No Doctorate for me!

:aargh4:Hello. I am just venting. I am 5 classes from finishing my master's degree. I was all hopped up and ready to try to start a doctorate afterwards. I like the doctor title, wanted to get the highest degree available to ultimately validate my walk in academia, and increase job opportunities, etc.

The problem is the time, work, and money. I cannot see 5-7 more years of school plus $70,000.00. If I could do it in 2 years for 20k that would be cool. I am not going to try UNISA and a foreign degree from Switzerland with unknown accreditation.

Some regionally-accredited school in the US needs to come up with a better program than the one's I am hearing about. I can see you having to go through all the hooey if you are going to be a brain surgeon or nuclear scientist, etc. I just want a doctorate in leadership. Didn't I cover enough stuff during the other 6 years of college? :aargh4:

 

Sorry, no.:nono:

 

What about the DBA from Calsouthern? Has leadership courses. Is regionally and nationally accredited. All online. Comes in around 24,000. Cheaper if you are a veteran.
Doctoral Courses | Doctorate Course - California Southern University

 

No! That's why it is a doctorate and not a B or M. Your question seems to suggest that there should be some type of "shortcut" to circumvent the normal route to earning a doctorate. This is why degree mills exist. If you "like the doctor title" then by all means allow integrity, ethics and honesty to rule the day by earning a legitimate doctorate. Or, as the title of your thread states, don't pursue one at all. However, as Garp has noted, there exist more than a few opportunities to earn a legitimate doctorate in 2-3 years for much less than $70K.

 

This appears to be about the lowest cost option for a DBA from a regionally accredited school that I've seen. About 1/2 the price of NorthCentral. Perhaps it is due to California Southern University only recently obtaining regional accrediation. It certainly bears watching. I'm very interested in either the DBA or PhD after finishing my masters.

 

Yes, I too expect price increases. I think Northcentral was dirt cheap at first but rose and rose after accreditation.

 

Here we go again. Fast, good, easy, cheap, and high quality.

Consider taught doctorates at British or Ozzie schools. Hard, but a lot lower since the dollar got stronger.

 

There are some reasonably priced options in educational leadership through the University of Nebraska (very close to your criterion for in state, roughly $40K-ish for nonresidents). Gonzaga has a PhD in leadership that can be obtained via online and summer intensives in 4 years, it's more expensive than your target, but not $70K either. Creighton has a program that can be completed online in 3 years (but it blows your budget).

Another tangentially-related field in Valdosta State's Doctor of Public Administration, which is really just another form of leadership. It requires only two short residencies a year and definitely meets your budget. I believe it can be completed in three years, which is close to your target.

 

The University of Leicester DSocSci (in human resource development) is a tad under $US30K. It takes a minimum of 4.5 years part-time (no full-time option, but one wonders what could be negotiated).

 

Not to defend Ann, however, it is really necessary to do all these entry level courses before doing the real research especially in North America taught doctorate programs? Sometimes, many of the courses have nothing to go with the program.
What's Wrong with the Curriculum in Accounting PhD Programs? Five Case Studies Viewed from the Perspectives of Economics and Ethics by Robert W. McGee :: SSRN

 

I think this is the most telling part in the original post.

So here’s your homework: Read Mark 12:38-39. And Matthew 23:6.

I’ve had the “doctor title” for well over 20 years, and I think that I’ve hardly used it. Even in my teaching days, I was a first-name guy.

Remember the old expression, “If you’ve got it, flaunt it?” That was made up by someone who didn’t have it. Truth is, if you’ve got it, you don’t have to flaunt it.

Then don’t bother.

When I did my M.A. at what was then Vermont College of Norwich University, the base tuition for the entire program was $5,800. Yes, there were ancillary expenses like books, travel, etc., but I’d say that I pulled off the whole ball of wax for $8,000 or thereabouts.

The same program today would cost over $26,000.

When I did my Ph.D. at Union, I pulled off the entire program for under $30,000. Today, the closest program to the one I did (keeping in mind that they no longer use the older and better Union Graduate School model) would cost over $76,000.

Granted, I was able to teach for eight years at the graduate school level, write five books, etc., but ultimately I became an over-the-road trucker and have had a lot more fun at that than I ever did teaching. Would I go for higher credentials today? Hell, no. I wouldn’t need them. But if I did, the cost would be prohibitive (I put myself through all of my programs

 

The courses are not "entry level" (sic). We have two different philosophies regarding the PhD. Arguments can be made for both.

The "taught" model--the one with a curriculum of courses--culminates in a "small book" thesis/dissertation. The "research" model has no required courses, but often includes courses, seminars, and other events and activities--as directed by one's supervisor--as one develops the "big book" thesis/dissertation. It's not an all-or-nothing matter.

The difference between the "big" and "small" approaches is mainly the size of the research project undertaken. The impact--the contribution to the scholarship in one's field--remains.

A real limitation of the "research" approach is that one needs to be really, really grounded in one's field first. In fact, many programs enroll students in an MPhil first, only upgrading the admission to a PhD after a successful research proposal is submitted. Again, getting to that point often requires a lot of activity not in any curriculum or catalog, but is nonetheless required by one's supervisor.

 

And that's because a PhD is a research degree, not a practitioners degree. A PhD in accounting is not meant to prepare you to work as and accountant, to prepare you for the CPA, to work as an auditor, or any of the sort. Having a PhD in no way guarantees a higher salary.

The author of the paper you referenced fails to realize that, and seems to think the AACSB is part of the DoE.

 

Great line.

 

my NCU PhD was about $25K and I started about a year after they were accredited.

 

Then everyone would have one and it would not be a real accomplishment that separates degree holders.

I love the "just" in "I just want a doctorate in leadership". You make it sound like you "just" want a snow cone. Thanks for the good laugh!

 

Yea, Steve, but you know that you frequently pull the big rig into some truck stop just for the WiFi connection. Then you grab your laptop and check the latest postings on DegreeInfo. :biggrin:

 

It's not the tuition, it's the out-of-pocket

All of the responses to Ann (and to comparable earlier letters) are based on the schools' tuition and fees, not what the student ends up paying.

I think the great majority of graduate students pay a good deal less than the posted costs: scholarships, fellowships, grants, and so on.

When my daughter (and co-author) calculated that her M.A. costs at NYU would be around $42,000, she set to work. A major fellowship. 3 different smaller scholarships. A grant from a foundation that pays travel and lodging for 'mature' women. Another that buys textbooks. On and on. Her total out of pocket cost: $0. (She was disappointed that she wasn't old enough, then, for a Wonder Woman Fellowship -- 40 awards of $40K each to women of wonder over 40.

Many of the strategies and specifics ended up in our book, "Finding Money for College," now both out of date and out of print, but there is a plan afoot to revive it next year. Meanwhile, check out "Foundation Grants to Individuals" (http://tinyurl.com/pf7b9yd), 1,700 small-type pages on several thousand foundations that make such grants. The new 2015 edition is $75, but many school libraries have it (or should have it).

(One of my favorite stories from a reader was the law student in Ireland who got a 'grant' for three years of birth control pills -- then illegal to buy in Ireland -- since a baby would have meant leaving school.)

 

American College of Education has an EdD in Leadership for under $20k.

Online Doctorate in Educational Leadership | ACE.edu