The Online Master's Degree Program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center provides answers to frequently asked questions, about pre-application / program consideration:
You must have at least a bachelor’s degree with a 2.8 cumulative GPA, and you must be in some way involved with medical education or educational research or be moving toward a role in medical education or educational research. “Medical education” can be interpreted broadly, but does not include K-12 health education.
Yes, the program is not only for physicians, but for anyone within health care who is involved in or interested in medical education and/or educational research. Our students have included physicians, nurses, researchers, administrators, house staff personnel and others involved in a variety of positions with educational responsibilities within a health care environment.
K-12 teaching has licensure requirements that our program will not satisfy. Additionally, our program is focused more on adult education within a healthcare environment and may not provide you with the tools you need for a traditional K-12 classroom or student population.
We do cautiously admit residents on a limited basis. There are two important considerations: time and the ability to perform teaching and research activities. One of your recommendation letters MUST be from your residency director and it must address these two issues and state that participation in the Master’s program will be supported while the student is in residency. Be aware that many students who have attempted a graduate degree while in residency have found it to be more difficult than they had anticipated and often take longer to graduate than they had hoped.
How this program will help your individual career will depend on your ambitions, goals, chosen career path and your institution’s policies. To date, our students and graduates have collectively had the following successes:
- 164 national presentations
- 52 publications
- 21 educational grant awards ($4,250,000 direct)
- 37 teaching awards
- 6 promotions
There is no travel required at all for our program. Everything from orientation through your final project defense is conducted using web-based technology. If you are ever in the Cincinnati area for any other reason, however, we would love the opportunity to meet you!
Our curriculum is arranged so that the program cannot be completed in less than two years. It is optimized for a student who begins in the Autumn quarter – if two courses are taken each quarter, coursework can be completed in 7 quarters. The actual quarter of graduation will depend on how long it takes to complete the final project.
Most of our students work full-time. Physicians with busy clinic schedules and little or no protected time generally find it difficult to work two courses each quarter into their schedule. Because of this, the average time to complete the program is approximately three years.
Yes, both the Master’s and Certificate programs are accredited by NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education) through the University of Cincinnati College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services. Additionally, the University of Cincinnati is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and The Higher Learning Commission.
Up to nine (9) credit hours may be transferred into the program. The course must be a masters-level course taken within the past five years, you must have earned at least a B grade, and it must match a class in our program or be applicable as your elective. No more than 3 credit hours can be transferred in for any one course. If the course you took was more than 3 credit hours, only 3 credit hours will be applied.
Please provide a course syllabus or detailed course description and an official transcript showing the semester and year, course and grade.
Yes! If you are in the Master’s program, you will have two advisors; if you are in the Certificate program, you will have one:
Program Coordinator – Lea Alaee provides advising assistance with applications, course selection, program progression, bill payment options, graduation, grades, and all other administrative needs.
Faculty Advisor – Master’s students will be assigned a faculty advisor who will head the student’s master’s committee for their final project and provide guidance and assistance with the Individual Study. Your faculty advisor will be assigned to you by the program office when you matriculate into the program.
In addition, Dr. Kadriye Lewis, the Associate Program Advisor, can also assist with questions or concerns regarding the program overall or with course selection and program progression.
No. Neither the transcript nor the piece of paper for the Certificate or Master of Education indicate that the program or any coursework was completed via distance learning or online.
