NCU increases tuition, again.

It will totally pay off. Dude, you have a RA doctorate, nobody can argue with that. The education from NCU is every bit as good as Capella or Walden. The academics are great, the administrators are not.

 

As I just said to Randell1234, the administration is going to the dogs, but the quality of the degree appears to be getting better. They are getting more rigorous all the time. But I can feel your pain, I did the same thing as you, bailed out after spending a fair amount of money at NCU. I fell victim to the phenomenon that Dave Wagner has suggested many times.

 

Does Northcentral U. offer payment through FAFSA for PhD? I am considering PhD in Business Administration, Management specialty. Please advice

 

I also investigated this and found that most doctoral programs I looked at could only be financed with a student loan like a Stafford Loan. There were no scholarships or grants, at least none that I could find that were available for attending a doctoral program at a for-profit university. I believe you still had to fill out a FAFSA application though.

I would do it somewhere besides NCU. Maybe TUI or Excelsior. Cheaper and not as poorly run. Liberty is good, too.

 

Thank you for the feedback. I am new to this, so do not know what TUI stands for

 

TUI is TUI University (Now Trident University) - Welcome to Trident University

 

PhD in Business

I went to this site and it states it educates military families. I am not military but federal civilian employee. I will be paying for this through FAFSA. Is this school for military affiliates or open to all?

 

it states educating military families. I am not affiliated with the military. I am a civilian federal employee (Department of Health and Human Services). Can anyone attend this university or is it for military and their families?

 

TUI is not just for military, it's for anyone. They market heavily to the military but that doesn't mean they only accept military. It's a good school with a novel approach. It's regionally accredited, which is the gold standard of accreditation. I don't think you can go wrong.

 

I got my MS-ITM and will have my MBA from them soon. Their customer service is great and the classes are priced well. If you are in the military you can get the graduate level 4 credit class for $1,000. When I got my MS-ITM in 2004, I paid $6,750 for the degree. You can not beat that!

 

I requested information from TUI. NCU appears to have dual RA and ACBSP. However, cost is a factor too since I will be taking out loans. Thank you

 

If cost is a big factor, you might also look at Aspen. It is DETC accredited, which is not as universally accepted as regional accreditation, but it is a good school and you will find that it is 1/3 the price of other schools.

 

KuietStorm,
Regardless of which internet school you decide to attend, they will all extract $40k and above from you. At $2200 per course, NCU has a fix cost somewhere in the range of $44k (your variable cost will come from books, other materials, and whether you can finish the program on time and without additional courses that will further extract money from you). TUI (Trident University International) may appear cheaper because their fixed cost takes into account tuition of $2300 per class, however, the entire program will cost you more money because there is no guarantee as to how many terms it will take you to finish your dissertation (which you are allowed to start until after satisfactory completion of all coursework).

For the amount of money that a PhD from one of these online schools will costs, you should seriously consider investing that money in a PhD from a school with a physical campus, which in many cases, offer cheaper alternatives, and more a higher ROI. There are many students in this forum that dropped out from PhD programs at these schools, not because of intellectual ability, but due to budget bursting tuition and other related issues. Look around the site, pay attention to why they dropped out, as well as whether they would do it again; in short, the stories come, which are not good, with various tones of regret.

Further, if you wait for sometime before applying at these schools (online-only schools), you quickly realize how not rushing to apply saved you from taking out student loans for an educational investment that you may end up not finishing because of oppressive tuition charges and un-ending increases. Again, if you want to spend $40k or more for a PhD, make sure it is from a traditional university with a physical campus. Nothing is wrong with degrees from online schools. They're just catalysts for financial suicide - the type of debt that put you in financial ruins, in my opinion. Goodluck with deciding...

 

thank you for the candid post Cyber. I live in the DC area surrounded by reputable traditional schools. The challenge is working full-time and attending a traditional school.

 

You should consider brick and mortar schools with online capability, such as Dakota State University. It is state u and ra. The tuition is relatively low $343/credit with no residency.

 

The letter from Gardner that announced the tuition increase also said that they had to eliminate leaves of absence and incomplete grades in order to comply with Department of Education Title IV loans. Not true. A doctoral student at NCU who had already acquired the initials J.D. after her name did some research and found the Title IV allows leaves of absence and incomplete grades. She sent a letter to Gardner demanding an explanation, and posted the letter in the student forums at NCU. I don’t know if she ever got a reply because I bailed out of NCU after they made the changes.

I do know that NCU has been reported to the Inspector General of the Department of Education and to Senator Tom Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Committee investigating for-profit colleges. If an audit results and finds abuse or fraud in handling Title IV loans, the “sharks” will be introduced to the “killer whales.”

 

This is a very interesting development. It would be nice to know the outcome of this case. On a general note, sometimes I wonder about the educational background of the folks making all these bad decisions at NCU. What I don't seem to comprehend is the rationale behind making all these drastic changes almost every year. Why can't they fix a tuition rate, and then let that rate to remain for 2 to 3 years to stabilize their student body and their budgets. Instead, they keep changing tuition rates every minute other online schools change theirs, with the aim of staying just slightly below what the expensive schools are charging.

Business 101 suggest that if you set your tuition, concentrate in stabilizing your internal processes with focus on student service and their satisfaction, in due time, more students will enroll, and profit will roll in. But they keep trying to extract as much money as possible from enrolled students in the shortest possible time; it would be interesting to know how many students they have lost because of this latest tuition increase blunder.

The shareholders should fire the top management of the school, and then replace them with people who know business 101, at least. They offer business administration degrees but their business decisions are below par. I don't have any business administration degree but in two years, if given the chance, I would increase NCU's PhD enrollment, and drastically improve student/customer service, as well the overall image of the school. Reducing PhD tuition to a reasonable amount would attract more student enrollment and current student enrollment would remain intact. It's a shame that NCU management is killing the business.

 

I have no doubt that you would succeed. They need to give that job to you, or maybe to Dr. Lady. The problem is the American addiction to ever increasing profits; they need a leader who is more concerned about education and about students.

I foresee a bust that will occur when this student loan driven, education business bubble finally pops. All they have to do is cut off these ridiculous student loans and we will see things change quickly.

 

Two things - (1) PissedPhDLearner said, "I was a Ph.D. learner at Northcentral University, Inc. (NCU) from October, 2006 through November 2010 and during that time, tuition increased 70% and fees 400%." The tuition was $1,425 in 10/2006 and $1,800 in 10/2010 which is a 26% increase. I have no idea where 70% comes from.

(2) I also sent a letter to Dr Gardner a few days ago and have not heard back yet. Here is some of what I wrote:

Dr Gardner,

I wanted to take a few moments to provide some feedback regarding NCU and my experiences with the PhD program. I was enrolled for 6 years and recently completed my PhD in Business Administration (Management). When I enrolled in 2004 the customer service and mentors were excellent but over the past several years it has declined. I have had non-responsive mentors and it was very disappointing that the student’s academic success is in someone’s hands that are indifferent....

I know there is a lot of anxiety regarding the new process of auto-enrollment and ...Perhaps the overall restructuring, purpose, and expectations were not communicated properly.

I know of several people that have expressed a need to drop out due to recent changes. They would not be able to keep pace with this new timeline and/or take on the financial burden. I enrolled in NCU based on several factors and the flexibility offered to the students was a key aspect. Another key point was the way I could spread the classes out over time to minimize my out of pocket expense and maximize my tuition assistance. To be honest, if was looking to enroll in a program today NCU would not pique my interest due to these less than student-friendly policies. Now that I have graduated from NCU, I have a vested interest in seeing the school’s reputation stay top notch and feel it is important for you and the schools administration to understand the student and public’s perception and how changes in policies can impact that perception.

The DIS process with conference calls is a great step in the right direction but more is needed. To improve the image of the school I would suggest you explore the following:

Set 48 hour email response guide lines for the mentors and hold them accountable
Counter balance the auto-enrollment by setting standards for the mentors to adhere to with a turnaround time of 72 hours on all work submitted and hold them accountable
Provide customer service training to the support staff (they need it) and hold them accountable to respond to students questions
Require at least one published article in a journal or magazine for graduation from the doctoral program
Set admission standards in place such as a GRE or GMAT
Update the Student Discussion Forum – it is outdated in structure

 

I think the problem is with the current triad of owners: Rockbridge Growth Equities, Falcon Investments, and Donald Hecht.

Recent investments by Rockbridge Growth Equities:

Rockbridge Growth Equity - Security Systems News
Rockbridge Growth Equity Invests « CBS Detroit
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2010/11/Issue-44/Finance/Veritix-Secures-$100M-Credit-From-Rockbridge-Growth-Equity.aspx

Donald Hecht was trying to get a zoning change of Northcentral property in order to get a personal loan, but withdrew the request.

Northcentral withdraws rezoning application - The Prescott Daily Courier - Prescott, Arizona

Rockbridge apparently has hundreds of millions available for investment to add to their portfolio of businesses that they own, but it does not appear that putting more dollars into Northcentral University is high on their list of priorities. That leaves the university in a situation of financially supporting itself plus earning a profit for the owners who apparently use the money for other investments.

Northcentral’s last continuance of accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission (HCL) was for 3 years and required two mandatory focus visits. As I recall, the focus visits were primarily for demonstrating sound financial management, and improvement of their doctoral degree dissertations. After the first of the two focus visits, the HCL extended the accreditation to 5 years. The last of the two mandatory focus visits occurred approximately one month before Gardner’s announcement of the tuition hike and elimination of leaves of absence and incomplete grades. That last focus visit requires a progress report due by 12/31/2011. The context of that report is “the Effects of the Strategic Plan to Demonstrate the Role of Academic Program Review and the Achievement of Stated Strategic Goals”(HCL, 2011).

In my opinion, I think Northcentral is in a struggle to prove to the HCL that they are financially sound, and demonstrate that they have a documented process to review their academic programs. Real improvement would come from having an ownership whose business model is focused on higher education, and would make significant investments in the university. As it stands now, Northcentral University is just one of many investment interests completely unrelated to higher education.

Imagine what Northcentral could have done with maintaining low tuition and improving their staff and services with the $100M that Rockbridge Growth Equity put into Veritix in November 2010.