Anyone considering the ALM at Harvard Extension should be aware of the following changes in the residency requirements, according to a mailing from Dean Sue Weaver Schopf:
The message was in reference to the liberal arts fields. I don't know if it applies to the professional degrees or not.
Apparently, there is a recent change, but not so severe as the OP. I've inquired to Harvard DCE about it, and it applies to the ALM in IT program. In fact, I have to submit a waiver petition for it, because I'm in a situation where I've already fulfilled the required 9 courses, all ones that were offered by distance, and am now working on thesis, which is the only remaining requirement. I've been in the program for several years though, so I'll be grandfathered in using the old residency requirements. Anyway, what they told me was that the most recent policy is that at least one course taken for the ALM in IT has to not be offered by at all by distance. Before this year, IIRC, the requirement was that if all your courses were also offered by distance, you had to give proof of residing locally during one of those semesters. But no more. I don't think that the maximum 5 DL course requirement could be applied to ALM in IT, because such a large percentage of them are offered by DL. In fact, when I was taking the core courses, I believe they were all offered by DL, no choice about it.
Referring to the ALM in IT residency requirements not being as stringent as the ones mentioned in the Original Post.
Thanks for posting this Alarmingidea! It's news to me. Got to get on the phone and see if I'm gonna get hosed by this (maybe submit a waiver - but I'm nowhere near complete). Doh! Greg
Comes off to me as a distance education unit not open to the idea of offering programs by distance. How sad...
Harvard Extension is not a "distance education unit". It's a continuing education school that offers some distance courses. I think the decision both preserves the integrity of the degree program (by requiring personal contact with faculty and encouraging familiarity with the university's facilities and resources) and recognizes the strengths and weaknesses of the school. The ALM program is just plain not set up to handle distance-only students. I think it's an acceptable compromise to allow students to minimize their on-campus time by using distance courses.
For what it's worth, I spoke with Harvard and got it in writing that this does not apply to the ALM-IT. Rather, it "pertains to the General Liberal Arts ALM - a program completely separate from IT" Yay! Greg
Whether or not I think it's a good idea in general, the IT degree is definitely set up to be mostly distance. The problems that I think liberal arts ALM candidates would face in doing distance degrees are unique to the structure and goals of that program.