Aspen's Computer Science Doctorate's Potential Careers Tracks

Respected Forum Members/Seniors,

As stated by Aspen website following are Potential Careers Tracks of graduates of Computer Science Doctorates:

Computer and Information Research Scientist
Computer Science Instructor
Computer Programmer
Software Developer
Application Architect

I was trying to make a guess about success as “Computer Science Instructor” Careers. Kindly help reflect further on same.

 

It depends, I worked few years as Microsoft Certified Instructor(MCT) and Cisco Academy Instructor(CAI) and there is no need to even have a degree for these two positions. Nevertheless you still have people with PhDs that work as MCTs or CAIs.

An Aspen doctorate would have no problems working as an MCT or CAI. Community colleges also hire mainly people with certifications for IT training and even a Master's degree is not necessary many times so the Aspen doctorate could work as a differentiator.

However, the Aspen Doctorate still needs a lot of work and you won't get the full recognition because the DETC label. I believe I would rather do a Masters from a school with a brand name like "Standford" than a doctorate that wouldn't really get me much.

Some people already have established careers and instead of doing continuing education for a certificate they do these doctorates as you end with a title that can show progression in your career.

The credential is not meant for people looking to build a new career but for people already established just looking to build on top of what they already have.

It depends what you want in life but as a credential, I would rather do a second masters at a brand name school than a doctorate with poor recognition.
Most people would ask you about the school you went for your last credential, I would hate to say that my last credential was from Aspen when my masters and bachelor are from University of Toronto but few people would know this. In university catalogs, most schools tend to list you with your last credential so you might be teaching because a Master's from Stanford but the schools will still list you with DSc from Aspen.

 

An Aspen DETC doctorate will not fulfill the teaching requirements for a community college, a state university or a private RA college or university that requires a regionally accredited doctorate.

 

Community colleges normally do not require even a Masters degree for a teaching position in IT. See the 2 examples below:
Professor of Computer Information Systems - Networking - HigherEdJobs
Faculty, Computer Information Systems, 9.5 month, (Fall 2013) 80% Lancaster Campus, 20% Virtual Campus - HigherEdJobs


The DSc in CS from Aspen MIGHT ONLY WORK AS A DIFFERENTIATOR and NOT AS THE MAIN QUALIFIER for a community college instructor position.

 

The full sentence reads:

"An Aspen DETC doctorate will not fulfill the teaching requirements for a community college that requires a regionally accredited doctorate."

Many community colleges now offer Bachelors degrees, which only require a Masters degree to teach (or 18 graduate level credits in the discipline).

 

But would that even be a good differentiator, especially considering the cost in terms of time and money?

An Aspen doctorate is $20K, and 60 credit hours of course work including a dissertation. If the quality at Aspen is comparable to an RA school, that would be like doing 2 masters degrees (or more). If the quality is far below an RA school, what is the point of even bothering?

My personal opinion would be to go for one of the many low cost IT related masters degrees. Even if the poster already has one, there are so many available that he could get a second masters in a different sub-specialty of IT, which would make him more competitive for jobs. There are 10 or more IT related masters degree programs from non-profit (mostly state) schools that are less than $13K.

Another option would be to go to one of the South African or Australian schools for a doctorate. That would probably carry more weight than a DETC doctorate AND be less expensive.

A final option (that I don't hear talked about as much) is to look ad EdD programs. I know that we are talking about someone teaching IT, but EdD degrees are EXTREMELY popular amongst community college and small state university professors who teach in a variety of fields, but need a doctorate for tenure. For example, my uncle was chair for the biology department at a local community college. He had an MS in Biology, but an EdD in higher ed from Nova, IIRC. My mom was a chair in the nursing department, but her PhD is in education.

Some schools frown on professors getting doctorates in education, as opposed to their specific teaching field (e.g. math, biology, nursing, etc). However, it is very much common practice. Also, there are several EdD programs that are comparable with Aspen in terms of price.

IIRC, when the Aspen doctorate first came out it was something like $6k-$7K. At that price, I would at least give them a look. At $20K, I do not see any reason to go there.

 

Australian doctorates are not longer cheap. The Australian dollar is stronger than the American dollar so any doctorate from an Australian school would cost more than 60K USD.

As most community colleges require only a bachelors with IT certifications, I would think that a DETC doctorate would be seen as a plus but most likely not something that would make you eligible for a higher pay rate.

If someone is aiming for those careers that Aspen mentions in the website, it is a lot cheaper and cost effective to earn IT certifications. Degrees are not so valuable in the IT world and certainly not one from Aspen.