Johnson University: PhD in Leadership Studies

Do you really need someone to spell out the answer for you ? You can't figure it out for yourself ?

The Extension School was founded in 1910 (long before there was such a thing as web-based distance learning). It was established to serve the educational interests and needs of the greater Boston area, and so it was deliberately made non-selective. At the same time, Harvard wanted to protect the reputation of its other graduate and undergraduate programs, which are extremely selective. So the Extension program was put in a separate school, where it remains today.

If you think there is something inappropriate about this arrangement, then what would you propose to do differently ?

 

I was being sarcastic with my Northwestern remark. As far as you comparing the program to a community college program, well, I think you are missing a screw somewhere. My program is exactly the same as the on ground program, taught by the exact same professors. In addition, if I wanted it, I could have taken classes in Evanston. My current boss, who holds an MBA degree from Wharton by the way, asked me during the interview process how I earned my degree. I explained that since I was in the military it was nearly impossible to attend classes at a physical campus, that online modality was the only way to go. Guess what he said? "your degree is still a Northwestern degree", he was amazed how I was able to fit family, deployments, and a hectic work schedule and still manage to get a degree. Ultimately I got the job, thanks in part to my community college degree from Northwestern. :deal:

 

Hey wildgoose, want to go to a premed board?

"Well doc, I have a reality check for you: Even if you have an M.D. and board certification in psychiatry, you will largely be viewed as inferior in psychotherapy and testing/assessment by most Psychologists." A poster could add that psychologists generally have more years of postbaccalaureate education categorically in "psychology" than psychiatrists in "psychiatry" (a psychiatry residency is one year in general medicine and three in psychiatry). They could assert that the extension of prescribing privileges for nurse practitioners, for physician assistants under remote supervision, and in the military and a very few states for psychologists threaten the role, status and income of psychiatrists. They could list dozens of specialties of medicine where I'm sure they make the odd joke about psychiatrists not being real physicians.

They could do all this but it wouldn't really tell any serious board member who'd been an aspiring psychiatrist for more than a week anything they hadn't likely considered and weighed at least as well as the poster had already.

Likewise, more or less, here?

Also, I think most people reading this are not going to have steam coming out of our ears if someone won't talk to us because our degree isn't from {a 100% on-the-ground program from one or a small number of elite colleges}. Likely every single person reading this knows that this can happen and does, and are ready to work with the best we have.

 

By the way, here's someone who lists her Harvard Extension School degree as follows:

"• Harvard University, Cambridge, MA., ALB 1995 in Computer Science, Cum Laude. A Coin Toss: the Dialectical Odds aren't always 50/50. Honors grades in all courses. Completed graduate courses in computer science, mathematics, physics, educational psychology and philosophy. Delivered graduation speech."

She properly identifies Harvard University, not college, and the Extension School-only ALB degree title. She doesn't further mention Extension Studies or the Extension School.

She lists the degree directly as being "in Computer Science" without "field of study" or whatever term the school used at the time for its major, concentration or equivalent.

All this works well enough to appear on a website owned by Harvard, where she directs a lab and is visiting scholar for the prestigious and selective School of Engineering and Applied Science.

 

Do what you must. Its generally a good idea to shoot the messenger.

But seriously: My point is NOT to "piss off" anyone. What cooks my noodle is this: ' These people have such possibility to demand much needed changes in the culture of distance learning which is sorely needed." The problem is you guys are so focused on lapping up the nonsense that both the for profits and the b&ms are chugging out, that you arent asking key questions. For example, what exactly IS a PhD in Leadership Studies? Who is it designed for? Is it REALLY on a peer level as say a residential PhD in Organizational Psych? If the answer is that its really designed for someone who wants to sound impressive but doesnt care if he or she is on a peer level, then demand that the public and potential students understand this. Failure to do so contributes to the very real problem of dl students being seen as wannabes.

So pardon me for not kowtowing to the all wise moderators, or refusing to care that Ive only been a member of the board since September. How long do you really expect people to venerate your holinesses before speaking up? I waited about 7 months and held to every morsel of wisdom which proceeded from your keyboards. No...I dont think a degree fom Zululand would be viewd as anywhere NEAR peer level to one from one from the US. Does that make me an awful person? OK...guilty as charged. I'm rotten to the core. Do I think an MA in Interdisciplinary studies from any ra program is viewed as peer to an on campus MA in a single humanities discipline? Not a chance...and that's the field Im in. Oh wait....I just offended myself! Wow! I really AM a tool, ain't I?

 

Good find! Keep digging, keep asking. Tell me: Did you fact check who issued the MA?

 

@jonathan - Go back and re-read my comments to Bruce then ask yourself "Does that goose think that psychiatrists really are smarter/more authoritative/better than psychologists?"

Sometimes the perceived enemy isnt one at all.

 

Oh, you really haven't been here long, have you.

Just because we're being tough customers with your critique doesn't mean we're not tough customers with some of those you're critiquing too.

I don't think this is all that specific to distance learning. I think there are a fair number of residential degrees "in leadership;" most are at the bachelor's and master's level, but it's a fairly new designation.

Here, from Johnson University, it's probably similar to an doctorate in educational leadership, offered by scores of schools on the ground, without specificity to education. With Johnson University's roots as a bible college, it's probably not dissimilar to a D.Min. without specificity to the role of a minister, or a soft-skills-oriented doctorate in business, public, or nonprofit management.

Straw man.

I think people with bachelor's and master's degrees from every South African university are admitted to highly prestigious U.S., Canadian, European, etc. universities for higher studies every year, their degrees readily, directly and provably recognized as equivalent by the the prestigious Global North universities themselves.

More straw men.

 

I think you're confusing the MA in "Cambridge, MA" with a degree. She claims an S.M. from MIT, also a Ph.D., and I have no reason to doubt.

 

Likewise here? You're almost screaming at us – sputtering at least? – in large part it seems because you're not convinced that we accept basic premises about some schools and degrees being higher in status – ETA: in some contexts, to some observers – where I think we've all accepted this premise broadly all along. We'll reach different assessments about some specifics, obviously.

 

I will and I have.....let's see if a one-week vacation improves your attitude.

Congratulations wildgoose, you're one of about 5-6 non-spammers that I've ever banned in over 11 years of moderating this board.

Everyone else who is interested in the Ph.D. in Leadership Studies program at Johnson University, you have your thread back.....feel free to discuss.

 

I think it's time for a commercial break! hahaha

 

Okay....well....here is the commercial.

I'm the Graduate Recruiter at Johnson University. I'll be glad to answer any questions a person may have about Johnson's Ph.D. in Leadership Studies. Just let me know.