What is the cheapest non-resident PhD?

shilling for Saint Regis University

Vical wrote:

> Take a look at:
> AT SRU website: [...]
> Doubt UNISA or UNIZL make the same offer!

Shilling for a degree mill is not allowed on this board. Doubtless the moderators will rule on whether or not Vical is doing that.

In another thread, Vical wrote: "[...] my employer [...] was requiring that people on my team 'hold a degree.' [...] My employer has accepted my degree, and I am satisfied. [...] I am more than pleased [by] my SRU experience, and I recommend SRU to those who may be in the situation that I was in [...]. I will concede that the requirements are far less stringent than those of a US school, but that is the 'attraction.'"

Isn't this rather like saying, "I owed someone $100, and I persuaded him to accept Monopoly money. I am more than pleased, and would recommend using Monopoly money to anyone in a similar situation. I will concede that a Monopoly dollar represents much less honest labor than a US dollar, but that is the 'attraction'"?

 

Vical...I think the focus of this thread was on a cheap, but usable, credible degree...not a fake degree or a degree mill degree!

 

I do want a credible degree, other wise I would contact a school like K-W.

 

Re: shilling for Saint Regis University

Nothing like a rush to judgment!

I think you should try reading the thread again:


Paulie asked:
Can someone please explain to me why Liberian degrees (West Africa) are dismissed in this forum, but South African degrees are somehow acceptable?

There appears to be a double standard.

My Reply:

Paulie

Take a look at:

AT SRU website:

http://www.stregisuniversity.ac/tuition.htm

It states near the top:

BELOW IS A LIST OF ALL FEES.
DEGREE DOCUMENTS ARE AVAILABLE ONLY TO QUALIFIED GRADUATES UPON COMPLETION OF CURRICULUM.
GRADUATES MAY BEGIN USING THEIR DEGREE TITLES IMMEDIATELY UPON ACCEPTANCE & PAYMENT OF APPLICABLE FEES.


ALso note the $995 Full Professorship -*Doctorate Degree req.

Doubt UNISA or UNIZL make the same offer!



I was answering Paulie's question. IMHO SRU is bogus. What legitimate school would make such an offer?

 

Re: Re: shilling for Saint Regis University

Yes, that was Paulie, not Vical. My apologies.

 

What double standard?

Wull, they're both in Africa, so it's all the same, but you folks treat SA nice and don't treat Liberia nice.

No.

Liberia is a small country wrecked by civil war, with very little accredited secondary education in place (UL, Cuttington, not much else), and a few schools of varying degrees of reality claiming an offshore accreditation from the Liberian Ministry of Education, or from what may be independently operating Liberian sources claiming to represent the Liberian Ministry of Education--a question of fact barely adumbrated, let alone resolved.

South Efrica is a large country with a flourishing political life and a moderately prosperous economy, with an old and distinguished set of (mostly formerly whites-only) first-rank universities, and a competent set of second-rank universities, all of which are GAAP. Even those of us who wish Liberia well and see the country as a tragedy rather than a snide DL joke cannot but acknowledge that there is simply no comparison between Liberian accreditation and a degree from a legitimate South African university or technikon.

I have been critical of the SA minister of education, Dr Asmal, for what appears to me to be an ill-conceived plan to merge the academically weaker secondary institutions. I must emphasize that nothing whatever which has been proposed or implemented has in any way impaired the "GAAP" status of SA public universities and technikons, nor is there any reason to expect such problems in the future.

Frankly, I'm gatvol of this inability to distinguish one African country from another.

 

Cheap Doctorates

Hello Jack:

Thanks for all the useful information in your post. Just when I think that I have narrowed down choices I get more information that gets me thinking.

Did all of the Universities that you wrote about allow for a fully DL no residency research Doctorate? I read in Dr. bears book that these are really negotiated between the University and students on a case by case basis. Did you have to do it this way?

I looked at the websites for the SA schools and unless I missed it in the fine print, apart from UNIZUL and UNISA there does not seem to be any exact mention of fully DL no residency programs.

On the Masters front UWC has a great Masters in Management program but I find no mention of it being DL.

Thanks,

Rafael

BS Western state University, Fullerton, CA
JD " " ( ABA )
MBA Pepperdine, Malibu, CA
MS Kansas State University, KS ( 2003 )

 

When I've approached this question directly, the answer I've gotten has almost always been, "Hmmmm, I suppose that might be possible." My experience has been that they want to see your credentials before making a commitment to what they're willing to do re residency requirements. With that in mind I got into the habit of snail-mailing my (unofficial)transcripts and copies of my diplomas directly to the Dept. Head (with whom I'm exchanging email) just so they can tell that my qualifications are really what I'm claiming them to be. In addition, I have been prepared to list one or two dissertation topics along with a preliminary reading list for those topics. Of course, these dissertation topics are all based on the fact that I've previously reviewed the research interests of the relevant faculty members (especially the Dept. Head) and I've created topics of interest to me and that can be supported by the faculty. If, after receiving all this, they still hesitate then I basically say something like, "I understand that you can't give me an official answer until I've made formal application and been accepted for admission, but I don't want to go through the whole application process unless there's at least some possibility that this program can be completed entirely from the USA." At that point I've been told with some clarity that it is possible under certain conditions. Those conditions are never really specified prior to acceptance. I'd advise you to go through this process with all your chosen schools simultaneously. Some schools respond quickly, some take an extraordinary amount of time to respond. You can interpret that as you like. As for the lack of formal mention of DL degree programs . . . these are not DL degrees, they are research doctorates. Because there is no coursework involved the question then becomes, "Why can't I do the research where I live?" The primary answer is, "Because there aren't any supervisory faculty members who are willing to take a risk on someone they've never met and are unlikely to meet (especially if you get your wish to do the degree without ever traveling to SA). You need to remember that you're asking them to do something unusual, perhaps unprecedented. You have to anticipate their concerns and have solutions prepared. "How am I going to satisfy the requirements related to presenting at graduate seminars?" "I'm going to record my presentation on a CD-ROM and can be available to answer questions by phone or video conference." In short, you need to sell it to them because they're going to have to sell it to someone else. There is a good general description of this in BG14 under the heading of "Research Doctorates." There's a lot more that I could say but it would be better to respond to direct questions rather than to simply babble on and on. Good luck to all,
Jack