Failed to defend diss at AACSB institution, what should I do next?

Discussion in 'Business and MBA degrees' started by FailedToDefendDiss, Feb 28, 2019.

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  1. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    I'd place this thread on a par with LadyExecutive's whine about her Argosy doctorate.

    Dropping the failed dissertation identity was the first thought that came to me when I read the OP. Talk about a whiny username - I can see him posting an inquiry about, say, online lessons in folk guitar fingerpicking styles under his username and having everyone think, "Oh, yeah, that's the dude who crapped out of his doctorate."

    Bringing in another issue discussed recently in a different thread, I'd love to read what his students say about him on RateMyProfessors.com. Perhaps he should read his own ratings on RMP - he might realize that, even as a teacher, he's in the wrong field.
     
  2. FailedToDefendDiss

    FailedToDefendDiss New Member

    Either of these would be perfect, the problem is that I don't think I can get in. St. Mary's website says they only take 4 a year in their cohort with an acceptance rate of 20%. I don't think the guy who already failed to do this once is gonna make the cut.

    As for the UNC Greensboro, they are taking applications for their first cohort now and it also sounds super competitive. Maybe I am being needlessly down on myself, but I don't think I'll qualify.

    They also both mention the GMAT, and mine are more than a decade old. That would need to be fixed, and quickly, to have a shot at either of these programs.
     
  3. FailedToDefendDiss

    FailedToDefendDiss New Member

    This is fair and I'm sorry for the whining. My teaching evals have been quite good, though. I love that aspect of my job and that's actually why I've been so desperate, I think. I want to hold on to the teaching but not have to do research... and academia doesn't work like that, even at the kind of school I am at.

    I also don't plan to continue using this username at all, because you're right, that is how people would see me. I made this post in the midst of a one-man pity party because of an issue that is completely of my own making. And if I define myself this way, you're right, others will too.
     
  4. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Even some community colleges are requiring publications now, so you probably are in the wrong field. I taught at a vo-tech school that wanted publications. I wasn't publishing anything for them when half of the students couldn't even read.
     
  5. FailedToDefendDiss

    FailedToDefendDiss New Member

    If that's the case, then I probably am. Hmm, you know, sometimes you find out something about yourself in an unexpected way.

    Thanks to all who responded, I think I've subjected all of you to more than enough of my whining. Thanks for listening and for giving me some options to think about. And a special thank you to Steve Levicoff, honestly. I think I needed to hear that I was behaving like a whiny 14 year old. Sometimes things don't work out. I need to go figure out what is next instead of complaining.
     
  6. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    Trolling again. Come on, Steve, dude or gal's done nothing really to warrant this. It's true that not everyone's cut out for the academy, some people are better at actually going out and doing real, actual stuff (unlike me, I'm great in the classroom, but was middling doing real actual stuff), but you have no way of knowing whether FTDD is 4.8 on RMP or 1.8.
     
  7. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    Don't worry, Steve's not a bad guy, I think he just likes a good dust up here and there.
     
  8. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    Stop it, now, you're a legit academic, that's worth something, you got in once, and you had good reasons (eating, paying bills) for getting out. I don't think you've burned every bridge.
     
    JBjunior likes this.
  9. dlbb

    dlbb Active Member

    Well, I think it is a mistake to go to a different field, but you do have a point. I would never recommend one of those dissertation-only programs, as most will inevitably fail to complete it successfully for reasons you allude to.
    BUT he said he completed 190 pages of something, so maybe with better involvement from chair, those efforts could be directed into what he wants.
     
  10. dlbb

    dlbb Active Member

    Oh I think that is quite rare, just poor information.
     
  11. dlbb

    dlbb Active Member

    Failed, you need to concentrate your efforts on doing what you can to make it work at your old/current school that you failed to defend it. Restart the clock, start over on the dissertation adapting what you can of the lit review, get a more hand's on advisor.
     
  12. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    There are some excellent suggestion. I might add that I looked at the HW EBS program (ebsglobal.net) myself, and for the life of me can't comprehend why it's not recommended more often. To me, the only downside is that it's not (currently) AACSB. But you mentioned it's not required, technically, at the moment.

    So you have under 2 years on TT, at best. I'm making some assumptions:
    1. Other than your doctorate, other aspects of your tenure case are solid.
    2. You would like to stay at your current institution. You can see yourself working there till retirement.
    3. You specified thay you need "some kind of terminal degree". I assume it means RA or foreign equivalent, with AACSB/ACBSP/IACBE not really required.

    There seem not to be any perfect solution. Not AACSB, for any measure; there's simply not enough time. However, just for completeness, and in the spirit of "desperate times call for desperate measures", I could think of a few options:

    1. California Southern University. CalSouthern is an online for-profit, which in its unaccredited youth had a link with Northcentral U. (I believe both schools have the same founder). Theirs is the cheapest RA doctorate in US, I believe.
    Why IU think it's promising: they require a "doctoral project" with a range of methodologies that explicitly includes "a critical analysis of the literature". I have a feeling you might already have enough to fashion such a project from that 190 pages you managed to write so far. I would try to contact them and see if they can work with your timeline. They accept up to 30 credit hours in transfer; who knows, even this might be flexible. It doesn't hurt to ask.

    2. University of Central Nicaragua. It's a B&M school in Nicaragua that has this weird international division ran by, it seems, guys in Europe http://businessschooldirect.info/degree_programmes/doctorates
    We had one poster who did PhD by Published Works with them (in Psychology) and successfully got his credential evaluated. http://businessschooldirect.info/degree_programmes/doctorates
    I feel they will be very flexible in their approach; eg. they advertise PhD by Publication and link to something that looks like a predatory journal as an acceptable venue. The obvious downside of this flexibility is that the place have no reputation to speak of, and there's always danger of bad publicity if someone decides to buy an MBA for his cat from these guys and they agree.

    3. An outfit called International University for Graduate Studies in Dominica is basically built for ABDs. We discussed it before, and found at least one tenured person with doctorate from there (tenure probably earned by extensive service work). Normally, it would be wise to stay away from this place, but it conceivably just may work. Obvious downside - this is the place that has been called a mill before, including in an article if Chronicle (back when it was on St. Kitts). Also, their Dominican accreditation is expired at the moment. Presumably this is because things work slow on the Caribbean, but you are never 100% sure. This is damn near absolute last resort, a desperate measure.

    My personal opinion is that there's nothing wrong with CalSouthern if you are OK with a no-name school; it'll limit your chances at other schools, but that can be mitigated with strong publication record. CalSouthern even has ACBSP. I would not fault folks who resort to the other two, but only you know whether you have the stomach for that.
     
  13. FailedToDefendDiss

    FailedToDefendDiss New Member

    I didn't take it like he was a bad guy at all, that was really the kind of thing I needed to hear. No matter what, a pity party isn't going to cut it and AACSB accreditation for a program I come out of matters little if I don't actually want to do research.
     
  14. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    This is poor sentence structure. How is it poor information to say something that's true? Some CCs do require publications. If you want to argue that most don't, then you can, but I didn't say that most CCs do. The entire CUNY system is putting more emphasis on scholarship at their community colleges.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/nyregion/raising-ambitions-the-challenge-in-teaching-at-community-colleges.html
     
  15. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    Got it. Just wanted you to know, because Steve's our resident "bad boy" who likes having fun with new posters and getting in a little back-and-forth sometimes. It occasionally ends up in highly entertaining insult wars, of which Steve is an absolute master (as are a few others around here). I almost think Steve could fashion a career as an insult comic. But as you correctly interpret, there's no real malice behind it. It's sport.

    That's right. If you don't want to do research, then the AACSB thing is pretty irrelevant. At best, it might give you a marginally better chance of getting a job at the sort of liberal arts colleges where you'd like to be, though then again, if you had an AACSB doctorate and a list of peer-reviewed pubs, it might hurt your chances at getting a job in a place like that, because they'd probably assume you were just going to stay for a year or two while you kept on searching for a job at an R1 or R2. I teach at an R2, and it's not all it's cracked up to be. There's more money to be had (though I'm not cashing in on it compared with most of my colleagues), but the research pressures are a constant nagging thing.
     
  16. dlbb

    dlbb Active Member

    You told him he was in the wrong field because very few community colleges require publications. How you make that vast jump in logic, I cannot begin to wonder. You may be surprised to learn that most do not. No, wait, you already knew that, and yet you still told him he was in the wrong field, likely just to be negative.
     
    chrisjm18 likes this.
  17. FailedToDefendDiss

    FailedToDefendDiss New Member

    That was suggested by someone else, and after calling the program coordinator, it isn't an option. The classes fall off of your transcript after 8 years and you cannot retake them as your status is changed from "early stage" to "late stage" after you pass your comps. Unfortunately, this option has gone by the wayside, it seems. And that is my responsibility, lest it seem like I am blaming anyone!
     
  18. FailedToDefendDiss

    FailedToDefendDiss New Member

    Thank you for saying that. I looked into Northcentral University, which would require 21 months to complete. I'd have to speak to my chair, but if I got in immediately and finished on time, I would be able to apply for tenure on time. So that is one option.

    I'm also speaking with recruiters and I may go back to industry. I can increase my pay markedly as I already have a MBA and would look to complete a DBA at a place like St. Leo with an ACBSP accreditation and then get myself back into a SLAC.
     
  19. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    It's based on the fact that more and more colleges are expecting scholarship. Many of the teaching colleges that used to not require research are now requiring it. So, as described in the article, you can take a job not expecting to be required to conduct research, and the school can all of a sudden decide that it is required.
     
  20. dlbb

    dlbb Active Member

    Relevance to community college, which had led to your comment: minimal.
    Relevance to other positions: yes.
     

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