National University GRADUATE SCHOOL Review - 16 Months In

First, a little background:

I started at National University (Calif.) in July 2012 as a student in their MFA in Digital Cinema program (aka filmmaking or film production), hence my username. I posted here when I made my mind up about going for it. Well, about two courses away from finishing the first year's curriculum, I said goodbye to Digital Cinema and changed majors to the MA in Digital Journalism.

Long story short, health problems kept me from being able to attend the mandatory month-long residency in Los Angeles, out of the LA campus, at the beginning of the second year's curriculum. The residency is the prerequisite for the remaining courses in the program and is only held once a year. I didn't want to sit out of school a year, twiddling my thumbs and hoping to get better, just to still not be able to attend, again. That would've been a huge waste of time.

So, now I'm 7 classes away from finishing all the requirements for the MA in Digital Journalism, which was my second choice and only lost out to Cinema because the MFA is a terminal degree. I'll be attending graduation exercises in San Diego in June 2014, if I'm healthy enough to make the trip. If not, I'll throw myself a graduation party and have formal portraits made of me in my cap & gown with my diploma when it arrives. arty:

Okay, now on to the REVIEW. I don't have too much to say. For the most part, my time at NU has been smooth. As long as you keep your ducks in a row and your tuition paid, you'll roll right along from class to class.

• National U has standards for graduate admissions. It's NOT one of those schools that only requires a bachelors degree and doesn't care what your GPA in undergrad was. You have to have an overall 2.5 (or 2.7 in the last 90 qtr hrs) or submit acceptable scores from the GMAT, GRE, MAT or another approved test, or 2) you can be admitted on probation, but you have to make a B or better in your first course.
  
  
• NU has a lot of rules that they strictly enforce. There is a lot of bureaucracy and red tape. Be prepared. Stay calm. You can always go above somebody's head and appeal to a higher authority if you feel you need to, but unless you have a good reason for them to bend a rule for you you'll be wasting your time. I'm sad to say that I've had to go above a few people's heads during my time there.
  
  
• The classes are only 4 weeks long for most of the programs and the instructors do NOT water them down. Whatever they have scheduled for you to learn/do in that 4 weeks, you will do and you WILL earn your grade. Four weeks is a fast pace even for healthy people. If you have some kind of chronic illness, especially one that is unpredictable (ex: lupus, which I have), NU is NOT be the school for you. Do yourself a favor and opt for a school with at least a 12 week term.
  
  
• The course software works well. You'll have to login once a week to attend a LIVE class chat session. Some instructors will turn their webcams on so you can see them (they can't see you). With a couple of exceptions, my instructors have been very good at getting back to me in a reasonable amount of time when I email them. You'll get their phone numbers,too.
  
  
• Befriend your advisor. Don't be fake about it, though. He or she will be one of your greatest assets while you're at NU. My advisor is WONDERFUL. We hit it off right away and she works hard for me when I need her, which is a lot because I'm a disabled student with a serious chronic illness and have some special needs.
  
  
• Class sizes. My classes have been pretty small. The two programs I chose usually go through as a cohort, so don't be surprised if you see yourself rolling right along with the same group of folks 99.9% of the time. By the time you hit your third or fourth class, you're all at home rolling your eyes when your new instructor wants all of you to introduce yourselves, LOL.

Well, I think that's it. If I remember anything else I'll update this post, but I think I covered everything important. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask them.

 

Filmmaker - This is exactly the sort of review that we hope to get from our members. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I hope the rest of your time at National goes smoothly and I wish you the best with your illness.

 

Good review and thanks. Quick question for you, I have a nephew interested in film, media, etc for his college major. What advice would you give a film wannabe? To be brutally honest I don't think he has put much thought into other than "I like movies" and wants to make a career out it. He's my sister's kid and very smart (very good at math already taking Calc I/II as a senior). He'll graduate from high school this year with his A.A degree too, and wants to transfer to the local college (Eastern Washington University) for their film program. any advice? Thanks, and sorry to hijack your thread.

 

My wife is NU graduate, at the time we lived in LA, She attended the La Cienega near LAX campus.

Her Degree is Counselling Psychology with supervised hours internship at Rosa Parks center qualified her to take MFCC State exam.

She became a program director at elderly care facility and also was approved by the State to work as Social Worker.

I used to drive her and carry the heavy DSM book to classes.
It is a challenge when a class is one month format. In two weeks from starting the class you get mid term exam. This was a lot of hard work. She attended Saturdays and week days as well.

NU also has a well known teacher credential program.
Transfer credit is problematic.
People with credit from Cal State who tried transfer in to the same program unless their classes exactly matched NU classes got rejected for transfer.

 

I've been under the weather and just checked back in, but now my meds are kicking in and I'm really sleepy, so I can't give as good an answer as I want. So, I'll be back to answer you later tonight, hopefully. If not tonight, then ASAP, I promise. If I take too long PM me!

 

Thank you so much, Kizmet!

 

NU can be very inflexible when it comes to their policies, and their policies don't always line up with Dept. of Education (or other federal) guidelines and rules. NU places requirements/restrictions on things above and beyond what some guidelines and common practices are. In the matter of the course equivalencies, hardly any school requires the course content to exactly match - substantially similar is the standard. That NU requires exact matches just tells me that for the teacher ed program, at least, NU is about the money. The longer they keep students enrolled, the more money they make.