Best Graduate Programs for Health Care/Life Sciences
I am currently working for a life science consulting firm and am interested in a pursuing an advanced degree in business with a life science focus.
What are some of the best business programs for this space?
Specifically do any programs place well in Venture Capital firms with a life science focus? Or Private Equity firms with a life science focus?
Thanks
research?
As a Tar Heel, I don't say this lightly:
Go to Duke. Intern in RTP. Profit.
Duke and Wharton HCMP are two of the stronger ones. I think Kellogg as well.
I'm going to challenge your initial assumption - that you need to pursue a business degree with a life sciences focus to get into life sciences PE/VC.
I'm at Duke. My experience has been that PE/VC firms with a life sciences focus primarily hire out of business programs that place well into PE/VC, not business programs that place well into life sciences. There are always exceptions, especially in smaller firms, and there are certainly some local shops that come onto campus.
But let's say that you're looking at a biotech-focused VC firm in Palo Alto. All other things about an applicant being equal, checking the "PE/VC" box by coming from H/S/W carries more weight than checking the "Life Sciences" box by coming from Duke's HSM program.
I think there are three avenues that offer you the greatest likelihood of success (but as a big caveat, these are not the only ways) to help you get where you want to go:
MBA (H/S/W) --> PE/VC. Follow the classic PE route. Pivot to life sciences once you get the PE/VC experience under your belt.
MBA (other) --> MM IB with a really strong healthcare group --> MM PE. I say MM because the scale fits the industry; the truth is there just isn't that much life sciences investing on the megafund scale. I have my doubts about the personal skill development that happens at IB post-MBA that translates to being a good investor, but you would learn the process and blocking & tackling required to execute deals. Also, this is the most well-worn path, and the one your future employers are most likely to recognize as valuable. (Side note: there's a huge concentration of these groups in Chicago.)
Your current shop --> small VC/PE shop, up the ladder from there. Depending on where you are and the size of your consulting firm, there might be other small firms you know that might accept you as a lateral. If you find success establishing yourself on the buy-side, then I don't see the purpose of going back to school.
Thank you for this breakdown.
Do you see much opportunity to attempt to lateral to a MM IB healthcare group as an Associate or 2nd yr Analyst straight from my current position without going through an MBA?
So like 2/3 years in life science strategy consulting-->MM IB (2/3 yrs)-->then MM PE?
Thanks
I think it depends how liberally you use the "MM" designation. For larger firms that have a dedicated hiring cycle, I think coming in off-cycle or a few years after undergrad might be tough (but I'm not the right person to ask about that pathway).
At a small shop that hires based on need and only has a few partners, it's a bit of a needle in the haystack to find someone that's the right fit at the right time, but it's more likely someone would take a close look at you from a slightly different background. The boutique bank I worked for didn't care if someone was 0, 1, or 2+ years out of undergrad when looking for analysts.
Advanced Degree Programs for Life Sciences (Originally Posted: 08/27/2013)
Anyone have a list of consulting firms that have a formal ADP program for life science specialists?
McK, Bain, BCG, LEK, ZS are the only ones I know of -- any others?
FYI, MBB don't have an ADP program for "life science specialists"--with a PhD you come in as a generalist. PhD = MBA basically, they don't make you specialize (although of course you can if you want to). Both of the partners on my current case have life science PhDs and they're both consumer goods partners.
Thanks for the clarification @devildog -- yes I'm looking for programs that have ADP programs that hire doctorates and masters into higher level roles.
Some firms (e.g. IMS) only hire doctorates and msters into analyst roles
The only ones I applied to (I'm a PhD in physics) were MBB. I know someone who got hired with a physics PhD at LEK, but other than thinking their practice cases were stupid I can't comment on that process. I didn't know ZS had a program.
I have a friend who went to OW and they started him at undergrad+1 year, i.e., he's up for promotion a year sooner than someone with just an undergrad degree but he's a year behind someone who would show up with an MBA.
A friend of mine from grad school mine went to Deloittes life science group with a phd in mol bio. There are a bunch of smaller firms that are specialists. Clearview Healthcare comes to mind. You will have to do some legwork to find the smaller ones....it's been a few years since I was job searching so I can't recall any others off the top of my head.
Two others that come to mind for PhDs in life sciences are Leerink Swann and Health Advances
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