LMU-DCOM's DO/MBA program

[druidboy05]

Hi! Just wanted to some input about LMU-DCOM's DO/MBA program for any current or past students. I have heard that having a MBA makes you a more competitive applicant for residency. But is the actual degree useful when practicing medicine? Aside from opening up your own clinic/running a business? And is it possible to do well (not just pass) in both programs? Any and all input welcome.

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[Rekt]

Hi! Just wanted to some input about LMU-DCOM's DO/MBA program for any current or past students. I have heard that having a MBA makes you a more competitive applicant for residency. But is the actual degree useful when practicing medicine? Aside from opening up your own clinic/running a business? And is it possible to do well (not just pass) in both programs? Any and all input welcome.

Well, you've heard wrong.

 

[sab3156]

Hi! Just wanted to some input about LMU-DCOM's DO/MBA program for any current or past students. I have heard that having a MBA makes you a more competitive applicant for residency.

No one is going to care about your MBA from LMU-COM. If you want to be more competitive for the match, start doing research in your field of interest and start expanding your circle of friends and colleagues to include people who can open doors for you. Don't waste your precious time.

But is the actual degree useful when practicing medicine? Aside from opening up your own clinic/running a business?

I think you know the answer to this. It's irrelevant to clinical medicine, and all the physicians I know who are running successful private practices are doing so without MBAs.

 

[Avalanche19]

I'm not saying it made me more competitive as an applicant, but my MBA came up in most of my EM residency interviews.

 

[Wjldenver]

I would pass on the LMU MBA. In the MBA world, it is all about quality/brand. I work with a number of MD/MBA's but my firm only considers candidates from the top schools. I'm not sure, but I don't think the LMU MBA is even AACSB accredited. In essence, your time would be much better spent studying for and doing better on your boards. Just take some on-line MBA classes if you want to learn more about the business side of things.

 

[BorntobeDO?]

Hi! Just wanted to some input about LMU-DCOM's DO/MBA program for any current or past students. I have heard that having a MBA makes you a more competitive applicant for residency. But is the actual degree useful when practicing medicine? Aside from opening up your own clinic/running a business? And is it possible to do well (not just pass) in both programs? Any and all input welcome.

Agree with the above, you will have plenty of other mandatory activities to put you at a disadvantage when it comes to boards, don't add this on. Its probably very cheap to do, but the time sink alone isn't worth it IMO. Will it hurt you? Not really, other than lowering your time for other more important activities. Could add a talking point to your interview, but I seriously doubt it helps a match. Any real benefit (like say required for hospital leadership in a big hospital), would be negated by the fact that most places would pay for you to take it later if it really was required.

And as many posted above, you don't learn business from a degree, you learn it from starting/running a business. If MBA's were the be-all-end-all then no hospital would ever go out of business. Seeing as many do just that while firing clinical staff on the way down, shows you the usefulness.

I am being alittle harsh on it, I admit, but when I see the MBA students at my program who have extra time commitments, I just feel bad for them. We already have too many mandatory time sinks (even at my program without mandatory lectures - there's a ton of 'labs' etc). Also having family members and friends with a lot of small business' I can say it just doesn't apply. But do as you wish, the pain is only temporary.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Hi! Just wanted to some input about LMU-DCOM's DO/MBA program for any current or past students. I have heard that having a MBA makes you a more competitive applicant for residency. But is the actual degree useful when practicing medicine? Aside from opening up your own clinic/running a business? And is it possible to do well (not just pass) in both programs? Any and all input welcome.

If you are asking this question, then you shouldn't get one (not trying to be mean). The docs that get an MBA are the ones who practiced medicine first and then decided it would be beneficial to get one. You have no idea what your practice structure or goals will be until you actually start practicing medicine. So it would be premature to get one. Don't waste your money, time, and more money to get one just when you are starting your medical journey. First, get through all the BS medical school has to offer, explore yourself more, and when the time comes you will know if an MBA is right for you. Just concentrate on med school first. Best wishes.

 

[68PGunner]

A MBA will be useful to get seed money from VC to open another DO school in either Georgia or Florida.

 

[druidboy05]

I'm not saying it made me more competitive as an applicant, but my MBA came up in most of my EM residency interviews.

Did you find that they were impressed that you would be coming into an EM residency with a MBA? EM is one of my interests right now and that's why I'm not sure what else a MBA can do for me. Why did you decide to go for it?

Everyone else on here, I appreciate the feedback. I was hoping to get more information on DCOM's MBA program specifically, but I understand that MBA can be an unnecessary time sink. Up until a few days ago, I had 0% whatsoever in pursuing a MBA. However, a few of my ER physician friends who did a dual degree program did say that if they had to do it all over again, they would definitely still get that MBA.

 

[hallowmann]

If you are asking this question, then you shouldn't get one (not trying to be mean). The docs that get an MBA are the ones who practiced medicine first and then decided it would be beneficial to get one. You have no idea what your practice structure or goals will be until you actually start practicing medicine. So it would be premature to get one. Don't waste your money, time, and more money to get one just when you are starting your medical journey. First, get through all the BS medical school has to offer, explore yourself more, and when the time comes you will know if an MBA is right for you. Just concentrate on med school first. Best wishes.

Its not easy getting an MBA in residency or even afterwards. It takes much longer and is usually much more expensive. I know a few docs that had it coming into residency though, and they found it useful, but they had a specific interest in starting a business even before med school.

OP, I wouldn't do it as a CV padder. Its simply not worth it. The only time I might consider doing it would be if you had a plan already to start a business, had an independent interest in business (meaning its something you would learn about in your spare time anyways) and you would get one independent of med school/residency. If you are being honest with yourself and saying, no that doesn't sound like me, don't waste your time.

 

[Avalanche19]

Did you find that they were impressed that you would be coming into an EM residency with a MBA? EM is one of my interests right now and that's why I'm not sure what else a MBA can do for me. Why did you decide to go for it?

Like I said, it's hard to tell if it helped my stock for EM programs or was just something to talk about in my interviews. One APD said something along the lines of "you must have good time management skills to get through both degrees". Others mentioned it in the context of a line in my personal statement about wanting to go into hospital administration / leadership one day.

I was a business major in undergrad and as I mentioned I have an interest in the business side of medicine. The MBA program seemed like a good fit for me and I don't regret doing it at all. If you have any other questions about EM programs or the LMU MBA program shoot me a message.

 

[sab3156]

Did you find that they were impressed that you would be coming into an EM residency with a MBA? EM is one of my interests right now and that's why I'm not sure what else a MBA can do for me. Why did you decide to go for it?

I used to work in finance before coming to medicine and trust me when I say this - not all MBAs are created equal. MBAs from no-name schools are so common-place these days that most firms won't even consider them to be real degrees. And sorry to say, LMU seems like it is scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as reputation goes. If you were talking about a Harvard MBA, maybe this conversation would be different. Really, no one in the entire world is going to look at your LMU-COM DO/MBA and say "wow, look at that MBA from LMU, this guy really knows his stuff!" If anything, a PD with any slight knowledge of how the business world works may be asking why you even bothered to waste so much time and money, and might even be laughing on the inside. You are a DO student and you know the uphill battle you will face soon when it comes time for residency applications, so you should really start focusing on doing well in school and on boards and setting up research. An MBA from a no-name school is going to do nothing but hold you back from doing those things.

List of AACSB-Accredited Business Schools & Universities

^^ As @Wjldenver said, LMU is not even AACSB accredited.

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

IDK about LMU-DCOM specifically, but I can tell you I'm doing the MBA because I'm interested in opening a practice or getting involved in administration one day. I am only a first year, so I wouldn't know whether or not it holds much weight in being granted an interview, but I have heard from students further ahead than myself (and this was already echoed in this thread previously) that it does get brought up in interviews a lot. If it's between you and an identical applicant without an MBA (all other things equal) it could obviously help you out.

I would say, w/ respect to going for DO/MBA (idk about the LMU-DCOM program specifically), that if you have interest in process improvement or management in the healthcare field then give it a whirl.

My program offers a "trial period" where you go for free for the first class so it's easier for someone like me to say "give it a whirl" but if you have something similar offered I would highly recommend at least trying it out if you have interest.

As to those advocating that it limits your opportunity to do research I would actually argue the opposite; I thought this until I got involved in the program. Most of the faculty involved in my program have either done research before (involved in public health and/or workflow in the hospital) or know lots of people that they could hook you up with for research. If anything, depending on the program you go to, it increases your potential to do research. And if you are someone that isn't necessarily interested in benchwork research it's a great opportunity to get research and get published relatively quick compared to that of benchwork (which may or may not yield publication at all..)

 

[Brorthopedic]

The SDN doom and gloom is real. If you're truly interested in business, get the MBA. The amount of administrators that I've seen with MBAs from these no-name schools is ridiculous. Yes, not all degrees are created equal, but if you're business-minded and have strong interpersonal skills, people will give you a fair shot.

Some people on these forums are what I call smart pessimists. They're just really good at rationalizing things from a negative perspective.

 

[Rekt]

Like I said, it's hard to tell if it helped my stock for EM programs or was just something to talk about in my interviews. One APD said something along the lines of "you must have good time management skills to get through both degrees". Others mentioned it in the context of a line in my personal statement about wanting to go into hospital administration / leadership one day.

I was a business major in undergrad and as I mentioned I have an interest in the business side of medicine. The MBA program seemed like a good fit for me and I don't regret doing it at all. If you have any other questions about EM programs or the LMU MBA program shoot me a message.

As someone going into EM and having worked with ED medical directors, I imagine they asked about your MBA because of this, because that is a damn dreadful job.

 

[sab3156]

The amount of administrators that I've seen with MBAs from these no-name schools is ridiculous. Yes, not all degrees are created equal, but if you're business-minded and have strong interpersonal skills, people will give you a fair shot.

Some people on these forums are what I call smart pessimists. They're just really good at rationalizing things from a negative perspective.

That is a seriously flawed argument, though. Those MBA degrees from no-name schools (and we are talking about an unaccredited one) likely did nothing for those people to get those jobs.

 

[Brorthopedic]

That is a seriously flawed argument, though. Those MBA degrees from no-name schools (and we are talking about an unaccredited one) likely did nothing for those people to get those jobs.

Yeah the people were probably studs to begin with, but they still needed the MBA title to meet the paper requirements for the job. To say it likely did nothing for them is absurd.

 

[sab3156]

Yeah the people were probably studs to begin with, but they still needed the MBA title to meet the paper requirements for the job. To say it likely did nothing for them is absurd.

Look at the CEOs/Presidents/Directors of the major hospitals in Boston, for example, (MGH, BWH, MEEI, BMC, etc.) How MBAs you see? Is paper requirement something made up for the sake of your argument? You really don't need an MBA, man.

 

[Brorthopedic]

Look at the CEOs/Presidents/Directors of the major hospitals in Boston, for example, (MGH, BWH, MEEI, BMC, etc.) How MBAs you see? Is paper requirement something made up for the sake of your argument? You really don't need an MBA, man.

I didn't mean that you needed specifically an MBA degree, but more often than not you need some sort of higher education. From your examples, the CEO of MEEI has a Master’s degree in Government Administration. Sure, it's not an MBA, but it's an MPA which is pretty damn close.

And just to stay ahead of the curve here, I'm not saying you need an MBA/MPA/etc. to become a CEO/administrator. I'm just saying they're like running shoes. Sure you don't need them to run, but they sure do help. And they don't always have be the best Nike brand shoes money can buy.

 

[68PGunner]

I’m a finance person myself, w/ some work exp before med school. But, the only way that I would consider a MBA is if the hospital says something along the line that we want you to be the director of X department of hospital Y, and we would like you to pursue additional ed on the business side of medicine. Given that situation, I would pursue an accelerated 1.5 years MBA on top of my medicine duty.

 

[Osminog]

The MBA joint degree is just a cash cow for LMU. It's a way for them to fill seats at their no-name business school.

If you're interested in breaking into the business side of healthcare at some point down the road, you can enroll in an evening MBA program at a T10 school after finishing residency. (Compared to the MCAT, the GMAT is a piece of cake.)

 

[Scrubs101]

Contrary to SDN belief not everything you do has to be in the interest of making you more competitive, if you want the MBA do the MBA, if you wanna be on an eboard be on an eboard, same goes for hobbies, MPH, PHD, etc.

Your MBA may very well be a talking point during your inteviews, just like the dude that cross country skis may talk about that during their interview, or the person that was on an eboard may talk about that. Will some of these activities help you out in some way shape or form in the future? Definitely. Does sdn think its more valuable for residencies than research and board studying? Nah, probably not. If you’re interested in doing something and youre willing to put in the time for it along with your other responsibilities than thats great do what you wanna do homie.

Sorry i cant give any specifics about the program itself, just felt like saying this.

Props to anyone that can do the whole dual degree thing tho, especially if its still just the 4yrs track. I for one can’t imagine throwing in a whole other degree into my coursework lol

Edit: i should add...if you do want the MBA JUST because you think itll make you competitive, dont do it