Question about Northcentral U.

Divine Providence?

Without a PhD credential, I currently have a sense of inadequacy and, consequently, I feel compelled to pursue a PhD. For me, it is a sense of destiny. It is something that I must do and without it, I will have a sense of ”missing the mark.”

Conclusion: I am destined to pursue and acquire a RA PhD. That’s the best way I can describe my inner feelings.

 

Re: Divine Providence?

WOW!! I think my drive is more ego based.

 

Re: Re: Divine Providence?

LOL

Me too!!!

 

Northcentral University

I have applied to Northcentral University for their new Doctorate degee in Education. I'm excited and scared because it is such a huge decision. I have been reading these boards but I can't read it all because there is SO much to read, but still, I want to know. It doesn't bother me too much if NCU instructors don't interact with me much. I took many correspondence courses from a variety of accredited schools before the Internet became popular. I rarely got effective feedback from my instructors but I still learned a lot and so that was not an issue for me, except I said to myself, "I'd love to be a distance learning instructor," and I just knew I would do a better job than my correspondence instructors. I guess I never dreamed I'd really get that opportunity, but now I work from home teaching online for two RA schools.

I am attracted to the fact that NCU appears to require less "discussion" than many others including the two I work for. I love discussion boards (like this) but I prefer not to have the added pressure of being graded on what and how often I post. I just want my degree to be respectable when I'm done. I know that NCU is brand new and there seems to be some negative flack. For example, this is not an exact quote, but I have seen negative comments like "after all NCU was awarded accreditation" which seemed to be in the context of saying that poor schools are sometimes receiving RA. I have looked at very recent lists of recommended schools and I have not found NCU on it when it seems from what I have researched, it should be on the updated lists. While I wait on my application status, I am hoping someone will encourage me to pursue my Ed.D or Ph.D with NCU. If you are wondering if I have checked out other schools, the answer is yes. In fact, one is a school that I work for but it seems that even with employee discounts, it would cost more to earn my Doctorate at that school....okay it is Walden. I also checked on foreign options such as Monash. NCU is offering a guarantee that tuition won't increase more than 5% if I enroll now. I also like that they charge by the credit rather than semester so if I take longer to earn the degree, it will still cost the same amount. I love Walden and it is great. I would have definitely chosen it for my Masters Degree if the program I now teach had been offered at the time I earned my own Masters Degree, but Walden is not my first choice for Doctorate. I'll look forward to any thoughts on NCU!

 

Hi Suelaine,

I am presently finishing my masters with AIU and looking at options for doctoral study. I give NCU a thumbs up. Out of the schools I have contacted, NCU was the first to respond to my inquiry, and I have had the most pleasant interactions with their staff.

I am wavering between the Ed.D in Education - Technology Management or the Ph.D in Business - Management Information Systems.

The MIS specialization is more in line with my previous course work, but I really like the options the Ed.D provides to do a bit of a mix between education theory and technology. Eventually I’d like to end up teaching full time teaching at the community college I adjunct for and I think that perhaps the Ed.D would make me a better educator.

I'm still not quire sure, but either way, NCU ranks very high on my list of potential schools.

 

Ed.D vs Ph.D

I just applied to NCU. Are there any advantages to the Ph.D program over an Ed.D? The Ed.D program requires a dissertation but no oral defense. Any comments?

 

"NCU is offering a guarantee that tuition won't increase more than 5% if I enroll now."

If you sign up at NCU, you will not be able to find anyone who knows about this 5% guarantee. I am a new PhD student who took advantage of this time frame - according to their web site, it is good until the end of the year. This guarantee did not appear on my financial profile, which says that I must pay the going rate. When I tried to find out about it, I was passed from one staff member to the next, with no positive results. One staff member said that the web site should be changed, since this is incorrect information.

As NCU has had a 40% increase in tuition over the past two years, I wanted to prepay my tuition, so I submitted the amount for the entire 51 units. (I was advised to do this by one of the staff members if I did not want a tuition increase) I have yet to see a change in my financial profile, which says that I will be charged the going rate for tuition increases. My fear is that NCU has my money, and will not honor my prepaid tuition, but will deduct the going rate for my prepaid classes as I take them.

 

rmm0484:

Just to be clear, this hasn't happened yet, right?

 

Dear BubbaGump;

As of today, they said that they would honor the current rate until my money ran out, so I am happy.

 

Good, because I am looking at them but won't be ready to apply for another 9 months.

whew!

 

My tuition information with the locked in rate is listed in the financial information in my student area. And it does address that this rate is locked.

 

Dear GumpDaddy;
You should consider enrolling at NCU sooner than later because of the 5% increase promise which is good through the end of the year. The pace is less hectic than the UOPHX (the rigor is there but the timing is different).

 

Dear Fed;

It depends on when you enrolled at NCU. The 5% rate increase promise is good until 31 December for new enrollments. However, this promise is not on the financial statement.

 

Connie,

I wouldn't hesitate to email Dr. Hecht if you have a concern. Let us know how you fare.

Regards,

Kevin

 

NCU Ph.D. Business Administration

Been reading this thread and have posted on NCU in other threads. I've just applied fo NCU's PhD BA and plan to do the finance specialization.

I'm comparing NCU with a program at Nova Southeastern University, and applied there also. Nova's gig is a DBA but they have a 40 year history and a $300+ budget.

Here's the deal with NCU that concerns me as a business owner myself. This is a private company and I can't find any information as to their financial health. The owner's of Waldin and UoP are public companies, and their statements are easy to get. HCU is private and unless Dr. Hecht is younger than he looks, simple stuff like his sucession plan become critical. He owns all the stock, calls all the shots and there is no transparency into the condition of the company, which is Northcentral University, Inc., according to the division of corporations in Arizona. It's easy to think of these DL schools like traditional universities, but the reality is if these folks screw up, we get really damaged if we've put years into these programs.

Their catalog (which was just updated) indicates that interested parties may request information about the financial condition of the univresity. I called and determined that Dr. Yeager is the person to ask. I left messages, talked to him on another occasion and emailed him. Still, no response from him on this issue. This is very disturbing to me. I'm going to run a Dun & Bradstreet on the company for a $120 bucks. I'm in my 40's and am a real estate developer accustomed to evaluating the capability of those whom I choose to do business with, because if they screw up - I'm screwed. I expect to be accepted but can't imagine going forward unless I can get more information from the administration about the financial condition of the company.

Does anyone know the financial condition of NCU, Inc.?

 

I was enrolled at NCU and I had the same question so I emailed NCU. Below is an emailed response that I received from NCU.

"You are correct; your tuition will not increase by more than 5% per year. If you wanted to lock in your current rate, you would need to prepay for your courses. However, your rate would only be locked for as much as you prepaid. After your prepayment had been used up, your rate would then go up to whatever the current increase was, but not more than 5% of $475/year."

I hope this helps clear up this question.