15 y.o. DBH student at ASU

Instead of a dissertation, the DBH has an applied project.

 

A DBH holder is not eligible for licensure in the United States (although there could be some exceptions somewhere). But wouldn't it be something to be seen by a 9 year old, lol?

 

Just a stunt, an obvious one by the parents and the college. Good reason not to go there.

 

This is absolutely absurd. I was combing the horrible comments and learned a bit more. She didn't attend classes, was able to take work home, basically at every turn where she could have some public scurutny, it's avoided. No classmates, no public papers, no dissertation... nothing. She didn't engage with normal faculty and seems to being used a pawn for pr.

 

Huh? Meeting the admissions requirements for the DBH with the management concentration is not hard. Generally, ASU online is not highly selective. Other than being young, how is she any different from the other applicants? Having a high acceptance rate is not a PR stunt. She completed the courses that she needed in the DBH program and graduated.

The DBH is a 100% online program and is only offered online. It's been that way for years. You're acting as if they created this program just for her. It is very common for homeschooled, accelerated students to attend online programs. This is a distance education forum. If you're going to question her online degrees, then you might as well question the degrees of everyone here.

 

There's an extensive history of precociously young graduates of undergraduate degrees, on campus and by distance. For generations there have been individual special cases at countless colleges and early college programs at numerous colleges. A physical campus devoted exclusively to early college students, Bard College at Simon's Rock, admitted its first class in 1966 and has operated continuously since.

There's a thinner history of precociously young graduates of graduate degrees but as graduate degrees become more accessible and common it's no surprise that more do.

 

What sanantone said - all of it - plus there is no dissertation required in this program. There IS a capstone, which is not the same thing.
From the ASU program page at https://asuonline.asu.edu/online-degree-programs/graduate/doctor-behavioral-health-management/

"This program culminates with a unique capstone research project where you’ll develop a comprehensive business plan that aligns with your personal and professional interests."

 

Way back in 2012, I came across ASU's new-at-the-time DBH. So, back when this girl was five years old, ASU created this 18-month doctorate without a dissertation in anticipation of her attendance.

https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-Accidentally-Found-Two-Doctoral-Programs-with-No-Dissertation-or-No-Residency

ASU Online has 62,000 students. I doubt they need a PR stunt to draw in applicants.

 

If it don't sound right, it likely isn't. Cheating at online schools and B&M schools is rampant - no one wants to talk about it. When I was taking my PhD at state u, it was common knolwedge the students from a certain very large foreign country cheated on everything. One finally got caught taking comprehensive exams with a memory stick (might have been a disk as it was like 20 years ago) in hand and trying to submit an essay another of their cohort had submitted the year before. Home schoolers especially from the online charter schools often get a helping hand from mommy and daddy.

 

Hogwash. The truth is, you have no idea about what this particular student did, and your experience has nothing in common with this situation.
Frankly, this is an executive-type program in a soft-ish subject. For a 17yo homeschooling prodigy, writing academic papers may well be their core competency, so I don't find it a stretch, at all, that Ms. Tillman was able to pass her classes just like anyone else could. I do have some reservations on how meaningful a 18-month online doctorate on a "management track" might be for someone without a real work experience in a real industry. But to me, that is a case of "gaming" the system within the rules. Not unlike, you know, "BA in 4 weeks" and overall, the whole point of this forum.

 

Nice closing-argument flourish, counsel. Shame you presented no evidence on this case itself.

 

Just my informed opinion based on a lot of experience. People also tell me I must be imagining that students are using AI to write papers.

 

That isn't my experience. Quite the contrary, in fact. Apparently, you aren't too familiar with homeschooling as it, unlike the traditional route, engenders independence, self-determination, and intrinsic motivation.

 

In other news, 15-year-old homeschooler Abigail Lee just completed her BS in Psychology from Liberty.

“She found the subject matter really interesting,” her father says. “It was self-driven, and she had a lot of flexibility to pick her courses and the sequence. I don’t think it was a function of us trying to push her to accomplish anything quickly. We just didn’t want to be in a position where we were holding her back.”

She's been accepted into the graduate program in data analytics and policy from Johns Hopkins.

 

Yessir. He was my favorite atheist. Ever see the film Collision?

 

That's a half-truth. As any less-regulated sector, homeschooling runs the gamut from educating Olympic athletes and extremely gifted students, through very important role accommodating differences where traditional school falls short, through making way for objectionable (but rightly constitutionally protected) family views, through cults, to just being cover for neglect and domestic abuse.


Of course, "helping hand from mommy and daddy" assumption-jumping is epically unjustified.

 

My take: Dr. Tillman's journey is basically the same kind of efficiently playing the game this forum promotes. As I am a parent to a teenager and a pre-teen, I absorb quite a bit of information and advice on school achievement, college admissions, athletics, merit etc. The astounding amount of stuff kids do just to be competitive for, eg., a spot in Stanford or MIT engineering program is easily on par with, if not way more impressive than, what Dorothy Tillman did here. She and her family just used a bit of planning and tricks we openly describe here to make sure she gets a "Dr." title for her trouble, where her peers in 8 AP classes and summer research internships and tons of volunteering just get a lousy HS diploma.

Does this make sense for everybody or even many people? Nah, not by a mile. But in a specific case? Dr. Tillman is in a nonprofit game; I can easily imagine how her status as a "prodigy" translates to media attention (as evident here) which then translates to buzz (and fundraising) for her STEM camps which advances her cause AND her CV. In any case, no one here is in position of judging how this makes sense FOR HER than herself and her closest support system. Good for her. And yes, feats like this require a lot of family support; doesn't mean mommy and daddy helped her cheat on assignments (my sincere guess is that they didn't).

You know what it reminds me of? There is a current of negativity in Scouting towards Eagle Scouts attaining the rank at a relatively early age, say before 14. As a parent of one (and probably, soon, two, knock on wood) of these, I really resent that.