Edgewood College/UpGrad DBA; potentially $11,250

[lidel]

Hey everyone.

I just finished course #5 and wanted to give another quick update. This last course was on qualitative analysis. It was heavy on reading, very dry stuff, but fairly informative. The instructor was the Dean, and as always, her instructional videos and quizzes were excellent at bringing together the information presented in the materials. The final assignment built well on previous course content. The final marking was a little vague, just a grade and a line or two of input. 

I met with the Dean one-on-one to discuss the Doctoral program in general and provide student feedback. It shed a lot of light on the direction we will be going and what has happened to this point. Each course now offers at least one live group office hours Zoom call. Dr. Palmisano acknowledged that our cohort had a rough start, and they have since redesigned the first course to address those issues. Overall, it was a very positive meeting, and I am optimistic about the remaining courses and dissertation.

UpGrad is still UpGrad. They mean well but often needlessly overcomplicate things. I just engage them as little as possible. 

I'm enjoying the program and can't believe how fast the time is flying!

Okay. I'll see you all in about six weeks for input on the next course. Have a great day.

S

Thank You for the useful information.
Can You write more about the workload while studying?
Are there weekly assignments or just one final per course? How big are the assignments? How many pages?
Are there quizzes?
Exams after each course? Are there proctored exams?
What are the requirements for the dissertation? How big should it be?
And other details to understand the workload and complexity of studying.

Hi there.

My course workload averages roughly  10-15 hours a week. I am sure some do it less and others more. I tend to finish reviewing the course content, lectures, and reading in about two weeks, and then, in the last month of the course, I focus on the assignments. Usually, the last week or two is fine-tuning my final submissions. It is roughly the same workload that I had for my MBA with Hellenic American University. While the number of hours is about the same, it feels like the materials are more dense and require more mental effort to wrap my brain around. It feels less spoon-fed and more like I have to be proactive to achieve all the necessary elements of the assignments. The rubrics are pretty open-ended, and the final marking is less forgiving. None of this is bad; it's just a different vibe than my undergrad and MBA. 

There are typically multiple written assignments, with one being a final submission. So far - 4-6 written assignments seem the average, though a couple of courses have done many short quizzes (say 30) and then a final. They final is usually weighted for a greater percentage of your overall grade. They are all due at the end of the course. 

UpGrad told me there were no exams, and I have seen none. Just yesterday, someone in a conference call asked about an upcoming final exam, but he may be in the masters/MBA track, so I'm not 100% certain if I have exams in my future. 

The dissertation looks pretty typical based on everything I have read about it. It needs to be on a topic relevant to the business world, and there are the usual five chapters. There is no set size, though they mention 80-300 pages is a likely range. This is a significant project for sure. I don't technically start the dissertation until spring, but many hours have already gone into initial prospectus work, research planning, etc. This is a natural part of the program as the "core" courses are focused on teaching research fundamentals so we are prepared for the second phase. 

No other details come to mind at the moment, though you are welcome to ask anything else that comes to mind and I'll do my best to help out.

All the best.

S

[Ploy]

Hey everyone.

I just finished course #5 and wanted to give another quick update. This last course was on qualitative analysis. It was heavy on reading, very dry stuff, but fairly informative. The instructor was the Dean, and as always, her instructional videos and quizzes were excellent at bringing together the information presented in the materials. The final assignment built well on previous course content. The final marking was a little vague, just a grade and a line or two of input. 

I met with the Dean one-on-one to discuss the Doctoral program in general and provide student feedback. It shed a lot of light on the direction we will be going and what has happened to this point. Each course now offers at least one live group office hours Zoom call. Dr. Palmisano acknowledged that our cohort had a rough start, and they have since redesigned the first course to address those issues. Overall, it was a very positive meeting, and I am optimistic about the remaining courses and dissertation.

UpGrad is still UpGrad. They mean well but often needlessly overcomplicate things. I just engage them as little as possible. 

I'm enjoying the program and can't believe how fast the time is flying!

Okay. I'll see you all in about six weeks for input on the next course. Have a great day.

S

Thank You for the useful information.
Can You write more about the workload while studying?
Are there weekly assignments or just one final per course? How big are the assignments? How many pages?
Are there quizzes?
Exams after each course? Are there proctored exams?
What are the requirements for the dissertation? How big should it be?
And other details to understand the workload and complexity of studying.

Hi there.

My course workload averages roughly  10-15 hours a week. I am sure some do it less and others more. I tend to finish reviewing the course content, lectures, and reading in about two weeks, and then, in the last month of the course, I focus on the assignments. Usually, the last week or two is fine-tuning my final submissions. It is roughly the same workload that I had for my MBA with Hellenic American University. While the number of hours is about the same, it feels like the materials are more dense and require more mental effort to wrap my brain around. It feels less spoon-fed and more like I have to be proactive to achieve all the necessary elements of the assignments. The rubrics are pretty open-ended, and the final marking is less forgiving. None of this is bad; it's just a different vibe than my undergrad and MBA. 

There are typically multiple written assignments, with one being a final submission. So far - 4-6 written assignments seem the average, though a couple of courses have done many short quizzes (say 30) and then a final. They final is usually weighted for a greater percentage of your overall grade. They are all due at the end of the course. 

UpGrad told me there were no exams, and I have seen none. Just yesterday, someone in a conference call asked about an upcoming final exam, but he may be in the masters/MBA track, so I'm not 100% certain if I have exams in my future. 

The dissertation looks pretty typical based on everything I have read about it. It needs to be on a topic relevant to the business world, and there are the usual five chapters. There is no set size, though they mention 80-300 pages is a likely range. This is a significant project for sure. I don't technically start the dissertation until spring, but many hours have already gone into initial prospectus work, research planning, etc. This is a natural part of the program as the "core" courses are focused on teaching research fundamentals so we are prepared for the second phase. 

No other details come to mind at the moment, though you are welcome to ask anything else that comes to mind and I'll do my best to help out.

All the best.

S

Thank you so much for your valuable time giving such a useful information. Now I'm enrolling to this program this fall.

[lidel]

Hey everyone.

I just finished course #5 and wanted to give another quick update. This last course was on qualitative analysis. It was heavy on reading, very dry stuff, but fairly informative. The instructor was the Dean, and as always, her instructional videos and quizzes were excellent at bringing together the information presented in the materials. The final assignment built well on previous course content. The final marking was a little vague, just a grade and a line or two of input. 

I met with the Dean one-on-one to discuss the Doctoral program in general and provide student feedback. It shed a lot of light on the direction we will be going and what has happened to this point. Each course now offers at least one live group office hours Zoom call. Dr. Palmisano acknowledged that our cohort had a rough start, and they have since redesigned the first course to address those issues. Overall, it was a very positive meeting, and I am optimistic about the remaining courses and dissertation.

UpGrad is still UpGrad. They mean well but often needlessly overcomplicate things. I just engage them as little as possible. 

I'm enjoying the program and can't believe how fast the time is flying!

Okay. I'll see you all in about six weeks for input on the next course. Have a great day.

S

Thank You for the useful information.
Can You write more about the workload while studying?
Are there weekly assignments or just one final per course? How big are the assignments? How many pages?
Are there quizzes?
Exams after each course? Are there proctored exams?
What are the requirements for the dissertation? How big should it be?
And other details to understand the workload and complexity of studying.

Hi there.

My course workload averages roughly  10-15 hours a week. I am sure some do it less and others more. I tend to finish reviewing the course content, lectures, and reading in about two weeks, and then, in the last month of the course, I focus on the assignments. Usually, the last week or two is fine-tuning my final submissions. It is roughly the same workload that I had for my MBA with Hellenic American University. While the number of hours is about the same, it feels like the materials are more dense and require more mental effort to wrap my brain around. It feels less spoon-fed and more like I have to be proactive to achieve all the necessary elements of the assignments. The rubrics are pretty open-ended, and the final marking is less forgiving. None of this is bad; it's just a different vibe than my undergrad and MBA. 

There are typically multiple written assignments, with one being a final submission. So far - 4-6 written assignments seem the average, though a couple of courses have done many short quizzes (say 30) and then a final. They final is usually weighted for a greater percentage of your overall grade. They are all due at the end of the course. 

UpGrad told me there were no exams, and I have seen none. Just yesterday, someone in a conference call asked about an upcoming final exam, but he may be in the masters/MBA track, so I'm not 100% certain if I have exams in my future. 

The dissertation looks pretty typical based on everything I have read about it. It needs to be on a topic relevant to the business world, and there are the usual five chapters. There is no set size, though they mention 80-300 pages is a likely range. This is a significant project for sure. I don't technically start the dissertation until spring, but many hours have already gone into initial prospectus work, research planning, etc. This is a natural part of the program as the "core" courses are focused on teaching research fundamentals so we are prepared for the second phase. 

No other details come to mind at the moment, though you are welcome to ask anything else that comes to mind and I'll do my best to help out.

All the best.

S

Thank you so much for your valuable time giving such a useful information. Now I'm enrolling to this program this fall.

I'll be happy if it helps someone on their journey. Welcome to the program!

S

[lidel]

Good day all,

So, my sixth course is now in the rearview mirror. This was the second and final quantitative analysis course and involved a great deal of time performing regressions in RStudio. It was a fairly technical course, and I was a bit nervous about submitting the four deliverables, but overall, I received a pretty decent grade. They provided the usual office hours meeting with the professor, which I attended, and access to TA sessions, which I didn't take advantage of. 

I'm a couple of weeks into course seven now, so I'm on the downward slope toward starting my dissertation.

All in all I'm pleased with the program, though I'm starting to get a little antsy as the finish line draws closer. 

I had a meeting on the dissertation project where I received feedback on my topic, hypotheses, etc. The input left me with significant changes to my initial draft, but it was very insightful and made the subject more compelling. I've been appointed a dissertation chair and am just submitting my first prospectus draft. 

I'll see you all in about six weeks for the next update.

S

[Al3xBurns]

Hello everyone!

I finished BUS 901 Introduction to Academic Scholarship in Business and BUS 606 Strategic Marketing around the middle of October. I waited to post a reflection until everything was graded, which finally concluded last week. The most significant downside to this was being three weeks deep (with classes that are only seven weeks long) into my next two classes without any idea about whether I had actually passed the former two classes. Overall, the lax deadlines in this program truly made these classes the least stressful that I had ever experienced, and I genuinely feel like I learned a lot! This is an excellent program for working professionals! The class materials and lectures were very relevant, current, and easy to digest. The BUS 901 final involved writing a research prospectus. The feedback that I received on my BUS 901 final was constructive, and the grader was quick to respond to any questions I had regarding his feedback. Following this class, I genuinely feel more confident in writing at the expected level. The final project for BUS 606 consisted of a PowerPoint presentation. It was okay. Good practice to test your understanding of the material, but I never felt too invested in the assignment.

My current courses are BUS 602 Accounting for Managers, and BUS 903 Analyzing Behavior in Organizations. Interestingly, BUS 602 has no weekly quizzes. Meaning the only thing to do for this class is the final assignment. Someone well-versed in managerial accounting could probably sleep through these 7 weeks and turn in the final assignments with little effort. I am not that person, but it does make this program feel reminiscent of CBE programs. BUS 903 does have a handful of short quizzes, and the final assignment is a relatively simple paper with only a 7-page minimum. Again, if you are a working professional or someone who does not mind being limited in how quickly you can accelerate, this seems like a great option to pursue your MBA or DBA (or both!).

My academic advisor sent me a course rotation schedule that shows when I will be completing certain classes or portions of the program. Currently, they have me completing the MBA side by the beginning of summer '25 and the DBA by the end of summer '26. On this schedule, they have me completing two courses every seven weeks until the Fall 2 session in '25. This seems faster than what Edgewood's website advertised. The website stated that the MBA+DBA program would take 2.5 years, but my course schedule has me finishing just shy of two years. I believe they expected students to take one class at a time, but so far, taking two has been more than manageable.

[bjcheung77]

@Al3xBurns, Great job in getting these first two classes down and starting the other two classes... MBA & DBA in 2 years is a very good speed to finish! What's the cost for the two degrees, did you get the 50% off or more than the advertised price?

[Al3xBurns]

@Al3xBurns, Great job in getting these first two classes down and starting the other two classes... MBA & DBA in 2 years is a very good speed to finish!  What's the cost for the two degrees, did you get the 50% off or more than the advertised price?

I enrolled directly through Edgewood College as a US student, so there is no discount. The price is $500 dollars a credit. 30K to complete an MBA and DBA seemed reasonable to me. I do have some employer and government benefits that I am utilizing, so I have little to no out-of-pocket costs. I could have saved money by transferring in some classes, apparently even from ENEB, but I opted to do the full program for the experience.