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