<p>Hey all, I was wondering if I need work experience for B-school if I am applying as a joint-degree (dual-degree) MBA/MD student or if admissions people at the top schools recognize such a program differently? I have read that most B-schools don't give any favor in decisions to MBA/MD students, but I also read that at Kellogg, MBA/MD students are the only students that they will even look at without at least 2 years of working experience. What do you think?</p>
<p>Look, there are always a few rare people who get into elite MBA programs (whether joint or stand-alone) with no work experience. And of course, if you just want to get a non-elite MBA, then you can surely find one that admits plenty of people with no experience. </p>
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I have read that most B-schools don't give any favor in decisions to MBA/MD students, but I also read that at Kellogg, MBA/MD students are the only students that they will even look at without at least 2 years of working experience. What do you think?
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<p>Whatever extra consideration they might give to MD/MBA students probably isn't going to be much. </p>
<p>But you have to ask yourself a more profound question, which is that you have to ask yourself why you really want an MD/MBA in the first place. After all, you don't really need a dual degree. Plenty of doctors are able to run their own successful practices without an MBA. And if your goal is take a traditional MBA-type job like consulting or banking, then you shouldn't become a doctor.</p>
<p>The idea behind an MBA/MD program is that I would like to eventually work into a hospital administration position, but at the same time, still practice medicine on the side. Many of the doctors that are in executive positions in hospitals have obtained MD's as well as MBA's. My focus is certainly medicine and becoming a doctor, but I believe that an MBA will open a lot of doors to administrative positions down the line for me.</p>
<p>i think getting the MD, going into practice for a few years, and then returning for an MBA once you've gotten around enough to know exactly what you would get out of an MBA, would make a whole lot more sense - both to you, and to the admissions office at the MBA program of your choice.</p>
<p>the question of "why an MBA? Why now?" needs to have a ringingly clear answer, and what I proposed above feels like much more of a natural sequence. (1) You became a doctor. (2) you saw what hospital administration is like, and think you have a lot to contribute - i.e. you're not just a data bank for health information, but you have organizational skills and interpersonal skills that you'd be much happier (and more productive) if you were utilizing, so (3) You feel you need an MBA so you can refine those skills and make them useful to a health-services entity such as a hospital.</p>
<p>Doing both at once seems like a bit of a con job on behalf of the MBA program that will be taking your money.</p>
<p>Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I guess one of the huge reasons I was thinking I would like to do it jointly with the MD was because it is only a year long program rather than two, and moreover, I won't have to go back to school after being in school for so long already and having begun practicing. But, I certainly see your argument.</p>
<p>One of the key things to notice is that 3rd and 4th year med school feel much more like a job than they do like school, and it's my understanding that MBA programs seem to sort of recognize this -- that is, I've heard of students getting admitted to middle-tier MBA programs after those two years of medical school.</p>