Master Degree Paper writing

can someone please tell me if there is an online college that does NOT pride itself on killing its students with paper writing. I am fully aware that graduate degrees come hand in hand with college level paper writing, however I believe that completing over 75 papers is quite ridiculous.

any assistance will be greatly appreciated.
thanks.

 

You only have to do 75? Seriously though, no one can really answer your question if you don't give us the subject area. My guess is that it's not going to help you much if I tell you that the MSEE program at North Dakota doesn't require a lot of essay writing.

 

I found that Liberty University had a reasonable amount of work--not light, not excessive.

 

According to my calculations, I'll be doing about 100 papers myself. :blackeye:

 

That seems like a lot. I've taken graduate classes at six different universities, and none of them have come close to that kind of requirement.

Of course, I'm not counting discussion boards, so that might skew the number.

Most of my classes required anything from 1-6 papers. Those with fewer papers tended to assign longer ones, so the writing amount tended to even out.

 

Biola; max 2/course (midterm and end), or 1 with some other major assignment. That plus considerable reading load, discussion boards and perhaps other goodies was exactly right.

 

It seems like a lot to me too. All of my classes so far have required a paper each of the first 7 weeks (8 week format, but week 8 is "short"), excepting the accounting and decision-making classes which were all math (and the only classes likely to adopt that format).

I have a total of 14 classes/42 credits to get through (I was exempt from the basic business class, as I have an undergrad in business). Subtract the two math classes and the capstone class (we'll add that back later) and that comes to 11. 11 courses * 7 weekly papers == 77.

But wait, there's more!

The common format for the non-math classes involves a midterm and a final, both of which tend to involve extended essay writing (in my marketing class, both the midterm and final were 11 essay questions. My latest class does not have a midterm, but it does include a "project" which is a paper, so it's looking like a pattern. 11 courses * 2 (midterm/project/final) = 22.

77 (papers) + 22 (midterms/projects and finals) == 99

The capstone is basically a thesis. So there's 100.

This is an estimate, of course. It's possible that somewhere down the line a class won't require a paper the first week. Unlikely, but possible. They love to pile it on early.

We haven't even gotten into discussion posts, as you mentioned, which are required to conform (as much as possible) with APA formatting. 4-5 times a week, first post (at minimum) with references. Many courses have multiple weekly discussions, requiring multiple initial posts. (The aforementioned marketing class often had 2-3 weekly discussions.) Ignoring that, we still have 7*11==77 "substantial" initial posts in APA format. Again, week 8 pretty much doesn't count.

Tom

 

Hi StefanM,
So which universities have you attended already that didn't have such a strenuous focus on paper writing?
Thanks,
G

 

Hi Kizmet,
I am aiming for a general MBA without any specializations. Hope that helps :~).
Thanks,
G.

 

I don't want to go into too much detail for privacy concerns, but all of them were regionally accredited.

In general categories:

1) A state university (probably the 2nd ranked in the state)--history

2-3) Two different for-profit universities--business

4) a theological seminary --religion/religious education

5) University of Memphis-education

6) As mentioned before, Liberty University--business and human services

I have generally found that the more "traditional" the school, the lower the paper load. It didn't necessarily mean lower quality, though. Quantity does not always equal quality. I think a lot of programs fail to account for this.

I've also noticed that shorter terms tended to result in higher workload, on average. I seemed to do more in 8 weeks than I did in 16 weeks in other courses.

I also found that for-profit schools tended to have more papers. I know that this is simply anecdotal, but I do wonder whether or not the extra papers are intended to establish some form of academic legitimacy.

 

I recommend the University of Memphis. It has a 33 hour online MBA, and it is AACSB accredited.

 

You don't want to go to class so you decide to go online. Now you don't want to write many papers either? No disrespect intended here, but it seems that you are trying to find the easy way out. You can't strip away too many facets of a university experience and have it remain legitimate. One of the ways that online universities compensate for the lack of F2F interaction is by employing paper writing.

If you are better with math than you are with writing, I wonder if an MBA with a financial emphases would involve less writing. I don't know about that but it might be worth looking into.

 

I didn't take the OP that way. It sounds like the OP is simply looking for a school with reasonable requirements. Some schools and some professors pride themselves on assigning quantity over quality. IMO, the best is a balance of both.

 

I agree that balance is the best. I would be interested in which legitimate schools you mention concentrate on quantity of work over quality of the program. Have you attended these schools? I ask because I have attended a fair number of online schools, found some that are more work than others, but none that concentrate on quantity over quality.

 

@jts
What?!!???!?!
Maybe you'd best define 'paper' when 1 is due/week.
Do you mean a 4-5000 word essay requiring 15 sources?!?

 

I have attended some of these schools. IMO, University of Phoenix places too much stock on quantity of writing. The discussion board requirements are perfunctory, and the group assignments simply dilute the quality of the writing. You may have a lot of assignments, but the added educational value is suspect in many cases.

Western International University (another Apollo Group school) seemed reasonable in expectations.

I've found Liberty to be a good balance.

My point is that quantity does not equal quality. It is easy to claim that having to write a ton of papers equals rigor, but that's not necessarily the case.

 

I concur; Liberty's programs are well-designed and well-executed. It is my favorite of all that I have attended.

I have never attended UoP, so I can't speak to their workload. Sounds like I should be glad about that. Are you sure that they really care more about quantity than they do about quality? If so, they are worse than I thought.

 

Good point. It's not quite as bad as it sounds!

In the marketing class, 'paper' was defined as a 3-5 page paper with an indeterminate number of sources (the catch: if you didn't sufficiently support your assertions, look out! :dead1. The midterm and final were each 11 essay questions, requiring 8-12 sources; there was no minimum length requirement for these, but mine were 10 pages/23 sources and 9pp/18 sources, respectively. (I went a little wild with the midterm.)

The class I'm in now requires a minimum number of sources per 'paper', I think. I would tell you for sure, but they redesigned the class and I don't have permission to read some of the classroom policies yet (I just get a server-side error). The class just started today, so I guess a little patience is in order. I can read the syllabus, but the syllabus doesn't have all the policies...

Tom

 

As I mentioned before, my evidence is merely anecdotal, but it seemed that way to me in the classes I took. It's not that they didn't care about quality at all; it's just that several of the assignments seemed unnecessary or unhelpful.

 

The description of this class is precisely why I am not a fan of online MBA programs. A marketing class with papers making up the majority of the work load seems bogged in theory and more in line with an undergraduate level business course. An MBA is a practitioner's degree, not an academic one. Marketing classes at the graduate level should consist of case studies, consulting project, developing marketing strategies, etc. The only classes in an MBA program that should require lengthy papers are course on business law, ethics, management theory, etc.