University of the Cumberlands Online PhD in Information Technology

Discussion in 'IT and Computer-Related Degrees' started by Marcus Aurelius, Jan 29, 2018.

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  1. kicksix

    kicksix New Member

    Just adding on to what Steve said, for those of you who are looking at Cumberlands, or you're in the early stages of the program...this is why it takes a minimum of 16 months to complete the dissertation phase:

    • ITS 736 Dissertation Seminar is a 16 week long class. Prerequisites are 734 Inferential Statistics and one of the optional classes (LEAS 730, LEAS 830, LEAC 836, INTR799).
    • ITS 839 Adv. Research Methods is a 16 week long class. Prerequisites are 734 Inferential Statistics and ITS 736 Dissertation Seminar.
      • You will also need to complete the comprehensive exam, get Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, and find a dissertation adviser.
    • ITS 930 Dissertation is a 16 week long class. Prerequisites are "all coursework, including those in the content specialty area, needs to be completed".
    • ITS 931 Dissertation is a 16 week long class. " 930 and 931 are taken consecutively", meaning you'll start 931 AFTER you've completed 930.
    The 16 week classes start at the beginning of the semester, meaning you cannot start FALL II or SPRING II for the above courses (remember this for when you're mapping out your course path).

    Depending on how you schedule your classes it could very well take 20 months in the Professional Research phase because you have to complete 734 and 730/830/836/ or 799 before you move into the first 16 week long course. If you're smart, you'll mix in 734 and one of the other prerequisites mid to more than halfway through Content Specialty phase, then take the remainder of the credits required for the Content Specialty in one of the bi-semester during 736 and 839. You CANNOT do this with 930 and 931 (you need to be complete with all coursework before these courses can be taken).

    Advice? Open up Excel and map out the shortest distance from where you are right now to the end.

    Might be a long road, but one day it'll all be behind you...if you don't give up :)
     
    Last edited: Nov 19, 2019
  2. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Forgive me if you've said this already but what are you/expecting/hoping to do once you've finished your degree?
     
  3. kicksix

    kicksix New Member

    For me, it's professional development. I work for a health system (clinical research university) on the hospital side as a Systems Architect/Developer. I want to move to the university side of the health system as a Research Scientist in their IT department, but those positions require a PhD; work experience and/or certifications can't be used to substitute the education requirement.
     
  4. wingshot

    wingshot New Member

    I'm a PhD candidate of UofC because I already teach at a university. The expectation is we will earn a PhD, so much so the institution pays for our PhD (up to a certain amount per credit hour). UofC is properly accredited, meets our requirements, and given the amount our institution reimburses per credit hour, the PhD is free for me.

    I asked UofC about some of the complaints listed in this thread. Their response was that their traditional approach was a liberal admissions process, and unfit candidates were weeded out along the way. They modified this approach by recently increasing the minimum graduate level GPA from 3.0 to 3.5. They also increased the TOEFL score requirements. UofC also added an admissions writing requirement to better judge the writing skills of PhD applicants as an additional check beyond the TOEFL score.
     
  5. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    This is great to hear. The GPA increase is good. The writing sample and TOEFL score are good moves, but at the end of the day, those can be faked - so weeding out is going to be the best option over the long term. Thanks Wingshot.
     
  6. ciha

    ciha New Member

    if this school has so many issues, why arent people considering the arkansas phd program? it seems cheaper, same transfer policy, and its a real school without any drama. it even has live classes. maybe i am missing something.
     
  7. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    Because UofC is a real school and outside of the online components has a reasonably good reputation. It's going through the growing pains that other schools have mitigated in their online programs by limiting their F1 students to face to face programs; and it will likely get better over time.

    Besides which, there's the matter of folks defending something they've already committed to.
     
  8. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    perhaps you would include a link to the program
     
  9. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

  10. Tolu19

    Tolu19 New Member

    Because of the three residency requirements.
     
  11. Marcus Aurelius

    Marcus Aurelius Active Member

  12. wingshot

    wingshot New Member

    Gotta take the GRE or GMAT on that one, right?
     
  13. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Yeah, I'm a morning person. And a night owl. Let's face it, I don't sleep much.
     
  14. ciha

    ciha New Member

    The only residency requirements are 3 visits for comps, proposal and defense, so not a whole week or something, just a day or so. I have heard that these are flexible (as in, one or so may be able to be remote) but do you really want a PhD from a school and never visit even for one day?
     
  15. ciha

    ciha New Member

    I think there are waivers if you already have a grad degree? Not sure but just from other information on line , this seems to be the case
     
  16. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    For a lot of people it's not really a question of what they want, it's more a matter of what is possible.
     
    chrisjm18 likes this.
  17. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    I'll agree here.
     
  18. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    When I "visit" a school I'm visiting my professors. Over the years, I've even had a prof or two over for dinner rather than attend office hours. I couldn't care less about the campus, the buildings, where it is or the folks that maintain the lawns, though I'm sure they're all wonderful people. I care about the relationships and if I do my job right as a student and I'm a good human generally when dealing with folks, I don't know that I need to physically go to the school.

    I get where you're coming from though.
     
  19. Michigan68

    Michigan68 Active Member

    Oh Yes, you should care.

    If I walked the campus and saw crumbling sidewalks, door that couldn't open, graffiti and an abandoned looking grounds. . . . I would run away from that school and find another school. Those issues would tell me that they didn't care about the students or how they look to visitors and how they viewed their staff.

    There are college campuses in horrible places in Detroit, but when I walked thru the buildings and grounds; it tells me the College Admin and the Students care. example: University of Detroit - Mercy
     
  20. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I would assume that they were about to be bankrupt
     

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