NCU was More Rigorous than California State University

I do feel terrible when I am negative about NCU. I feel for its graduates and my apologies to them. It was a very simple request I made to NCU more than halfway in one of the courses. I was diagnosed with a serious ailment. I had to take some time out but needed about two to three weeks extra. The feedback from NCU was that the extension could not be granted because it could be abuse by 9000 students. The solution offered was to reenrolled and start from lesson one. It was a money grab. I did accused them of not being student centered. I was financing my education, so I made the decision not to gave NCU anymore of it. I have to admit that NCU did not care that I was dropping the program. I never received any junk mails from NCu. I have taken courses from seven differences post secondary institutions, I have nothing negative to say about six of them. The**bad service at NCU was part of the fabric of NCU. It was institutionalized. You will find bad service almost everywhere, but at NCU *bad service was the corporate culture.

 

Many serious rankings require schools to keep these statistics. Most top business schools keep these statistics.

It just makes sense, if I need to dish the 50K for my education, I need to know what is the possible rate of return of it.

Some schools also keep a list of job profiles from alumni, at least this gives an idea of prospect employment after graduation.

 

If it about prestige and ROI then here is the way to go. Home

Many of us go on vacation two to three times per year. Replace NCU with Oxford on your resume for a fraction of the cost. In rigor the Oxford diploma is higher than the NCU phd/dba course work. I read the NCU dissertation can be challenging.

 

Most graduates I have talked to are critical of how the school is run and how the students are treated. I have never spoken with a graduate who is critical of the academic quality. We need to be careful not to mix those two issues into one general criticism.

 

Have you attended both schools or have data on this?

 

No, we don't, because the whole of the school is what a person experiences. It doesn't matter if the academic quality is sound if the school can't teach in the first place due to social and structural issues.

When a student only gets to experience the learning without seeing any of the other stuff and the other stuff doesn't affect learning outcomes, then you're correct. As it stands some students don't get to learn, because the system screws them.

Of course, some students screw themselves and I'm sure that NCU isn't Harvard in terms of opportunities to develop relationships of academic quality. So we're dealing with a grey middle of the statistical parabola.

Now to be fair, I neither hate or like NCU. My opinion is that I already know more than what they're capable of teaching me, so I avoid them. Other students may not be as fortunate, and NCU may be the right school for them. Power to them.

 

There are quite few resume boosters, I completed a certificate from Stanford a while a go for 600 bucks.

In the case of NCU, I think the brand "PhD" is what you are buying more than the prestige of the school. Many go for this program so they can add these 3 letters to a resume, email signature or business card.

However, the prestige of the Brand "PhD" will erode with the time. In the school where I work, our educational technologist holds a PhD and so the network administrator. I have also noticed few administrators with a PhD title in their email signatures. As this type of credentials start to become more accesible, the brand name will lose its value and will become another credential in a resume.

 

I said what I did only to register the fact that those who graduate from NCU deserve our respect. The academic quality is good, the student service is bad. If a student can make it through NCU, they deserve our respect. I agree that NCU is not a great institution but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

 

Yes or no to your question would not make a difference to me. I am not here to promote Oxford. Oxford does not need my help. Oxford and and almost all universities *are ambassadors of goodwill to their students. NCU is not an ambassador for it students. NCU has place this onerous task to its few graduates to defend NCU in order to protect their investment.

If you want a phd then there are many alternatives to NCU.

 

I agree. It is happening as we speak. Already, a PhD does not necessarily offer much tangible benefit for many people. This is evidenced when we go on Linkedin and see office assistants with doctorates. (I really saw that) IMO, we will someday say that doctorate is the new master's. Especially so when they are earned online. This is not a tragedy, it will just stratify the title of doctorate into a number of levels, with those earned in-person at top schools ranking the highest.

 

Agreed. That gives us all the more reason to respect those who have survived and prospered in the NCU environment. I'm not a graduate so I don't have an investment to protect. I hated NCU, but I respect Randell, Suelane and the others who were able to survive it. They are likely very intelligent people and they are likely well educated for their experience. Wouldn't you agree with that? That's my whole point.

 

I think that you have to take the approach you're taking because you're a mod and there are people here who are respected by the community who are graduates of NCU.

From my perspective the first thing I think when I see NCU doctorate is "person has a second masters degree". Then if I meet that person and they show that they have the obvious capabilities of someone with a doctorate, they earn the respect you're talking about.

Ultimately the students who graduate are not representative of the school as the support structure isn't there. They're representative of themselves and deserve to be judged as individuals.

 

What is the evidence for this? Do we have statistics on how many accounting graduates passed the CPA exam for example? How many dissertations were cited on high impact research journals? How many dissertations generated publications in peer reviewed journals or conferences?

Because few people mentioned that their course work is rigorous, we cannot conclude that they have high academic quality. There also opinions that their course work is a joke, so can why should we give more weight to positive than negative opinions?

I know that this type of metrics are not available. I believe that if the institution provides some value, it will remain in business. If the school is just a money making short term business, it will die eventually so I think that is safe to say that only time would give reputation to the institution.

 

I would say the same for CSUDH (at the time I attended). On the other hand customer service at ERAU was excellent.

 

Well, I should be thankful I am as dumb as I am and went to NCU. It is nice to know there are people as smart as you out there to keep us less intellectually developed in our place. For that I thank you.

 

I agree, ther are a lot of people that have invested a lot of money and effort in their education and don't deserve to be bashed because their efforts.

I wouldn't like to be bashed after so many hours of tears and work. Students deverve respect for their achievements and we should not bash them regardless of our opinions.

 

NCU's Phd main advantage was price, it went from 6K to 50K in 10 years. People can argue that the program is as rigorous as any top school but the reputation is not there.

If price and effort are comparable to other solid institutions with higher reputations, why would you want to go there in the first place?

I posted many options in the same price range in other discussion forums. If we argue that course work and dissertation process is the same as other top ranked institutions, there is really no reason for wanting to do a PhD at NCU unless you really love the structure and course work there.

 

Yet it's all too easy to do.

We're all human, and much is about perception, as others have noted. The perceived quality of a school will be "colored" (for lack of a better word) by how it treats its student population. This is why students on many of those review sites bash the school as if it's some sort of degree mill, when in reality it may have one of the most rigorous programs in the realm of for-profit education.

This sort of poor student treatment is not limited to NCU. I seem to recall similar horror stories emanating out of Grantham and Grand Canyon, as examples. These schools may not provide the same level of education as NCU, but student experiences might cause some to view NCU the same way.

 

I am happy I quit NCU. On NCU's own forum the feedback from its current students is mostly bad. I have nothing bad to say about NCU graduates. I am upset with myself in ignoring the negative press about NCU and enrolling. *It was a bad decision by me to enrolled at NCU. Graduates of NCU should be proud of their accomplishments. My role is to advise potential students to be careful of NCU based on my experience. It is NCU's responsibility to have a good reputation for its graduates.

 

Thanks, Surfdoctor for your reasonable question, and getting this back on track. Yes, my program was rigorous and the hardest thing I have ever done, academically. As an educator myself, I clearly see why a high percentage of doctoral students do not make it to the end, regardless of what school they choose.

I really don't need to defend my accomplishment. I am proud of it, and where I live nobody has heard of NCU nor do people care whether I got my degree from an online University, let alone NCU. I was hired immediately at a local B&M State University with my NCU Ph.D. I know they checked for RA accreditation, but really didn't care beyond that. My interviewers asked about the topic of my dissertation, but not about the nature or details of my doctoral program. They were far more interested in my past experience in teaching college.

I like the structure of NCU for independent learning, and at the time I enrolled it was the least expensive option for me unless I wanted to quit my job and try to get a fellowship at a more established traditional university. (And I did not want to do that). I do not regret my experience with NCU.