I am on my second DL class at NCU and am very pleased with it. Since reenrolling, I first took PUB5000 - Introduction to Public Administration because I wasn't sure if I wanted to specialize in public administration or in criminal justice. That class made me quickly decide to stick with criminal justice because it's more interesting; and if I'm going to do doctoral work, it might as well be in an interesting topic. Public administration is simply too boring. However, the rigor of that class was exceptional and exceeded my expectations. It required four 10 page papers and a lot of reading. I admit that I didn't do all the required reading, but that was the same case when I obtained an MA in criminology from my local state university. The second class I signed up for is CJ5002 - Juvenile Offender, which I am currently enrolled in. The required textbook is Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law, which I find to be too "all encompassing," but no one can legitimately say that it is inappropriately being used at the graduate level, as opposed to being used at the undergraduate level. The book is packed with journal references (both qualatitive and quantitative). When I went to purchase the book from NCU, they only had new editions for $111, but now they have some used editions for $83. I found a used edition from elsewhere for something like $10 (it was a steal and is in excellent condition and I don't understand why it was so inexpensive). I just finished the mid-term exam for the class in juvenile delinquency and found it to be harder and more time consuming than what I anticipated. I figured "How hard can an open book test be???" If the textbook weren't so big, then the exam probably wouldn't have been that hard; but since the book is so big, it takes quite a bit of time to research all of the answers. It involved 20 traditional Q&As followed by five essay questions. One trick question requires the student to look outside of the textbook for the answer (or to think outside the box - LOL). The class still requires a final exam, a powerpoint presentation and a 10 page paper on a topic that must meet the approval of the instructor. Frankly, I'm enjoying the class. How can rigor be measured? Is it a qualitative perception or is it measurable and, if it is measurable, then how is it being measured amongst all the different schools, both DL and B&M? A lot of our "measuring" seems to be our anecdotal observations, based upon prior coursework from various colleges and universities. For DL courses, a student will get out of it what he puts into it. For a B&M class, naturally the student can get the anecdotal stories that are shared in a classroom setting. NCU has been extremely attentitive to my needs, possibly because they are a for-profit school. Conversely, the worst service that I ever received, bar none, was from my local non-profit state university system. While the academic curriculum at the public university was wonderful and was richly rewarding (again: bar none): it was an administrative nightmare trying to get things done, possibly because of the enormous size of the university (over 45,000 students); but the reputation of the university is good because, well, it's a state university. At any rate, I am extremely pleased to have reenrolled at NCU and I will keep you appraised in future classes. I have a vested interest in the future RA status of NCU because getting a doctoral degree is a one-shot deal because doctoral credits are not transferable. As you may know, NCU is a relatively new RA school that recently received RA status in the early part of the 21st Century. I look forward to finishing the coursework (eventually) and starting the dissertation at NCU. I've already printed out a dissertation from NCU, along with the NCU dissertation handbook for students (just to get an idea of what has to be done). Onward ho!!!
Thanks for this post. I've been looking at DL PhD programs and NCU is on the list (along with quite a few others). I have been "pinging" other NCU alums and current students of the school and all of them have said that they absolutely love NCU program and people.
Thanks for the detailed information. It is great to hear that you are more satisfied with NCU your second time around. You are going to enjoy the other criminal justice classes; CJ5004, CJ5010 and CJ5011 were the best. They were interesting and informative. I am now in the management program, which has been excellent as well. I am extremely proud to be a "learner" at NCU. Craig
Okay, so how many Ph.D.'s does NCU offer? I only three separate disciplines on their site: Education, Business and Psychology. Am I missing something here? - Tom
The Business PhD has a ton of specializations (Criminal Justice, Finance, Applied Computer Science, Management, HR, etc). Not sure about the other PhD areas. For the business PhD, if you scroll down the page (found here), you'll see the specializations.
M.A, I enjoyed reading your update! It's interesting to hear about how they do things at NCU. It does indeed sound like a quality program. You asked me in another thread if I was in a doctoral program. I am almost done with the coursework for a DMin at Ashland Theological Seminary. It's fun comparing notes. Best wishes.
Good for you! I got the chance to see the syllabus of someone attending NCU and I was impressed by the amount of work that was required. Just one question: how is NCU administering their exams? I'm guessing they are open-book, or are they? are they proctored? For-profits can be very good if their nitch is a good one. For example, students at for-profits who want quality DL education will be more motivated to excel than students at many standard B&M schools (not all). Why? IMO because for-profits tend to be very attentive to student needs and make you feel like they are genuinely interested in your work and your success. Sounds like this is the case with NCU and other online schools that often don't get a lot of recognition here or anywhere else. -S
Question for me again me again, I'm thinking about a PhD program at NCU and like such nitty-gritty posts. Keep 'em comin'. How is an open-book exam timed at NCU? Are you given a beefy number of hours, or a few days?
Ditto Thanks for the update. I'm finishing my first class and can say its been challenging thus far. To be honest, I expected the coursework to be tough but didn't not expect to put in the amount of time it has taken me to get to this point. The academic rigor is certainly there. Thanks again.
