cedarsprig

Be careful about dual degrees. I think in general they are a great idea, but like jonathanb715 points out, you are going to confuse people by having that combination. You are going to get pulled in two different directions. I think from a rounded education standpoint it is fantastic, and the field of public health desperately needs people who understand finances...but that doesn't mean the field of public health actually knows what to DO with people who understand finances. A couple of places where you may find them putting you -- managing nonprofits, helping with grants, and going into administration. If you are doing both programs at the same time, the field experiences are probably going to do more to give you job options than the degrees themselves will.

A bit late to the conversation here, but wanted to give my 2c - It's really going to depend on the MPH program; some are much more geared toward administration than policy, but you can work around this depending on what the specific school offers. If you know going in that policy is the direction you want to take, I think you can tailor your specific coursework toward that. BUT, and this is where it gets dicey, you may actually do better getting a strong background in policy and economics (which was weirdly overlooked in quite a few of the programs I've seen) and picking up the public health as you go along. *Disclaimer, I went through the UW Madison MPH program and felt it was very weak on economics, which can really undermine attempts to design policy.