University of phoenix or Walden University?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Futuredegree, Sep 30, 2013.

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  1. Futuredegree

    Futuredegree Well-Known Member

    So I have been reading on these schools for the past three days and have gotten mixed reviews on them. Some people say the schools are easy and others say its hard. From any ones personal experience or good research skills, which do you think is easier to get a degree in criminal justice / homeland security? I know both schools are expensive and some people call them diploma mills...
     
  2. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Neither is a diploma mill. Both are far too expensive. And "easy" is still the wrong criterion to use when choosing an education.
     
  3. curtisc83

    curtisc83 New Member

    By choosing either you are doing exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. As you work your way up the degree hierarchy it's normal to attend better schools. Or at least it's smart too. Look for well known schools that at least play some form of sports. That was my criteria.
     
  4. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

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  5. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    Knowledgeable people do not call UoP or Walden diploma mills. People who don't understand how the accreditation system works might make those kind of snap, uninformed comments. It would be good to define exactly what a diploma mill is. Someone else can do that, if they have the time.
     
  6. Damnation

    Damnation New Member

    well i thought a diploma mill primarily offered....

    Degrees from Life Experience... For example, you clean a park of dog poop.. Congratulations on earning your Bachelor's/Masters/Doctorate in Environmental Science Management.

    Accreditation generally is from a non-accrediting body. So if its not RA or NA. Your screwed down the line. Along the line.. of Congratulation for earning your degree from UOD (University Of Damnation). Accredited by the DIE (THE DAMNED INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION). Where we guarantee the future of our students to be damned.

    *sigh* Can you just see yourself walking down the hallways of the damned...
     
  7. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    This.

    Also, what critics mean when they say a given online master's program is "easy" may be harder than you're expecting. Are you ready for cumulatively hundreds of pages of essay and often discussion board writing, written to academic standards and supported by (laboriously) documented sources? Many programs have rolling deadlines not only every week but also at several points within each week. Expect any master's degree to demand a heavy commitment of time and work.
     
  8. AV8R

    AV8R Active Member

    I've taken courses from nearly 20 different schools (yes, really). In my experience there really is no such thing as an "easy" or "hard" school. Rather, whether a course is difficult or not is more a product of each individual instructor. To this day one of the most difficult instructors I've ever had was the dude who taught introductory Spanish at a community college I attended years ago. For some reason he thought it would be a dandy idea to skip over the basics and go straight into complex sentence structure in this "introductory" course. Brutal, he was.
     
  9. rebel100

    rebel100 New Member

  10. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    Not diploma mills - but save your money. There are too many options for those to be your top choice.
     
  11. This.

    It's also normal to become more specialized. Given that you have already done a Criminal Justice bachelor's, have you considered doing something more specialized for your masters than simply CJ or Homeland Security?

    For example, there are programs out there in Biodefense, Border Security, Cybersecurity, Counterterrorism, etc. Those might afford you more opportunity to develop a unique field of expertise.

    And I agree with Curtis about aiming high. Graduate admissions are often more at the program level than the overall university level. You never know when a top program in your specialization might have enough empty seats to take everyone who applies, and anyway you are selling yourself short if you think that's the only way you'd get in.
     
  12. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    I have experience with Walden. Their courses are not easy and require work.
    The easiest courses that I have taken are from penn foster, they only require multiple choice exams that you can take twice. Most questions are an exact match from the text book. It is too bad they dont offers masters.
     
  13. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Penn Foster College offered Master's degrees in Education three or so years ago, but later stopped and I'm unsure why.
     
  14. jra

    jra Member

    It was just another failed partnership of PF. You could get a RA masters for less than that.
     
  15. sideman

    sideman Well Known Member

    You're right about the MC tests that you can take twice and the better grade is recorded at PF. However, all of my courses, and I'm on my fourth semester of an associates in CJ, have required proctored exams. Granted the exams are open book but you just have one hour per exam and they're essay or multiple sentence format. I find that I have to know my stuff, write quickly, refer to text and notes rapidly if necessary, and still run up to the end of my time on all my tests.
     

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