Advice

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post. I have been teaching online marketing courses since 2002. . I have 24 graduate credits in marketing. I am considering earning an online PhD or DBA with a specialization in marketing. I am also 11 years away from retirement. I have applied for a bit over 300 online teaching gigs in the last 2 years and have not secured one new teaching gig. Thus, I am considering spending around $30,000 on a doctorate. The reason for this is to 1---secure my current teaching positions, 2---secure new teaching gigs (online and possibly teaching on the ground at a community college). I am hoping to receive some feedback:

1. Does it make sense to earn a doctorate?

2. Should I go for a DBA or PhD in marketing?

3. I am interested in University of Cumberland or Liberty. Does anyone have any thoughts on the quality of these schools?

4. What kind of accreditation is good enough to teach online or at a community college?

Thank you for your feedback.

Best, Freebie

 

Which brings us to lesson one: When you write a post, post it once in the most relevant forum (which, in this case, is this one). Do not duplicate your post in a second forum - it will be ignored and you will look like a spammer. That said, welcome to DegreeInfo.

At 24 graduate credits, you are approximately halfway to an MBA or MS in marketing. If you go directly into a doctorate program, you will spend at least another year or two as someone with a mere bachelor's degree. Additionally, you would not gain anything, since most programs will require you to take additional credits toward the doctorate. Hedge your bets, and grab a master's along the way.

No surprise - you are competing against lots of folks who already have a doctorate. Moreover, my experience has been that people tend to gain new teaching positions based on who they know, not by reading classified ads. The market is already saturated, so the question is what makes you better than them? (Which, at this point, is a rhetorical question.) At your current level, you would more likely be considered based on your professional accomplishments and whether you have a publication record.

One more thing to look at, especially as a marketing guy: ROI. If you spend $30,000 on a doctorate, how long will it take you to recoup that $30,000? Especially if having a doctorate does not increase your chance of being hired elsewhere because the supply will continue to outweigh the demand? It's one thing to go for a doctorate if you will get your jollies doing so, but if you are relying on ROI you may be sorely disappointed. The business fields are already saturated.

The answer is perhaps - eventually.

In academia, a PhD. is always given preference over a DBA. Indeed, the DBA is already at the point where it is merely a doctorate du jour. Or, for lack of a better term, the DBA is the new MBA. Everyone either has one or is getting one. The DBA is largely a cash cow for the schools that offer it, and we've had many testimonies from people who have gotten a DBA and have attained nothing from having it.

Either one is credible. Both are non-profit, both are regionally accredited, and both have brick-and-mortar campuses. But go with a Ph.D., not a DBA, and do not go with a leadership major (IMO, it's worthless). My own opinion, FWIW, is that Liberty is the more credible of the two, but keep in mind that the pervasive evangelical orientation of either school could be baggage in some circles. (Or, just as often, could be advantageous.)

I'm an RA-or-the-highway guy, so obviously my answer is to go with a regionally accredited school. DEAC accreditation is, IMO, a joke at the doctoral level, especially if you have academic goals, and obviously you should stay away from all for-profit schools (you're heading in the right direction on that one already).

 

I think Steve pretty well touched all the bases that needs covered. One thing I would add to his RA accreditation is that the business school be AACSB or ACBSP accredited. Since you are looking for an online PhD, your best bet is going to be ACBSP accreditation. I believe that UofC and Liberty have that accreditation.

 

Cumberlands' Robert W. Plaster Graduate School of Business (like the Hutton School of Business at the undergraduate level) is accredited by the IACBE, not the ACBSP.

Liberty holds programmatic accreditation from the ACBSP, but Liberty's directory listing on the ACBSP site only lists specified associate's, bachelor's, and master's degrees as falling in the scope of that accreditation.

 

Thank you for pointing this out! I had not looked at either of their websites in quite sometime so I was not 100% certain.

 

It's a pretty straight up ROI cost accounting analysis. Or you could approach it from a time value of money perspective. One question is, when you say "11 years away from retirement", do you wish to retire in 11 years? Or is this your way of saying you're 51 or 54? I have a colleague here at State U who spent 25 years working for one of the largest accounting firms in the world, then one day decided he'd had enough of it. So in his late-40s, he got accepted into a residential PhD program at a Big 12 university. His case was unusual, as that's pretty late in the game to gain acceptance, but he pulled it off. He finished the PhD well into his 50s and started a second career in academia, where he makes right at $100K a year. He's now in his 70s and shows no signs of slowing, I could see him teaching another 15 years. So whether you have 11 more years and then you hang it all up and buy the lake house, or whether you're just telling us you're in your early 50s and might become like my colleague makes a big difference in that ROI analysis.

 

I teach FT at a State U (as implied above). So naturally I have more than the credentials needed to teach online. Years ago not long after we had our last child and before my wife went back into the academia work force (thus we were needing a little extra cash), I shot out multiple CVs for online teaching spots. Not a single whisper back. Yet when I've tested the market by sending out CVs for full time tenure track jobs, I've gotten some positive responses and multiple interviews (though never a good enough offer to lure me away from here). So this leads to the hypothesis that it may be easier to land a full time tenure track teaching spot in business academia for decent money than it is to land an adjunct online spot that pays diddly squat. Back in my adjuncting days, the only way I ever got jobs was by either physically living there in the town and contacting the administration and asking if they had any needs, by getting a lead from an administrator at a school where I was already adjuncting, or by unsuccessfully interviewing for a full time job, then later getting a call from them when they asked if I was interested in teaching an online course.