FAQs

A good MHA candidate is one that has a desire to better health care. They will have strong personal or professional backgrounds oriented towards health care and believe in making care more equitable and improving patient outcomes. Dartmouth MHA students come from diverse backgrounds as clinicians, administrators, health science graduates, and other experienced industry professionals looking to pivot into health care. To learn more about who should apply, click here.

The MHA application requires the following components: the application form, academic transcripts, letters of recommendation (3), a personal statement, current resume, and application fee. Those who are intending to pursue the accelerated one-year track of the program must answer an additional question regarding the rigorous academic commitment. For details on each component of the application, please visit our application process page.

The admissions team suggests that your letters of recommendation come from those who you’ve worked with closely on a day-to-day basis. Supervisors, coworkers, or professors who can speak to your professional and/or academic experiences in detail make for strong references.

Dartmouth’s MHA program requires at least two years of work experience, preferably in a health care setting. We will consider regular employment, internships and fellowships, and certain volunteer experience. Those without this formal professional experience must have prerequisite knowledge from an undergraduate degree in a health care-related field. If you have questions regarding your candidacy, please reach out to our admissions team.

Dartmouth’s MHA program does not require GRE scores, but they can be taken into consideration if an applicant wishes to include them in their application. TOEFL scores may be requested at the discretion of the admissions team.

Yes, visa sponsorship is available for international students admitted into Dartmouth’s MHA program. We suggest that you submit your application no later than our early February deadline for June enrollment. Admitted students work with Dartmouth’s Office of Visa and Immigration Services (OVIS) to secure the applicable F-1 visa. For more information on visa sponsorship, please visit the OVIS website.

Dartmouth offers all admitted students the opportunity to apply for financial aid and scholarships. Once a student is admitted, we will invite them to complete a scholarship application which the scholarship committee uses to determine any awards on the basis of both need and merit. If a student requires further financial assistance, they can file the FAFSA and submit the Dartmouth College Graduate Student Financial Aid Application to become eligible for federal loans. Please note that only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible for federal loans. For the full application process, visit Dartmouth’s Graduate Student Financial Aid website.

The Dartmouth MHA degree is conferred by Dartmouth College. The Tuck School of Business and Geisel School of Medicine are also on the degree you will receive.

A Master of Health Administration (MHA) degree program teaches students to become effective leaders and managers in the business and delivery of health care. MHA programs are tightly focused on the unique nature of the health care landscape and are designed to develop competencies in health economics and finance, ethics in health care delivery, operations management, and more. For information on Dartmouth's MHA courses, please visit this page.

The Dartmouth MHA program offers an accelerated 12-month track alongside the standard 24-month track. The accelerated track is a rigorous commitment that requires approximately 32 hours of academic engagement per week. To learn more about the standard and accelerated tracks of the MHA program, visit our curriculum and schedule page.

Dartmouth’s MHA is a low-residency program with a hybrid structure, delivered primarily online with short periods of in-person learning called residentials. To learn more about residentials, please view the question below.

Residentials are brief sessions of in-person learning where MHA students come to Dartmouth campus and begin the courses they will be taking that term. The duration of these residentials are three days for standard track students and five days for accelerated track students, taking place in June and December of each year. MHA residentials foster an intimate, highly personal learning experience that builds a tight community of students and faculty. In addition to your classroom learning during these sessions, residentials also include study group learning, site visits to health facilities, educational activities, and social events.

Dartmouth College’s campus is located in Hanover, New Hampshire, approximately 2-2.5 hours northwest of Boston.

Students do not need to arrange lodging for residentials. Dartmouth MHA staff coordinate your stay in on-campus dormitories during this time.

The Dartmouth MHA program is comprised entirely of core courses and does not offer elective courses. As such, completion of each course is required and credits cannot be transferred.

Yes, the Dartmouth MHA program has a capstone course. The capstone is a culmination of your MHA learning where you will work with a real-world health care facility to identify a challenge the facility is facing and then create a plan to address the issue. Your work on the project will conclude with a six-week course towards the end of your final term. To learn more about the capstone, you can view an introductory video about the course here.

Dartmouth's MHA cohort size is between 35-45 students.

Dartmouth’s MHA program is designed for early and mid-career professionals who want to advance their careers in health care by gaining the skills to lead teams. While Dartmouth’s MHCDS program is tailored towards senior-level leaders in health care.

If you are a physician or executive leader who is seeking the training necessary to design and implement transformations across your organization, please explore our MHCDS program here.

Yes, Dartmouth’s MHA program has dedicated career services staff that work with our students on determining career goals and executing plans for job searching, advancing your role, or pivoting into a new area. Career services helps you leverage Dartmouth students and alumni to build your network of connections. Additionally, we can help you identify potential employers and reach out to them, build your resume, and practice interview skills.

An MHA prepares students for leadership roles across job functions. MHA graduates have the tools necessary to pursue successful administrative careers in management and operations, consulting, finance, quality improvement, and information technology. These job functions can be carried out in many different workplaces and facilities including hospitals and clinics, health systems, payer organizations, mental health and rehab centers, safety-net organizations, pharmaceuticals, consulting, and health tech startups. Earning an MHA degree can put graduates on the pathway to executive-level leadership in health care.

Dartmouth’s MHA program was created to help students advance their careers in health administration and has opportunities for professional development built into the curriculum.

Our capstone course is designed to help students build real-world contacts and experience by leveraging faculty and classmate networks to connect students to host sites for their project and proposal. Career services works closely with faculty to help build a capstone experience that will enhance your overall career development. To learn more about the capstone, you can view an introductory video about the course here.

“Site visits,” which occur during the in-person portion of our program (residentials), are opportunities for students to tour varying health facilities (i.e. academic medical centers, community access hospitals, free clinics) and connect with leaders who can speak to the challenges, efforts, and day-to-day operations of their facility. These site visits provide students with experiential learning that helps them develop a larger understanding of how different systems work together and provides a chance to learn about some of the differing workplaces and opportunities available to health administrators.

In addition to these curricular offerings, Dartmouth’s MHA program also has extracurricular events and opportunities available to students and alumni. For more information on these, please view the question below.

Dartmouth MHA graduates can take advantage of our alumni events and services alongside graduates from our Master of Health Care Delivery Science (MHCDS) degree program. Our alumni programming provides learning for students and alumni on emerging health care topics, and networking opportunities across programs and cohorts.

Our virtual seminars are deep dives on today’s health care topics that occur several times throughout each year. In the past, these topics have ranged from AI and mental health, health care in Europe and Asia, organizational ethics, and many more. Past virtual seminars can be viewed on our Health Care Management Education (HCME) student/alumni hub.

Our learning expeditions are in-person site visits that are open to students and alumni of both the MHA and MHCDS programs. Previous learning expeditions have included visits to Cleveland Clinic, UnitedHealthcare, Optum, and a trip to the Netherlands to learn about the Dutch health care system.

Our symposia are alumni conferences that happen every other year where past MHA and MHCDS students come together to discuss and explore innovation in health care delivery. Information about the past symposia can also be found on the HCME student/alumni hub.