MBA during last 2 years of med school or residency?

[worldwideinvester1940]

Just curious, I've wondered when is the best time to do an MBA during your medical training? I don't want to do it after I finish residency, even though many would argue and MBA. I'm not looking to gain insight from an MBA. Most of the classes are relatively easy compared to med school classes. I've worked in a corporate environment sales environment for a couple of years, so I have some understanding of business cycles. All I'm trying to do is network and do a part-time MBA.

Thoughts?

 

[Craigy]

Best time is to pass on that.

[Dreamgiver]

You are not looking to gain insight? If that is truly the case, why waste time?! Do something you care to gain insight into. Life is too short for shenanigans.

Executive MBAs are worth much more if you do them while you have a job and reputable programs will not take you on during med school or residency. And, as you probably already know, program reputation is everything.

[worldwideinvester1940]

Dreamgiver wrote:

You are not looking to gain insight? If that is truly the case, why waste time?! Do something you care to gain insight into. Life is too short for shenanigans.

Executive MBAs are worth much more if you do them while you have a job and reputable programs will not take you on during med school or residency. And, as you probably already know, program reputation is everything.

Click to expand...

I just don't think the insight you will gain with an MBA will be comparable to business practices throughout your career. It's not that i'm not interested in the material, it's that I believe there is a lot of fluff in an MBA. Most of it is networking, which can be done without going into an MBA program. I was once a business management major and found it pretty trivial.

my biggest question is: could I finish one before residency if my school doesn't offer an MD/MBA?

[FutureDoc]

Totally depends on your residency and how many outside commitments you already have.  I wouldn't count on having plenty of free time to do it.

[worldwideinvester1940]

w

FutureDoc wrote:

Totally depends on your residency and how many outside commitments you already have.  I wouldn’t count on having plenty of free time to do it.

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What are your thoughts on the part-time MBA? Basically, the most flexible ones?

[Craigy]

worldwideinvester1940 wrote:

Dreamgiver wrote:

You are not looking to gain insight? If that is truly the case, why waste time?! Do something you care to gain insight into. Life is too short for shenanigans.

Executive MBAs are worth much more if you do them while you have a job and reputable programs will not take you on during med school or residency. And, as you probably already know, program reputation is everything.

Click to expand…

I just don’t think the insight you will gain with an MBA will be comparable to business practices throughout your career. It’s not that i’m not interested in the material, it’s that I believe there is a lot of fluff in an MBA. Most of it is networking, which can be done without going into an MBA program. I was once a business management major and found it pretty trivial.

my biggest question is: could I finish one before residency if my school doesn’t offer an MD/MBA?

Click to expand...

So you're seriously just looking to power through an MBA to do some networking?

[worldwideinvester1940]

Craigy wrote:

worldwideinvester1940 wrote:

Dreamgiver wrote:

You are not looking to gain insight? If that is truly the case, why waste time?! Do something you care to gain insight into. Life is too short for shenanigans.

Executive MBAs are worth much more if you do them while you have a job and reputable programs will not take you on during med school or residency. And, as you probably already know, program reputation is everything.

Click to expand…

I just don’t think the insight you will gain with an MBA will be comparable to business practices throughout your career. It’s not that i’m not interested in the material, it’s that I believe there is a lot of fluff in an MBA. Most of it is networking, which can be done without going into an MBA program. I was once a business management major and found it pretty trivial.

my biggest question is: could I finish one before residency if my school doesn’t offer an MD/MBA?

Click to expand…

So you’re seriously just looking to power through an MBA to do some networking?

Click to expand...

Not just for networking purposes. There are many reasons I intend to do an MBA.

[Dreamgiver]

I also would reconsider your thoughts about it being easy. It can be as hard as you want it to be. Take finance for instance, you can stop at the basic formulas of NPV, ROI, and such, or you can get into high level stats that 99.9% of med school grads could never grasp. It's all there, you decide how much to get from it. There are some amazingly smart people in business, we just usually hear of the bad ones (just like doctors!).

Again, reputable executive programs will not take you until you have an attending job. Demand is high and they want people with work experience. Networking in a crappy program will not be worth it. Not to mention the fact that some future employers might offer you tuition assistance.

Something else to think about is this: most clinical docs do not like administrators because of the disconnect. As a doc with an MBA who moves into admin, you will be seen as a sellout unless you maintain a successful clinical practice. If you do that, you will be respected and will have everybody's trust and can actually get stuff done. If your intent is to get a business going and such, make sure you master the material big time because you will be against the biggest sharks out there.

[adventure]

Don't confuse education with experience. They usually complement, not replace or equal each other.

Sounds like a lot of interests between real estate investing, medical school, extra activities in medical school to prepare for residency (read: research, learning, extra rotations, joining various groups, etc), just living life, growing any relationships (SO, kids, family, social groups), MBA, networking, etc.

I suggest this question to people: what is your story? What can you do to help add to your story? What adds your resume/CV to help build on you? Does an MD help? Does an MBA? Does being in the choir at church? Does brewing some beer, or climbing some mountains with a youth group, or diabetes research, or away rotations in California doing surfing medicine, etc.

Life is full of adventures - pick some, but do them well, but others you can get to next year, they'll still be there.

[DMFA]

Can I vote for neither? Do you *need* it? Training is a difficult period with little free time. I'd finish residency and decide if you really want it. Less debt that way, too.

[hightower]

I did my intern year with a guy that was scheduled to start an anesthesia residency, but took a year off after intern year to pursue an MBA and get married.  He fell in love with one of our other interns and he decided that it was worth taking time off for her.  He also learned Spanish during that year (she was Dominican).  Apparently he just called up his program director, described that he had met a girl and that he wanted to take a year off and they were totally fine with it.  It all worked out well for him.  He got his MBA, a wife, kids, learned Spanish, and is now practicing in NYC.

[CM]

A part-time MBA is a lot of work. I can't imagine how you could manage that while in med school or residency. Even with a regular 8-5 job, you would have no life for the three or more years it takes to complete a part-time MBA.

In my opinion, it would be nuts to consider it unless you believe it is necessary for your career plan outside of clinical medicine.

[ENT Doc]

It would be nice to have a better idea as to why you want to do it.  What are your various reasons?  If you're dead set on it I recommend doing it when you're out of residency and not to interrupt the clinical pathway.  At the end, if you're still interested, do it full time online at one of the reputable programs or at an Exec MBA program near you.  I would also get someone else to pay for it.  Otherwise you're looking at a (likely) poor ROI.  As for the classes, you'll get mandatory classes on the basics, which aren't inherently difficult.  If you want to focus on finance I advise corporate finance, managerial accounting, taxes, a higher level stats class, as well as negotiations.  Many of the classes translate well to medicine, regardless of what you want to do.  As a piggy back off of operations you may want to consider lean six sigma training.  Those concepts apply well to medicine, particularly as it pertains to the inefficient flow of patients through our complex medical system.

[jpa]

4th year med student here....So my school offers a dual degree option with the MBA, and you get BOTH in normal 4 years. It's a very bad idea for 75% of the students who do it, because it took away 3-4 weeks of dedicated board prep time for Step 1 and they had to study for Step 2 entirely while taking MBA classes.  Not to mention, most of them didn't have any "life experience" because they were fresh out of undergrad. I think a handful will actually use, but some just got it to pad their CV's for residency.

If you're serious about an MBA, do it from a top 10-15 program after residency.  They beg for physicians, and by then you'll have extra experience to bring to the table.  If you're just "thinking about it"--there's already so much to do in med school, don't do that to yourself.  I think doing research/getting published would be more beneficial if you're looking for stuff to do--but that's not even required for 80% of specialties. Just concentrate on grades/boards/becoming a well rounded student, and that will keep you busy enough to hardly ever see friends and family