Online MBA Programs grow in popularity (news)

Bar pass rates aside, I was focussing on employment in the legal fields and perception on where one went to law school. I share based on my experience in this field. I am not beating myself up really--just being realistic based on my experiences. This is pretty much common knowledge in the high powered world of legal practice (which I hope will change).

You yourself set up a strawman by using programs that are too different to compare--one in Shankara's Advaita philosophy from CIIS and one in theology from Harvard. A better analogy would be the Shankara Advaita philosophy from CIIS or Harvard. In my experience only, I would think all things being close to equal, most universities would choose the Harvard Ph.D. in that same area.

I also want to respond to your sometimes demeaning jabs about another "anonymous" Ivy League example--you don't need to put in those jabs--they incite more than help the flow of discussion. After all, we are in an informal internet discussion. I don't know if giving anyone specific names for them to call for work places references, former schools, etc. to confirm they took a class at Harvard or to confirm they have a masters from Princeton would really go anywhere.

Often times when I discuss, I try to limit the discussion on things that I have training in and experienced--I may be wrong--but unless you have experienced going to an Ivy League school or being in the profession and/or program that I was in, I'm trying to understand how you would have enough information and experience in those areas to dismiss my experiences? Rather than making a dismissal, could you not share what led you to a different experience and understanding of such?

EsqPhD

 

That was precisely my intention. You had written:

I respect that type of realism and honesty but have major problems when DL people want to claim a close to equal status with even the top tier residential programs.

So I imagined two Ph.D.s in religion, one from relatively low-prestige CIIS, the other from Harvard. And with no difficulty at all I produced an example of the lower prestige graduate being the better prepared, namely in his own research specialty.

In that case I would simply repeat my argument on a more micro- level.

Imagine a comparatively low-prestige CIIS Ph.D. with a dissertation in the relationship between Shankara's Advaita philosophy and Buddhist Madhyamika. And compare that to a Harvard specialist in the relationships of Shankara's thought with the more theistic forms of Vedanta. I think that the CIIS graduate would be better prepared in the area of early Buddhist influences on the development of Shankara's thought.

My point is that unless you compare two Ph.D.s with the exact same dissertation topic, each is going to be better prepared than the other in their particular area of specialization.

That implies that one can't simply compare graduates, sight unseen, based simply on the name of their school or even on its course delivery medium. You have to look at them on a case-by-case basis and determine how well they are prepared in those areas that are of interest to you.

I agree that most universities would probably prefer a Harvard graduate, all things being close to equal. But my point is that the CIIS graduate is not committing an affront against decency by comparing himself to that Harvard graduate, nor in considering himself to be a "real" Ph.D.

 

Imagine a comparatively low-prestige CIIS Ph.D. with a dissertation in the relationship between Shankara's Advaita philosophy and Buddhist Madhyamika. And compare that to a Harvard specialist in the relationships of Shankara's thought with the more theistic forms of Vedanta. I think that the CIIS graduate would be better prepared in the area of early Buddhist influences on the development of Shankara's thought.


Given today's realities, both will be waiting tables, either in Cambridge or San Francisco.

 

Let me start another discussion thread--because I don't want to convolute this thread further.

Essentially, what I would like to discuss in a new thread is that I do not believe all Ph.D.'s are equal.

EsqPhD