MHA APPLICATION PROCESS
Applications for the MHA Professional Format program must be made directly to the Department of Health Services Policy and Management. The application is submitted on paper, not through SOPHAS, the common application portal for ASPH-accredited schools of public health, linked from the USC Arnold School of Public Health website. The MHA Professional Format program has a different application deadline from SOPHAS.
Please contact Sonja Snowdon at , or by phone at (803) 777-3400, for an application packet. Please do this before formally applying.
The application deadline is June 30. The program starts in the fall semester every year. For the most coordinated outcome, we recommend that you collect sealed official transcripts from all colleges that you have attended so far, and two sealed recommendation letters, and send them together with your application materials IN ONE PACKET to Ms. Snowdon. GRE or GMAT scores (as applicable) are the only item to be officially reported directly by ETS to the USC Graduate School. The requirements for the application to be complete are the following:
1. Your completed application. (Please get the application packet from Sonja Snowdon.)
2. Application fee
3. Resume
4. Career statement
5. Sealed official transcripts of all college work including the baccalaureate (four year) degree program (For USC work, transcripts are not required to be submitted.)
6. Two letters of recommendation
7. Official report of your GRE or GMAT scores (Request the testing agency to report directly to USC Graduate School.)
Please mail a paper copy of to Ms. Sonja Snowdon, University of South Carolina, Arnold School of Public Health, Department of Health Services Policy and Management, 800 Sumter Street, Rm 116, Columbia, SC 29208.
Item #7 from the list above, the GRE/GMAT scores, have to be officially reported directly to USC Graduate School. University rules are such that we cannot waive the GRE/GMAT requirement, unless the applicant has a terminal professional degree (MD, DDS, or JD), or is accepted into a medical, dental or law school and currently pursuing one of those degrees. Those applicants can submit their MCAT or LSAT scores, as applicable. For regular applicants, GRE scores that are more than 5 years old are not officially reported by ETS. If you took this exam more than five years ago, you will have take the GRE or GMAT again.
The admission decision is made by the MHA Admissions Committee, based on an applicant's total portfolio: undergraduate GPA, GRE/GMAT scores, recommendation letters, work experience, and career statement. The general admission eligibility criteria are: a combined verbal and quantitative GRE score of 1000, and an undergraduate GPA of 3.0. However, because the admission decision is made based on the applicants total portfolio, some deviation on one parameter can be compensated by an appropriately higher level on another. Please contact Sudha Xirasagar, PhD, MHA Professional Format Program Director, with your questions regarding your specific admission eligibility situation (Phone: (803) 576 6093 or E-mail:
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