Harvard just released the new Extension catalog. They've added two new concentrations to the ALM in liberal arts: Middle Eastern studies and medieval studies. Of particular interest to some folks around here may be the new ALM in management. It's not a distance degree, but significant components may be able to be done via dl. Finally, this year's distance offerings have expanded a bit, and include a course from the law school.
Harvard is not for the average Joe who wants an easy ticket into an Ivy league doctoral program. Their doctorates are reserved for the best and brightest so their extension school will never offer them. Even Harvard's doctorates in education are competitive.
Harvard has no ALD because the structure of the university already makes administering the ALM something like the Three Stooges upholstering a sofa with a bolt of cloth and a shotgun full of thumbtacks. And quite frankly, despite all its good points, the Extension School is not a place where I would want to pursue anything beyond a master's degree. I can't see them providing sufficient guidance to make the experience or the resulting degree worthwhile. There would no doubt be opposition from faculty and others who didn't want an Extension doctorate to lessen the impact of other Harvard doctoral degrees (there is certainly concern about the proposal to remove the phrase "studiorum prolatorum" (extension studies) from the names of Extension degrees), but given organizational limitations, I can't see the discussion even getting that far.
I appreciate your concern, but I'm not affected by a comment like that from someone who doesn't know me. -=Steve=-
Fair enough. I suppose I was comparing the possibility to the Doctor of Liberal Studies program at Georgetown. However, I've more or less decided that the latter is not the best fit for me, so on reflection even were there a Harvard ALD I might not choose it. I really do want to focus pretty specifically on the intersection of international education and development studies. -=Steve=-
bum bum ba-bum bum ba-bum ba-bum ba-bummmm bum! That's odd, I just had this strange urge to start humming "Hail to the Chief".... -=Steve=-
Granted, but I don't think there are any "easy tickets" into Ivy doctoral programs. Not even at Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn, Princeton, or Yale.
Do you know whether Harvard will bring the whole ALM in Management program online in the near future? Or at least like the ALM IT, only need short residency?
I do not expect that Harvard will offer degrees totally online in the forseeable future, based on conversations that I have had with faculty and staff at the university. A semester's residency with the balance of courses being taken online is a possibility, I suppose.