My Ashford University Experience : school

Routines and Rhythms: The keys to your success

Cajun — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:50:00 GMT

I’ve said it before I’ll say it again, two things you need to be successful as an online student, especially one who is also professionally employed, is good scheduling and time management skills. The thing that I use to meet the rigors of...(read more)

Considering online college? Here’s a formula to choose the best one for you

Cajun — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:19:00 GMT

In the forums one of the most frequent questions I see is "which school is right for me" or "can you help me choose a school" or "do you know of a school" etc. The problem with answering those questions is that choosing the right school is impossible for someone to do for you. They can suggest, point you in the right direction, even offer options but ultimately it is a personal decision that you, the student has to make. After all it is you that will do the work and ultimately pay the tab.

So here's a little exercise to help you decide on choosing a school.

Write down the top 10 criteria you have for a school. For example when searching out my MBA program some of my criteria was as follow:

I.) The school needs to be regionally accredited.
II.) The MBA needed a Leadership emphasis.
III.) The curriculum needed 12 classes or less.
IV.) The program must be under $15K.
V.) The school needs to be campus based with an online program.
VI.) The school needs to have accelerated courses.
VII.) The school needs to have 1 quantitative course combined finance and accounting.
VIII.) The school needs to have a good reputation.
IX.) The school needs to have a good support program.
X.) The school needs to be AACSB or ACBSP accredited.

I then take these 10 criteria and apply a number in order of priority with "10" being the highest and "1" being the lowest. Think of it in terms of dollars, $10.00 is worth 10 times more than $1.00. Make sense?

So now let's assume my criterion was as follows:

The school needs to be regionally accredited. = 10

The MBA needed a Leadership emphasis. = 7

The curriculum needed 12 classes or less. = 6

The program must be under $15K. = 9

The school needs to be campus based with an online program. = 5

The school needs to have accelerated courses. = 8

The school needs to have 1 quantitative course combined finance and accounting. =2

The school needs to have a good reputation. = 4

The school needs to have a good support program. = 3

The school needs to be AACSB or ACBSP accredited. = 1

As you can see, in my criteria of comparing two different schools I have assigned "The school needs to be AACSB or ACBSP accredited" as the least important of the 10 and "The school needs to be regionally accredited" as the most important at "10". Of course you make your own list and assign your priorities according to your opinions and desires.

Now in comparing two different colleges, for example let's compare Ashford University and Texas A&M Commerce.

Ashford scores in:

The school had to be regionally accredited.

The MBA needed a Leadership emphasis.

The curriculum needed 12 classes or less.

The program must be under $15K.

The school needs to be campus based with an online program.

The school needs to have a good reputation.

The school needs to have a good support program.

The school needs to have accelerated courses.

The total score was: 52 at 3+4+8+5+9+6+7+10

Texas A&M Commerce scores in:

The school needs to be regionally accredited.

The MBA needed a Leadership emphasis.

The program must be under $15K.

The school needs to be campus based with an online program.

The school needs to have a good reputation.

The school needs to be AACSB or ACBSP accredited.

The total score was: 36 at 10+7+9+5+4+1

As you can see Texas A&M Commerce has some things going for it that Ashford does not as Ashford has some things going for it that Texas A&M Commerce lacks in my opinion. But in the end Ashford scores higher overall than Texas A&M Commerce does. Thus Texas A&M Commerce is eliminated from my list.

Just keep going like that until you emerge with a winner. If you end up in a tie extend your criteria to 15 or 20 things instead of just 10.

I hope that helps.

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So I'm Considering a Doctorate Degree

Cajun — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:56:00 GMT

First up, I've written about them before and I'm doing it again, but the Harrison Middleton University's College of the Humanities and Sciences has the best looking all around liberal arts doctorate programs I've seen. I love the concept of performing your research based upon readings from the Great Books, many of which have shaped our way of life in the Western World. Some of these works have influenced everyone from Marx to the framers of the United States Constitution to Einstein. I love the concept, I love the idea of the program.

The cost is very reasonable at just over $16K and of course I love the idea of being "Doctor Cajun." However there is a con, the degree seems as if it would have very little practical use as a credential in the "real world" even though the education gained from this program may prove invaluable indeed. So the inner pragmatist within me keeps shouting "something else, find something else" so I continued my search.

Found at http://www.chumsci.edu/pages/degree/doctorarts-coursework.asp

My search eventually landed me on Northcentral University's Web site. This school offers a deep law enforcement discount placing the degree program squarely within my predefined "affordable" range and the idea of a PhD soothes my inner pragmatist because of its utility in teaching and academia. I've made no secret of it; if at all possible I would love to teach college management, leadership and criminal justice courses. I am passionate on the subject matter, I am interested in the topics and because of that, I am gifted in those areas.

NCU has concentrations that are in areas of interest to me such as in Criminal Justice, Homeland Security, Homeland Security: Leadership and Policy and a strange but interesting offering in Business, Corporate and Campus Security. Holy cow!!! On top of that if I choose 18 hours in electives towards Organizational Leadership that will be added to the transcript as a secondary specialization. So it would read something like Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration with a specialization in Criminal Justice and Organizational Leadership…not bad, eh?

Another consideration is that NCU is accredited by the ACBSP and is regionally accredited by the NCACS which would turn into a weighty teaching credential.

I'll have to start really weighing my options again. In all honesty if I could have any job on the planet, right at the top of my list somewhere would be a college professor or instructor in criminal justice, management and leadership, I've just never considered that to be a practical goal but now it looks like it could actually happen one day…maybe.

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Get your MBA the quick and easy way

Cajun — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:58:00 GMT

My title got you didn’t it? You’re reading this blog post thinking “can I really get my MBA quick and easy?” Sure you can. It wasn’t too many weeks ago I interviewed a guy who had a degree from a wholly unaccredited and un-wonderful university (which shall go unnamed) and he told me how quick and easy it was to get his degree after he discovered through “casual conversation” as I escorted him out that I was a student. First a note to those of you who are interviewing or will be in the future, the interview isn’t over when they say it is, it’s over when you shut your mouth and leave, but that’s another post for another day.

In this case I didn’t recognize the name of the school listed on the resume. So of course I immediately asked questions all of which he answered with nothing raising a red flag during the official interview. I always check schools out after an interview if I do not recognize them through a handy little search engine provided by the U.S. Dept. of Education but in this case I almost didn’t even need to. Why? Because the interviewee in question openly and boastfully told me about how he didn’t even need to do coursework. No, instead he simply filled out an application, sent in a resume, did a brief phone interview and before you know it, he was a bona-fide graduate. The school itself may have been legal, after all they did ask him to write a paper or two and his degree probably made his mother proud, he was the first college graduate in his family. The problem is that the degree was worth less than the paper it was written on in the professional world (or should be) and he will willingly tell you it was “easy”. He wasn’t challenged into learning new things, he wasn’t tested on his applied knowledge, he pretty much left the same way he went in and that is a sad testament to the quality of this school.

Fact #1: There is no quick and easy degree that is worth its salt. There are quick degrees to be sure, such as a 10 month MBA program, but they are FAMOUSLY grueling.

Fact #2: A real college with real teachers and real coursework will change you. There’s no getting around it. Being forced to learn new concepts, new ways of thinking, new knowledge and then be tested and held to a diverse set of expectations by (at times) seemingly masochistic professors who thrive on your agony…will change you. You will become something other than what you were when you went in if nothing other than slightly fatter and balder from stress. Testing situations cause people to learn things about themselves…

Fact #3: Colleges and Universities are easy, easy, easy to check out. Hiding behind obscurity will not work if anyone in hiring cares to take more than 2 minutes looking into a school. Don’t take shortcuts. You may get the job only later to lose it in a sea of disgrace…but most of all, you’ll know you took those shortcuts even if everyone else doesn’t. Maybe that doesn’t bother you, but don’t let someone who spent 7 years getting to the Masters alum level find out you did it in 9 months. It won’t win friends and they will not be impressed.

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An odd lifestyle choice I have made to earn my degree online

Cajun — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:35:00 GMT

“Where do you find the time?”

“You must really like working a lot.”

“You must be a (book worm or nerd or Einstein or driven or a workaholic or any number of assumptions people like to make about someone they barely know anything about other than they are different).

These three quotes above are questions/phrases people spit at me almost as a reflex when they find out I am going to school online full time and working full time. Usually this is because for some reason or another they have dismissed the notion of getting a higher education themselves under a file in their brain labeled “impossible” or at the very least “highly inconvenient”. Okay I’ll admit I am a bit different. Not necessarily odd but almost a little eccentric by the standards of “normal” people.

So do I like working a lot? No but I do find good work to be worthwhile and satisfying. I simply cannot sit around and do nothing. I haven’t the genetic code for that sort of thing. I’m not a nerd (unless you ask my wife) or an Einstein or a workaholic (though I have some workaholic tendencies) but I certainly am driven.

Where the “oddness” comes in is also strongly linked with where I find time to go to school. First of all, I don’t have T.V. Oh I have a television hooked to a DVD player to occasionally watch a movie but I do not get any channels or T.V. stations at all. I don’t have cable, satellite or even local regular old television. Nada, nothing. I also do not have video games or any such distractions. My living room probably resembles the 3^rd layer of hell to most teenagers, a small unassuming television, a laptop, a pile of books on a kitchen table and some calculators, pens and notebooks strewn about.

For relaxation I surf the net, watch a movie or play guitar, that’s about it. It’s amazing how much time becomes available for things like school when you put down the remote or turn off the video game. Every once in a blue moon I get to sit down and read a fictional novel or something which is my idea of bliss. So is cutting television out of your life a major lifestyle choice? Actually to me it really isn’t but to watch the slow realization of horror spread over the faces of my coworkers when I tell them that I do not have television you would think that it is. I don’t know. Maybe after 5 years I’m just used to it by now.

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