I wasn't able to find anyone on the online degree forums who was in the NCU online MBA, so took the plunge last month, with their "as many courses as you can take" with flat rate tuition. Well, the results are mixed--depending on the course you take, it's a hit or miss--and "as many courses" are limited to one course at a time. You have to get 80% or better overall to pass a course to register the second course. Due to limited teacher-student engagement and lack of students in some courses (I was the only student in some courses), this may be a frustrating experience for some. They allow two "pre-final"s before you can take the final exam. You have to score 70% to be able to take the final. Well, some of these pre-finals are from publisher provided questions bank, and not developed by the instructor, so there will be 30-40% questions where you will be wondering if you are taking the right exams. The finals are not open book, and you will be sitting in front of webcam with some guy in India watching you take the exam. I understand this is to preserve the integrity of the exams, but the school should develop its own questions first, based on what they're teaching in the program. Otherwise, the exams should be open content--books, google etc allowed. Keep in mind that you still have to write 15-20 page essays to finish a course. Depending on your personal knowledge-level and other commitments, you may be able to finish only one course during the 4 months semester, thus wiping out any potential savings from "as many courses" as you want to take. I think the WGU competency-based model is great, but New Charter is executing it poorly, at least for the MBA program. They could easily make it fast-track, learn-what-you-need for work and business, and cater themselves to working professionals. Unfortunately, they are still a work in progress. I do ask that you give them a try to see it for yourself. Sign up for a free account, browse through the course that interests you, and may be you will have better experience than me. But from what I can gather, it will take 2-3 years to finish this program, and if you value your time, it may not be worth it.
I dropped out after 4 weeks and they were gracious enough to refund 60% of the tuition. I might give them a try when they have an IT management option. I enrolled in WGU MSISA program for now
Thanks for this. I was mildly interested in Andrew Jackson's oops, I mean New Charter's MPA but your description extinguished even that slight spark. I don't need another degree anyway.
Thank you for the info. It sounds like a good option for someone that wants a NA MBA and doesn't mind the "independent study" method of going about it. I saw that they have their MPA on hold right now. I'd be interested in learning more about it when it comes back.
I wonder if it's the same at Patten University. They are owned by the same company and seem to have a similar model. WGU's MBA programs require a ridiculous amount of writing, imo. I don't understand where the competency part comes in. A 15-20 page essay per course is nothing compared to the amount of writing required by WGU.
Lots of writing? My impression is that any Master's program will require a LOT of research, reading and writing. I wrote more for a single course in my tax law program than for an entire semester of J.D. Courses put together even though there was no thesis or major paper required for either degree.
@sanantone, yes Patten and New Charter use the same curriculum at a higher price-point. The essays are not the issue, the multiple-choice question bank they use on the pre-finals and finals are sometimes not reviewed by the instructors, and many of them have errors. This creates frustration, as the materials the instructors is assigning may be different from the materials you are tested on. I have no problem writing on topics to explain the mastery of the material, but on some topics, it is just non-sense to write 15 pages without 10 pages of BS. For example, if someone wanted you to explain if ETF is better than mutual funds for retirement, it can be explained fairly well with tables in 1-2 pages, vs 15 pages containing mostly fluff. Also fluff may be a job requirement for some positions, but it's nowhere near a measure of competency and subject matter expertise in a certain topic.
@BooksandWoods, yes definitely give it a try. They refunded 60% of my tuition after the 4th week, and you can sign up for a payment plan and try 1-2 weeks for $329 or so. This is a great value, but as I mentioned, the exam content needs a revamp. One strategy you can use if you are good at writing essays--take all the essay courses (100% project) first and knock them down in 2-3 months. You can earn 12-15 credits that way. Then take the prefinal on the new courses with exams and study based on the prefinal--be careful as you get 2 chances to score 70% to unlock the final. WGU lets you resubmit projects and finals 3 times, NCU lets you a second chance, but flat-rate tuition works in your favor--you can keep retaking courses. So for $529 they charged me for 4 weeks, I finished a course with proctored exam (some guy in India monitoring me via webcam) and could knock off 3 other writing only courses. I wasn't able to switch from MBA finance to general MBA during the semester, that was my only concern. I did not want to lose credits on Finance courses by switching. So I dropped out, but I will give it a second shot when they have the IT management track next year.
My master's program required 30 pages per course at the most. In total, I probably wrote less than 400 or 500 pages for the whole program including the discussion board posts. I've seen reviews from WGU MBA students that said they wrote around 1,000 pages.
A friend tried their program and quit after a month. They have proctored midterm exams that one has to pay ProtorU service. So you got to per class. Also he wasn't girting any replies from registrar about transcripts sent from other institutions etc. He didn't like the way he was treated so he left. Compare to Aspen much less exams.
Your sentiments echo sentiments about Patten voiced in another thread-- that the school doesn't prepare the students well enough for finals. I should probably link the other thread, but my thought is the same here-- if you go to Patten/New Charter, prepare as if you were taking a course from some well-regarded B&M curriculum. The competency model in general is still relatively new in the world of education. WGU has been fairly successful in their implementation, but the methodology has its own quirks and in general still needs more fine-tuning no matter who is implementing it. I think Patten/NCU stand a decent chance of making their implementation work as long as they can stay solvent long enough to gain traction (and keep the accreditors happy). As far as the varying demands of coursework causing extended program stays-- I had that happen to me with WGU. I would have been in only a year to finish my bachelor's, but the IT programming coursework was challenging enough (for me) that I eventually needed a year and a half. It's frustrating, but that can happen with any program-- competency model or no. There are countless stories of students in traditional B&M programs taking 6 years or more to complete a bachelor's degree, or master's students taking three years-plus to complete a two year program. These issues are not unique to Patten/New Charter.
Hi, I dropped out from the university recently. Here are my thoughts about them. 1- The instructor for a course is the same instructor for other 10 courses, he/she is not specialized on the subject and rarely can answer your questions. 2- The exam is collected from test banks, usually combined from different test banks related to different text books. 3-Usually, exam contents are not from studied materials, almost impossible to pass the exam no matter how much you study. In summary, very few people graduated (if any), you will waste your time and money if you chose them... try to find a better university.
Looks like this post helps me in not going with New Charter... I am planning to do MBA through online... From this whole thread, I am tending toward WGU... Thanks for your post.
I dropped out of NCU around the middle of last year before starting at UMT. The essays often were returned with feedback which made it clear the instructor had no expertise in the area. Worse than that the projects often came across like crappy high school assignments. For example, in my insurance and risk management class I was told I needed to call an insurance agent and get three quotes for auto, property and life insurance based upon very little information. My cousin is an insurance agent so it wasn't that big of a deal, but he had to put in a fair amount of time and effort. It reminded me of an assignment senior year of HS where we had to get local rent amounts to practice making budgets. Tons of spelling errors in the material as well. I ended up finishing three classes before I dropped.
I was thinking about giving NCU a try again, but sounds like they have not changed. Many of the finance courses are taught by the same instructor, and she is not knowledgable in that area at all. I just finished MSISA from WGU in one term. Still not sure if I will go back to WGU with the writing requirements. I wish there was a program that will be similar to the previous Certified MBA exams--you are tested on a set of standard questions and knowledge base in the area. Until then, I will probably finish CFP course from dalton.
Hi everyone, I work at UniversityNow, the parent company for both Patten University and New Charter University. We appreciate everyone providing feedback about our universities and will do our best to improve on the issues presented. I want to share some recent related improvements and clear up some misconceptions. (Sorry if this runs a little long, there's a lot of feedback to address!) Courses & Instructors: Each course is developed by a faculty member who is a subject matter expert supported by an instructional design team to ensure a consistent “look and feel” to the course as well as the appropriate use of digital media resources. The faculty who create the courses are experts in their respective fields and possess both academic credentials and practical experience. We take pride in having practitioner faculty who bring real-world experience to their classes along with the course materials. Although we have some instructors who do teach a number of courses, be assured that they have appropriate credentials to teach their courses and are deeply committed to supporting our students. Every student also has a student advisor, who is a resource to support students throughout their schooling. If a student is struggling in any way or has difficulty accessing and using course materials, scheduling or taking exams, or any administrative issue, the advisor is there to help. We want to address any issues as they arise and make sure you are successful in achieving your academic goals. Students complete surveys at the end of each course. This is a great chance to let us know what worked well for you and what was problematic. We take feedback very seriously and take action quickly. We do require students to take one course at a time. We have strong evidence indicating that students (especially working adults) who focus on a single course at a time are more successful. Exams: While our instructors do not write their own exam questions, they are written by qualified subject matter experts supported by our own in-house assessment development team. Exam items are tied directly to the learning objectives in the course and content provided. We do not use exams from outside vendors. Earlier this year, we improved instructor visibility into the exam questions and we hope this particular problem is solved. Course instructors do not actually grade student projects. Other faculty who are qualified in the field of the course serve as project evaluators. The student is anonymous to the evaluator allowing them to be objective and completely impartial. This is an important component of our academic model -- separating teaching from evaluating. Once again, the end of course survey is a great place to provide feedback on examinations, courses, and instructors. Your detailed feedback assists us to identify and remedy problematic issues. We currently use Examity for most of our exam proctoring. Exam proctoring is included in student tuition. There are no hidden charges. For those who are interested in our universities, we hope you'll give them a shot! And for those who weren't dazzled by their experience with us, we hope you'll give us another shot! We appreciate the enthusiasm for our affordable, competency-based model. You can contact us at any time via our websites to see if we've improved in the areas you were concerned about. Thanks!
I graduated with a M.B.A. in Finance form New Charter University in June 2014. I completed 2 - 3 classes per term while working a 55 hour per week full time job. I really like the idea of learning at your own pace and at time and places that are most convenient to me. The ability to focus on one course of study at a time is a big plus. The staff and faculty were extremely responsive and supportive. I found the faculty to be very knowledgeable and helpful during the course of study. Some, but not all of the course instructions for writing papers and exam questions were lacking, but the NCU staff were very receptive to the feedback provided. For a university in its infancy, perfection is not expected. They quickly improved upon the course design. The technology platform is rock solid and ease to use. I cannot recall ever lacking access to the online system because it was down for a significant period of time; I've been online at all hours of the day - weekends and holidays included. Patten University and New Charter university are owned by the same company. As far as their online degrees, I believe they are identical with the notable exception of accreditation - regional vs. national. Graduate level studies are challenging; you should seriously consider this before you make the time investment. One drawback to the experience is the ability to network, which is a big benefit to pursuing a MBA degree at a brick and mortor school. However, earning an advanced degree, debt free is a big plus.
