Do you think an online phD or doctorate is acceptable?
Asked by LeetronDo you think an online phD or doctorate is acceptable? I have a friend looking into Capella University for a phD in an IT Security field. I personally do not like online degrees exspecially from a for-profit institution. I am wondering if you teach or have earned a phD from such a university/institute, what your experiences are. I know many phD's who teach at University's who have told me they would never accept an online doctorate to teach, regardless of the University. I also know that my company will never hire anyone with a degree from a for-profit institution unless there is a highly desired reason to because of their acceptance policy and the overall quality of the previous students we have hired. I do not mean to offend anyone, I am looking for insight and experience you have had. THANKS!
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Answered by RoaringMice
At the Masters, and even more so at the PhD level, the reputation of your program within your field is vitally important to your ability to get a job in that field. It pays to go to the best reputed program that you can. And most of those online programs are not at all respected. Worse, he's considering Capella? Oy. Honestly, that's not going to help his career - in fact, it may hurt, as many employers refuse to look at resumes from schools like U Phoenix, Capella, Devry, ITT, Strayer, AIU, etc. At least, if he must go online, he should consider doing an online degree from a school with a good rep for it's offline programs. That said, the IT industry is one of the few that do have some respect, by some employers, for some of the high level online programs. But Capella isn't one of those programs. Instead, if he can't attend a good school in person, he should consider the following online programs, which are at well respected universities: - Carnegie Mellon - Rensselaer Polytechnic - Penn State - U Maryland - U Mass Amherst - U Illinois Champaign-Urbana - U Idaho - U Nebraska - Northeastern University - Boston University And still, he'd do better going to a program in person. Even from the list I gave, if he must go online, I'd probably only seriously recommend that he look at Carnegie Mellon, which offers one of the top programs in his field in the US. Maybe BU.
At the Masters, and even more so at the PhD level, the reputation of your program within your field is vitally important to your ability to get a job in that field. It pays to go to the best reputed program that you can. And most of those online programs are not at all respected. Worse, he's considering Capella? Oy. Honestly, that's not going to help his career - in fact, it may hurt, as many employers refuse to look at resumes from schools like U Phoenix, Capella, Devry, ITT, Strayer, AIU, etc. At least, if he must go online, he should consider doing an online degree from a school with a good rep for it's offline programs. That said, the IT industry is one of the few that do have some respect, by some employers, for some of the high level online programs. But Capella isn't one of those programs. Instead, if he can't attend a good school in person, he should consider the following online programs, which are at well respected universities: - Carnegie Mellon - Rensselaer Polytechnic - Penn State - U Maryland - U Mass Amherst - U Illinois Champaign-Urbana - U Idaho - U Nebraska - Northeastern University - Boston University And still, he'd do better going to a program in person. Even from the list I gave, if he must go online, I'd probably only seriously recommend that he look at Carnegie Mellon, which offers one of the top programs in his field in the US. Maybe BU.
