The business of health care is growing—and with it, the number of MBA programs that have strong resources in the industry. In this post, we at Stratus provide a comparison of MBA programs with strong health-care offerings across club, recruiting, entrepreneurial, and cross-disciplinary opportunities.
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Wharton’s Health Care Management (HCM) major offers extensive health-care programming. It truly combines courses, clubs, and experiences across the industry. The Wharton Health Care Club is extremely active, hosting speaker events, sponsoring networking treks, creating recruiting opportunities, and even planning social events. Students might get involved with Wharton Global Health Volunteers, which offers the opportunity to participate in a student-led consulting team and partner with NGOs, governments, and health-care orgs in developing countries to help create solutions. Wharton offers dedicated recruiting support in health care across consulting, pharma, biotech, and healthtech, helping students find internships and jobs at companies such as BCG, McKinsey, Genentech, and Pfizer. Students who want to lean into innovative health-focused startups can get involved with the Penn Health-Tech cross-disciplinary initiative across Penn, Venture Lab at Penn, or health-care entrepreneurship pitch competitions. Those who want to stay tuned into the newest research can collaborate with the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. In addition, Wharton’s connections with the Penn Perelman School of Medicine, the Penn School of Nursing, and Penn Law enable MBA students to take classes at these sister schools.
Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management
Kellogg’s Healthcare at Kellogg (HCAK) program offers a multidisciplinary approach that combines business rigor with deep insights into the health-care industry. Whether students are interested in pharma, provider systems, payers, medtech, or healthtech, HCAK provides the academic and experiential foundation to lead across sectors. Kellogg’s Healthcare Club is an energetic and influential student organization that organizes conferences, speaker series, career treks, and case competitions. Students also participate in Golub Capital Board Fellows, where they serve on the boards of local health-care nonprofits to gain hands-on governance experience. Kellogg has strong recruiting pipelines into health-care consulting, pharma, biotech, and innovation roles, connecting students with employers such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Genentech, and major consulting firms with health-care practices. For those focused on innovation, the Kellogg Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative and The Garage provide resources for launching and scaling healthtech ventures. Students also compete in health-care startup competitions and participate in interdisciplinary health projects with Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine and McCormick School of Engineering. Kellogg’s program is bolstered by access to the broader Northwestern ecosystem, including health policy research centers, academic medical partnerships, and cross-enrollment in courses related to health-care strategy, data science, and regulatory policy.
Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business
Tuck’s Center for Healthcare provides offerings that are tightly integrated into the school’s personalized and community-driven MBA experience, leveraging Dartmouth’s deep strengths in health care, medicine, and public policy. Although there’s no formal health-care major at Tuck, students can shape a health care–focused path through a curated set of electives, experiential opportunities, and access to Dartmouth’s world-class institutions. The Tuck Health Care Club plays a central role in building the health-care community by hosting career treks, speaker events, and peer-led prep groups. Tuck supports recruiting into health-care consulting, biopharma, medtech, and digital health, with students landing internships and full-time roles at companies such as BCG, Genentech, Pfizer, UnitedHealth Group, and Takeda. Experientially, students can dive into a health care–focused First-Year Project, work with early-stage ventures through Tuck’s Center for Health Care, or explore health-care investing via Tuck’s private equity/venture capital ecosystem. The school’s close relationship with Dartmouth Health and Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine provides unique access to clinical expertise and provider systems. For those drawn to health policy and systems-level thinking, collaboration with The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice opens doors to interdisciplinary research, dual-degree options, and applied learning in health equity, value-based care, and health-care transformation. With its close-knit community, one-on-one faculty engagement, and access to New England’s health-care and biotech hubs, Tuck offers a personalized and high-impact path for future health-care leaders. The school also offers joint MD/MBA and MBA/Master of Public Health (MPH) programs.
Duke University Fuqua School of Business
Fuqua’s Health Sector Management (HSM) certificate program is one of the most comprehensive health-care business tracks in the country. Embedded within the full MBA experience, HSM prepares students to lead across health-care delivery, policy, biotech, medtech, and global health through a mix of classroom, experiential, and global learning. The Duke MBA Healthcare Club is the centerpiece of the student health-care community, hosting the annual Duke MBA Health Care Conference, company treks, peer prep groups, and social events for students. Students also engage in the Fuqua Client Consulting Practicum, where teams partner with real health-care companies on strategic projects. HSM students benefit from targeted recruiting and alumni support in all major health-care sectors, with top hiring companies including BCG, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Pfizer, UnitedHealth Group, and health-care venture capital firms. Entrepreneurial students can explore opportunities through Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship, collaborate with the Duke University School of Medicine and the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy, or get involved in ventures through Fuqua Fast Pitch and New Venture Fellows. Duke’s HSM program is deeply integrated with Duke Health, one of the top academic medical centers in the country, giving students direct access to clinical insights, provider systems, and health-care data in action. Duke also offers MD/MBA and Master of Public Policy (MPP)/MBA joint programs.
University of Michigan Ross School of Business
Ross’s Healthcare Management concentration leverages a robust health-care ecosystem anchored in interdisciplinary collaboration, innovation, and social impact. The Healthcare and Life Sciences Club is a key hub for students interested in pharma, biotech, medtech, and payer/provider roles, hosting company treks, alumni panels, case competitions, and an annual recruiting event. Students can also engage in Multidisciplinary Action Projects to work on real-world health-care challenges with global health systems, startups, and industry leaders. Ross supports health-care recruiting through personalized career coaching and strong alumni ties across consulting firms, health-care corporations, and healthtech startups. Students often land roles at organizations such as Amgen, CVS Health, Deloitte, Johnson & Johnson, and Optum. Entrepreneurially inclined students can access Ross’s Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurship, participate in Ross’s Business+Impact Initiative, and collaborate with the University of Michigan Medical School, School of Public Health, or School of Information to develop and launch health-care innovations. Whether your interests lie in global health equity, digital health strategy, or biotech commercialization, Ross’s collaborative and mission-driven approach empowers students to shape the future of health care from multiple angles. You might also consider the school’s MBA/MPH or MBA/Master of Health Services Administration (MHSA) joint degree programs.
University of North Carolina (UNC) Kenan–Flagler Business School
Kenan-Flagler’s Healthcare concentration offers a growing and dynamic health-care focus that blends strong business fundamentals with access to one of the nation’s top academic medical centers: UNC Health. The MBA Healthcare Club at Kenan-Flagler is an active student organization that creates community through speaker events, company treks, career panels, and peer coaching. The club works closely with the Career & Leadership team to support recruiting into health-care consulting, pharma, biotech, payer/provider organizations, and healthtech. Students often land roles at companies such as IQVIA, Deloitte, Optum, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Eli Lilly and Company. They also participate in Student Teams Achieving Results (STAR), Kenan-Flagler’s signature experiential learning program, where teams work directly with real health-care organizations on strategic challenges in areas such as market access, product launches, and digital innovation. Close ties to UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, School of Medicine, and Eshelman School of Pharmacy allow MBA students to take interdisciplinary courses and collaborate on research, policy, or innovation initiatives. Whether students are pursuing a career in health-care strategy, global health, or innovation, Kenan-Flagler offers a close-knit, collaborative environment with strong connections to the Research Triangle’s vibrant life sciences and health-care ecosystem. UNC also offers MBA/Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D), MBA/Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA), MBA/Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), and MBA/MD joint degree programs.
Our Stratus team has lots of experience helping applicants plan their transition to a new industry, such as health care, through an MBA degree. We are available to start a conversation about your profile during a free consultation. Schedule yours here!