My journey to becoming a Liberty Ph.D. student

Sanatone, it is time to restrart that Phd!

 

I have 10 years to finish.

 

When did I ever call you a degree mill shill? (Never.) I've called you other things that bring into question your mere existence, but degree mill shill isn't one of them. As you might say, your senility is showing again.

 

[Duplicates following post - text deleted.]

 

Wait a second . . . You mean you're not even "in progress" at this point? I remember calling you out on your sig file self-description as ABD, after which you switched to "in progress."

But now, responding to Phdtobe that you have 10 years to pull it off, you appear to be saying that you're not actively pursuing anything at this point.

And you feel you have the right to trash other people's credentials? Pathetic. Funny as hell, but pathetic.

Now, on the shill issue, I think you're misinterpreting. I was talking about you and Jan trashing credentials as degree mill shills do, but I never called you a degree mill shill. In fact, I've never seen evidence that you are one, although Jan seems a bit defensive regarding IUGS in the Caribbean. No, for all your faults, sanantone - which are legion - you appear to have made solid choices in terms of the schools at which you have pursued your own education. I'm willing to give credit where it's due, and don't have to invent bogus charges against you - you incriminate yourself quite well on your own. And while you may not be a shill, you act as they do when you trash my credentials. I forgive you, kiddo, since you have no real weight to your arguments at all.

I have to confess, I'm against gambling. I never go to casinos; in fact, I've never even bought a lottery ticket. But if I were a betting person, I'd place my stake on the notion that at the end of the ten years you spoke about, you will still not have your Ph.D. Because if your behavior with your doctoral advisors is the same as it is here, they will flunk your unworthy butt. And I, as always, will laugh at you. You see, one of the things it takes to earn a Ph.D. is humility - it's after you earn it that you gain the right to be an obnoxious bore like me.

For what it's worth, I hope you prove me wrong on that prediction. But I'm not holding my breath. I'm letting it out as I laugh at you.

 

You never get tired of embarrassing yourself with your stupidity. I have to continuously register for one credit hour during the fall and spring semesters and stay in contact with my chair. Giving doctoral students 7-10 years to finish is the norm. In my doctoral program, part-time students are given extra time. This isn't an online program that most people finish in three years. And, ABD does not mean "not in progress."

My chair and former doctoral program coordinator have given me positive job references several times. They aren't idiots like you undeserving of respect and kindness.

 

There seems to be some confusion on what PhD Candidate and ABD mean. Or, maybe only one person is confused. PhD candidate can have different meanings at different schools. PhD Candidate is a formal designation. At some schools, you're a PhD Candidate after passing the comp exam(s). This can happen before you finish all the coursework. At some schools, you're a PhD candidate after you pass the comp exam and coursework. Yet, at other schools, you're not a PhD candidate until after you pass the comp exam, finish all coursework, and successfully defend your dissertation proposal. Some schools require a defense of the prospectus; my school does not require a prospectus.

ABD is an informal term that simply means that you've finished everything except for the dissertation. This is the term most used in job ads for assistant professors. The expectation is usually that you will finish your dissertation by the end of your first year on the job, and you have to show proof that you are making progress before you start the job. Some schools will expect you to finish before you start the job. There are people who are ABD and not in progress. This means that they are no longer enrolled in the program, aren't on temporary leave, and have no plans to or can't return. There are also people who are ABD and still in the program.

 

I believe that all of the above is correct and only wish to add one little thing. Universities using the Commonwealth system (UK, Australia, South Africa, etc.) largely offer research oriented dissertation-only doctoral degrees. There is no coursework and so there are no comps. Typically the first year is spent writing the dissertation proposal. In such a situation a person is considered a PhD Candidate once their dissertation proposal has been accepted.

 

Play nice.

 

Having read the thread, I’m aware that the original poster is not seeking an academic post, but the confidently-expressed opinion above needs correction. Faculty overwhelmingly ‘care about’ (and hire on the basis of) scholarship published in the leading journals. Graduates of the universities that are perceived as ‘top’ schools do tend to produce more standout publications for various reasons including funding and better research libraries, so it might look to the uninitiated like it’s a university’s USNWR ranking that matters, but academics have been complaining for decades now that those rankings are well-nigh worthless, and for a whole host of legitimate reasons.

 

My impression is that Administrators are on the one hand frustrated by USNWR rankings and take issue with them AND on the other hand try to take steps to elevate their college/university in the rankings. I know I have seen articles where they are addressing the metrics and how they are focussing on them to try and cause their ranking to go up.

 

You misinterpreted my post. Those sentences were in response to someone saying that Liberty is ranked high in CJ. They may be ranked by other entities, but those entities don't really matter. When looking at rankings, faculty members typically focus on U.S. News, not random online rankings.

What I said is not my opinion. These are statements made by the criminal justice faculty at my school. All of them have degrees from high-ranking schools because Texas State University was shooting for a ranking, which is what they ended up getting. Publishing and teaching experience are other criteria that are used to eliminate candidates when you have multiple applicants from top-ranked schools. If you're from an unranked school and want to compete, your publishing record will have to be exception. In other words, you're going to have to do more work and have greater accomplishments than someone who graduated from a top-ranked school.

If anyone wants to talk to the former doctoral program coordinator of a CJ program with a good reputation, his name is Mark Stafford. He's been doing this for decades and has taught at multiple schools. I'm sure he knows more than anyone on this forum, including myself. You can choose to listen to someone with firsthand experience, or you can choose to listen to the unsubstantiated, feel-good opinions of people who have never been CJ professors.

 

One way to elevate your rankings is by hiring faculty members from highly-ranked schools because it ends up factoring into program reputation. That is exactly how my university obtained its ranking. People may not like it, but the world is not fair. Texas State University chose to be pragmatic. If your school has hired a bunch of professors from unranked programs, when U.S. News surveys faculty members at other schools, their opinions of your school's faculty are not going to be very high. That's just the way it is.

 

I agree for the most part however, in most cases, unless you are dead set on teaching, rankings mean nothing. I’m not saying that to be rude, but I have a friend who got a MS in Civil Engineering from Stanford who said she has met people who got the same degree from a non-ranked public state school who are far more exceptional than others she knew at Stanford. In the end, the program name and ranking does not make one successful. It takes hard work, perseverance, and true intelligence.

 

I will say that rankings mean a lot less outside of academia. One can argue that they mean nothing at all, but that's different from the argument of whether or not they have a positive impact on one's job search. The Ivy Plus schools are known for placing non-STEM majors into high-paying jobs soon after graduation. I believe this is a combination of networking/connections and the reputations of graduates' alma maters. When you have no professional work experience, hiring managers have little to go on. Some Ivy Plus students are legacy admits, but most worked very hard to get into those schools. Part of the reason why their rankings are high is because their students are highly-intelligent. So, yeah, schools are playing the game by being selective in their admissions and only hiring prestigious faculty members.

When it comes to the big accounting firms, they mostly recruit from high-ranking accounting programs. However, since top 50 schools can't supply companies with all the workers they need, most are forced not to select employees based on the schools they attended. In effect, rankings really don't matter because there aren't enough graduates from high-ranking schools to meet demand.

If one wants to become a police officer, they definitely do not need a degree. As a matter of fact, you might even be eliminated if you prove to be too highly-educated and intelligent. Most police officers do not have a college degree, and most police departments don't require a college degree. On the other hand, most probation and parole departments require a degree. In my state, it's the law that juvenile probation officers must have a degree.

 

I suppose Liberty's Ph.D. in Criminal Justice is going to be the most sought-after online doctorate in criminal justice. I think this is due, in part, to the low tuition cost, the non-profit status, and its somewhat selective admissions requirements. The only other non-profit school offering an online Ph.D. is Nova Southeastern at a tuition of $1, 095 (per credit). From what I can see, for Spring 19 B Term, there are 73 students registered for the first course in the Ph.D. program at Liberty. Of course, these students will be in four separate sections (an average of 18 students per instructor).

 

That's true. While the Big Four practically live at the major flagship universities and privates that have top rankings and vigorously recruit at those sorts of places, there aren't enough graduates there interested in the Big Four lifestyle to fill the demand. This is why my university, Average Directional State U, has one or two of the Big Four show up every year at recruiting events and we regularly place students in them. Once there, the only thing that matters is can they get the CPA finished up and can they bring in the clients and keep them. If they can bring in several millions in client business a year and keep them happy, no one cares whether they went to a top-ranked accounting program (like UT Austin, Wharton, Illinois, BYU, Michigan, Stanford) or whether they went to an average school like mine or whether they went to some nondescript nothing school. I was giving a professional seminar last month and was approached afterwards by a retired Deloitte partner. He told me the school he'd gone to and it was a bottom-dweller, said he got the interview with Deloitte on a fluke, but somehow impressed them enough to get the offer--and he became a rainmaker. I'm sure no one cared as he was bringing in $10M+ in business a year that he'd gone to a lower-tier college.

This is also true, though one of my all-time great students was a dunce (so I thought) on one of the varsity teams. Huge, hulking guy, looked like Gronkowski (who even though he looks like Central Casting's idea of "dumb jock" is allegedly a pretty savvy guy with the finances). He sat in the front of the class, no book, no notes, just stared at me the whole class period. All he wanted to be, so he told me (the one time he spoke) was a cop. Great, another jock dumb as a box of rocks who some coach is going to be all bent out of shape that I'm failing. So he got 95 on the first exam. Since it was multiple choice, I figured the guy just got remarkably lucky with the guesses, every once in a while, it's going to happen. Then he got 90-something on the second. When he was absent on a team trip soon after, I asked some of the students after class was over about this huge guy with the biceps who never took notes--what's up with him? They said "Oh yeah, he never buys the book unless homework is assigned, never takes notes, gets an A in every class without even trying--some kind of genius--he drives us crazy." After that, I took him aside and suggested law school, told him I dreamed of having a brain like his. But nope, all he wanted to be was a small town cop. Nothing wrong with that, being a cop with a 170 IQ.

 

Over the years accounting firms have taken advantage of the articling students with long hours, and little pay. Students start becoming smart and start moving away from accounting. Thus one of the reasons why Accounting firms are finding it harder to recruit graduates. Accounting organizations are also changing the articling requirement so graduate can receive experience in industry. Therefore accounting firms and industry are now competing for new grads.

 

Just wanted to share a quick update. I'm currently in week 6 of my 3rd course and just started week 1 of my 4th course. My experience has been great so far. The coursework has been rigorous, and I've been challenged in ways I haven't before. However, the professors are very supportive. I am also in a FB group with only LU Ph.D. in CJ students, so it's nice to have that extra support from people who are going through the same courses. I will be taking 3 courses in the summer. I will be off most of my summer, except 4 weeks I'll be teaching maybe 1 class a day Monday through Thursday. I should be able to knock out those courses, or perhaps they'll know me out lol

If anyone is considering LU's Ph.D. in CJ, feel free to reach out to me in my inbox or here. I will provide an update at the end of the summer semester!

Blessings,
Future Dr. Chris