I'm wondering if I can get people's opinions about the Health Services Mgmt specialization for the MBA program at McMaster. How would you rate the program? Has anyone taken it, and can you provide details about the program beyond what's on the website?

Also, for someone who doesn't have an undergraduate degree or experience in the industry, is it useful for getting my foot in the door?

you don't have to necessarily go to those schools to be getting your money's worth. I don't know about the specifics of the program, but even if you are going in to the health and services management field you should consider trying to get into better MBA schools like Rotman, Ivey, Queen's, Schulich, Desautels, HEC Montreal or Sauder rather than McMaster. Those schools are way more respected, have more and better connections, and are have higher graduate average salaries. Even though they don't have specialized health and service management programs companies in those fields would rather hire someone who went to those schools vs McMaster.

But McMaster does have a co-op option where you could do a co-op term with those companies. But IMO it would be better to you to go get some work experience and then apply to the top schools and then apply to health services companies after you are done. None of the Canadian business schools have an avg gmat of over 700.

I do realize that there are more renowned MBA schools other than McMaster, but my question is obviously directed towards the Health Services program, as McMaster has quite a good reputation in health sciences.

In a more general response to the above, I don't think anyone is 'wasting' their time if they don't attend one of the 'M7' schools. I think people have to choose a school/degree that suits themselves. Some people that obtain an MBA, aren't necessarily looking to compete in the financial sector, work for big banks, or be the president/ceo of a company. Obviously the top schools have the best connections and expected salaries, but it all depends on what you want to do with the degree. For example, someone with a non-business background may simply want to augment their education with more business knowledge, but still work in the same field...in that case, it wouldn't necessarily be worth it to spend the money to get an education in the states.