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A master’s in health science is an advancement and specialization degree for people already working in the health field, and it competes for the same students as three better-known graduate degrees. Before choosing it, you should be able to say why you are not choosing the Master of Public Health, the Master of Health Administration, or a clinical master’s instead. The honest answer, for the people it fits, is usually one of three things: you are an allied-health professional who wants to teach in your profession’s training programs, you want a graduate credential in health education or informatics without the full MPH or HIM route, or you want a flexible, non-clinical graduate degree that lets you combine leadership, education, and research coursework in a way the more standardized degrees do not allow.
The degree title is usually Master of Science in Health Science (MSHS) or Master of Health Science (MHS), and the same content sometimes appears as an MS in Health Sciences with a named concentration. As with the bachelor’s, the required course list tells you more than the diploma text. This page explains how these programs are structured, who they serve, what they assume you already know, and how to compare them against the alternatives.
It is a graduate program in the analysis, leadership, education, and evaluation of health services, delivered through online coursework and usually organized around a concentration. Typical core content includes health policy and systems, research methods and biostatistics, healthcare leadership, and health law and ethics, with the concentration adding depth in health education, health informatics, health administration, clinical education, or a similar area.
The MPH is a population-health degree with a standardized core (epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, health policy, social and behavioral science) and CEPH accreditation; it is the credential for public health practice. The MHA is a management degree for health organizations, often CAHME-accredited, aimed at administrative leadership. The MSHS is broader and less standardized: it lets you combine elements of both with education and research coursework, and it is the natural graduate degree for allied-health professionals whose goals do not fit neatly into either.
Allied-health professionals moving into program directorships, clinical education, or faculty roles in their profession’s training programs; health educators seeking graduate-level preparation and, with the right coursework and experience, MCHES eligibility; and mid-career health workers who want a leadership or informatics credential without a business-school MHA or a full MPH. If your goal is a specific credential – CEPH-accredited public health, CAHME-accredited administration, RHIA-eligible informatics – the specialized degree serves you better.
Typically 30 to 36 semester hours, commonly one to two years full-time and longer part-time. Most students in these programs work full time in clinical or health-services roles, and two- to three-year part-time completion is normal and expected.
No. It is a non-clinical degree and does not lead to licensure in any clinical profession. Physician assistant, occupational therapy, physical therapy, nursing, and other clinical roles require their own accredited professional degrees. Some universities house the MSHS in the same college as those programs, which causes confusion; the MSHS itself confers no scope of practice.
A completed bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution, transcripts, a resume, and a statement of purpose are standard. Many programs prefer or require health-field experience, and concentration-specific programs may require prerequisite coursework such as statistics. Many are test-optional. Some request letters of recommendation, including from a supervisor.
For a full map of this program area, start here: Health Science Program Guide
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Middle States Commission on Higher EducationIPEDSCollege Scorecard
| Course Topic | What You Learn |
|---|---|
| Health Policy & Health Systems | How policy is made and financed, how it reaches organizations and patients, and how to analyze a proposed change |
| Research Methods & Biostatistics | Designing and reading studies, choosing and interpreting statistical tests, and judging whether a claimed effect is real |
| Evidence-Based Practice | Locating, appraising, and applying evidence to clinical and organizational decisions |
| Healthcare Leadership & Organizational Behavior | Leading clinical teams, managing change, quality improvement, and the dynamics of health organizations |
| Health Law, Ethics & Regulation | Privacy, consent, liability, accreditation and regulatory compliance, and professional ethics at the leadership level |
| Epidemiology or Population Health | Measuring health in populations and applying that lens to program and service design |
| Concentration Courses | Health education program planning and evaluation, health informatics and analytics, health administration and finance, curriculum and instruction for allied-health educators, or community health |
| Thesis, Applied Project, or Practicum | Original research, an applied project tied to a real organizational problem, or a supervised field experience |
Health education and promotion. Program planning, behavior change theory, evaluation, health communication, and community assessment, typically mapped to the advanced CHES/MCHES competency areas. This is the concentration for health education specialists moving into program management, and for those pursuing the MCHES credential, which requires graduate-level preparation or experience beyond the CHES. Health education specialists had a median annual wage of $64,070 (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
Health informatics. Health data systems, electronic health records, data analytics, privacy and security, and clinical decision support. Useful for clinicians moving into analyst, EHR, and informatics roles. Note that this concentration does not, by itself, make you eligible for the RHIA credential, which requires a CAHIIM-accredited health information management program; see the health information management guide if that credential is your goal. Health information technologists and medical registrars had a median annual wage of $68,020 (BLS OEWS, May 2025), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 14.7 percent employment growth for that occupation from 2024 to 2034 (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34).
Health administration and leadership. Healthcare finance, operations, human resources, strategy, and quality. This is the concentration for department managers and service-line leaders who want graduate preparation without a full MHA. Medical and health services managers had a median annual wage of $123,860 (BLS OEWS, May 2025), with projected growth of 23.2 percent over 2024-34 and roughly 62,100 openings per year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34); a master’s is common in this occupation at larger organizations. If management is your only goal, compare the healthcare administration guide directly.
Clinical or allied-health education. Curriculum design, instructional methods, assessment, and clinical teaching, for practitioners who want to teach in associate or bachelor’s programs in their profession. Many allied-health accreditors expect program faculty and directors to hold a master’s, and this concentration is built for that requirement.
Outcomes vary by program, but you can compare:
For pacing and delivery comparisons, see: How Online Health Science Degrees Work
Requirements vary by school, but most programs require a completed bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution. Common elements include transcripts, a resume, and a statement of purpose. Programs built for working practitioners often ask you to describe your health-field role and what you intend to do with the degree, and they weigh that more heavily than undergraduate grades from years earlier. A statistics prerequisite is common, particularly for the informatics and research-oriented concentrations, and some schools require a foundational health-systems course for applicants without a health background.
Applicants without a health science bachelor’s are not excluded. People enter from nursing, allied health, biology, psychology, education, business, and the military. A clinical background is a genuine advantage for the education and leadership concentrations and is often expected for the allied-health education concentration specifically. Ask admissions directly what they expect rather than inferring it from the catalog.
A bachelor’s is the credential that opens the field: it moves allied-health professionals off the bench into supervision and education, makes health educators CHES-eligible, and satisfies the education requirement for most non-clinical health positions. A master’s is pursued to teach in a professional program, to lead a department or service line, to reach the MCHES level in health education, or to move into informatics and evaluation work. Very few entry-level positions require it, and pursuing it before establishing yourself in the field usually front-loads cost against a benefit that arrives later.
Compare degree options:
For a value and fit discussion, see: Is an Online Health Science Degree Worth It. For adjacent graduate paths, see the Public Health Program Guide and the Healthcare Administration Program Guide.
Data verified: August 25, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
Back to Online Health Science Degrees: Programs & Careers (2026)
