NA doctorate after RA doctorate?

A professional/ academics earning a Phd is a good thing. Buying a Phd on the other hand well that is something else. The professional and the academics are truly going to that much better.
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If someone is willing to mortgage his or her future to earn a less valuable North American degree , then he or she needs to do a bit more soul searching. The person is behaving irrationally. I do understand the pressure one may experience to have that US degree. However, for adjuncting, this person may not have what it takes to be educating people.

 

There are many reasons for people to complete PhDs online. Many times is just personal satisfaction, the ability to teach part time but most of the time is pleasing the ego with the letters PhD after your name. Yes, it is more logical to pay 5 to 10K and do it from a school in South Africa or Latin America but if the ego it is the main motivator, many won't be so happy to tell their friends that completed a PhD in Nicaragua, Costa Rica or South Africa.

I have advised few people to do it at UNISA if their goal is to be part time faculty, I have never seen a person that took this advise. Most end at Walden, Capella, etc because the ego was the main motivator.

 

Getting a PhD from the University of Sedona is not buying a degree. This is a religious based doctorate like other dozens that are offered over the internet. These degrees are unaccredited and irrelevant to a teaching position in a secular field such as Business, Law, etc but still require study but they are meant to prepare ministers for a particular church. However, Many individuals put these degrees in a CV with the intention to deceive and many religious schools also grant PhDs with deceiving titles such as Christian Psychology, Business Metaphysics, etc. A person that wants to deceive, opens a counseling practice in a state where there is no need for a license to practice counseling and then puts in a business Card (PhD in C. Psychology), the prospect customer thinks is Clinical Psychology but it is Christian Psychology, the person is question cannot be sued because the PhD was legally granted.
We discussed this many times before, I believe one should not use these degrees in a resume for secular purpose and keep it only for religious work. However, in Canada at least, most people get these degrees to become natural medicine professionals, professional counselors or business courses and very few actually ministers with them.

 

I have no issue with the University of Sedona.

 

None of which mitigates the fact that the University of Sedona is a degree mill. A fraud. A sham. A scam. A con. A rip-off.

Or that anyone who has, or uses, a Sedona doctorate is a fraud. A sham. A scam. A con artist. A rip-off. A charlatan. Ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

Legal? Absolutely. Legitimate? Pardon me while I laugh my ass off.

 

Thanks for your ge

I guess that his probes my point of why people do it Walden, Capella, etc and not Nicaragua. Few people would laugh at anything from Latin America or Africa. However, the same comes to people with degrees from online schools, people with degrees from non online school would laugh at people with degrees from online schools and people with top degrees would laugh at people with degrees from low ranked schools and people with degrees from traditional religions would laugh at people with degrees from less traditional religions (metaphysics), etc.

To the OP, if you do a degree, do it because your passion to the subject and not because of what people would think about it. There will be always people that would laugh at your degree no matter what so do it because you want to do it and not to please others.

Ego should not be the motivator to do a degree.

 

Walden, Capella, etc - those universities are not in the same league as UNISA or other genuine foreign universities. Sedona, I do not know. But I will go with Steve on this one. If cost is an option then go with a genuine international degree. If a person ego forces them to go with a fraudulent degree or overpay on a local degree, just to avoid having a foreign degree, then that person has to reevaluate his/her ego. That person should not be teaching anyone.

 

From what I remember, Sedona degrees seem very light on requirements; in addition, "metaphysics" content would strike many people as sham. For this reason, I am inclined to respect a Capella grad much, much more than someone sporting Sedona doctorate. Especially if the latter tries to use the degree outside its religious context (or New Agey mumbo jumbo world, if you will). For me, Sedona doesn't belong in this conversation at all: the OP didn't look for a one year part time thingey to give him a "legal" Dr. title; in fact he can "legally" use the title with his DTP already. There are legitimate issues with NA degree acceptance in academia, covered above - but they result from genuine educational programs. Sedona degree, OTOH, is a full blown time bomb.
In my view, traditional RA > UNISA > Capella/Walden > UCN > NA >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Sedona. The latter is not an option, at all.

 

Define fraudulent? If someone goes and takes a program at a religious schools that is non accredited schools that offers the degree with the approval of the state, why would this be fraudulent? If it is fraudulent, why don't you or someone alert the authorities so the school is closed down? You can laugh at it if you want but this does not make it fraudulent.

Steve has all the right to laugh at Sedona and I am sure he is not alone. But the same happens with people laughing at degrees from online schools, NA accredited schools, etc. They

Point well taken. Forget about my comment about Sedona and let's move on.

 

I have no issues with Sedona, because I did no research on it. I am inclined to go Steve or the more diplomatic Stan’s position A degree that can get you in legal trouble could be define as a fraud.

 

Funny you should mention that. As many people know, I also do laugh at degrees from online schools, NA schools (specifically many, but not all, DETC schools), and for-profit schools.

In fact, the term "online university" is one of my favorite oxymorons,

 

Not your oxymoron being gored?

 

There are some states where you cannot use an unaccredited degree or you need to disclose that the degree is not accredited. UoS like other religious exempt schools, are legal in most states and you are allowed to use the designation. In Canada, there is no regulation against the use of religious exempt PhDs other than you cannot use them to practice a licensed protected profession and if it is used for employment purposes, it is up to the employer to accept it or not.

One thing is that they are legal and another thing is that people would respect the degree. A similar concept applies to NA Doctorate degrees, they are accredited and legal but many would not respect it.

The OP wants a second doctorate from an NA school for cost reasons, my point is that many would not respect that degree but the same applies if he or she decides to do it at a foreign school from a developing nation (E.g. South Africa, Nicaragua, etc) but with the only advantage that the second option at least gives you the right to use it for teaching purposes in particular if he or she completes it in a different area from the original degree.

 

I really disagree with lumping NA degrees with Sedona. NA doctorate is a program with approximately the same structure as RA practitioner-oriented EdD. In my view, they are not that different from RA for-profit online programs from eg. Northcentral, ACE, or Capella. If OP completes such program, to ME, he'll demonstrate what he seeks to demonstrate: that he is passionate about and an expert in Research Methods. Problem is OTHERS, especially in RA academia (or in trucking ), might disagree.
Sedona degree lacks standards and demonstrates no such things. At most, it shows interest in nontraditional "metaphysics" and discipline to sustain studies part time for about a year, at what looks like undergrad level at best. I would be more accepting if it was meant solely to betitle ministers in some unusual religion. But it has nothing to do with what OP wants, and according to you Sedona grads try to use their degrees for quasi-secular endeavors. Shady.

P. S. My favourite religious nonaccredited school (St. Sophia) is not comparable to Sedona. It's core offering is a 3-year hybrid MDiv that is virtually identical to what other 5 Ortho seminaries in US teach in content (4 are accredited). It is largely vocational and oc interest mostly within its jurisdiction. If you're not a Ukrainian clergy candidate, frankly, you can't beat the Antiochian House of Study (validated by a public university in Lebanon, just over 1K a year, 4 years for MA).

 

Sedona is an example, if you like St Sophia then you use this as the example. In general, any unaccredited religious exempt school degree is legal to use. My comparison with NA is not that they are the same in rigor or quality but both give you the right to put a doctorate in your CV and both are most likely not acceptable to teach at RA schools.

 

Antiochian House of Study (validated by a public university in Lebanon, just over 1K a year, 4 years for MA) that is really a good find.
http://tahos.org/
http://www.balamand.edu.lb/main/Pages/default.aspx

 

They were long famous for their St. Stephen's Course, a non-degree offering (which is now first 3 years of MTh); then added an articulation agreement into Balamand Master's. St. Stephen's Course was initially aimed at training deacons (hence, the name). Very successful. I believe St. Arseny Institute and Pastoral School (ROCOR) are attempts to imitate St. Stephen's. Among other things, AHOS provided for Orthodox formation of non-orthodox pastors who converted with their communities, so may very well be one of the reasons Antiochians are the only jurisdiction doing that. They can also draw from experience they got absorbing the "Evangelical Orthodox Church" - good experience and bad.
Now, they have 2 Master's degrees with 5 concentrations, a PhD program, and now application to ATS. Unbelievable! Tuition is STILL $1050 a year, plus living expenses for residencies. An absolute steal.
Ecclesiastically, they are a ministry of Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, which is a part of Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch (one of the original Pentarchy sees, community established by St. Peter and St. Paul, now based in Beirut). These guys also run the Conciliar Press and Ancient Faith Radio and, generally, kick every other ethnic jurisdiction's ass in Evangelism.

 

BTW, a good example. Currently, AHOS PhD in Orthodox Studies is unaccredited (California approved). Yet I would say that due to school reputation and Church affiliation, it is credible and prestigious, at least in Ortho circles. It is an earned research doctorate offered, in effect, directly by a major canonical jurisdiction. As far as I can determine, first of its kind. Of course, it'll be an absolute bomb if they nail ATS.

 

Do you remember the specific evaluating agency that evaluated it as being equivalent to RA?