How MHA Programs Are Verified and Ranked

Which Schools Were Checked

The starting list combined every U.S. school on the CAHME accredited-program list with every institution that reported master's completions in health administration fields (CIP 51.0701 Health/Health Care Administration, 51.0702 Hospital and Health Care Facilities Administration and 51.0718 Long Term Care Administration) to the U.S. Department of Education's IPEDS survey for 2022-23, plus schools found during research whose programs are reported under other fields. 31 schools no longer offer a qualifying master's and 5 have closed; they are left off the site.

What Counts as a Program

A program is a degree path a student applies to: an online MHA, an executive MHA and an on-campus MHA count separately when the school runs them separately. The site includes the MHA and its equivalents (MHSA, MSHA and similar titles), MS and MA degrees in healthcare administration or management, MBAs with a healthcare concentration, MPAs with a health administration concentration, and MPH degrees in health policy and management when the school presents them as its administration master's. Health informatics, nursing administration and general public health degrees are left out unless the school files them under health administration.

Program Facts

Format, credits, length, concentrations, GRE and GMAT policy, work experience, residency or internship, and published tuition come from the school's own program, catalog, admissions and tuition pages. Tuition is shown in the school's own words, with its basis (per credit, per course, per term, per year or total) and year. A detail is left out when the school's pages don't state it. Campuses of one university that sell the same online programs, such as Strayer University's state campuses, appear as one school.

Estimated Tuition

Where a school publishes both a per-credit rate and the credits a program requires, the site multiplies the two and labels the result "estimated tuition". Where the school publishes a program total instead, that total is used. It is tuition only, before fees, books and living costs, and it uses the school's first published rate, which at public schools is usually the in-state rate; lists mark those figures "resident rate". Per-course, per-term and per-year prices are never multiplied into an estimate. Schools on the quarter system state quarter credits, and pages say so.

How the Ranked Lists Work

Every ranked list states its measure above the list, and the order follows that measure alone. Cost rankings order programs by estimated tuition, lowest first, one program per school; some lists include only CAHME-covered programs or only programs that award the MHA degree itself. The "one rate for every state" list only includes programs whose published rate doesn't change with residency. Size rankings order schools by master's degrees awarded in health administration fields in 2022-23 (IPEDS), which describes how established a program is, not its quality. Schools that state admission is paused are left out of rankings. Advertising never affects a ranking.

Accreditation

CAHME status comes from CAHME's list of accredited and certified programs, captured September 28, 2026 (105 schools on this site). CAHME accredits programs, not whole universities, so each program is marked covered only when the school is on the list and the program is the one the accreditation covers, according to CAHME's listing and the school's own pages. Where CAHME lists a program on probation, the profile says so. A school's claim of accreditation never overrides the CAHME list; profiles note such claims.

Guides and Program-List Pages

Guides and program-list pages are written from a data file of the site's verified program records plus facts read on official pages (CAHME, ACHE, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Student Aid, NAB, state licensing boards and schools' own sites). Each outside fact is recorded with the page it came from and the date it was checked. Automated checks confirm that every dollar figure and percentage traces to those records.

Tools

The MHA cost and loan calculator applies the federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan rules for loans first disbursed from July 1, 2026 ($20,500 a year, $100,000 in total, 8.07% interest), estimates interest while you're in school as simple interest, and compares the payment with BLS median pay. The program matcher filters and scores the verified program records against your answers, the degree chooser scores five answers into a degree type, and the CAHME checker shows each school's list status and program coverage. All four run in your browser; nothing you enter is sent to the site.

Pay Data

Wages are for medical and health services managers (SOC 11-9111), from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, with the number of jobs beside each median. BLS doesn't report pay by degree, so pay figures describe the occupation MHA graduates commonly hold, not MHA graduates as a group.

Who Checks the Site

The site is researched and edited by Taylor Rupe. Program facts are reviewed at least every six months. Sponsored listings are supplied by advertisers and never affect which programs appear or how they rank. To report an error, use the contact form.