My confusing journey to picking a grad school

[Ideas]

I'm really liking that there's the EdS in the education field. It's like the EdD minus the dissertation. It seems safer than some other programs where there's no degree on the way to the next degree. Also, I like how the education field degrees tend to be cheaper.

So far for doctorates, I'm thinking of the EdD or else the DBA at an NA school (proably Taft), as I don't want to run up too much in loans. I feel the DBA might be harder and I think I would wish I went to an RA school someday. And as I said, the EdS seems like a great step.

I'm less worried about oral defense of dissertation now. I'd consider schools that required it, especially if it can be done without traveling. The DBA would require one, and it says they do them through webcam sometimes. I'm starting to become more sure that I will do at least the EdS degree or similar.

I know it's a little strange to think so far ahead, but it's (perhaps) not that far ahead. I could feasibly knock out the MBA WGU classes by the end of November (although it may require pushing my BA-CS until June 2019). Then it takes some time for the actual conferral, but at certain schools, I could probably already start a course toward the EdS this December. Of course this would only happen if I decide soon and tried to make it happen fast.

Or, in the very unlikely event I found a PhD/EdD/DBA which didn't require a Masters that made sense. Even if I found one, I like the idea of having at least one stepping stone.

I've become less interested in foreign and NA degrees, at least for my first Masters. Since the DBA I found is NA, I am really leaning toward doing the EdS/EdD. But this could change if I find something cheap.

If Capella can be believed, a doctorate which has a capstone can be done faster. They're saying the capstone could possibly be done in 6 months. https://www.capella.edu/blogs/cublog/dif...e-project/ However, I doubt I could find a capstone program that was also on the cheap side.

[Ideas]

I just realized the EdS has 4 courses which are not in the EdD. But maybe those 4 could be saved until the end.

[Sagan]

I'm really liking that there's the EdS in the education field. It's like the EdD minus the dissertation. It seems safer than some other programs where there's no degree on the way to the next degree. Also, I like how the education field degrees tend to be cheaper.

So far for doctorates, I'm thinking of the EdD or else the DBA at an NA school (proably Taft), as I don't want to run up too much in loans. I feel the DBA might be harder and I think I would wish I went to an RA school someday. And as I said, the EdS seems like a great step.

I'm less worried about oral defense of dissertation now. I'd consider schools that required it, especially if it can be done without traveling. The DBA would require one, and it says they do them through webcam sometimes. I'm starting to become more sure that I will do at least the EdS degree or similar.

I know it's a little strange to think so far ahead, but it's (perhaps) not that far ahead. I could feasibly knock out the MBA WGU classes by the end of November (although it may require pushing my BA-CS until June 2019). Then it takes some time for the actual conferral, but at certain schools, I could probably already start a course toward the EdS this December. Of course this would only happen if I decide soon and tried to make it happen fast.

Or, in the very unlikely event I found a PhD/EdD/DBA which didn't require a Masters that made sense. Even if I found one, I like the idea of having at least one stepping stone.

I've become less interested in foreign and NA degrees, at least for my first Masters. Since the DBA I found is NA, I am really leaning toward doing the EdS/EdD. But this could change if I find something cheap.

If Capella can be believed, a doctorate which has a capstone can be done faster. They're saying the capstone could possibly be done in 6 months. https://www.capella.edu/blogs/cublog/dif...e-project/ However, I doubt I could find a capstone program that was also on the cheap side.

The EdS is barely a degree. Education is the only field that offers this intermediate award. It's useful when working in the K-12 world, but utterly unknown everywhere else.

If you're considering either a DBA or an EdD, stop. Those are two entirely different disciplines. It would be a good idea to commit to one field or the other; your doctorate will define you for the rest of your life. They're not interchangeable.

[Ideas]

The EdS is barely a degree. Education is the only field that offers this intermediate award. It's useful when working in the K-12 world, but utterly unknown everywhere else.

If you're considering either a DBA or an EdD, stop. Those are two entirely different disciplines. It would be a good idea to commit to one field or the other; your doctorate will define you for the rest of your life. They're not interchangeable.

I wouldn't say it's only K-12. A lot of them are in Adult Education or Instructional Technology. Sure it's only like half of an EdD or so, but it's seems quite a bit more than someone having just a Masters.

In my situation, I'm not sure it matters all that much what I get my doctorate in. I'm somewhat unlikely to have employment in my future (besides contract/temp/freelance where it doesn't seem to matter much). I'm not willing to spend too much money, so the options are limited. I happen to have real personal interest in these 2 areas which happen to be some of the most common and less expensive. 

Also, it's taken me years to realize, but most of my disparate interests over the years do have something in common: they are typically all related to education in some way. I've seemed "all over the place" to many people, and myself, but when you boil it down I think they are aspects of education. Basically health edu, business edu. But I feel business edu has less chance of success for me, so I am also interested in some kinds of tech edu.

A very strong interest of mine is actually info architecture/accessibility/organization and related, and I have some experience in the field, but I really hesitate to get a Masters in info science, etc. If I were healthier and/or younger, I probably would take that path and specialize (and aim for a career in the tech areas of the country), and get my doctorate in the same field. I feel that given my health and age, I may be better off pursuing edu instead, unless there is some quick cheap degree available to me. Unfortunately I think the Hodges Masters would have been perfect for me, but it's gone. I feel that the type of info sci and related stuff that I like is fairly related to learning/teaching. Basically, if I had an MSIS or similar, I don't know what job it could get me (with my health considerations). And just like many other IT/CS/etc fields, I think that in freelance, the degree doesn't help me as much as in other fields. I would have my BA-CS as "proof" that I can handle Info Science. However, in general I haven't identified a successful possible path in freelance in this specialty for myself.

There are some other specific areas that I have real interest in, but like with Info Science, I haven't been able to see any specific career/job that seems like it would work well. I do feel there are some areas of IT/CS/etc which I am unaware of, so I still plan to dig into some additional specialized areas and see if there might be... and dig around more in regards to Info Sci types of work. However, if an Info Sci Masters is like 2 years and $18K, it's harder to justify than the others which are 4-12 months and often under $10K. It's more about the time than the money.

Whenever I consider something, I like to consider the next best alternative(s), opportunity cost, etc. The DBA is not nearly as good overall as the EdD because the DBA is either NA or foreign (or much higher cost). So it's not actually being considered seriously at this point, but being used as a point of comparison. The main reason the DBA is interesting is some programs (esp foreign) allow you to go directly from the Bachelors and get a Masters along the way.

In addition, the EdS would not be a goal, it would only be a fallback if something came up in my life. I definitely am not ready to commit to an EdD yet, but I feel it helps me to see what's out there and realize that the EdD is much more suited for me than any other doctorate (in the lower price range). Even if I were to extend my price range, I don't even think there's another I am interested in except for a PhD. I think my ideal would be a PhD at low cost, but this seems unrealistic.

I would be glad if I could see other options, but speed is a concern for me. It is not just being impatient. I don't want to go into it, but my health is expected to decline at a certain point in the future. I want to have some time to work (even if it's just freelance/contract/temp) after getting my terminal degree. And I just feel more motivated when I can go quickly, and enjoy having the challenge. Like a 6 month MBA, for example, is easier to stay motivated for, than a 12 month MBA. At this time in my life, school really fits in, but in a couple years I might not want to spend as much time on school.

Because of the time constraints, there is a chance I will stop and never do doctoral level (in this case I am sure I'd probably do 2 Masters though). There is also a chance I will do just the EdS. However I feel like the dissertation would be a nice challenge anyway... even better if it's just a dissertation capstone.

[Ideas]

After more research, I'm not sure the Ed.D and Ed.S would help as much as I thought. But it's the same for just about every degree/career I'm wondering if I should choose the degrees based on freelance expectations instead. If I'm doing that, multiple Masters and grad certs are the way to go, but I still feel like I want to check the box for personal reasons, and because I think a doctorate would help me somehow. On the other forum, there's a thread where a teacher was looking for any doctorate to check the box.

The education degrees are strange, because of how they hire people with doctorates in a field, and so an Ed.D or Ph.D in education isn't normally hired for teaching about a field. In searching on the Ed.S, I do see how it's not very applicable to anything besides the 3-4 fields of education. In some ways it's much less interesting, but one of the types of work in applies to is curriculum development. I am more interested in the writing / designing part of education, although I am also interested in the general teaching. But the Ed.S seems basically like an ABD Ed.D. Some jobs seem to consider the ABD candidate more than the Ed.S.

It comes down to the fact that I'd consider almost any less-expensive degree that is also on the quicker side. On the quicker side would usually involve fields I am most interested in. I wonder if the 75 credit UALR PhD makes more sense for me. It has the 33 credit Masters that you can supposedly get along the way. So it would be 75 credits total. Whereas the Ed.D is cheaper per credit, but it's 64 credits after the Masters (which would be 30 fast credits at WGU/Patten). And the UALR has an Info Science concentration available. I really like the stepping stone of the Masters. I'm not sure if theirs is conducive to finishing on the faster side. The biggest thing I dislike is they state 3 campus visits are required. That's a bit much. I feel like 1 visit makes sense, maybe 2. I don't want the 3 visits to be the reason I pass it up, but it's also probably slow compared to the Ed.D, and costs something like 25% more. On the plus side, I like how they let you choose some classes. Most programs don't seem to have much choice.

[Ideas]

I'm now almost positive that I'm going to do a PhD program that's RA instead of a DBA, Ed.D, foreign / NA, etc. I have a couple in mind, but I'll do a little more searching. Especially since scholarships/grants could influence my final choice greatly. In addition, by the time I'm ready, there may be a new program. I'm still researching in case I find a program with the stepping stone Masters, or even grad certs, but it seems unlikely I'll find something. So I think I can focus on deciding the Masters.

I've also determined that what I'd want most for my Masters is an MPH with an Education/Promotion concentration, but I would be happy with most other MPH concentrations that I've seen. However, I have not found any that were cheap and fast enough for me. I looked for scholarships a bit, but will look again, because that could make all the difference. However, I think it's quite unlikely I could get a big enough scholarship. In addition, the scholarships seem to mostly go to people with excellent employment history (and therefore employer references), relevant volunteer positions for at least a year, etc.

Also, even if there were a 12-18 month RA MPH program I wanted to do, I might knock out a quick MBA first. Partly since I have personal interest in getting the MBA.

To me, the M.Ed in Health Ed is an inferior, runner-up degree to the MPH but it makes sense since I'm concerned about time, cost, and having to travel (it's much more difficult due to my medical problems). If I did the M.Ed, I may considering getting a grad cert in Public Health, although I have researched them and they are fairly costly. M.Ed + PH cert might be almost the same cost and time as the MPH, so I'm wondering if maybe that is an indicator that I should just go for the MPH. However, I am leaning away from the MPH. In addition, some MPH schools will be harder to gain entrance into because my undergrad is not a Science field, I don't have employer LoR's, etc.

Currently, I'm torn between two options which I honestly feel have equal benefit to me for my freelancing/possible career, etc even though they are rather different paths:
1) MBA-IT or MBA-Health Mgmt for $3500 in 6 months, with at least one grad cert (which are generally $4000-6000 and 4-6 months, but at least one could be foreign, etc)
2) M.Ed in Health Ed for $8200 in 7-12 months
- With the second option, of course a grad cert is also possible, but I would feel like I'd already spent somewhat more money and time at this level of education, and would probably want to keep my money and time toward the PhD.
- With the first option, what I like is that there are so many grad certs to choose from (if willing to spend $5500+), some of which are from excellent schools.
- I have more personal interest in an M.Ed than an MBA even though I have interest in the MBA!
I may come up with some other paths to seriously consider, but I've been thinking about this for months.

[Ideas]

What's missing from my list is an IT/IS/CIS degree on the Masters level. I feel like most are not worth it due to the time/cost compared to the others, and because the IT field is more forgiving about having a "degree in something else". However, perhaps I should give that some more consideration.

I know it's odd to have such different degrees being considered, but my PhD is likely to be in leadership/business or IT, so if my Masters is in IT/business, I feel that's boring. Of course others would say it's best for everything to be in the same field, it looks best for the resume. But since I have low odds of regular employment anyway, I feel like I should do more of what I want personally, and do what helps in freelance.

I feel that for freelance/contract work, it's good to have eggs in multiple baskets (although keeping everything related to your 2 or maybe 3 baskets). I feel like if I go the MBA (or IT) routes, then I might not be able to do as much as I want in Health/Medical fields. Yet if did the Health route, I feel like they are more forgiving in IT, and would possibly still hire me based on my BA-CS and partial completion of the PhD-IT.

I'm kind of trying to be in both fields at this point (Health and IT). I'm going to think about it more. Maybe I can eliminate one. But I do know that for the PhD, I'll take whatever... and the cheaper, faster programs tend to be either Leadership or IT related (have not found a cheap one that's education related). And on the Masters level I feel my choices are pretty limited as I don't want to spend as much time and money. I would spend more for the right program, but not like double.

Sometimes I wonder if I waited for just a year, maybe there would be a new great program.

Now that I think about it more, the MBA-IT is not an IT degree, of course. It's just that IT fields care less about what your degree is. I would say the MBA would allow me to get adjunct positions teaching business, which could then get me into fields I want to be in. But may not get me into the Health areas.

I'd like to think that the Health Ed degree is best, I like the idea of that path quite a lot. However, I'm worried that the Health Ed degree would NOT get me adjunct positions. I previously said that degree has HLTH prefixes for a bunch of the courses but I'm still concerned because I'd have to start with community colleges. At that level, there aren't as many HLTH courses which aren't Allied Health or Public Health. I think for teaching most Public Health, they would really want someone with an MPH and so I wouldn't be competitive. For Allied Health, of course they typically want you to have a license in nursing, etc. I'm thinking they won't really want me teaching Health Science either; I would probably be stuck with only the most basic Health courses, which is not too interesting to me, but... may be OK. The problem I see though, is for the basic Health courses, I bet there would be lots of competition. I don't want to teach high school and getting the license to do so would be very difficult, too much in-person I do see some Health adjunct positions but mostly I think they are filled by people who have Phys Ed, Wellness, Nutrition training as well.

Then again, if I look at freelance, I think I could certainly get more the type of work I want with the M.Ed in Health Ed? In freelance I think that degree helps more than the MBA. Except that I'd get a grad cert with the MBA. Very confusing. If only there were an MPH.

Oh WOW, just realized the two M.Ed programs at WGU don't need prior licensure, and can be done for $3200 in 6 months! Of course they don't have "Health Ed" like I want, but I'm leaning toward this as my first grad program. One says there are some in-classroom parts, the other doesn't seem to have those. It's in Instructional Design which I would find both interesting and I'd guess it would be somewhat on the easier side for me.

---

Ok, I also looked at the WGU scholarships somewhat, and remembered someone's post from a while ago about the scholarships. So maybe I'd get $500 or more off the posted rate. I think there may be multiple that I can apply for. I don't think I can pass this up. I also really like how WGU posts the information and is so organized, etc. I just can't help but like the school a lot. That and their low rates. But other schools make you chase after the information, and it doesn't make you feel like committing to their program. I really feel that I am going to attend WGU at some point, if not now, but it's looking great for me right now.

In fact I wonder about getting the MBA after the M.Ed if I indeed get scholarship money. But I don't have to decide on that yet. Hopefully by then there will be some new grad certs I like.

I think this is the obvious right choice for now, but I will give it a week or so to see if I get any other input or come up with something else. I think I'm going to start a WGU thread and abandon this one, although if anyone has more input, that would be nice

Edit: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Ed-journey

[rlw74]

So, just throwing this out there...I have quite a few friends and acquaintances with PhDs. One teaches high school chemistry. She got a PhD in the sciences. Her masters was built into the program. Another friend is in the same boat except she doesn't teach, she works in her field. Another guy is a chemist and works in his field. The others I know are all professors at colleges. None of them have PhDs in education. They all specialized in one field with a masters built into the programs. They have had no issues getting teaching job in their fields. Even my science friends who work in their fields can teach if they chose to do so. Wouldn't it open up more doors if you just got a couple masters and for your PhD specialized in one subject related field that incorporated one of those masters degrees? I don't see where for teaching or freelancing you need anything beyond a specialization or two. It sounds like you would be adding more time, not less to go in so many different directions. Plus, it seems like your resume would look a little scattered, like you couldn't make up your mind, so you just got lots of school instead of work experience. Maybe I'm off base here. I've never considered a PhD so there may be aspects I don't understand. However, just basing it off the people I know, it seems they all knew exactly what direction they wanted and singularly focused on that one area.

[Ideas]

Wouldn't it open up more doors if you just got a couple masters and for your PhD specialized in one subject related field that incorporated one of those masters degrees? I don't see where for teaching or freelancing you need anything beyond a specialization or two. It sounds like you would be adding more time, not less to go in so many different directions. Plus, it seems like your resume would look a little scattered, like you couldn't make up your mind, so you just got lots of school instead of work experience.

It would, but I'd leave things off my resume, so it's more focused for the job.

I'm a little confused on what you've written. Are you suggesting a couple Masters is good, because it seems like you're saying 2 Masters would open doors? 

But it seems like you're also saying focus on a single field and get the Masters+PhD in the same field. I agree that is what most people should do, especially if they want to teach. They should work in the field of course.

I know my thread is really long and confusing. I confused myself a number of times too, but feel like I might finally have some things sorted out.

I'm not actually wanting to teach as my main career. I want to create educational materials though (in Health or certain IT fields primarily), and I've seen some places wanting 3 years of teaching (before they'll hire you to create educational materials), so I hope to do online teaching a bit. (Also it's a bucket list thing for me to teach at least a couple classes, and I think it's one of the few things that I can do with my medical problems.) 

So I think the Instructional Design degree works more for me than someone who wants to teach. Although I would still lack 18 grad credits in an area when I graduated, I believe I can possibly still hired for certain IT courses. And I could fix the lack of 18 grad credits 6-12 months after the ID degree.

One thing that confused me was I thought the MBA would lead to an adjunct position sooner, and it probably would be my quickest way into getting some kind of class. But it seems like it takes me farther away from the 3-year goals even though it helps the 1-2 year goals.

I really appreciate all input, because it helps me think it through, get my thoughts organized better, etc.

[rlw74]

No, I wasn't suggesting you need two masters degree. I thought you were suggesting you needed those just to get into a field. The MBA confused me as it has very little to do with education. One masters + a PhD should be more than sufficient. Heck, all you need is one masters to teach at some colleges. A lot of PhDs get their masters and teach while pursuing their PhD.