Why is Capella so popular for doctoral students?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Flagship_Fleet, Nov 15, 2013.

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  1. Flagship_Fleet

    Flagship_Fleet New Member

    Of the 229 contacts on my LinkedIn, 48 were actively pursuing a doctorate or already had one. 31.25% of this doctoral population were associated with Capella University (15 students). The school with the next highest population of doctoral learners was Walden University with 8, University of Phoenix: 6, Argosy: 4, and Northcentral: 3. There were four well known brick and mortar schools (Cal State Bernardino, University of Minnesota, George Washington University, and Clark-Atlanta University) and a few other schools with one attendee. So I would like to know what makes 15 out of 48 doctoral learners like Capella University over the hundreds of other schools that offer like degrees?


    Robert E. Rue, Sr.
    Liberty University '11 - MA Management and Leadership
    Grantham University '10 - MBA
    Liberty University '07 - MS Business Management
     
  2. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Answer #1 - Please keep in mind that these are just your linkedin contacts, not necessarily a representative sampling. But you knew that.

    Answer #2 - It's a decent DL school with a bunch of diverse offerings.

    Answer #3 - If you're the only diner in town you might draw a large lunch crowd even if your food is only average.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 16, 2013
  3. Shawn Ambrose

    Shawn Ambrose New Member

    Capella has done an excellent job with marketing; additionally, from an accreditation standpoint, Capella early on joined the AQIP process of accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission. AQIP focuses on continuous improvement; and not "getting ready for a visit every 10 years." With a focus on continuous improvement, Capella has strived to deliver a high-quality product.

    As a point of disclosure, I am a Capella Alumni Ambassador. My degree has served me well. I am a program director for the business school at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, IN.

    Hope this helps!
     
  4. jam937

    jam937 New Member

    There appears to be more instructors with PhD's from Capella then any other school. (appearance != scientific). As I have been looking around at teaching opportunities I have seen many people teaching with Capella PhD's.

    Strayer has 110 full/part time faculty with PhD's from Capella, 65 from Walden and 20 from both Nova and Northcentral.
     
  5. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    My impression is that Capella was the first online school to emphasize doctoral-level education. Other online schools initially concentrated on the markets for bachelor's and MBA degrees (which of course are larger). Capella may have been the first school to recognize that the demand for certain doctoral degrees (especially in business) greatly exceeded the limited number of slots available in traditional B&M institutions. So Capella took steps to fill the demand.

    Capella's production of business doctorates is extremely high, by traditional B&M standards.
    Here are some random numbers for business doctorates issued in 2011-12, from College Navigator:

    19 Stanford
    18 Berkeley
    7 Duke
    20 Harvard
    6 MIT
    2 Yale
    13 Michigan
    ****
    189 Capella

    So there's no question that Capella is a major player in this marker, in terms of quantity. On the other hand, Capella may not have the same reputation, in terms of quality.
     
  6. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    You'va made some good points but comparing Capella to those other schools is a bit of "apples and oranges" because none of them are DL programs. Capella can draw from the entire world but the others can only draw from the local population.
     
  7. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    There may be an inverse relationship between quality and the number of doctorate students according to the Director of Cass Business School, “Many of the DBAs that are offered have got bad name in the market because the universities are not known for research. There is one I know of with 60 students. We are extremely careful not to follow that kind of market. ”
    Which MBA? | Executive PhDs: Call me a doctor | The Economist

    In Canada most doctorates admit and average of 10 students per year from all parts of the world to maintain quality.
     
  8. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Schools like Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, etc. could easily enroll hundreds (probably thousands) of students in DL doctoral programs -- if they wanted to.

    But they don't want to -- they would rather have small, selective, residential programs. Capella took advantage of this situation by offering DL doctorates to those who couldn't attend (or couldn't get into) traditional B&M programs. This turns out to be a relatively large market.

    So yes, it is an apples-to-oranges comparison. But that's the point. Capella succeeded because it was the first orange in a market that was previously apples-only.
     
  9. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

  10. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    My former employer had an agreement that allowed employees to pursue on-line doctorates with Capella at company expense.
     
  11. redeemed7

    redeemed7 New Member

    Because Capella give great hype and projects real sincerity and concern. There are current learners and graduates who will extol the virtues of Capella. At one time, I certainly did. I obtained my master's at Capella, and I found the level of education to be excellent. Out of all the instructors I had, only one was worthless. The remainder were all above average and very helpful.
    Not so with the doctoral program. Be very, very careful. The last mentor I had was close to a nervous breakdown, only would not admit it and Capella refused to recognize it. I do not know what happened to her. I was within inches of completing my dissertation process, and I left Capella. It was devastating. I will not go into details. Suffice it to say, even if you memorize the catalog and your rights (which I did), Capella will bend them all to suit their agenda.
    I am far from the only ex Capella learner to go through this painful situation. Be very very very very careful.
    I also found the quality of education for the actual doctoral courses to be less than the masters courses.
    I hope this is helpful to someone. This is not bitterness. I maintained a 4.0 through all my education journey. And it was not in basket weaving!
     
  12. redeemed7

    redeemed7 New Member

    From where did you obtain this information? Would you provide the statistics?
     
  13. redeemed7

    redeemed7 New Member

    Look at any of the University of Houston stream. Also NCU and St.John's University. University of Massachusetts at Lowell has some excellent DL programs.
     
  14. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    One reason is the learning style. I have attended few conferences that show that adult learners are not so good at taking exams anymore and prefer formats that require projects instead of exams.

    Capella, Walden, Argosy etc use the model of online discussions with essay writing and projects instead of exams that are typical of B&M Universities.

    An adult learner would rather pay 50K for a doctorate if it doesn't have exams than a traditional doctorate full exams.

    The other reason is time frame. Capella can be finished in 3 years while holding a full time job and raising a family while traditional programs are very time demanding.

    Capella stills manages to maintain accreditation in spite of the different learning style.

    There are some good distance education programs that do not score very well in popularity. One of these programs is Colorado State that is annoying because it requires proctored exams and GREs.

    Other not so popular DL programs are Idaho State and NJIT that dare to ask their students to write exams and GREs.

    Also, some programs require publications while Capella, Walden, etc do not require any of these annoying publications requirements as they claim that they are professional oriented so it is just about learning how to get the job done.


    Programs that are popular have easy admission, no exams, paid by employer, fast completion, etc.

    There is nothing wrong with wanting these things, it works for some people so why not. However, we need to be honest to ourselves and see the reality.
     

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