“It wasn’t easy, but I knew that going in.”

After graduating from medical school at Drexel University College of Medicine over 20 years ago, Timothy Finnegan returned to school to earn his Master’s in Business Administration from Ball State University.

“I have always thought about learning the business side of health care, but training and family happened,” Timothy says. “Having an MBA and an MD should open many doors for the second half of my career, whether or not I continue with direct patient care, move into a leadership position, or transfer my skills to industry.”

Working as a medical oncologist at Cone Health in North Carolina for over 16 years, Timothy says that as his medical career advanced, he started to learn the business, leadership, and administrative aspects of medicine.

“It kind of popped back in my head saying, ‘Hey, why don’t I get some formal training of this?’ rather than just the on-the-job training I had been doing?” Timothy explains. “I went down the path of what would be the best fit for me, given my current situation of a full-time oncologist and three teenagers.”

‘The beauty of the Ball State program’

Ball State’s Master’s in Business Administration is a 100 percent online program accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Students can create a flexible schedule, complete their degree as full- or part-time, and choose between seven concentrations, including healthcare administration, business analytics, and artificial intelligence.

Timothy says his goal from the onset was to minimize disruption to his family. He would start course work between five and seven a.m. while his wife and three children were still asleep.

“That was the beauty of the Ball State program, that I could actually do that because a lot of the classes were asynchronous,” Timothy says. “I would join the live class, but if I couldn’t, it was very nice to be able to catch up on the recorded version. Ball State was so adaptable to my current lifestyle.”

‘This was the way to do it’

Because of his real-world experience in healthcare as a medical oncologist, Timothy said he had the advantage of being good at time management and studying efficiently.

Time, however, was Timothy’s most significant challenge during his graduate studies.

“Adhering to the schedule that I set for myself was the biggest key, and then planning ahead, knowing if I had an exam coming up, knowing I have to switch my schedule around a little bit,” Timothy explains. “It just took time, just paying attention to what was coming and then planning ahead so I could anticipate it.”

Timothy advises anyone who is thinking about going back to school to just do it.

“This was the way to do it,” Timothy asserts. “You have to be prepared to get busy and have that time management, but I would not let that stand in the way if it’s something you wanted to do.”

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Link to Timothy’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothy-finnegan-md-mba-765566141/