Masters of Professional Studies

I'm considering pursuing a Masters of Professional Studies degree at Fort Hays State. My concentration would be public health administration. I'm wondering if anyone knows how respected this degree would be? Am I better off pursuing a Masters of Public Health?

 

I doubt that Fortn Hays will ever make the prestige list, but they're a good solid regionally accredited school.

 

Used to teach for them as adjunct, once interviewed for FT (a better candidate beat me out). Solid state school, will never be a state school like Michigan or UC Berkeley or even University of Kansas, but they care about what they're doing out there and have a student-focused approach.

 

Is your concern about Fort Hays or about your degree being an MPS rather than an MPH or an MPA?

 

Yes. Exactly. I'm not concerned with the prestige of the school. I have a strong clinical background with a lot of healthcare work experience. I just don't know anyone who has an MPS.

 

It isn't a super common degree but there are plenty of schools that offer it.

In truth, most people don't care. If someone asks you "Do you have a Masters in Public Health Administration?" the answer is "Yes." You might have an MPS in PHA. You might have an MS in PHA. You might even just have an MPHA.

The biggest obstacle would likely be if you're a fan of using the post-nominals associated with your degrees. If you work in an office filled with MPAs then having anything other than MPA will stand out. I've never seen anyone list an MPS after their names. Then again, I kind of think that is a dumb practice below the doctoral level and where licensure is not in play.

There are some pretty debatable degree choices. A few months ago I posted an article by a licensed psychologist with an EdD who opted to go back for a PhD because people just couldn't handle the "oddity" of his first degree. But I haven't really seen the same sort of debate over the MPS. I'm sure there was a time in history where a degree being an "Art" or a "Science" was more closely managed. These days, business is sometimes a science and other times an art. Still other times it is simply its own thing (Bachelor of Business Administration). Empire State College did/does offer a BPS (Bachelor of Professional Studies). It's a quirk that might make some people go "Huh, tell me about that" but it is unlikely that someone is going to look at your resume and toss it in the trash in disgust.

Which is better for you? Well, I would look at the curriculum more than the abbreviation. Does the Fort Hays MPS merely offer a concentration (i.e. only around half of the coursework is in PHA while the rest is in something only tangentially related)? Does another MPH program offer you something more relevant to your current job and future career goals? But ultimately you know your job best and what sort of coursework is likely to bring you to that next level.

But I wouldn't let the MPS vs MPH difference alone decide for me.

 

I do have a Master of Professional Studies degree from Georgetown University. I have not shame of using the degree. In fact, I am proud to be part of Georgetown University and the alumni network.

 

The MPS is a concentration in public health administration. A lot of the course work appears to overlap with an MPH. That said the MPS is only 30 credit hours while most MPH programs are between 42-48 hours. If I ever wanted to pursue a doctorate in public health I'd need an MPH, but I have no desire to be an academic.

 

So here's an online Doctor of Public Health program at the University of Illinois. Their admission requirement states:

Now, maybe they have buried in their course catalog a requirement that you take the program with the additional 12-18 credits but they didn't feel it important enough to mention on the website.

Still, if you don't intend to pursue a doctorate then the question of whether this would qualify for it is moot. But there is nothing "wrong" with an MPS. They aren't as common as an MS/MA but they are well established as Masters degrees. I cannot guarantee that you would never run into an HR person who decides to flag it but, generally speaking, it's not the sort of thing that HR people and hiring managers get hung up over.

 

Is there a programmatic accrediting agency for public health programs?

 

Yes.

Home | Council on Education for Public Health

 

A master of professional studies degree is decidedly non-scholarly, and named that way. It would be inhibiting for someone wishing to pursue a doctorate, particularly a scholarly one. Not impossible, but could be troubling.

As far as employment goes, I largely agree with Neuhaus. Most employers will either not care or not even make the distinction. But some might, so it's something to be aware of.

There was a time when I asked UNISA about the acceptability of an MBA for entry into their doctoral program. They said no, an MBA would not be acceptable, but an M.A. or M.S. in business would be. That's probably not the case anymore, but it's illustrative.

 

As for programmatic accreditation, I think one will find that there is programmatic accreditation for virtually everything (even the liberal arts). How important is that for employment? It varies by sector. It tends to matter most when licensure comes into play but there are some non-regulated professions that are sticklers for professional accreditation; I'm looking at you Library Science.

To Rich's point, yes, an MPS might hold you back from doctoral studies. Of course, I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but admissions standards at a lot of schools have relaxed as they went online. So you'd surely be able to find a doctoral program to accept you but you might not be able to get into the doctoral program.

Generally speaking, employers don't really scrutinize degrees a whole heck of a lot for mid-career professionals. Do you have the degree? Yes? Excellent, let's move on. For entry level professionals, where the degree is the only thing qualifying them for the job, or for career changers who might not actually have relevant experience it comes up.

I interviewed at least 30 engineer candidates in the last three weeks. While I certainly looked at their reported degrees on their resumes I don't think we discussed their education at all during the interview. If you have 10+ years of professional experience and the only thing you have to talk about during an interview is where you earned your degree you better hope the other candidates are complete train wrecks.

The only time I would recommend not deviating from a degree "norm" is when you are trying to substitute an alternative degree for a more widely accepted variety. For example, I have a colleague who has an M.S. in Business Administration. It's an MBA. But he earned it at a time when there were fewer MBA programs out there and his school decided to go this route. Every employer has accepted it in lieu of an "actual" MBA but there have been occasions where it clearly causes minor issues. But the best example of this I have ever seen is how Case Western Reserve offers an online Master of Science in Social Administration which they very clearly state (numerous times) has the appropriate programmatic accreditation to make it equivalent to an MSW. For a hiring manager hiring a candidate with an MSW that means, at a minimum, you're going to need to include a disclaimer on either your cover letter, resume or both and hope that they are willing to play along.

 

I am heavily leaning towards the MPS. A big reason is financial. I am nearly 40 years old. I can get the MPS from Fort Hays State for less than 10K including books. Since my employer will give me $3000 a year in tuition assistance the degree will only cost me $4k since I will go 1/2 time and complete it in 2 years instead of just one. An MPH degree would cost me about 30-40K. I just don't think I would get a very good ROI for that investment. Maybe if I was 10 years younger. I don't think getting an MPS instead of an accredited MPH would hurt me all that much. When I complete the degree I will have nearly a decade of clinical experience. I work in a healthcare system that has a national foot print so I could easily stay with the same company and apply for better jobs as an internal applicant.

 

Why would you answer yes? Isn't that the same thing as someone getting a liberal arts degree with a concentration in something? You wouldn't have, say, a Masters in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Public Health and say you have a public health degree. So why would you do it with a Masters in Professional Studies? I'm genuinely curious, not trying to start a debate.

 

It boils down to the impression one is leaving with others, not the technical accuracy.

I have a PhD in Interdisciplinary some-thing-or-other, but I tell people it's in higher education (my concentration). That's what I studied. I know a heckuva lot more about that than I do about interdisciplinarity...or philosophy (the Ph in PhD), for that matter.

 

I disagree. You can earn a Master of Liberal Studies with a concentration in Management through Harvard Extension. Is it inaccurate to say you have "a Masters in Management from Harvard?"

If you have a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and tell people you have a B.S. in CompSci, that's a lie.

But an MPS in Healthcare Administration, an MS in Healthcare Administration, an M.A. in Healthcare Administration and an MPA with a concentration in Healthcare Administration are all "masters degrees in healthcare administration."

It's simply a thing that most people are unwilling to quibble over. It's like if an accountant says they have "a degree in accounting" it could be a B.A. in Accounting, a B.S. in Accounting, it could be either a B.A. or a B.S. in Accountancy or it could be a B.S.B.A. with a concentration in Accounting etc.

 

A B.S. or a B.A. in psychology are similar but some schools offer both. They are not identical. They have the same utility generally speaking. Once you get to the Master degree level, things change. I would agree that a BBA, B.S.BA, B.A. in accounting(or any other business specialty) would be very similar and it may be hard to distinguish between them. An MBA in accounting is not the same however as an MACC or an MS in Accounting. Same as an MS(or MA) in management is not the same as an MBA with a management concentration. Although the utility may be similar(between the degrees). There are academic differences. Just as a BLS with a concentration in Psychology is not a BS or a BA in Psychology, the degrees are different.

 

No one is saying that the curriculum is identical. And while a BLS may be different from a BA or a BS in Psychology (it also might not be in terms of course distribution) the answer to the question "Do you have a degree in psychology?" is "Yes." BA/BS/BLA/BPS are not separate degree levels. One is not higher or lower than the other. Your B.S. is not more valuable than someone else's B.A. based solely on the fact that your degree is "Bachelor of Science" and another person's is a "Bachelor of Arts." Likewise, at the Masters level, MS/MA/MPA/MPS/MBA are not different levels. If you have an MPS in Business (assuming such a thing exists) you do have a Masters degree in Business.

Having "a masters degree in business" is not the same as saying "I have an MBA." In terms of hiring having say, an MLS in Management from Harvard Extension is almost certainly going to be accepted where the job requirement is "an MBA or equivalent" unless the MBA requirement is for a more quantitative discipline. But, beyond that, in casual conversation, you are absolutely not being deceptive if you describe your "MPS in X" as a "Masters degree in X." An MPS is a Masters degree and, if it has concentrated studies in X, it is a completely accurate statement.

An MBA in Accounting is, indeed, not the same as a MAcc or an M.S. Acc. The course distribution is completely different (in most cases). And yet, if a person said "I have a Masters degree in accounting" when their degree is an MBA in Accounting, it is still an accurate statement.