03-07-2018, 10:22 PM
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.
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.
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