In the first post of many about my Doctoral experience at Walden University, I suppose we can start at the beginning. Today, I will break down the decision process that I went through and why I chose Walden over Capella.
First, I would like to say that I spoke to some people at Capella during the process of enrolling in a doctoral program. They were very nice and helpful. The programs at Capella are very appealing and appear to be just as rigorous (if not more so) as any other online doctoral program that I could find. My decision to go with Walden is in NO way a negative reflection on Capella. It simply boiled down to finding a program that was right for me. For anyone considering Capella, I found no reason to discount the institution.
After spending several months deciding what the next step was in my educational pursuits, I had my choices narrowed down to four schools. Those were Capella University, Walden University, University of Maryland and Baker College. After some further consideration, I narrowed it down to Capella and Walden. This was primarily because both had program start dates that were rapidly approaching. If I can start soon, I might not change my mind about seeking a doctoral degree!
The first idea I had was to look at the Ph.D. programs at each school. From Capella, I focused on the Ph.D. in Leadership. At Walden, I selected the Ph.D. in Applied Management and Decision Sciences with a concentration in Leadership and Organizational Change. Both programs were very appealing on every level. Almost.
I rapidly abandoned the Ph.D. idea after learning of the cost. Both programs would average out to be around $70,000 - $80,000 when I finished. This is a lot of money and as someone who is already in debt with student loans from my undergraduate degree and my M.B.A., I didn’t need to take on this additional burden.
Furthermore, if I were to put my nose to the ground and focus a majority of my time on school under these programs, it would take four to five years to complete. This is too long for me. Since starting my undergraduate program at Kaplan back in circa 2003, I have gone to school for about six years with little or no breaks in between. Mentally, I am not sure I could have completed another four or five year program with any success. My brain is tired.
The factors above narrowed my choice down to the Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.) at Walden University. Capella did not have a comparable program, so they were out of the equation at that point.
The D.B.A. is the next logical step after the M.B.A. As a matter of fact, many of the classes are similar to those in the M.B.A. program, but more in-depth and require a lot more critical thinking. I am OK with this.
Five characteristics of the D.B.A. program that attracted me:
The cost is much lower than the Ph.D.
Since the D.B.A. is the next logical academic progression from the M.B.A., I was able to transfer five courses into the program. The result of this is that my program is more than a year shorter. Moreover, the cost of the program is significantly reduced.
Books are included in the cost of the program. This was a big deal to me. Had I elected to go into a Ph.D. program, I would have been ordering and paying for books on my own. If you have purchased a textbook lately, you know they are not cheap.
I searched for reviews on both schools to see what kind of reputation each one had. With thousands and thousands of “customers”, an operation as large as Walden and Capella were sure to have a few negative comments. At the end of the day, I was hard-pressed to find anything negative about Walden University.
With the transfer credits, my program should be somewhere around two years. This is a manageable block of time I can carve out of my schedule and still expect to thrive.
In the next few posts, I will write about the enrollment process and answer some fan mail.