Lee's Weblog

As of today it’s official: I’m a Doctoral Student at Northcentral University. Most people probably have not heard of NCU or the program I’m enrolling in (Doctorate of Business Administration, DBA).  Decide on a school and a program started soon after I started my MBA… so why NCU and why the DBA program?

Starting with NCU…

NorthCentral University is an online accredited university (NorthCentral, AACSB, and a couple others) offering distance learning Doctoral programs. For me, this is a must. The only local school that offers doctoral business programs (worth a crap) is UCF, but for many reasons, I refuse to patronize that school anymore. Further, NCU is VERY affordable, offers Title IV direct federal aid, and has accelerated schedules. The last part is one of the most attractive portions: accelerated schedules.

The way NCU works is more like a coorespondance program, but with an instructor for every class. This means that you get the benefit of a full-time professor at your disposal as well as the ability to set your schedule (within a 12 week course length). Classes start at the beginning of each month and run for 12 weeks so you can take one class every 3 months or one+ class(es) every single month. Obviously this is Doctoral work, so it’s not a 4 week class, but it could be…

The DBA Program…

The DBA program is a professional doctorate. The best way to equate this is to medicine: You can get a PhD in microbiology, organic chem, etc… or you can get a professional MD degree to practice medicine. Practice is the key word. Receiving a Ph.D. in business would be great for teaching, writing a textbook, or doing basic research to “contrinute to the body of knowledge.” However the DBA is aimed at the practice of Business Administration. That is, the practical use of the tools and techniques available to attain a real-world grasp on Business Administration rather than theory (which is very respectable in its own right!).

My Aprehension…

This wouldn’t be complete unless I summed up my aprehensions… Would I rather get a doctorate from an Ivy-League School? Of course! Can I afford to move near one? Not a chance. I’ve talked to quite a few folks about thier NCU experience, and each were VERY satisfied and challenged with the coursework. Is an NCU degree going to earn the same respect as say, a Harvard Ph.D.? Probably not… But it’s the education and the credential I can reach. As with anything, your success will be determined by your results. I plan to make this worth it!