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Any easy way to find what degree is granted by each school? (MMS vs MHS vs MMS, etc)


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Some schools its hard to find what degree you actually get.  It seems most are masters of physician assistant studies.  But I see some are masters of health science or masters of medical science.  I also see some are combined with MPH but then the program is longer.

 

I dont really understand why an MPH would be able to do any job an MMS or MHS wouldnt be able to.  but what do I know.

 

Also, is this a complete list of all P.A schools?

 

http://www.thepalife.com/2015-physician-assistant-program-tuition-and-cost-comparison-table/

 

 

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All the masters' are the same, essentially, unless they have something like an MPH.

 

The difference between an MS, MPAS, MMS, etc. are all semantic only.  None of the PA masters' degrees grant or mean anything significantly different.  They're all "two year" terminal, first professional masters' degrees in academic rankings.  While I suppose it's entirely possible to compile a list of whom awards what, the fact that it hasn't obviously been done already suggests that no one has yet thought it terribly important to do so.

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All the masters' are the same, essentially, unless they have something like an MPH.

 

The difference between an MS, MPAS, MMS, etc. are all semantic only.  None of the PA masters' degrees grant or mean anything significantly different.  They're all "two year" terminal, first professional masters' degrees in academic rankings.  While I suppose it's entirely possible to compile a list of whom awards what, the fact that it hasn't obviously been done already suggests that no one has yet thought it terribly important to do so.

 

what do you mean by "terminal".  I want to set myself up so that when i am done with my PA training i have a lot of different avenues to go later on down the road.  Would a PA masters degree program be transferable to say, some other PHD program if i wanted to do that later?

The programs combined with an MPH offer you 2 degrees.  So you earn an MPH as well as an MPAS/MSHS/whatever the schools PA program awards. It's not that the you are practicing clinician with just an MPH.  You have much research left to do.

Oh what i meant was I dont understand what an MPH can do that a PA cannot do.  The way I see it, if i were to graduate with just any MPH from an accredited school, I would be hard pressed to find a job... I dont see much value in it by itself.  I see the majority of the value coming from the PA education.  and I would assume that any PA with a masters would be able to grab up any job that is available to someone with just an MPH.

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A terminal masters degree is one which doesn't lead to another degree.  A JD or MDiv is a first professional degree, but each leads to a first academic masters--LL.M. and Th.M, respectively.  An M.Mus is a terminal degree because it doesn't lead into any doctorate work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_degree

MPH work differs from PA work, and yes, there are not a whole lot of people who have interesting jobs with JUST an MPH.  One of my classmates had an MPH before PA school, working on cancer research, but she decided after PA school to go into ortho surgery, which is about as far away from MPH work as you can get in PA practice.

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what do you mean by "terminal".  I want to set myself up so that when i am done with my PA training i have a lot of different avenues to go later on down the road.  Would a PA masters degree program be transferable to say, some other PHD program if i wanted to do that later?

Oh what i meant was I dont understand what an MPH can do that a PA cannot do.  The way I see it, if i were to graduate with just any MPH from an accredited school, I would be hard pressed to find a job... I dont see much value in it by itself.  I see the majority of the value coming from the PA education.  and I would assume that any PA with a masters would be able to grab up any job that is available to someone with just an MPH.

What avenues do you think you want to pursue later?  For the most part, people who go to PA school want to practice as PAs.  It's not usually a stepping stone career.  Some may branch into education or management, but still very much PA related.

 

An MPH degree is night and day from a PA degree.  Both health related but the careers have very different goals/skills/day to day tasks.  There are instances where a PA with an MPH can open doors that a PA degree alone wouldn't.  You're making assumptions about the MPH when you don't seem to have much understanding of what a career in public health entails.  The jobs that people with an MPH get would NOT be available to a PA.  

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common doctoral programs after a PA masters degree include DHSc, DHEd, EdD, PhD, DrPH, MD, and DO. Some folks also do PharmD, PsyD, or JD.

I completed a DHSc because it covered all the global health material of interest to me. Very glad I did it.

i think out of those phd, DO, or MD would be what I would be interested in.  only if certain conditions permitted.  But Im thinking waaayyyy long term.  I tend to over think things.  Although I really like to plan ahead and cover as many bases as possible.  My current degree can get me multiple jobs in varying fields.  each can act as a backup to another.

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