Can Aspen University Survive?

Discussion in 'Business and MBA degrees' started by Randy Miller, Apr 2, 2012.

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  1. Randy Miller

    Randy Miller New Member

  2. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    We are seeing that some of the online institutions are facing financial challenges. Bottom line, when the economy is good and unemployment low, even people with degrees from low tier institutions find employment. In bad economic times, people don't see much value in investing money in a degree that leads to almost no return of investment as employers have options with much stronger academic backgrounds.

    I think that many of these online institutions will have to go. This is unfortunate as they provide employment opportunities to adjunct faculty with online doctorates. As many of these institutions will have to close down, we will see that many of the online doctorates will become less demanded and will also put in trouble those schools offering these programs.
     
  3. dl_mba

    dl_mba Member

    Majority of these .COM schools are in the Business of making Quick Money. Their Business models have serious flaws. There is no teaching/advising happens in these schools. They are online assisted Self-study entities. Many of these schools might not survive this decade.
    I have a MSIT degree (for $3K) from Aspen and refuse to list it on my resume or mention it outside this forum.The degree was very low quality. I did not purchase books for many classes but still got a 'A'. Got 9 credits for my old Windows 2000 MCSE. I would suggest any new degree aspirants to check local public school's offering online Degree programs and not to waste your valuable/hardearned money on these worthless(atleast to me) degrees.
     
  4. StefanM

    StefanM New Member

    Wow. Based on those figures, it looks like Aspen is toast.
     
  5. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Why not upgrade to a Doctor of Computer Science or EdD before the school goes out of business? They might come up with a DBA or EdD for 5K and credit transfer option based on your masters for a summer special this year.

    Where are the Aspen graduates? May be we have some success stories of people that used this 3K degree for something.
     
  6. Petedude

    Petedude New Member

    I think it's a YMMV thing with some NA schools-- some programs will be better than others, or more explicitly, maybe some programs are operated better than others. To be fair, though, I hear/see similar issues with RA campuses, just maybe not to the same degree.

    As an example, I don't think I've seen anything outside of raves for Aspen's MBA. If you get into other programs they offer, though, you start seeing mixed reviews.
     
  7. carlosb

    carlosb New Member

    I remember Northcentral was on a Degree-Granting Institutions With Low Financial-Responsibility Scores in 2009-10 list. Did they turn it around? Maybe there is hope for Aspen. Although he left Aspen over a year ago perhaps Dr. Lady could shed some light on this.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 2, 2012
  8. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    One thing I had not realized is how small Aspen actually is. According to College Navigator, their total enrollment in Fall 2010 was only 768 students.

    For 2010-2011, they issued a total of 156 degrees, most of which (85) were MBAs. Most of the non-MBA degrees (38) were computer/IT-related MS degrees. So the MBA and IT Master's degrees accounted for 123 of the 156 degrees that Aspen issued, or 78.8%.

    Aspen issued a total of only 33 degrees in all of their other programs combined (including criminal justice, nursing, education, psychology, and all undergraduate programs). If they do survive, it's possible that they might focus on the programs that are the most successful, which would mean dropping some of the others.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 3, 2012
  9. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    It’s interesting and pretty much why I stopped posting here. At some point you become an ‘insider’, and you realize that to maintain the integrity of your agreements and relationships it is too hard to separate what you know from what you can say, and you don’t dare make a mistake because you can’t erase something you post on the internet. I do of course have many personal opinions, and it is well known that I left there when the new management came in and that I have and will never state what happened or my reasoning, good or otherwise.

    I can provide the following personal opinions:

    1 – The academics at Aspen are great, comparative to any other online school that I know of
    2 - I have several degrees form Aspen that I got before I went to work there, and given that, I wish them nothing but successes and I am of course rooting for them no matter what happens
    3 – The people that work in the Colorado office and the faculty of the school are some of the best folks I have ever had the honor to work with
     
  10. dl_mba

    dl_mba Member

    I will pass all .COM schools for good. I am considering only B&M & RA schools for my PHD/DBA/DM/DSc/EdD.
     
  11. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Ultimately everything dies. Some faster than others. This is known. It is clear. Why question?
     
  12. japhy4529

    japhy4529 House Bassist

    Spending time in your Zen garden, I see. :)
     
  13. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    I know what you mean however almost all the 1200 for-profit degree granting colleges/degrees are .EDU schools
     
  14. Petedude

    Petedude New Member

    Sometimes I think some folks around here have a hidden agenda to disparage online education.

    Just sayin'.
     
  15. Petedude

    Petedude New Member

    That crosses my mind sometimes. We like to think of businesses as perpetual entities, especially those that we enjoy doing business with. The reality is, though, everything has its run (i.e. "All good things must come to an end"). If anything, the recent economic implosion should have made clear to us is businesses have their start and endpoints too.
     
  16. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    I think as online education is embraced by more and more RA schools, especially large state universities and prestigious private universities, DETC and other non-RA schools are going to have a tough go of it. Unless they offer something unique that no RA school offers, or the price difference is dramatic, they're going to have to count on the ignorance of their potential student base to not know the limitations of non-RA accreditation.
     
  17. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Online education and online for profit universities are two different things. One can take an online course from Stanford University and benefit from the expertise of their faculty that conducts serious research and contributes to knowledge or take a canned course from an online university ( a dot com) that costs little money but has almost no value as it probably just marked by a professor with a doctorate from the same school that is getting paid thousand bucks to mark the 30 students enrolled in a class and the content is just a plain copy of the publishers material with no added value.

    The post in question is not against online learning but dissapointed of the little value that some schools have.

    I believe that a degree from an Aspen is better than nothing for sure but you are paying 3K for a full masters when a serious masters from a good school costs not less than 50K.
     
  18. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    I think that 3K for a full masters is already really low. Are you saying that Aspen should charge 500 bucks for a Master's degree so they can get some enrollment?

    These programs might be appealing for those that do not care much about the reputation of the school and just need a degree to put in a business card. I imagine that for a self employed CPA, the Aspen MBA would work as now he can add "Joe MBA CPA" to his business card for 3K.

    You might have also managers from small companies with no degrees that just need something to hang on the wall in order to get some respect from co workers or customers.

    There is still a market for the cheap MBA but not as high as some might think. For most of us that need a degree that is recognizable to an employer, the money spent even if low is a waste of time and money.
     
  19. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    There are some good AACSB MBA's out there for less then $50K, two that I can think of for under $10K.
     
  20. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Wow, I did not know this.

    My guess is that is not just money but time commitment, some people want the MBA but do not want to invest the time required to earn one from an AACSB accredited school.

    If good accredited programs exist for less than 10K, I really don't see a need for Aspen.
     

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