PhD admission success- South Africa

All:

I can't thank the users on this forum enough. I was interested in admission to a South African business program and toiled for a year or more waiting on UNISA. In the end, they turned me down for admission with a really arbitrary reason. I walked away with the sense that UNISA admissions is like an NFL tryout camp. Thousands are interested, and when you drop one pass you're out. In this case I am not sure how closely my application was even read considering the nature of the decline. It was literally one awkward sentence citing a really weak reason. I already have one doctorate in another discipline, and frankly I found their response really questionable based on that prior experience. No matter, though. I only say that by way of background.

The reason I write this post is to thank those who encouraged me to go the direct contact route-- find a professor or chair and write them, and look for backdoor admission. I just accepted a PhD slot at a South African institution of higher reputation than UNISA and it only took me three emails to get it done. Amazing. No trips to SA required, and the supervisor is extremely responsive. My first PhD experience at a brick-and-mortar US school taught me one thing-- choose an advisor almost solely on their responsiveness and availability. The individual I am connected with seems extremely supportive and uber-interested. I was most amazed at how easy it was to get this done and how I felt like I wasted significant energy with UNISA. (though Michael Esselor at IACI is great) That being said, I believe the research PhD in another field helped me significantly, but I pass this along because I think more people should look at this angle.

Thanks again, this board is amazing!

phdorbust

 

Indeed. Which one? Congrats on this. You are right, it took me "forever" to get into UNISA.

 

Many times I've suggested to people to ask, to negotiate, to connect with interested faculty who would support you. I'm so glad to see this borne out. Congratulations.

(The second doctorate isn't easier, at least not administratively.)

 

Rich absolutely. Also-- I'd prefer not to reveal the school since my app is so new. I am probably paranoid but don't want to be responsible for a flood of lobbying doctoral students! Let's just say that the university is not obscure and a search on this forum could generate a list for you that would get you where I was. I basically scoped out the department and contacted the chairs and certain professors. BTW I also did this in Finland, Denmark, and the UK first. For some reason I got NOTHING from any of those efforts-- literally no responses. However, every individual (except one) I contacted in South African responded in a highly personal way. I'm not sure what they're doing down there, but the US needs to learn something from it. I was very impressed.

 

Wow! :saeek: Congrats, this is good to know. Again congratulations, and keep us posted. :smoker:

 

Congratulations!

I applied to Free State and UNISA, but I was rejected by UNISA by the time that they got around to considering me, because I was already enrolled at Free State.

 

Several years ago I corresponded with UNISA regarding possible admission to their PhD program. It took six weeks to get the first response. I then made application to another South African institution (same accreditation as UNISA) and received a response the very next day. Needless to say, that's where I completed the PhD.

 

Would you be willing to share from which school you took your PhD? So many people on this board talk about UNISA, but very few do it. It would be nice if people could consider viable alternatives in South Africa.

 

I received a very, very vague rejection from UNISA several years ago when I applied to their DPA. It was something to the effect of "this application has a reference". I implored Dr. Esselen to find out more details. The Department at UNISA (Public Administration) seemed irked (in written correspondence) but finally stated that my MPA final written project was not on par with their Masters Dissertations (their nomenclature for a Thesis). That was the reason I was rejected. They are allowed to make whatever decision that want but it really stung. I had a nearly perfect Graduate GPA and exceptionally high undergraduate GPA. I know I could have completed the DPA without issue, I am obstinate as hell when fixed on a goal.

I would love to hear more details from RAM PhD and eventually phdorbust (when you feel comfortable sharing).

 

IIRC, there was a time when UNISA would NOT accept the MBA as a prerequisite for their doctoral programs because it didn't have a thesis. I don't know about today's policies, but I have to think there is an institutional bias towards having done a full master's thesis.

 

For the sake of anonymity, Rich, I must decline. However, I know several people who live in the US that completed the PhD via SA institutions (100% at a distance, research): two from the Univ of Pretoria; one from Univ of North West; two from SATS.

 

Yeah, I respect that. I get so much uninformed grief about Union even though I almost never recommend it and I have no role in it. Perhaps someday I'll go that route.

 

Maybe the posters will tell us from which schools they graduate when they graduate - but will any of us be around to read the posts?

 

This is likely the case with their business degrees but I have an MPA, which is the exact award they have prior to their DPA. The DPA admission requirements in fact state an MPA is required --- however it seems only their MPA or another SA Dissertation-only MPA.

hmpf.

 

I'll just say that at this point UNISA should definitely not be the de facto choice. They move much too slowly and are way too picky on the thesis issue.

 

This could well be characteristic of the rigor/substance of the program (typical for a research degree). In my PhD program the entire first year was allotted to design, articulate and write the research proposal. It was only 15 pages in length. It did seem at times the supervisor was a bit "picky," but the process of writing/revising, again and again, produced a successful research proposal.

The "picky" aspect I can deal with, but the painfully slow response times are too much. I'm not suggesting that every department at UNISA is like that, I don't know, but the department I dealt with (as well as the admissions office) was excruciatingly SLOW. That said, someone else may have a completely different and much more user-friendly experience. I hope so.

 

I think this sounds like the Stellenbosch University