What are the actual courses like in WNMU's MAIS? (criminal justice & psychology)

Hi everyone,

I was hoping I could get some input on what the actual courses are like in the MAIS program at WNMU? I have searched the boards and found a lot of info on the program and the school (and the low tuition!!) but not much on the actual courses? Specifically I am interested in criminal justice & psychology. How is the reading/writing load? Test? Papers? Discussion boards?

Any input greatly appreciated

 

I believe it varies quite a lot across the disciplines and from instructor to instructor. The history courses are sometimes epic in the amount of reading and responding they expect. The writing class I took (Writing for Magazines) was surprisingly light on actual writing. Professor Russell emphasized quality re-writes and the articles were expected to be of shorter magazine length.

At least a few of the various instructors you will encounter are written up on rate my professor...that may be of some help.

I will add that being Western New Mexico U, there is a decidedly dessert southwest slant to much of the curriculum. You can see this even in the titles of courses; Water Rights, Immigration, railroads, these are the sort of topics they specialize in...that's neither good nor bad, but worth considering dependent on your needs.

I really enjoyed my short time there, except that I really wanted to move faster than the 16 week semesters and limit of 2 courses/semester (to keep the discount) would allow. I may go back and finish it one day when time and funds allow.

 

My fields were history and political science, but I will agree that type of class depends on the course and instructor. If you're doing Criminal Justice, you will probably come across Andrew Warren. He was awesome for History, but I think they've migrated him over to Criminal Justice because of his law background. He put a lot of emphasis on reading, and not so much on writing. We just did short little essays in his classes, and he gave reading quizzes that were extremely nitpicky. I know that sounds negative, but I took three of his classes because I enjoyed them.

Having taken courses at a few other schools, I found the WNMU courses to be on par with others. They usually require a discussion per week, though it's much more intense in the 4 week courses. I often found myself writing a research paper and maybe 2-3 smaller papers as well.

-Matt

 

That is great, thank you both so much for sharing

 

I've taken seven psychology courses in the MAIS program. I actually kept track and I spent 6-7 hours a week on each course. I had four different instructors. Two of the seven had no exams but a variety of written materials. These took more time than the courses with tests, which were unproctored, timed, multiple choice. You had to know what you were doing given the number of questions and time allotted. I believe that one of those courses had an assignment developing an experiment. All had discussion boards, which varied in quality, but all were at least OK and usually better than that. I took one course in another discipline that was cross-listed in criminal justice. That one took about 13 hours a week. There was a 25 page research reuired and about five other papers concerning the readings that were 3-5 pages in length. There was a discussion board, which was OK. I think that all the courses I took were worthwhile.

 

I have an MAIS degree and taken courses in both those subject areas and I'd say that PilgramDuke's comment regarding the psychology courses is accurate. I probably have a lesser opinion of the quality of the discussion boards than PilgramDuke expressed. My experience in Criminal Justice, however, was quite different as those courses do not rise above the level of introductory courses at the bachelor degree level. I personally would not recommend going to WNMU for that specific concentration. Psychology, yes.

 

Jumbodog's post made me think of something to consider, which is that a lotof the courses are cross-listed in more than one discipline. The course that I took in criminal justice was also listed as a political science and a history course. The professor had a history background. As I recall most of the people were taking it as a political science or history course and I can only recall one taking it as criminal justice. Given that, someone taking the course as a criminal justice would probably have a very different experience than they would in a criminal justice course with someone from that department with a majority of criminal justice students. I had a good experience in the one course that I mentioned, but I can't speak for other criminal justice courses, positive or negative.