Northeastern University's EdD

At my last company, an aerospace company, several employees (mostly engineers and management) were taking an Ed.D. in Organizational Leadership http://gsep.pepperdine.edu/doctorate-organizational-leadership/ because:

• The company paid tuition
• It was a one night a week program at a satellite campus
• They wanted a doctorate for various reasons
• They were able apply knowledge gained to company benefit
• Pepperdine did not have a similar Ph.D. or DBA program.

(several others were taking doctorates at Capella and one was taking a DPA at a local university).

 

The application process was a bit rough for me. They have a advisor call you and talk to you about the program just to make sure your goals are in line with the goals of the program. After speaking to her, she had me contact the director of the program with a few of my questions. One of the questions was regarding my experience and the qualifications necessary for acceptance. I had two years of online teaching experience and 5 years as a military police trainer. The director of the program told me that my education experience was not enough, and I would have to wait another year to apply since I only had two years of the required three years of education experience. I pretty much gave up, but went ahead and finished the application process anyhow. Low and behold, I ended up being accepted, and I started this semester (11 January).

So far, the courses are going great. A LOT of reading. A decent amount of work, but honestly not as much as I did when I was working on the PhD at Northcentral University (I pretty much just quit with Northcentral for a few reasons, and started all over with Northeastern). Even though I am not doing nearly the amount of writing at Northeastern as I was at NCU, the educational experience is BY FAR richer and more rewarding. I couldn't be happier with Northeastern so far. I have learned that, when it comes to online education, the educational technology and different teaching methods you use make ALL the difference.

Oh, I forgot, my experience is probably quite a bit more difficult than the average student since I am new to the formal study of education. Many of my fellow students are senior teachers or administrators with degrees in education. My background/education is all CJ/Security/Emergency Management. So, I'm seeing all this stuff for the first time.

 

I'm still waiting to hear back on my application and have a few questions for you if you'll indulge me! How often are you logging into the classroom? What are the participation requirements? (If accepted, I'd like to start in April, but in the second week of the class, I have a vacation booked where I cannot count on internet access for about 4 days, and I wonder how much of an impact that will make, or if I'll have to suck it up and pay for internet on the cruise ship! hehhe)

 

Northeastern

I am logging on every day. Typically, the first discussion board post is due by Wednesday. Then, you have to respond to a few others by the end of the week.

I don't know your situation, but it would be ideal if you could log on at the very beginning of the course (hopefully, before the cruise), and check out the first discussion question for each class. Then, you can write your main post for each class, and pay for Internet on Tuesday or something and post your answer from the ship.

I can tell you now that the fist two courses are mandatory: 1. Global and Historical Perspectives in Higher Education. 2. Social and Cultural Analysis of Educational Systems. I know one of my instructors said flat out: "I do not accept late work."

You will do an intro post and a regular main post during that first week.

You can ask any more questions you want.

 

Thank you. That is sort of what I figured. I tend to go overboard (ah... bad phrasing for a cruise!) with participation when taking or teaching classes, but I think I'll be able to work around it. Looks like the little netbook will be going with us on this trip. Or just wait until the summer session. I just wish they'd get back to me! I have been accepted into two other programs, but Northeastern is my preference.

 

I have also applied to NEU for the Ed.D program with a specialization in Higher Education and am waiting to hear about Summer admission. From what I understand, Summer admission applications will not be looked at until the middle of May and Fall applications will be looked at in the middle of July.

 

I have applied to Ed.D program. I undestand my application with be reviewed beginning May. Would like to get some feedback from folks about the application process. How many people are actually admitted to the program?

 

I also have the same question as you, maybe someone will answer this question for us. By the way, I wish you luck with your admission quest.

 

I am also looking at applying to the NEU program for the EdD Higher Ed and look forward to any feedback I can get. I'm thinking about shooting for Spring 2011.

 

From what I understand, they've been overwhelmed with applications. I was two weeks late getting everything in for the January deadline, so April was already closed. They're reviewing in May for the July slots, but any new applications received are being moved to consideration for the fall. If you're thinking of applying, apply early. I have a feeling with the recognition and the price, this program is going to start to get a bit more competitive than it has been.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to start working on my application materials.

 

I agree with Caulyne, apply now.

I also found out that the program is only around 2 years old and they don't any Ed.D DL graduates yet. I imagine that once they become more well known, they will have more applications than they can handle.

 

I've been asked by a colleague if the Ed.D. program is accredited. I know the schools is. Both our masters degrees came from a program that was CACREP accredited, but I have no idea if there is such an accrediting body that does this for a doctoral program of this nature. We both have counseling backgrounds and work in higher ed. Honestly, finding this program almost sounds too good to be true. We live in NC and almost everyone is going to the same school. Unfortunately my lifestyle isn't conducive to giving up my weekends to be in class all day.

 

In higher ed doctoral programs, programmatic accreditation isn't as much of a must as K-12 or business programs.

 

CACREP is only important for counseling programs (mental health and school in particular). CORE is important for rehabilitation counseling (but not at doc level). Education programs typcially use NCATE, but even that is questionable. Many major universities have decided to forgoe NCATE credentialling and only rely on state approval for teacher credentialling. At the doctorate level in education, it has been my experience that only RA is important.

 

Is CACREP important at the doctoral level or just at the master's level?

 

Typically it is only important at the master's degree level for state licensure. At the doctorate level, the title of the degree is particularly important. It needs to say counseling or counsleor education and be RA to obtain university level counseling instructor or professor positions.

 

I called up their to admissions and was not impressed. I was thoroughly disappointed. Nonetheless, I am not going to totally take them out of my options, yet. I do college admissions (among other things) and I felt like I was talking to a salesman. I am interested in a serious program and they could not answer many questions for me. I want to know the type of research interests the faculty have, what associations they are members of, what types of higher ed positions they have held, etc. The credentials on the website were commendable, but not one former VP of Student Affairs, Dean of Students, Residence Life, Counseling, or Academic Affairs experience. I like the concept at Northeastern, but am not sure they are what I need. Anyone in the program who can tell me about the students in the program and how they plan to use this degree would be extremely helpful since there are no graduates. I want to be a practitioner in student affairs/academic affairs and remain at a community college or possibly go back to a university.

 

The College of Professional Studies which you contacted is a college within a college. They are only concerned with online Masters level type programs, the online Ed.D in question and two other online doctoral programs, one in the legal and the other in the health field.

Therefore, I do not see why anyone in the admission office for this particular college within a college would know the answers to most of your questions. Their students are mostly all virtual and a lot of the faculty are also virtual.

Also, the focus of the Ed.D is to give people who are already in the education field the tools to pursue higher level leadership positions and not to create academic scholars.

It seems to me that students who were interested in pursuing a PhD instead of an Ed.D would most likely ask the types of questions that you did. Since you state that you are interested in a more serious program. perhaps a Ph.D program in the Education field would be a better fit for you.

Unfortunately, The College of Professional Studies at NEU does not offer a PhD in the Education field and neither does the regular NEU University

They do offer non DL PhD's in eleven other areas and I am sure that if you call the academic department which handles each individual PhD program they would be able to answer all of your questions about the faculty teaching in each particular program.

These are the 11 subject areas:

# Biology
# Chemistry and Chemical Biology
# Economics
# English
# History
# Law Policy and Society
# Mathematics
# Physics
# Political Science
# Psychology - Experimental
# Sociology

 

One small correction. Northeastern University is not abbreviated as NEU. Northeastern is one word. It has always bugged me that Northcentral University gets abbreviated as NCU (don't bother, I know the history) and so I'm just doing my part to prevent another miscarriage of abbreviation justice.