Admission Process

Suffolk University seeks to admit qualified individuals who are pursuing, or seek to pursue, a career in healthcare management.

Program Admission Philosophy

Suffolk University seeks to admit qualified individuals who are pursuing, or seek to pursue, a career in healthcare management. The University welcomes applicants who have experience in healthcare management, as well as applicants who seek to enter the healthcare field. Every application is reviewed in its entirety, so that all relevant aspects of an applicant’s previous performance and future goals are taken into consideration.

Admission Process & Criteria 

Applications for admission to the MHA Program are reviewed by an Admission Counselor in the Office of Graduate Admission, the Director of Programs in Healthcare Administration, and the Chair of Healthcare Administration Department.

They review the following aspects of, and apply the accompanying criteria to, each application:

  1. An applicant’s undergraduate and, where applicable, graduate school grade point average(s), with an expected level of 3.0 or above for both. Special attention is paid to an applicant’s grades in his or her major area of study (and whether the major area of study changed) and in the first two years and last two years of undergraduate school, noting any significant differences in performance.
  2. The nature and extent of an applicant’s professional work experience, in healthcare or another field, and other activities (e.g., extracurricular activities in undergraduate or graduate school, and volunteer positions in community and/or professional organizations), as presented in a professional-quality resume. Professional work experience is desirable but not required. New college graduates are accepted for admission.
  3. The content and presentation of an applicant’s statement of professional goals – specifically, the reason(s) why an applicant is pursuing or seeks to pursue a career in healthcare, an applicant’s short-term and/or long-term goals for a career in healthcare, the reason(s) why an applicant seeks to attend Suffolk University’s MHA Program, and the overall quality of the writing--i.e., ability to articulate a compelling story as well as presentation, in terms of sentence structure and spelling, grammar and punctuation.
  4. The strength of the two letters of recommendation – specifically, how well and for how long the recommenders have known an applicant, an applicant’s strengths and weaknesses within the context of specific types of academic and/or professional situations, and to what extent the recommenders attest to an applicant’s ability to succeed in graduate school and his or her chosen career.
  5. For international applicants: the TOEFL scores, with a minimum total score of 80 and 17 or above in each subsection, or the IELTS scores, with a minimum score of 6.5 or above overall and no sub-score below a 6.0.
  6. The strength of an applicant’s presentation of self, if a personal interview is conducted. This includes the ability to describe his or her background, the reason(s) why he or she is pursuing or seeks to pursue a career in healthcare, his or her goals for a career in healthcare, and the reason(s) why he or she seeks to attend Suffolk University’s MHA Program.
  7. The nature and quality of an applicant’s writing, if samples of written work (e.g., academic or professional papers) are requested. Criteria for review include the ability to present a thoughtful and coherent story as well as the ability to write properly, in terms of overall structure, sentence structure and spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Standardized test scores for the GRE or GMAT are no longer required for the MHA Program because they were not found to be accurate indicators of an applicant's capabilities to succeed in the MHA Program.