Baker's ABD DBA

Discussion in 'Business and MBA degrees' started by chrisjm18, Jan 2, 2020.

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  1. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

  2. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    Yes, you can reverse the stigma of having crapped out in a doctoral program. And you can do it with other like-minded people who crapped out of their doctoral programs. One you graduate with a Baker College DBA, you can share the thrill of having graduated from a DBA program designed especially for people like you that crapped out of their original doctoral programs. Yes, you can interact with other abject failures like yourself, sharing stories about how all of you fucked up your original doctoral program. Then you can finally earn a DBA from a school very few people have heard of - one that doesn't even call itself a university, and can become yet one more DBA holder whose résumé gets tossed into trash cans everywhere.

    I have to give Chris credit - until now, I never realized that a DBA is merely an ass-backwards ABD. :rolleyes:

    Add-on edit: For those curious, their business accreditation is IACBE. (No big whoop.) But even better than that, according to their website (I kid you not): "The Interior Design associate & bachelor degree program is accredited by the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA)." Wow . . . Just wow.
     
  3. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I skimmed through the first few pages. I wasn't able to see if they are requiring any coursework prior to beginning the dissertation for the ABD people. They talk about scaffolding coursework and productive working relationships so I'm wondering if they're going to require some research methodology coursework leading up to the proposal. Then they load up the existing faculty with doctoral candidates and start cranking out that research. They're going to have to have a high success rate if they want this to be sustainable.
     
  4. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    While I agree that some people don't possess the aptitude to complete their doctoral program, being ABD isn't always due to a lack of ability on the part of the student. At times it can be issues with the committee or the institution. Based on Baker's ABD program description, I don't think these students would be interacting with their fellow ABDs. I think it's just one-on-one with a single faculty member. "Once you’re admitted into the ABD Option, you will be paired with an experienced faculty mentor who will serve as your dissertation chair and will provide one-on-one guidance throughout the dissertation process."

    I think it would be disingenuous of me to act as if I knew all along that the DBA was ABD backward. I found this out in October 2019 from David Tan who shared his less than favorable experience in the Columbia Southern DBA program. https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/top-deac-schools-for-dba.54650/page-3

    [QUOTEBut even better than that, according to their website (I kid you not): "The Interior Design associate & bachelor degree program is accredited by the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA)." Wow . . . Just wow.][/QUOTE]

    Based on my quick search, NKBA is not an accreditation body. It is merely an association with affiliated schools. "The National Kitchen & Bath Association acknowledges the following schools have joined with the Association to promote best practices in education and real opportunity for the next generation of kitchen and bath professionals."

    Some decent schools are on the list, for example, Ball State, ECU, Sam Houston, Indiana U of PA, to name a few. https://nkba.org/info/educators/affiliated-schools
     
  5. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    According to the curriculum, it would appear that the only core course required is "BUS 8410 Defining the Dissertation Research Problem and Research Question (3 credits)." The remaining 21 credits are all dissertation-related courses. https://www.baker.edu/academics/graduate-studies/college-of-business/doctorate-of-business-administration-abd-option/curriculum
     
  6. Michigan68

    Michigan68 Active Member

    Baker College is about 10 miles up the road from me. It is a good career school and they do a good job with that. As for their DBA Program, they are just in their 2nd or 3rd year. The school has a good reputation here in Michigan.

    As for the ABD, you had to be in the ABD status and in good standing in the school you left,

    As for the University name.......there is already a Baker University. I thought it was in Kansas.
     
  7. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    Correct - it is in Kansas. Baker is not an uncommon name in education, just as Trinity and Union are both very common names for schools.

    As for their name, I find it fitting that they retain college rather than university - the DBA is their only doctoral program and they are, indeed, known primarily as a career college. They read like a for-profit and, in fact, they were founded on that basis and did not become non-profit until the late 1970's (albeit long before other for-profits started to have a scandalous reputation).

    Would I go to Baker if I wanted a career-oriented credential? Yes, especially in the areas of automotive and culinary training. But would I enroll in a doctorate program there? No way. But - and I purport this to be no more than my opinion, although whether you turkeys like it or not, it is an expert opinion, so if you want to argue, piss off :D - I'm willing to grant that my opinion is not against Baker per se as it is on the notion that the DBA is essentially becoming a joke.

    Yeah, yeah, I know . . . I can't help being lovable. :rolleyes:
     
  8. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    Shall I demonstrate how easy it is to mock your own degrees, if one is so inclined?

    I have no opinion about relative prestige of a DBA from Baker College, except noting that it is, indeed, RA doctorate, from a business school that actually exists. As of ABD mocking, people leave doctoral programs all the time for all kinds of reasons, and ABDs are way more common than freaks of nature who can exploit a "non-traditional" (that's what boomers used to call online schools, kids) program to blast through an interdisciplinary PhD program in two years part time. This is both a mock and a praise, btw.
     
    Neuhaus, SteveFoerster and chrisjm18 like this.
  9. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Most people that I know leave the PhD mainly because they get good opportunities to work in industry and have the intention to complete the dissertation but with family, work, etc never get the motivation to finish it as industry does not really need you to have one. This is a DBA and not a PhD and from a non ranked school, so it seems directed towards those interested in the doctor letters for personal satisfaction or just being adjuncts on the side, it might lead to full time teaching opportunities in non ranked schools as well.
     

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