Walden University - E-letter sent to me today

I received a letter from Walden U offering to fast track my admittance into a doctoral program without any kind of an approval phase. I get 20% off the tuition and I don't have to have my degrees evaluated. I'm from Canada and my masters is from the UK so that's a nice touch!

So, with this in mind, is there anyone out there who has experience with Walden? I read the posts on our site and couldn't find any in-depth details ... just cursory mention of the school and what it offers.

I'm a bored professional student and need something to waste away 3 years of my life for1, or so my wife describes me!

I would appreciate any detailed information that you might have, I'm thinking of a PhD, Ed.D or DBA to go with my MBA.

Thanks in advance.

 

My wife is working on her PhD in Psychology at Walden. She is working on it at least 2-3 hours per day, almost every day. It is tough, but she is enjoying it so far. She is 3/4 of the way through her coursework.

 

Wow, is your wife working full-time?

 

Yes. Yes she is and babysits me and the two cats. LOL. Amazingly, she is a gifted writer (To which I am not) so that is something that comes easy. All of her classes are writing intensive and the posts must be academically backed up (meaning not the typical Yeah That...) by journal articles. Not for the weak at heart.

 

Have you taken a look at Athabasca University DBA? If you are in Canada, I would think that a Canadian University might serve you better in the long term.

I'm in Canada also and finished a DBA at a Australian University, I found that following a program at an International school causes problems. For instance, I had a hard time getting tax credit for my tuition fees, my school used to send me the tax forms but stopped as revenue Canada contacted them and told them not to send me the form based on the fact that I was not registered as a full time student.

There were also issues of credibility, I used my DBA to get salary increases and the HR department really gave me a hard time by asking me for letters and proof of enrollment due to the international nature of the school. At the end, they wouldn't recognize that the program is equivalent to a 3 years full time Canadian program so they wouldn't give me full credit for it.

You can also get government funding for post graduate studies at most of the provinces but they are not available for distance education programs outside the country.

In few words, your life would be a lot easier if you do your DBA at a Canadian University and Athabasca seems to be the only available option.

 

I LOVED WALDEN! Granted I did the MS in Education program, I thought it was extremely well designed. The staff were extremely helpful and my professors were a step above the rest.

I can't speak for the business programs there, but if they are anything like the Education programs, I'd say it's top notch!

-Matt

 

Likewise I am currently completing my first KAM and hope to have my PHD by late 2010. I am in the Public Policy program

 

Hey there I am in the DBA program with a concentration in Information Systems Management. Before this program I was in the Ed.D program at Walden. So far so good and I also work full time. The courses are 8 weeks, and you have assignments every week.

 

I've got a buddy who got her Masters from Walden. Nothing but good reports.

 

First of all, thinks for everyone's input! A very positive consensus so far on this school, and now I'm driven to follow up with their staff.

Tireman 44444,
The number of hours that your wife is doing is fine with me, I'm prepared to work as hard as it takes to achieve the best results. I wouldn't spend this kind of money in the first place, if I planned on doing anything less than the best effort. We understand your hectic lifestyle as we too are raising two very active cats! Thanks.

RFValve,
I had communicated with AU prior to doing my MBA, everything looked good there as well, they are affiliated with the U of Guelph where I received my first degree. That was a close call to make, but in the end, I went the UK route having completed a degree there in the distant past. I'm trying to establish some education in several countries at this stage, and to date, I have little with the US. I have considered all B&M schools in Canada especially as I live next to one here in Ontario. Thanks to you as well!

PS. RFValve, I was able to get the Canadian Government to accept my tuition for a full tax deduction. I submitted my tax return, it was rejected, I presented an argument, and they caved in and accepted it. I'm probably only part of a handful of students to pull this off having spoken with many in the past about this ridiculously biased issue.

Mattbrent/Hortonka - thanks for the positive feedback. I'll get in touch with them soon!

Scaredrain - 8 week courses sound fine with me. Do you have to make very many trips to their B&M site? The format works for me, and so far, I haven't heard any negatives. Then again, no one has asked me what I want to do with this degree. For me, it's the challenge to learn as much as I can, I don't have to get this one to succeed in my field of engineering, I just want to do it. RFValve said he had problems promoting his achievements with his Australian degree, totally unfair but a fact of life I guess.

Thanks Kizmet!!

It is time to follow up with the school to see what there is for me! Thanks everyone.

 

This depends a lot on the school, the rule is that you should be attending full time. The problem is that at some schools, if you register as a full time student, it means paying higher tuition fees. My school wouldn't sign the TL11A form, the signed at the beginning but then they were contacted by Revenue Canada and denied my request based on the fact that I was registered as part time student( http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/tl11a/README.html).

I'm sure that Walden has a better way to handle this as they deal with a lot of Canadian students. However, I would contact them and make sure that Walden can provide you with this form.

Good luck with your PhD at Walden!

 

Hello, the DBA program requires 2 4 day residencies, that are not at the main site. They are held all over the country and normally other program residencies are on going at the same time. Walden's Ed.D program has 1 residency thats required. I was in that program right up until this year.

I hope that helps!

 

I know Walden is pretty highly respected here but doesn't anyone else find this a little odd?

"I received a letter from Walden U offering to fast track my admittance into a doctoral program without any kind of an approval phase. I get 20% off the tuition and I don't have to have my degrees evaluated."

To me, this makes Walden come off more like a place that wants money more than anything else. I can't think of many other doctoral programs that don't have an approval phase and don't evaluate degrees for admittance.

I'm not trying to bad mouth Walden and I don't have an agenda against them. I'm just commenting on the above.

 

The same issue with any foreign degree. I have seen people with degrees from the UK and France dealing with the same problem.

 

Hey there. Walden does what is conditionally admittance. Since there are no standardized testing, its easy to ssee why you are admitted. Now I am sure you have forms and other things to turn in by a certain date, I know I had to, along with my resume and goal statement. I also had to submit my transcripts, that showed I had proof that I had obtained a masters degree by a certain date. I think if you do not submit these in time, then you have to reapply to the program. As for Walden wanting money, well they are a for profit institution and their goal is to make a profit via the providing of educational services.

 

Walden like other online schools are businesses. I received few similar offers by Argosy, TUI and NCU. They have open admissions policy but so many other online schools. There is competition to admit doctoral students and they are just trying to close the deal before someone else does.

 

RFValve,

I considered myself to be in attendance on a full-time basis and argued that, by definition, they must allow my full deduction. I also stated that I was attending the U of Guelph, doing some distance and some on-site studies, so how is there a difference? I sighted two other students studying abroad that won their case on appeal mentioning why the Judge ruled in their favour. It worked for me and before you knew it, I was being contacted by dozens of students wanting to use the same argument. My good friend worked as an auditor for CRA at the time and I received some help from him as well.

Scaredrain, Thanks for your input, I have to narrow my choices down and delve into this whole thing soon. So far I'm encouraged by what I learned to date.

bazonkers,

The offer was made on the basis that they are affiliated with The Laureate Group which represents 42 others Universities around the world including my MBA school. They had obtained prior confirmation of my success with the MBA program and on that basis fast-tracked my application. At first I thought, as do you, that they are so hungry for money ... it was embarrassing. Then I realized that this was actually a very clever way to pre-approve students who clearly meet their criteria. After all, they have access to all of my prior information when I applied to my MBA school and they clearly have the result of my efforts. Not so bad and clever of them to work their affiliation with Laureate.

RFValve - I'm not too worried about the acceptance of the degree but I don't like hearing that you are having problems with a solid Australian degree. Crazy.

Great posts everyone, I appreciate you taking the time to inform me on Walden.

 

OK, I'm clear now. Thanks for the info.

 

That strikes me as a big red flag. Any B&M that offered such a "deal" would be harshly criticized and rightly so. It implies (or reveals) that they don't care about the quality of their students' backgrounds. I also consider that degree fraud is a major problem, both among US degree-holders and "international" degree holders. Most schools would crap themselves inside-out if their marketing department were doing something like this.

The other aspect of this is what is your major? If you are a psychology major, you may be extremely disappointed to note that very few (%-wise) of Walden's students ever get in to an APA/APPIC internship program -- even if they complete all of the other requirements of the program. I've talked to one guy so far that had to transfer out and finish his degree elsewhere.

APPIC Match Rates for Walden's Psychology programs:
CLINICAL -- Students: 28 Matched: 17.9% Unmatched: 53.6% Withdrawn: 28.6%
COUNSELING -- Students: 8 Matched: 12.5% Unmatched: 50.0% Withdrawn: 37.5%

From the APPIC site: "The overall match rate for all 22,751 students was 74.9%, while 17.7% were unmatched and
7.4% withdrew without submitting a rank order list."

What's extra-scary about it is that for counseling, just 1-4 people even make it to the match phase per year. So there are years where they match zero students. I'm not trying to hate on Walden's other programs, but it is still worth looking into and talking to current students in your major if at all possible.

 

On the concept of schools and making money - anyone that thinks the majority of the "not for profit" schools in the US are not as driven to increase revenues as most of the for profits, perhaps have not worked at some not for profits schools.

You increase revenue through tuition and fees and government subsidy or you make it through endowments. But do not be confused about the needs of the not for profit being somehow different than the needs of the for profits. There is a very large percentage of not for profit colleges and universities that are very much revenue driven as well as having creative policies and practices towards increasing enrollments.