Amount of work for doctoral-level classes

How much work is required in your doctoral-level classes??? My current class requires four 10 page papers APA style with appropriate scholarly references. It is hard to put my brain in that kind of gear. Writing is a different gear, if you know what I mean.

If every class is going to be this way, then I'll be buried in paperwork and the commensurate work that has to go into it.

 

Welcome to the world of doctoral level education. In fact, the academic expectations that you note are not unduly high! I recall completing quite a number of doctoral level courses with final papers in APA style amounting to 50-75 pages each. Wait until you get to the point of having to perform comprehensive literature reviews that require numerous hours of intense work to cull studies that are relevant to your dissertation topic as well as formulating your research methodology.

 

Writing is the easy part. It's the righting that's difficult.

 

Just curious what school / degree this is for, if you are interested in sharing.

 

Ten page papers aren't that bad. Typically I've seen regular class papers between 30 and 50 pages- not counting the cover pages and the reference pages.

The level of work is different for doctoral courses than undergrad and Masters courses. The goal is to get you ready to do independent research. This means building depth in the subject matter, flexing the research muscles, and developing the writing skills necessary to complete the work.

I would suggest that you do not give up. What is happening is that you are learning some new things, and that is always more difficult than doing what we are accustomed to doing. Hang in there, and you will soon find that the APA requirements will become less of an issue, and that filling in 10, 20, 40 pages is not as daunting as they are now.

While I went through the coursework, I read a couple books on writing and defending one's dissertation. The authors stated the dissertation was as difficult as the previous coursework. I scoffed that that, as I figured it was just a longer term paper, and I had three people grading it rather than one. I was wrong. It was harder than the course work. Further, working with three sometimes differing views on what should be in the work was at times fristrating. Overall, though, I was elated to get through it. Sometimes overcoming a higher than normal barrier of entry makes the victory much sweeter.

Good luck, and hang in there.

 

Is the coursework in a doctorate program substantially more difficult than in a masters program? (disregard the dissertation for now.) I've always wondered what they teach you in the courses at a doctorate level as opposed to masters level courses. Isn't a doctorate more about individual research etc? What sort of things can they teach a room of students about a topic that everyone is going in 10 differant directions on?

 

Gererally the coursework is about the same in difficulty, there is just a lot more of it. More courses, more reading, more papers....hence the term PhD: Piled Higher and Deeper.

 

I thought that was a reference to bula mierda.

 

NCU Ed.D

Anyone know the particulars of NCU's Ed.D program? Format, level of work compared to previous info posted in this thread? I have nearly decided on that program mainly because i don't have time for commuting and sitting in classes. I currently teach in local state u in the continuing ed. dept and hopefully they will more readily accept online doctorate for advancement than other depts might. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.

 

No, I won't quit, but mannnnnnn it's boring work. Boring = Hard to get motivated. After getting off work (10 hour days) six or sometimes seven days a week, I simply don't have the mental energy to do the work. The only solution is to cut-back on my employment so I won't be too tired to do the coursework.

I've been working waaaaaaaaaay too much anyways. Plus, if I don't cut back on my employment hours-per-week, then I won't be mentally able to do the academic coursework!!!

When I get off work, my brain feels like mashed potatoes. I can usually force myself to do academic coursework, but it "super awakens me" so that I can't go to bed -- and then I don't get the requisite number of hours to sleep, thus making it impossible to get up in the morning. For that reason, I usually do most of my academic coursework on my days off -- but I've been working OT on my days off and that's going to have to stop!!! I'm still re-adjusting to handling an academic courseload after being out of school for a couple of years. It's harder then what I anticipated. It's not that I've become lazy... but writing numerious papers is harder than reading a textbook and writing about it or answering questions about it. I find research-type writing to be harder because it seems to use a different part of the brain. Writing about what's in a textbook is easy because all the material is right there. But writing research-type papers is harder because:

• The scholarly materials come from all over and must be dilligently searched for, which involves perusing hundreds of pages of journals for a single paper.
• The writer must incorporate valid anecdotal observations and experiences into a cogent paper that is surrounded with scholarly references to support one's observations.

Like I said, if I had more time, then it would be much much easier for me. For example, if I only worked 40 hours a week, then it would be a snap for me. First, I'll try cutting back to about 55 hours per week --- and will continue cutting back until I find a comfortable balance between employment and academic coursework. It is currently not balanced!!!

 

Me Again,

You are never satisfied ;-). When you were attending NCU it was way too easy and not up to "snuff". Now the work requirement is too much and overwhelming! If this is your reaction to the first course I assure you that the energy and time requirements will only increase and necessitate hundreds of hours of intense focus and work. Keep in mind that you can always return to NCU )))))).

 

LOL

Back in that former time, I was on a different schedule with bankers hours and weekends off (and holidays too) and I had plenty of time to study. Then I lost a mega amound of money (six figures) and my schedule concurrently changed. So to try and recoup my six figure loss, I have been working like the dickens, day and night, seven days a week; but I can't do that and successfully manage a collegiate workload. So I'm going to cut back on my employment workload and will focus on the academic workload.

I frankly don't know if I'll make it, but when I consider a future life without an RA education (because of the doors that it can open) it is a prod to continue the academic struggle. My employment schedule is booked for the entire month of November with no days off until the 30th. Once I get through November, then I can get the employment monkey off my back to concentrate on academics.

Also, the online studies do not offer classroom participation, discourse and social intercourse, so students are relegated to quiet studies in solitude, which isn't exactly exciting. The in-classroom experience was richly rewarding and cannot be compared to online studies. However, online studies offer a different avenue that leads to the same academic goal: a doctoral degree by any legitimate means necessary.

 

Me again

Without revealing the school you are attending what is your area of specialization? Perhaps we can suggest alternative pathways that can realize your distance education needs. Let us know.

 

Criminal Justice. My only real obsticle is working seven day workweeks. It's simply not going to work anymore because I'm exhausted, which doesn't bode well for quality study time -- or any study time at all!!!

Something is going to have to give way. The job will always be there, but the doctoral opportunity will not. Thus, the choice is clear. I'm going to forego current employment opportunities for a present educational opportunity that will have a financial payoff in the far future.

 

It's notecessarily more difficult, but much deeper. For example, in an MBA program you may have a managerial decision course (stats). In a DBA program you'll have advanced stats, multivariate analysis, and research design courses.

I found many courses to be looser in structure than undergrad and masters courses. A lot of time you knew the learning requirements, there was some direction, but you had to be self directing to get there.

As for going in ten different directions, that becomes very true when folks get to the dissertation.During the coursework, if you have an inkling of what you want to do for your dissertation, you can lean your assignments in that direction.

 

Boring????? If you think it's hard to get motivated to do your coursework, wait till you get to the dissertation! Procrastination reigns supreme!!!! One thing that helped me was reading Jorge Cham's Piled Higher and Deeper comics- based on Stanford grad school. The web site is

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/comics.php

Keep at it!

 

I currently have the attention spam of mashed potatoes with butter, salt and pepper. However, once I start cutting back on my full-time job-and-a-half, then my academic attention span will become re-invigorated. Here's a sample of my daily routine:
- 4:00 AM - 6:00 AM, arise and lift weights (bowflex) & fix breakfast
- 6:00 AM - 4:00 PM, cop job tour of duty
- 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM, swim a mile at the gym (or something cardio)
- 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM, go home & prepare & eat dinner
- 7:00 PM - 8;00 PM, vegetate
- 8:00 PM, retire!!!

So what do I do on my days off??? Either the above for overtime or teaching for a local college or working security for a little extra cash. But now that I'm out-of-debt, I can (and will) cut back on my employment opportunities for the sake of the future.

Sorry if I bored you to death with my schedule.

 

I see the problem. You have too much of that exercise stuff in there. You need to slow that stuff up! Part of the whole doctoral thing is to get soft and mushy with a paunch. There are very few olympian PhD's out there, and that only happened because they gave up on getting tenure (Yeah, I'll catch flak on that one). You need to start cultivating that intellectual "lived in look."

When I was doing the DBA, I essentially gave up TV during the week. No vegetating during the week. Up at 5, either walking or the gym, read the paper during breakfast, checked e-mail, then off to work by 7:30. Left work at 7 or 8 unless I was teaching. Head home, made dinner, read or did some writing, or corrected papers depending on what was needed.

On Saturday mornings I did the dry cleaning and banking. My routine was to get a couple dozen donut holes, put on Click and Clack, and head off. If I hadn't finished grading papers, I would grade papers early Saturday morning before heading out. I'd hit the SJSU library in the afternoon for a few hours, copy all the articles I'd need (and some I didn't), and head home.

Sundays I'd do the major part of my reading and writing. I would stop stop at 8pm to vegetate. When they stopped showing Star Trek on Sunday nights, it really fouled up my schedule.

I agree cutting down on work will help. It isn't easy to balance all that stuff, but remember, it isn't forever. There is a prize at thend of it all.

 

Hey when did a doctorate requirement need all that exercise? I thought the major requirements were Pasta and Bayer aspirin! If you need excercise; christmas time is almost upon us; "eyeball" one of those greasy looking individuals leaving a department store they will cut out running, then you will have some serious track time! 80)

 

I typically have 3-4, 15-20 page papers and a project or 2 for each doctoral class. I try to take extra days off, at least one each semester to just work on papers. That has worked for me so far and I'm almost done with the coursework part of the degree. Good luck, Me Again.