more so, since you really don't have any chance to network with other classmates and school support for job placement is almost nothing. If you go with the MBA program, it might be many years before you start to realize the benefit from it.

With a resident MHA program, you have more of a chance to network, and most likely more job placement opportunities. Even if you don't want to work in healthcare, skills you learn in a MHA program transfer well into other fields. In fact, if you compared course syllabi between the MBA and MHA programs, you will find them to be remarkable similar. You would definitly have more doors open for you in that regard.

 

There’s logic to what edowave is saying, but I’d take a different approach. I recommend stepping back and clarifying as best you can your long-term career goals, choosing the type of degree that has the best alignment with those goals, and then deciding if you want B&M or DL – as well as how best to get a foot in the door of your chosen industry. That requires patience, energy, and time, but it’s worth it IMHO.

The point about networking is cogent, but it is possible to exaggerate the networking advantage of a B&M campus. For one thing, there are a great many other ways of networking while you are a student, such as participation in professional associations. Here, too, clarity about your career goals is helpful: the more focused you are on the content and challenges of a specific area, the more energetic and productive your networking may be.

If I somehow couldn’t corral any clarity about career goals beyond what you mention, I would probably opt for the MBA. After all, you haven’t conveyed any particular interest in health care. To be sure, the MBA is a generalist qualification (especially if you don’t have a specialization or major within it), but it can be a passport to a variety of industries. You might really benefit from getting a couple survey books on careers for MBAs. A quick browse through amazon.com will reveal some useful titles.

Happy hunting.

 

Considering where you live, I'd do the University of Nebraska online MBA. Absolutely no questions about it.

Its prices are excellent for in-state students (I think under $150 per credit hour, but look around the UoN site and confirm for yourself), and it's a well-regarded program, having occasionally flirted with and made the rankings by either Business Week or US News.

This is the flagship I'm talking about, the U at Lincoln.

http://mba.unl.edu/distance.html

 

Well, since you do not work in healthcare, you dont know what it is like in healthcare admin., and you never explicitly say that you want to work in heathcare, I'm not sure why you would want the MHA. On the other hand, the MBA would give you a much broader range of opportunities.

 

Re: Re: Opportunities with MBA

I agree. My suggestion would be to get at least a parttime job in the field you think you want to go into. Then after a few months you can go ahead and sign up for the Masters program IF you still think it is a good idea.

 

I have a MBA and my wife has a MHA. I work in healthcare administration while my wife is looking for a job currently.

If you are not absolutely sure that you want to work in healthcare administration, I suggest you take the MBA program. A MBA is transferable across a wide range of occupations, while a MHA can tend to lock you into only healthcare administration. I know many, many MBAs working in healthcare administration; I don't know that many MHAs working outside of healthcare administration.

 

Thank you

Mr. Lloyd,

That was the answer I expected, and it was the exact answer I was looking for.

Thank you

 

Other Choices

Matt,


Have you considered a MBA/HA? That could be the best of both worlds. Having your MBA and also having the concentration in Health Administration.


S/