I received my conditional admission to CSU-DH

I received my conditional admission to CSU-DH MA in Humanities program. The reason it is conditional is -

"Your GPA could not be calculated due to a lack of letter grades"

I did not send my transcript from TUI because I did not think it mattered and I did not want to spend the extra $20. Now the question is...Do I really want to start another masters degree along with my PhD?

 

Randell1234,
I was wondering if your "sig" was not updated, maybe you had finished your PhD and were ready to continue learning.

So are you really going to do both at the same time? If so, how do you manage your time?

 

No I did not finish my PhD. I am on my third class and think I will finish in 4-5 years. I am thinking of doing both but I am not sure. As far as the time- I am married but no kids and I rent. I work alot but all my spare time is my own. I was think that my wife and I could read all the books for the HUX program and make it "fun" instead of "school work"

 

Randell,

Good luck to you. I am sure you will do well. By the way, what is your dissertation topic at Northcentral? ( I hope I have not asked this before).

 

Pursuing the second master's vs. the Ph.D. is strictly a personal decision. What do you want to do with the degree? Do you have the resources to finish? These--and many other--questions are for you to decide.

Some people on this board have made elegant arguments why they don't want to pursue a doctorate. Others, like me, have explained why we did it and how it helped us. Both sides are correct--for them. What's correct for you is something you'll have to decide. Good luck!

 

CSUDH HUX is a good program. Just remember, when trying to take two graduate programs at once, you may want to take just one class at a time in one of them. I think your conditional status will be removed if you stay above a B average in your first 9 hours of coursework.

 

Goals-
Complete my PhD to get a teaching position. Besides that I get 4K per year in tuition assistance. Why should I waste it if I have the time.

Earn 18 credits in Humanities to teach and I like the subject. I really do not intend on finishing it unless I complete my PhD and want to torture myself.

 

Even though accreditation regulations allow for the possibility that one may teach with 18 hours in one's field, I get the impression from various comments made on this board that rarely do people get an initial hire on that basis. One might, if already teaching at a given school, be called upon at the last minute to teach, say, an extra Western Civ course if one is already a prof in one of the other humanities disciplines and one happens to have 18 graduate history credits. But, having an undergrad degree in history and a grad degree in business, I doubt that the chair in humanities is going to think to ask whether one of the business profs has the qualifications to teach an intro history class (or vice versa). Go for the full-fledged MA if you really want to teach humanities. Besides, do you think your HUX profs will want to stand as your reference if you just up and quit at 18 hours? That's called burning your bridges.

 

Randell,

You should read some of the forums at the Chronicle of Higher Education's website. I read a few when trying to get a few opinions on the CC hiring market. Of course it is all over the board, but they did say that: To teach in the HUMANITIES = Get PhD. What can increase you chances is your ability to adjunct at the school for a couple of years and develop a network with the department.

To emphasize Ted's point, they don't allow people to takes HUX courses as a non-degree student (I was checking for the possibility earlier this week). They want people who are serious about completing the program.

 

I may be wrong but I believe that you would find it difficult to land a college level teaching job in Humanities with the CSUDH HUX degree. For example my old CSUDH catalog shows that the HUX faculty is composed largely of professors from other college faculties such as music and history.

It would seem that there are many more opportunities to teach business than humanities. Why not concentrate on your PhD and use your tuition assistance for that while it is still available.

 

I am using the tuition assistance for my PhD, one class at a time.

 

And why would the fact that the Humanities External Degree Program at CSUDH draws it's professors from the Departments of History, Literature, Music, Art, and Philosophy effect the situation, given that the aforementioned disciplines are humanities?

 

I spoke to someone at a community college and got a bit of a different story. I was told if you have an masters, 18 credits in humanaites would be OK since the school is in need of humanities instructors.

 

I am thinking of something like this-

In the biomed field (medical equipment repair), there is a great need for the biomeds to have computer and networking knowledge. The old mindset has been – medical is medical and computers are computers. Computers are handled by IT not biomed. With more medical equipment becoming computer based, the biomeds need new knowledge and training.

I would like to measure this knowledge gap and try to find out how much money is spent calling in the OEM to repair products that the local biomed could fix with the proper training.

 

My point was that colleges seem to draw on teachers with specialist degrees (i.e. history), not general degrees, to teach humanity courses. I am sure there are exceptions, but the CC job market is tough (even when one has great contacts), so one should aim for a degree that will help ones goals.