advice sought on doctoral program

[EducationSeeker]

I have contemplated getting a Doctorate in the areas of Business, Organizational Development, Organizational Behavior, Human Resources, or Instructional Design/Learning (Educational Doctorate) for the sake of wanting to get a Doctorate degree. I am not required to get one for my job, but, I have thought about teaching at a collegiate level for the remaining 10-20 years I have to work in my career. I will turn 50 this year and still have a student loan so I am quite cost sensitive. From a career standpoint, I have been self employed as an IT training consultant running my own business and recently started working for IBM as a full time employee. I was hoping they would have tuition reimbursement. Although I have read they do have it online, the actual reality of most people getting it doesn't seem to be great as it is done on a case by case basis.

I don't think that having a PhD, DBA, or EdD would result in a higher salary for me. It is more of a life long goal that I have always want to get my Doctoral Degree. I started out my career wanting to be a Clinical Psychologist. Life happened and I did not end up following that career path. I am looking at either lower cost degrees outside of the US like AMA Online in the Philippines and UNISA in South Africa (rate of complete UNISA programs in a timely manner doesn't seem good). 

I am not under the illusion I am going to land a top tier research tenure track (R1) academic position with a degree that is not well known outside the US, is not AACSB accredited, or a traditional full time business doctorate program. Honestly, I enjoy the teaching part of what I do and would not want to focus on being published if I did teach.

With that said, it would be nice if I could find an affordbale DBA, EdD, or PHD program. I would like to ideally be under $20k (preferably under $10k, but, could look up to $30k for an AACSB accredited program outside of the US as I don't know of any program in the US that is sub $50k total cost). So, good candidates of what I can see so far for programs in the US are: 1) South College - DBA/EdD, 2) Univ of Cumberlands - DBA, 3) Liberty University - Doctorate in Coaching (I think this degree would be closer to $50K and therefore to expensive.

Since the Doctorate is from a personal goal perspective and not required for my job, my thought would be to attend a program that is th least expensive like AMA Online Univ, but, I would also like it to be recognized internationally if possible like by the WES program. Having it be recognized by an accrediting agency in the USA or North America is a nice to have option.

My goal is to not take out another student loan and pay out of pocket. I don't think I will be able to get tuition reimbursement. Any advice is appreciated. 

EducationSeeker

[Jonathan Whatley]

South African options include MANCOSA, DaVinci, and potentially a research doctorate from a B&M school. International doctorates are bit of a specialty for the sister board degreeinfo.

Liberty's First Responder Discount reduces tuition 25% for first responders, which can include select part-time volunteer positions including Civil Air Patrol senior member, FEMA volunteer, and EMT.

Marshall University and American College of Education also have solid programs on the upper side of your price range.

[bjcheung77]

@EducationSeeker, Weird, I do about the same thing as you, I'm a Senior Technical Analyst. Before I left IBM's subsidiary after 11 years in 2019, I was with NewsCorp's subsidiary for 7.5 years. For either company, they do have tuition assistance or reimbursement, but they really put a 'lock' on that unless it's really related to your position. I couldn't do any but the internal freebies or training they provide online, no learning stipends either... Yes, the sister board has some extra info, as well as our own graduate section, I would suggest reviewing them...

Anyways, in order to decide which program you're going to ultimately land, you need to provide us a bigger picture of what your current educational journey contains, what certs, degrees, experience do you bring to the table. It's great you're looking towards the final educational frontier, but without knowing if you have the prerequisites to these program, it's hard to tell what you can/can't get. I've written about a few international and national program besides the ones you have mentioned, you may want to review them in the grad forum area.

[GameSlinger]

There are US options available as well. We just recently discussed a school in Wisconsin that had a DBA that is within your range.

https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...t=edgewood

[EducationSeeker]

South African options include MANCOSA, DaVinci, and potentially a research doctorate from a B&M school. International doctorates are bit of a specialty for the sister board degreeinfo.

Liberty's First Responder Discount reduces tuition 25% for first responders, which can include select part-time volunteer positions including Civil Air Patrol senior member, FEMA volunteer, and EMT.

Marshall University and American College of Education also have solid pr0grams on the upper side of your price range.

Jonathan-

After doing some research on prices, it looks like MANCOSA would be about $20-25k for the DBA program and DaVinci w)ould be about $10k USD which is a deal. MANCOSA is close enough in price to Univ of the Cumberlands ($20,790) or South College ($18-23k) that I don't think there is a legitimate enough price savings to go with a South African University vs. a US University since it is not AACSB accredited. Davinci looks like it is about $9-10K USD which is a good deal and provided the SAQA accredition doesn't take forever and is not bureaucratic hell which I have heard that it can take forever to get a response, it might be a good option.

The thing that attracts me to the South College program that it is competency based and can potentially be completed in 1-2 years. If I could complete it in 3 terms @ $6K, this would be $18,000. The time factor of being able to complete the DBA in 1-2 years vs. the standard 3-4 years is also very attractive.

It does not look like I can beat the price of AMA Online at like $2-3k USD in cost, but, I am somewhat concerned that if it not recognized as a legitimate degree comparable to a doctorate degree in the USD, I would not have the option of teaching adjunct if I want to do so. This is less of a concern as this degree is mainly for personal achievement.

EducationSeeker

[Jonathan Whatley]

With your impressive career in tech and a master's, there's a good chance you could adjunct somewhere right now.

[EducationSeeker]

@EducationSeeker, Weird, I do about the same thing as you, I'm a Senior Technical Analyst.  Before I left IBM's subsidiary after 11 years in 2019, I was with NewsCorp's subsidiary for 7.5 years.  For either company, they do have tuition assistance or reimbursement, but they really put a 'lock' on that unless it's really related to your position.  I couldn't do any but the internal freebies or training they provide online, no learning stipends either...  Yes, the sister board has some extra info, as well as our own graduate section, I would suggest reviewing them...

Anyways, in order to decide which program you're going to ultimately land, you need to provide us a bigger picture of what your current educational journey contains, what certs, degrees, experience do you bring to the table.  It's great you're looking towards the final educational frontier, but without knowing if you have the prerequisites to these program, it's hard to tell what you can/can't get.  I've written about a few international and national program besides the ones you have mentioned, you may want to review them in the grad forum area.

@bjcheung77

I just started in July as an Organizational Change Management Consultant after doing this and Technical Training and Instructional Design in my own business for about 15 years. While IBM does have tuition reimbursement officially, it doesn't seem like it is offered widely or many people get it in practice. This is a shame because it would really be an investment in a knowledge based business like consulting and IT. I am going to address it with HR and my senior service line manager, but, this seemed to be the answer I was given so I am likely paying for it on my own.

I turn 50 this year and I have been doing a lot of self reflection. When I started out in my 20s about 25 years ago in Undergrad, I wanted to be in a clinical psychologist. Life happened and I did not end up pursuing that career path. What I do know now is that I am not passionate about what I do and I am figuring that out (still), but, I want to pursue something that is related to coaching or teaching individuals in the area of how people think or behave in groups and transforming their own lives. I am trying to figure out this subject matter *before* I go spending more money on my education. I am looking at potentially getting an executive/life coaching certification before I pursue the Doctorate. I believe a Doctorate in the subject matter areas of Organizational Development, Organizational Psychology, or Adult Education and Technology would better align with my career motivations and aspirations of what interests me.

I welcome your feedback and appreciate your response.

Thanks,

EducationSeeker

[Heartstrings]

I think teaching is pretty much luck of the draw. My friend got a full-time tenured teaching position with an MBA. He knew the right people though. There is an oversaturation in teaching and there is a lot of competition. Pretty much everything is adjunct and the you really have to determine the ROI. I am at PhD-Candidate-ABD status in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. I went to Northcentral University and it was very expensive to walk away with nothing. They market their program as $70,000 but it is actually $140,000. The coursework is 16 classes. They extend the dissertation to each course which is also 16 courses. In total 32 courses. I had to walk away. The ROI for adjunct teaching is not worth that much debt.

[bjcheung77]

Ouch! That's expensive, NCU was offering up to $60K scholarships when I looked at their programs over the years, they dropped that down from 6 to 3 $60K scholarships a couple of years ago, I don't even think will be offering many if any at all after their merger with the NU parent...

[Harry101]

I know it's not in the price range but might look into Swiss Business School, it holds the Swiss Accreditation council (AAQ) also member of AACSB amd ACBSP. And it is probably why their DBA's cost 40k €, there are other options like executive DBA.

You might also have as an option to look into UK online accredited business school, might even see public one's and the prices might go down.