What's the most prestigious DL degree?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by little fauss, Aug 20, 2005.

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  1. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    The UPenn doctorate is not a DL degree. From the website:

    A great option if you live in Philadelphia, though.
     
  2. JP007

    JP007 Member

  3. JP007

    JP007 Member

    UPenn

    Good point! It's too bad U Penn's offerings are ltd to the Philly area....

     
  4. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  5. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Unless they've changed it in the last few years, UPenn's program only requires being in Philly once per month. For those in other cities who can otherwise afford it, that may not be an insurmountable obstacle. But I agree that that's still blended rather than truly distance.
     
  6. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    That's true. When my wife was doing her LLB, she went to England up to four times per year for residencies. They weren't compulsory, but they were awfully helpful. Yes, that did bump up the total cost of ownership, but compared with an American JD it was still a bargain.
     
  7. JP007

    JP007 Member

    Three trips to LDN for a Kings PhD sounds fairly reasonable..

    Minimum attendance requirements on this pathway require the student to attend in London at three key points:
    1. Enrolment and Induction ( late September or mid-January, depending on start date) :
    2. Formal upgrade from MPhil to PhD status (after around two years part-time registration or one year of full-time)
    3. Final Examination for the degree (at the end of your course).

     
  8. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Yes, not bad. My point was that not only does it mean that it's not a purely DL degree (are we mixing apples and oranges?) but it adds to the cost substantially. Still, a very nice degree.
     
  9. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

  10. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    If it is once per month then I would say that it expands the serviceable geography. It isn't unreasonable for a person in NYC to skip down on the train once a month for class. In fact, I would dare say it opens up the program to pretty much everyone in the Northeast Corridor who has the same option (DC to Boston). If the UPenn program uses any DL components they carefully avoided stating such.

    If you said to me that I had to go somewhere once quarterly I'd be pretty open. I could travel to Los Angeles once every three months without disrupting my life too terribly. But once a month limits your geography greatly.
     
  11. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    OK so I'm going to be difficult for a minute here (just because I like to). The question as it has been asked is not really what is being answered. The original question was "What is the most prestigious DL degree?" What followed was a litany of prestigious universities and a particular degree they offer by DL, or in some cases, blended methodology. An argument could be made that just because the university is prestigious it doesn't necessarily mean that the degree is prestigious. The answers are more suited to this question: "What is the most prestigious university that offers a DL degree?" In that case you need only refer to your favorite ranking list of 'best in the world' universities and find one near the top of the list. If, on the other hand, we define "most prestigious..." to mean hardest to get in, hardest to complete then you might end with a completely different list of programs. In the first case you might say that any Harvard HES degree is most prestigious just because it's Harvard. In the second case you could say that a PhD in Physics from UNISA is more prestigious just because there are very few people who could actually do it (a PhD in Physics from any school would work just as well in this example). So that's my offering to this question, a PhD in Physics from UNISA. :party:
     
  12. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I'd also like to point out that aside from the early mention of Oxford/Cambridge, no European or Asian universities have been mentioned. The original question did not specify language of instruction.
     
  13. JP007

    JP007 Member

    Go UNISA! :wave:

    I don't see a need to be difficult there. My thoughts on reactivating this thread was - this is a great resource to have on this forum, a list that points ppl to either 1) a prestigious school that offers a DL program, or 2) a prestigious DL program stand alone.

    Someone who posts / reads, can figure it how it fits w/ their definition of prestigious.

    Any more ideas (schools/programs) are more than welcome!
     
  14. JP007

    JP007 Member

    This is a great opportunity to post more Euro or Asian schools! Go for it Kizmet!

    I did post a few Euro schools (Kings, UoMan, IE, Durham).

     
  15. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    To Kizmet's point, the term "prestigious" can be a bit misleading and can vary by user.

    Oh, you have a bachelors from Harvard? Cool.

    But you have an M.D. from Johns Hopkins? Very cool.

    In the medical world, that M.D. from JHU is pretty top shelf. If we're going by rankings, JHU's medical school beats Harvard's. But, Harvard is generally regarded as having one of the top three business programs and Johns Hopkins is further down the list. So an MBA from Harvard, to many, would be more prestigious than an MBA from Johns Hopkins.

    Does Cornell beat Stanford? The former is ivy league. But the latter is pretty amazing.

    I also dare say that the discipline itself can matter a great deal. You can earn a nursing degree from Columbia. Are we to believe that a Columbia trained R.N. can out-nurse an NYU trained R.N.? I've worked as a recruiter. Nurses typically get the same salary to start (sometimes adjusted to lure away specialty certifications). But a B.S.N. from Columbia is most likely going to command the same salary as a B.S.N. from NYU and, dare I say, a B.S.N. from the University of Phoenix. Future employment prospects might be impacted, of course, if you intend to rise through the ranks. But, generally speaking, ivy league nurses get paid the same as lowly public university trained nurses.

    The bachelors in Liberal Arts from Harvard is impressive. But showing up at an employer's door with a B.S. in Finance from Penn State might actually help you get a job that doesn't (primarily) involve answering a phone. And so on.

    All of that aside, here are my prestige picks (based solely upon which schools I think have solid name recognition):

    US Public: Rutgers
    US Private: Johns Hopkins

    Program specific:

    Online MBA: Drexel
    Online MS in HR: Villanova
    Online MS in CS: Stanford
    Online MS Engineering: UCLA

    I realize some might disagree with some of my choices. Whatever.
     
  16. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    To continue with my thought . . .
    I know someone who has their MSW from Fordham. In conversation she told me that the most prestigious MSW program in NYC is not at Columbia (as I would have guessed) but at NYU. So there's another wrinkle on the prestige issue. A university might have a great rep overall but specific departments might be better or worse, depending on whatever, instructors perhaps? Another example is the Philosophical Gourmet Report which ranks Philosophy Departments every year. Who is at the top of the list? Not Harvard, not Yale, not Stanford but NYU (again). Harvard is waaay down at #6, tied with the University of Pittsburg. So, especially in terms of grad degrees, it's the prestige of the department that really counts, not the rep of the university as a whole.

    The Philosophical Gourmet Report 2014 :: Overall Rankings
     

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