Northcentral U is now accredited.

They did it, with their 100% online Ph.D., and were given the full five years before next review.

http://www.higherlearningcommission.org/directory/index.php

 

Astonishing. I am astonished at the range of "accredited" U.S. higher education -- everything from Harvard to Northcentral. Simply amazing.

 

Wow. I'll take Italian dressing on my crow, thanks.

Kudos to NCU for pulling this off. I am thoroughly impressed.


Cheers,

 

I predicted--before candidacy--that they would not reach candidacy without including residency requirements in the Ph.D. programs. Of course, I was wrong. But I'm not surprised at their accreditation after candidacy; it is a rare thing for DL schools to fail to get accreditation after candidacy.

 

and the next tuition increase is when?

 

Wow, pounding all them nails into the giant wooden statue of Hindenburg really work--

oh. Forget it.

 

This is GREAT NEWS!

D.L. Education is the wave of the future. It will be interesting to see how will D.L. schools will be received within the Academic World, or abroad within the next (5) five years.

 

Soon, Howard, you can count on it. But, alas, this is the nature of the beast.

 

Do you think they will now offer educational loans backed by the federal government (FAFSA) or stick to the SLM loan program? They offer a great price (under 16K for the Ph.D.) but I would not want to use loans under the SLM program.

duff

 

Bear in mind that it's only under $16k if you're transferring at least 37 credits from a master's. It's basically ([96-(master's credits)]*$250)+$1200 with a maximum of 40 credits transferring from a master's. Even without any graduate credit to transfer it would still only be a little over $25k. You can avoid tuition increases if you pay for the program in advance, so this seems like right now it's probably the least expensive RA DL Ph.D. in the US. I wonder if the monthly payment plan (with continuous enrollment) can also be used to fix the cost. Hmm, a Ph.D. in BA for the cost of a low to mid-priced MBA...

One thing that concerns me is that the course titles and descriptions for the technical specializations (especially Applied Computer Science) just don't inspire confidence that the courses are really at a PhD level. I really don't know how a course titled "C How to Program" (also the name of a Deitel book) could even be taught at a graduate level. I'd think that this would be something they would have looked at during the accreditation process, but I still don't think that it would look good on a transcript, especially considering that it's from an obscure DL-only school that might already be subject to some bias just due to its nature.

It would be nice if they supported Stafford loans, but I'm guessing that their totally flexible "semesters" make it difficult for them to fit with the traditional financial aid programs.

 

PhD-level courses in programming languages

Gary Rients writes:

> One thing that concerns me is that the course titles and
> descriptions for the technical specializations (especially Applied
> Computer Science) just don't inspire confidence that the
> courses are really at a PhD level. I really don't know how a
> course titled "C How to Program" (also the name of a Deitel
> book) could even be taught at a graduate level. I'd think that
> this would be something they would have looked at during the
> accreditation process, but I still don't think that it would look
> good on a transcript, especially considering that it's from an
> obscure DL-only school that might already be subject to some
> bias just due to its nature.

I agree, but they don't offer Computer Science degrees, just Business Administration degrees with Applied Computer Science as one choice of specialization. As an individual student, you have 2 options for making your transcript more confidence-inspiring:

(1) If you already took Computer Science courses as an undergrad, choose a different specialization.
(2) Take some Computer Science courses elsewhere (say, Harvard Extension), and transfer 'em in.

Actually, it's interesting to see which of the programming language courses at Harvard Extension are graduate-level:

CSCI E-13 Practical Perl
4 units. Noncredit and graduate credit $1,425.
CSCI E-50a Introduction to Computer Science Using Java I
4 units. Noncredit, undergraduate, and graduate credit $1,425.
CSCI E-50b Introduction to Computer Science Using Java II
4 units. Noncredit, undergraduate, and graduate credit $1,425.
CSCI E-113 Introduction to C, UNIX, and CGI Programming
4 units. Noncredit and graduate credit $1,425.
CSCI E-143 Programming in C# Using Visual Studio .NET
4 units. Noncredit and graduate credit $1,425.
CSCI E-225 Object-Oriented Programming in C++
4 units. Noncredit and graduate credit $1,425.

but of course Harvard Extension has many other Computer Science courses (not in programming languages) to choose from:
http://extension.harvard.edu/2002-03/courses/csci.jsp

 

NCU was a great experiment to watch. Observing it start up and then get serious about accreditation and move forward. It illustrates the point that RA can be achieved for DL schools.

John

 

The accreditation looks more at processes and standards rather than particular courses. The other majors are not as bad and they offer a decent level. But the MIS and Computer Science are really low. But again, many schools also have bad PhD progrmas in a particular field.

Although the PhD is in BA, having a major in Applied Computer Science can be deceive a potential employer as having one in Computer Science since there are no other programs with similar majors.

So, if you have a Master's in Computer Science you could get the PhD without much effort and still be able to say that you are a computer scientist with a PhD.

 

Their progres certanly is impressive, although I'm still not impressed with North Central. But then, I feel the same way about any proprietary school that limits its offerings to business and psychology ("things that sell").

Nonetheless, I think I've finally seen the trick on how to get an institution accredited . . . I think I'll open an online program in, say, Maryland (Pennsylvania is too tight to let this happen) and call it - you guessed it . . . Middle States University.

Ah, yes, I can see the franchise possibilities now: WASC University, SACS University . . .

 

Can't you even spell? It would have to be Middlestates!

 

I guess the whole exercise goes to show that any school wanting accreditation can have it.

I am sure the criteria are published and apparently can be met without too much trouble.

This only goes to prove that schools that are not accredited choose not to be so, at least in the domain of the North Central Association.

 

WAUniversity and College, ACInstitute....

 

Northcentral is now RA, giving it equal legitimacy with Union, Touro, Walden and others of its kind.

 

There is truth to this. All NCA-accredited institutions are debased.

 

Ouch!!