Decided on NCU for a PhD in Business Administration

[jmichelle79]

Thats Great!!!
Be sure to let us know how it goes.

[skyfall123]

Thanks Geezer. I am taking this slow so that I can get as many years of reimbursement in the process. My first 8 week course in e-commerce ends this weekend. I am writing a 12-15 page paper on security in e-commerce and mobile payment processing.
These topics are all very relevant to my current line of work.

Here is the course sequence for the certificate. I am in the first course.
1. e-commerce basics
2. e-commerce on the managerial level.
3. supply chain mgmt and design
4. e-commerce marketing
5. mobile e-commerce
6. e-commerce capstone

This sounds like a great path for you Ryan. Interesting course subjects. When you look at the breadth of course you've taken in the last couple of years, you are well prepared for any advancement/career path that your company offers.

[ryoder]

Ok I changed my mind. I decided against the e-commerce CAGS. I finished the first course and dumped the specialization for Applied Computer Science.
So that course was a great learning experience, I got an A, but it is not part of my degree program. 2k down the drain plus 8 months of work.
Now that I am moving on, I am very excited to be in the Applied Computer Science specialization. If I feel like it, I could always do a general PhD or DBA and use that e-commerce course as one of my elective courses.
I started 2 courses today and have 90% of the work done for one and 50% of the work done for the other. I worked very hard getting up at 4:30 a couple of days in a row to get a head start on the coursework.

[dcan]

How are you working ahead so quickly? Are you downloading a syllabus from the school website? I thought about doing that for my classes but am always leery of the "actual syllabus may be very different from what you read here" statements. I figure I can use that time to study for CLEPs, which of course you don't have to worry about.

[ryoder]

Once I enroll in a class and before that class starts I have access to the actual syllabus. This is usually about 1 week ahead of the start date.
So during that week I can work usually finish 3 assignments if I am really motivated.
And yes, I can get the syllabus for a class I have not taken yet. And they do change. I once finished a whole class (MIS) and they completely revamped the syllabus and changed every assignment. For HRM, I did 11 of the 12 assignments and when the school switched to 8 week courses some of those assignments were wasted and some 3-5 page papers became 5-7 page papers.

I am going so fast on these two PhD courses because the first is super easy and is a "welcome to ncu and scholarly writing" course and the other one is business ethics, which I took last year.

I can move very quickly through CS courses because the subject matter is well known to me so I just have to compose research papers pulling in sources to make my case. The Research methods, statistics I and II courses and dissertation courses will be the most difficult for me.

[ryoder]

Update.
I finished the first course BTM7101 Introduction to Doctoral Study in Business last week and am halfway through MGT7019 Ethics in Business.

[ryoder]

My second course, Ethics in Business, is done. Just started SKS7000 Strategic Knowledge Studies.

[jtalama]

My second course, Ethics in Business, is done. Just started SKS7000 Strategic Knowledge Studies.

About how long have the courses been taking? 2 months or so?

[ryoder]

Each course is 8 weeks in length. I started my first class BTM7101 2/20/2012 and finished in about 2.5 weeks. I started business ethics 2/27 and finished it a couple of days ago so that was about 4 weeks.
I am currently enrolled only in SKS7000 and should be able to complete it in 3-4 weeks.
Next after that is biz stats. That will take me 4-6 weeks I think.

[jtalama]

Each course is 8 weeks in length. I started my first class BTM7101 2/20/2012 and finished in about 2.5 weeks. I started business ethics 2/27 and finished it a couple of days ago so that was about 4 weeks.
I am currently enrolled only in SKS7000 and should be able to complete it in 3-4 weeks.
Next after that is biz stats. That will take me 4-6 weeks I think.

Slightly off topic, but why did you opt for NCU instead of WGU? I read that you were considering WGU at one time. Just curious if NCU offers you the ability to move quickly through your program? Moving quickly along with my IT certifications is why I'm considering WGU for an MS IS&A. Your input is highly appreciated!