PhD Choice

hehe really! If someone were to come along and volunteer to make my payments for the next couple of years and I could take a break from working (also in LE), I'd be more than happy to become only a FT student ( I was FT student for 3 years but needed a break, so last semester I changed to PT. So, 3 1/2 years as a FT student, employee and father/husband took its toll on my once lavishing mane which is now thinning and greying!)

But I hear you - I still think that there are times when there is too much emphasis placed on having a degree and the hands-on experience is all but ignored. 10+ years ago it was my hands-on experience in IT that helped me get my foot in the door while now they won't look at you w/o a degree. I would think that as a manager, I'd rather have someone on my team who has done it rather than someone who has learned the theory behind it...

 

Much agreed. Here is my career path:

• AA - Traditional route. Afterwards, joined the Army and after that got hired as a cop.
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• BS - Non-traditional accelerated route. Used many methods advocated by Dr. Bear in one of his first published books. I could not attend college the traditional way. It simply wasn't an option as cop.
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• MA - Non-tradiional cohort route.
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• DBA? - Someday? - 100% online at Northcentral University.

Most of us that visit this forum don't want to be tenured faculty at major research universities in the United States. Most of us are hard working Joes who are "just making it" in life and who want to try and get ahead by getting advanced educational degrees, even if they are non-traditional. My brother is a "tenured" professor at a major research university in the United States and, after listening to him, it's not all it's cracked up to be (even though he's wildly successful at it -- and he's not a minority).

 

You took the words right out of my mouth brother

I'm just a plain old "joe" trying to get ahead while obtaining a doctorate degree myself. I too have no aspirations to become a tenured faculty member. It's good to see that I'm not in the minority on this forum.

 

Same here - I went to DeVry for two trimesters, joined the Army Reserve, got married while in AIT and started to work full time when I got out of AIT. I would have not even earned an associates degree without the DL option.

Would I like to get a tenured postition, not really but maybe one day as a retirement gig-