Does Amberton University require a thesis or capstone for their MA Prof. Dev. Degree

[kevinmane]

I was just looking at Amberton University for their MA in Professional Development Degree.
I didn't see anywhere where there was a required thesis, capstone, or comprehensive exam at the end when you're close to being done.
Does anybody know if this school requires a thesis or anything?

Also: is it still true that you can take 12 credits worth of VESI courses from of VESi's providing colleges (like Morningside and/or St. Catherines) and transfer them to Amberton for the 12 credit allowable graduate credit transfer? If so, which college provider do you recommend? I heard Morningside sucks now. Not worried about the $ aspect. Which college makes it the easiest to get those VESi courses done?

If you have done the Prof. Dev. Degree through Amberton, what did you think of it? Were the courses hard? Can you take just one course at a time? What classes did you take did you find the easiest?

Thanks in advance!

[sanantone]

MA, Professional Development | Amberton University, Garland and Frisco

[perriquit]

I was just looking at Amberton University for their MA in Professional Development Degree.
I didn't see anywhere where there was a required thesis, capstone, or comprehensive exam at the end when you're close to being done.
Does anybody know if this school requires a thesis or anything?

Also: is it still true that you can take 12 credits worth of VESI courses from of VESi's providing colleges (like Morningside and/or St. Catherines) and transfer them to Amberton for the 12 credit allowable graduate credit transfer? If so, which college provider do you recommend? I heard Morningside sucks now. Not worried about the $ aspect. Which college makes it the easiest to get those VESi courses done?

If you have done the Prof. Dev. Degree through Amberton, what did you think of it? Were the courses hard? Can you take just one course at a time? What classes did you take did you find the easiest?

Thanks in advance!

As far as I am aware, you don't need a Capstone for the degree and you can select courses that will grant you a specialization within the degree, and they have quite a bit. Amberton takes 12 credits in transfer so you could still do the Vesi via Morningside and transfer the classes. Vesi is not affiliated with St. Catharines anymore. Why do you say Morningside sucks? I have not had anything but positive experiences with them.

[TJD]

Amberton is very flexible in their approach to some of their degree programs. I attained my MBA in Strategic Leadership from Amberton in 2014 and was able to transfer 6 VESI credits with no problem.

The coursework is generally not too overwhelming, but if you procrastinate on any of the assignments you can fall behind rather quickly. The courses do require a lot of writing and research, but the difficulty is more dependent on the professor than the class itself. Each professor has their own requirements and grading criteria and my advice would be to look at the syllabuses and find the professors that match your level of commitment. As for time commitment, I was able to take two classes per term while working full-time, though my job did allow me the flexibility to do some of those assignments at work. Another thing that helped is that my assignments and papers for each class just happened to be due on opposite weeks.

There is no required capstone, thesis, or comprehensive exam to complete the degree program.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed my time at Amberton.

[kevinmane]

Thanks a lot guys!

@perriquit: Sorry, I worded that wrong. I didn't mean to say Morningside sucks - I was just referring to their VESi courses that now require a 3-7 page essay to turn in for their courses and other college providers do NOT have that requirement - so less work, the better. I'm know Morningside is a great school. My bad. do you know if they accept courses from any other college provider besides Morningside? Thanks!

@TJD: That's awesome, dude! Good job! Do you happen to know which courses were accepted? I wanted to transfer in 12 credits but I'm not sure which courses they'll accept for credit. I guess I could just ask Amberton directly.

one last question: do guys know if Amberton has proctored exams?

Thanks!

[TJD]

Amberton generally excepts anything that corresponds to graduate credit. I believe my classes transferred in as Human Behavior and Development electives.

All the classes I took consisted of discussion forums, writing assignments, critique analysis, and research papers. A few had exams, but they were either short quizzes or open book writing assignments. None of my classes required a proctor

[kevinmane]

That's great TJD! Thanks for the info!
Can I ask you which college provider did you take your VESi courses with?
It's looking like Southern Utah University is the cheapest and easiest option (since Morningside has added a 3-7 page essay as a requirement to pass their VESi courses) and SUU transcribes them as GRADUATE ACADEMIC CREDIT.
I know you can't say for sure:
but do you think if I took pretty much any 12 graduate credits through VESi through SUU that you think Amberton would accept all 12 when I apply and sign up?

Amberton's Prof. Dev. MA is certainly looking like a better option than AMU at the moment!
It's cheap, no proctors, no thesis, tons of classes you can take, 12 credits of VESi-transfer credit option, non-profit, RA... it's almost too good to be true!
Of course I'm sure the classes are challenging which is expected.

[TJD]

As long as the courses are through any regionally accredited graduate school you should have no problem. My courses went through Augustana College.

Before starting Amberton, I did get authorization from their admissions department.

[kevinmane]

Awesome - thanks TJD!
I just sent Amberton an email asking their admissions dept to verify the 6 2-credit graduate courses I wanna take through SUU (via VESi). If they say it's cool, I'll take those and get 'er done and then sign up with Amberton for sure after that!

Did you like Augustana College? Were the VESi courses difficult?

[TJD]

The VESI courses were through Virtual Education Software and the credit was then automatically transcribed through Augustana College. The courses themselves were interesting, but were not that difficult. They consisted of four exams and a few writing assignments which were not that extensive. I believe it took me a few weeks to completed 2 three-credit classes.