I thought I would give a quick review of the DBA program at Grand Canyon University. I enrolled at the beginning of this year and am currently in my fourth course. Generally the program is pretty good I think. There is alot of reading - a few chapters in a textbook and several papers or studies per week is average. The instructors are average to above average compared to other programs I have been in. I am no where near the dissertation stage yet so I don't know how that will work out. The program is $630 per credit hour - not the most expensive or the cheapest. I know what you are going to ask - what do I hope to do with the degree when I am finished? The answer is I have no plans or expectations. I already have an exceptional career and I don't need the degree. I can afford the cost and I am doing it for my own personal satisfaction. I have wasted more money on other things. Here is a quick run down of my courses to date: RES-811 - This course was all about the doctoral process and heavily about getting your writing style down. They were exceptionally picky about writing format and style and it was by far the hardest course so far. The instructor was not really all that nice and did a poor job responding to questions from students. He was also a very slow grader. I did not enjoy this course. DBA -805 - This course was a re-hash of management theories. I have a BA and MBA in management so it was not a hard course for me. There were 4 major written assignments. The instructor was good and very responsive and engaged with students constantly. I did enjoy the course. DBA -810 - This course was the marketing course. There was a major disconnect between the reading assignments and the written assignments. The instructor was from China - his written English was not all that great. The reading assignments were focused on the standard marketing theories. All of the written assignments were on social media marketing. The course was ok. I did learn quite a bit about marketing in social media. This was an OK course. MGT -805 - This is a course about organizational structures and it is my current course. So far it has been good and I am enjoying it. I have never taken a course on organizational structures before and I am learning much. The instructor is very engaged with students and seems to reply quickly to questions.
I figured it was time for another update. I am now finished with 7 courses in the DBA program at Grand Canyon University. Some course have been harder than others but all of them have been harder than the coursework in my previous programs. I have had one terrible professor, a bunch of average professors and one excellent professor. My favorite course to date was the Intellectual Capital course. I actually changed my research direction based on this course. DBA-815 - This was an economics course. The instructor seemed pretty switched on and was responsive to message board posts and any questions. The text was useful but not all that important to the course. The course really focused on finding literature on various topics and then studying them. I enjoyed this course and learned alot. MGT-810 - This was a knowledge management / IC course. It was very interesting. The instructor here was by far the best one in my program. There was alot writing in this course and I needed to plan ahead to keep up. The text was useful but the instructor used alot of literature to support the course. RES-861 - This was a course on writing the literature review. The instructor was the worst ever. She was disorganized, unresponsive and inconsistent. She did not follow the syllabus and grading rubric. She would change the assignment instructions every week and was not clear in her instructions. This course is designed to allow the doctoral student to walk away with a first draft literature review. That could not happen based on how the instructor changed the assignments. I did learn alot about the process of writing a literature review and I did get my topic much more refined.
Good morning. Time for another update on the program. I am now finished with all of the course work for the program and have entered officially the dissertation phase. The last few courses were ok. I did not have any major complaints although I did have one poor professor who was just not engaged at all with the course. I completed the second residency in May of this year. It was much like the first. I spent a week in Phoenix trying to get my prospectus sorted out. At the end of the residency, I felt very comfortable with where my prospectus was based on the residency instructors. After the residency I was assigned my chair. My chair had very different ideas on where to go with my research and I ended up having to change a great deal of my study. It was disappointing and I spent the last 45 days changing the scope of my research and re-writing my prospectus. It seems this is pretty common in the doctorate world so I am accepting and moving on. So far the dissertation process has been an absolute cluster. While on the surface it appears that GCU has a very structured system for the dissertation process, my feeling is that it is all smoke and mirrors. If I ran my business like they do, I would be fired. My dissertation chair is new to GCU and does not know most of the process. That leaves us both scrambling for answers to the process. She is very knowledgeable as a writer and Phd, but for GCU she does not have the knowledge of the process to effectively guide me. At this point I am cautiously optimistic that I am more or less on track and hope to complete my dissertation in the next year. The big question - would I recommend GCU's DBA program to anyone? I am not sure honestly. The course work was ok to good generally. The dissertation phase so far has not been up to snuff in my opinion. When I finish I will hopefully have a better answer.
Good luck and hang in there! It's interesting to read your updates. Oddly enough they sound like most of the doctoral researchers I know. The dissertation process at 90% of the universities (including "state schools") seem to be set up to be purposefully arduous. The processes are thought to be unorganized, confusing, and messy. It's almost as if part of your doctoral degree is a badge of how much BS you can wade through to get to the other side. Stay the course! Looking forward to your next update.
I have just started the DBA with an emphasis in data analytics and so far I haven't found it to be bad. I have only done the prerequisite class and first class. I am finding the first class challenging but nothing special. The professor I have is much better than the what the OP had from what I can tell so it's going to really be hit and miss with the professors. You can definitely tell the difference between GCU and a school that has competitive admissions as I have noticed people on the discussion boards who don't seem like they should be in a doctorate but that does not detract from the overall program as I would assume they will be weeded out down the line .
I'd say it is worth it. They now have and emphasis in data analytics. I have just started it and so far the first professor has been great. Having gotten my MBA from an AACSB college I can say the overall difficulty is on par so far and really the only difference is I have noticed some students in the program who don't seem like they belong in doctoral level education. I think that is because they pretty much accept anyone with an MBA but I wouldn't discount the degree over it.
Interested in DBA at GCU Great thread going here and real talk - I love it! It is my dream to pursue doctorate and I completed my Masters in Engineering and well settled in a job. I have been waiting for 7 years to realize. No schools closer to where I live so, I did my second Masters as MBA. Finally came across a few online universities and carefully examined CalSoutheren & GCU. I am ruling out CalSoutheren for some reason. Please help me make a decision with your valuable input. Question: 1. Is DBA in Management a good choice at GCU as far as the faculty goes? 2. How much effort on an average needed per week for DBA (doesn't matter whether Data Analytics/ Management/ Marketing stream). Please give me your input. 3. Does any of you have gone through the experience of studying in the car? What I mean is listening to your lessons on your car audio. Is that a possibility, I spend a lot of time driving.
Expat_Eric, I am waiting for your feedback! Did you finish the program did you graduate? Did you go through any continuation courses to build extra time for dissertation? Waiting to know about the final leg of your journey and your overall experience would be great....
DBA / Data Analytics Thank you all for your posts. It's very informative. I got my MBA in 2015 and just finished a 2-month certification in data analysis. Now, I'm planning to enroll in DBA - data analytics @ Grand Canyon University in the spring or fall 2018. Currently, I am taking data science certification on coursera which takes about 9 months. 1. Would anyone suggest for me to finish the certification at coursera before starting with DBA in data analytics? I was thinking if I get more knowledge in data analytics it wouldn't be so hard for me to get an emphasis in the same field in the d program. 2. I believe dba students are required to visit the campus for a residency twice . In what year in the program are we ask to go? As I live in California. Appreciate all your reply. Thanks!
Hi, I would like to know if the DBA in data analytics worth it in GCU? Are the courses well designed for this program and also would like to know the latest info about the teaching faculty? Are the study material provided for these courses? Please reply it so that I would like to decide whether to join or not. Thanks
I am now just finishing up the core classes and in the dissertation phase come this October. The classes are what you make of them. I was one of the first people in the data analytics program so I did find a lack of people in the field. It made collaborating at residency a little more difficult but I made connections with professors for trying to speed up the process. The biggest complaint I hear about the doctorates programs in general is that people take a lot longer than expected to finish which by working with people at residency, I can see why. People are trying to hard to do more work than is necessary for their dissertation. If you do a quantitative study with archival data you should be able to finish relatively quickly. All in all, I would say the program was worth it but I am using my GI bill alongside my current employer to pay for it. I do not believe I would have done it other wise but that is more because I really do not need it. I am doing this program to add another bullet to try and keep myself slightly ahead of those with MBAs.
Thanks for the reply! Is this the first batch for DBA in data analytics in GCU? I also did my MBA and want to see if this additional DBA will help.I am still checking the total cost for this program and also to see if there are any scholarships available. I am little nervous also to see if they provide all the online course material or do we still have to buy lots of books.Do you have to visit GCU anytime apart from residency? will the professors guide you through the residency program? Can you tell me the total cost that was incurred and also do you have to take any bridge programs
