NCU was More Rigorous than California State University

You missed "Pay us and do not, under any circumstances, call for help". To be fair, my stats teacher was available all the time and called right back. My chair was great also.

 

I found NCU's interaction with students on par with Thomas Edison State college which is a non-profit, online, state school.
I emailed my teachers and didn't get a response for weeks in some cases.
There was zero student-teacher interaction besides grading of papers.

I suspect this may be the same at my local B&M state school. In fact, I read a syllabus for a biz comm course at my local school and the teacher said that he would give numeric grades only on papers and would not offer any comments at all. If the student really really wanted comments, they could sign a contract with him, he would do the comments and then the student was required to rework the paper.

 

Yes, Cal State Long Beach was the same and this was in-person.

 

Here you go:

Dr. Randell - in reference to your recent feedback regarding our institution, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your input. Now, please piss off and have a nice day. NCU

 

----------:haha:

 

Thanks, I feel better now...

 

As a possibly "biased" NCU graduate (Ph.D. in Education: Technology Management) I do think the program was rigorous, especially the dissertation part. I am very proud of my accomplishment.

I do agree with the above quote, but this is the type of student I am. Just tell me where you need me to be at the end of this course, give me a few clues how to get there, and I will get there! I also totally agree this is not for everyone and students would be at an advantage to know in advance how the courses are designed and what is expected of students. I did ask those questions and when I found out NCU offered more independence, less group work, this was a huge factor in my decision to choose this school. I have not had the negative experience with the NCU staff that so many others report. I had a good advisor even though once or twice I felt she was just frustrated and did not really address my concerns.

My dissertation chair was horrible when it came to timely responses to my work and general communication, but she did provide me with useful guidance and even helped me focus on what I really wanted to study for my dissertation. And after I graduated she actually bought me a very nice graduation gift. What a surprise it was to receive that in the mail. Who says there are no warm fuzzies at NCU? I so disagree.

I teach online for two colleges and have taught college courses, both undergraduate and graduate level at several face to face universities. Just like with any university, the rigor will vary with the course, the syllabus, the instructor, and so on. I believe most people's opinions on schools are based on isolated, short term situations, but I understand, and we all make judgments based on our experiences, whether they are short term, or longer term.

I try to read all the "opinions" out there about NCU. I have realized for a long time that this forum is biased against this so much so that I think some members decided their degree would not be respected from NCU, and others are almost ashamed of admitting they got a degree from NCU. Where I come from, few people have even heard of NCU but they have heard of UoP. (UoP = not good). I would rather my school was never heard of (but still RA accredited) than to have a school that is well known, but not well respected.

Disgruntled students will post their negative opinions all over the Internet, but I don't really believe there is a higher percentage of the disgruntled NCU population than for any other online universities. If you are looking for disgruntled NCU students (or former students...or students who don't hate NCU but don't have much nice to say about them...you will find them here in this forum, and on the internet).

But if you read the NCU forums (that I am privy to) you would see that while there are the usual gripes about tuition hikes (understandable) and some bad mentors/instructors/administration/whatever, there are also many many positive posts from students that are moving forward and achieving their goals. It is very hard and those who don't make it rarely have anything nice to say. Those that do make it, of course, we are the biased ones with nice things to say (but those who do not make it are also biased in the other direction).

I would still choose it over again if I had to make that choice knowing what I know now about NCU and other available programs.

Go Roadrunners!

 

Yes, this saddens me. Those with degrees from NCU should feel proud and they should not accept the prejudice that others have against it. In my experience, the program was as good or better than Cal State.

Absolutely true.

 

Good post.

I too graduated from NCU with a DBA. If I had to do it all over again, I would not because the dissertation is too difficult. However, I'm not referring exclusively to the NCU dissertation process, but am including all RA doctoral dissertation programs, to include B&M and online. It is simply too hard and most people will never truly understand just how difficult the rigor is, as is evidenced by dissertation attrition rates varying from 50 to 70%, depending on the university.

 

Where I came from I had to pay for my high school education. I put myself through high school, working in the summers.. Not always being in the classroom but earning my o'levels anyway. The notion that NCU is only for self-motivated students is nonsense, or students dropped NCU because they lack self motivation is *also nonsense. There are many self motivated employees who flip burgers at Macdanolds. I have 3 undergraduates, 1 master, *1 equivalent master, 1 doctorate, 3 International accounting designations, *and 2 financial designations, plus others. I am a Lazy bum who have reached the top of my profession. The institution NCU is joke. If you are "self motivated" there are better alternatives than NCU.**Please do not give your money to NCU. Students do graduate from NCU. I have never read where anyone dropped NCU because the material was challenging. *Graduates of *NCU should be proud of their accomplishment. Your beef should be with NCU who undermines its graduates. I hope when this education bubble burst, schools like NCU will be out of busines.

 

Correction: This forum isn't biased against NCU, quite the contrary. Some (IMO misguided) individual members are biased against NCU, and much like the Occupy people, they really can't give a cogent explanation for the source of their bias.

 

There is nothing that motivates me on this forum like bashing NCU. I am just as passionate about basking NCU as are graduates of NCU in supporting it. Many here are bias in favor of NCU. I am bias against NCU the institution. If I were to offer one advice to prospective students is to stay away from NCU. From my experience with NCU, I can"t recommend NCU. There is nothing illogical about that.

 

This would explain why I see so many NCU graduates doing well when I search LinkedIn.

This is what bothers me about people insisting that DL is inferior, or that the in-person Platonic model is absolutely critical for learning. If the state professors at an AACSB-accredited brick-and-mortar treat you like crap, then where's the value of attending an in-person B&M program?

 

Agreed. We have a couple of members here who claim that the dissertation process at NCU is handled by adjuncts who don't really care and will pass just about anything. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If anything, the dissertation process at NCU seems to be unreasonable difficult.

 

SHAZAM!!!

I think I just saw a ghost.....how the hell have you been?

 

SurfD:

You will find that very few bash the academic side of NCU, but the lack of program stability, inconsistency and other turmoil is off-putting and frustrating, to say the least. I enjoyed NCU until it became "for extreme profit" a few years ago. Then, I wished that I had never enrolled. I left NCU with a 4.0 average, was ADB and was accepted into the business honor society. However, I was not allowed to complete my PhD because I ran out of time at 6.5 years and they would not let me extend. Yet, I see others at NCU who are give 8 years to complete thier programs.

If your desire was to generate some good buzz about NCU, you need to realize that it is still a very charged subject. It is not a matter of hating and liking, there were/are some serious governance issues that need addressing. It has the potential of being a good school, but I could not recommend it either at the present time.

 

My first course at NCU, sks7000 was not anymore difficult than a grade 12 or first year community college general business course. The second organization behavior course was at the same level of an undergraduate college course. The stat research course was fairly difficult because of the amount of reading. The assignments were straight forward. My grade were higher at NCU than anywhere else. It is a myth that NCU is challenging. The balance of the courses in DBA accounting were designed to pass the CPA exam. Courses designed to pass the CPA exams are undergraduate courses not doctoral courses. I do have the course outline for the doctoral courses I took at NCU . The courses are at the same rigor of community colleges courses. I think I am an expert on this. Hey but we should call in the independent experts - at NCU, in the DBA accounting, the courses up the the dissertation are mainly undergraduates courses.

 

I am one of those who does not typically list my NCU degree on my resume unless it specifically targets a requirement. I think that some of the specialization courses in Homeland Security I took at NCU were among the most rigorous courses I have taken, even considering my DPA coursework at Valdosta. I am not ashamed of my NCU degree, but I do feel like I am misrepresenting my qualifications by saying that I have an "MBA" even though that is the school's official nomenclature for the degree. The MBA degree I received at NCU was far from an actual graduate level degree in business administration in my view. Things may have changed, but the business foundation coursework I had to take was undergraduate-level at best.

I would steer anyone who asked away from NCU just for their crap customer-service and administrative schizophrenia they seem to have.

 

I'm doing well. I'm now mostly "read only" around here, but I do read it frequently. I argue less frequently around here because, well, it never really accomplishes anything. LOL

 

Coursework is kids stuff. It's eeeeeeasy at B&M universities, as well as at online universities. It's the dissertation that separates the men from the boys. I've done it all.