You'd think, with all the schools in the part-time re-entry graduate school business, that it would be straightforward to find out what a single course costs - maybe with a Fast Facts or FAQ link. This is important information for a re-entering student. If you're going to ask an employer to fund your course, you need a dollar figure to tell your employer. And you may need it fast! Sometimes employer-funded opportunities appear quickly and vanish quickly. The universities I've probed seem to be oblivious to this.
Also if it's coming out of your family cookie jar, all the more reason for needing quick course costs. Even for a US state university, something like $1000-1500 (x3-4 for most private colleges) is not a small expense for most households. If it's a small expense for your household, congratulations!
But finding it is like pulling teeth with most school websites! Finding this information was often difficult. You had to hunt through obscure links leading to the bursar's office or somesuch.
Seems like this would be easy to fix - why don't they?
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Test Drive - with working links!
So sorry - thought Blogger autodetected! Anyway these should work.
Some graduate school programs seem to have the helpful feature that you can take a couple of courses as a non-degree student to dip your toe in the water before committing to the involved process of putting an application for a degree program together.
Here are links to some examples:
http://www.uncg.edu/grs/programs/visions.html
http://gradschool.binghamton.edu/ps/nondegree.asp
http://learnmore.duke.edu/academicstudies/graduate.htm
http://www.grads.vt.edu/academics/programs/non_degree.html
http://www.montclair.edu/graduate/prospective/non-deg.shtml
http://www.ccids.umaine.edu/interedu/gradei/starting/howtoapply.htm
More examples?
A link to an article on the subject:
http://www.back2college.com/gradschooltest.htm
It's nice to be able to test the waters without making a big deal out of it, especially since your new pursuit may still require a lot of negotiation and coordination with family and work.
All that and it costs money, too! Even if your employer provides tuition support for your courses (more on that in another post), you will still have some out-of-pocket expense.
Warning: Most schools I've seen place limits on how many of these courses you can usefully take as a non-degree student. Many schools will only let you apply 6 semester hours (2 courses) taken while in a non-degree status to a degree. They may also require you to apply for a degree after two courses or leave. Some also have absolute limits on the courses you can take as a non-degree student. One thing many of us can't afford to do is waste time and money on courses we won't get credit for.
Some graduate school programs seem to have the helpful feature that you can take a couple of courses as a non-degree student to dip your toe in the water before committing to the involved process of putting an application for a degree program together.
Here are links to some examples:
http://www.uncg.edu/grs/programs/visions.html
http://gradschool.binghamton.edu/ps/nondegree.asp
http://learnmore.duke.edu/academicstudies/graduate.htm
http://www.grads.vt.edu/academics/programs/non_degree.html
http://www.montclair.edu/graduate/prospective/non-deg.shtml
http://www.ccids.umaine.edu/interedu/gradei/starting/howtoapply.htm
More examples?
A link to an article on the subject:
http://www.back2college.com/gradschooltest.htm
It's nice to be able to test the waters without making a big deal out of it, especially since your new pursuit may still require a lot of negotiation and coordination with family and work.
All that and it costs money, too! Even if your employer provides tuition support for your courses (more on that in another post), you will still have some out-of-pocket expense.
Warning: Most schools I've seen place limits on how many of these courses you can usefully take as a non-degree student. Many schools will only let you apply 6 semester hours (2 courses) taken while in a non-degree status to a degree. They may also require you to apply for a degree after two courses or leave. Some also have absolute limits on the courses you can take as a non-degree student. One thing many of us can't afford to do is waste time and money on courses we won't get credit for.
Test Drives
Some graduate school programs seem to have the helpful feature that you can take a couple of courses as a non-degree student to dip your toe in the water before committing to the involved process of putting an application for a degree program together.
Here are links to some examples:
http://www.uncg.edu/grs/programs/visions.html
http://gradschool.binghamton.edu/ps/nondegree.asp
http://learnmore.duke.edu/academicstudies/graduate.htm
http://www.grads.vt.edu/academics/programs/non_degree.html
http://www.montclair.edu/graduate/prospective/non-deg.shtml
http://www.ccids.umaine.edu/interedu/gradei/starting/howtoapply.htm
More examples?
A link to an article on the subject:
http://www.back2college.com/gradschooltest.htm
It's nice to be able to test the waters without making a big deal out of it, especially since your new pursuit may still require a lot of negotiation and coordination with family and work. All that and it costs money, too! Even if your employer provides tuition support for your courses (more on that in another post), you will still have some out-of-pocket expense.
Warning: Most schools I've seen place limits on how many of these courses you can usefully take as a non-degree student. Many schools will only let you apply 6 semester hours (2 courses) taken while in a non-degree status to a degree. They may also require you to apply for a degree after two courses or leave. Some also have absolute limits on the courses you can take as a non-degree student.
Here are links to some examples:
http://www.uncg.edu/grs/programs/visions.html
http://gradschool.binghamton.edu/ps/nondegree.asp
http://learnmore.duke.edu/academicstudies/graduate.htm
http://www.grads.vt.edu/academics/programs/non_degree.html
http://www.montclair.edu/graduate/prospective/non-deg.shtml
http://www.ccids.umaine.edu/interedu/gradei/starting/howtoapply.htm
More examples?
A link to an article on the subject:
http://www.back2college.com/gradschooltest.htm
It's nice to be able to test the waters without making a big deal out of it, especially since your new pursuit may still require a lot of negotiation and coordination with family and work. All that and it costs money, too! Even if your employer provides tuition support for your courses (more on that in another post), you will still have some out-of-pocket expense.
Warning: Most schools I've seen place limits on how many of these courses you can usefully take as a non-degree student. Many schools will only let you apply 6 semester hours (2 courses) taken while in a non-degree status to a degree. They may also require you to apply for a degree after two courses or leave. Some also have absolute limits on the courses you can take as a non-degree student.
THIS is an encouraging story...
From http://www.ece.vt.edu/news/ar06/timephd.html :
From single courses to certificate programs to degree programs Virginia Tech ECE offers a variety of graduate study options for students and practicing engineers - across the state and around the world
Part Time PhD
You can't beat perfect
Minh Nguyen earned his Ph.D. last fall after an experience that challenges many common assumptions. He completed his coursework and dissertation on communications traffic analysis and interference cancellation for avionic systems in just three years — as a part-time graduate student holding down a full-time engineering job.
Nguyen entered the Ph.D. program at the Northern Virginia campus in September 2002 and worked with Amir Zaghloul as his advisor. When he started the program, he was a senior communications systems engineer with MITRE Corp. He had thoroughly researched his options and decided that he could pursue a Ph.D. and continue fully contributing at work.
“I was one of the youngest in my division and many colleagues had doctorates,” Nguyen remembers. “MITRE is very research oriented and encourages employees to pursue advanced degrees.” Nguyen had earned both his B.S. and MS degrees from Tech at the Blacksburg campus and wanted to study here for his doctorate as well.
The hardest part, he says, was the decision to pursue the degree, then to go part time. “Once we engineers start working in our professional field, it’s difficult to quit for four or more years for a program that does not have a definitive end,” he says. “We think that if we focus on school, we must quit our jobs.”
Nguyen tried to weigh the economic cost and the benefits of getting a Ph.D. “Was the degree only for personal satisfaction, or would it help me thrive in my career? I had no answer to that.” The option of keeping his job and going to school part time was intriguing. “I talked to 10 people, however, who all said the same thing: that doing a part-time Ph.D. is impossible.”
In the end, he chose the job and the degree. “I could not quit a great job for a commitment that was not well defined. I continued to work at MITRE as a salaried, full-time engineer and performed advanced technology research that I really enjoyed.”
He entered the program with a big advantage for Ph.D. research. He was already up-to-speed on a research topic that was related to his job. “The idea actually spun off from an internal R&D project that I had been working on. Dr. Zaghloul helped me narrow the focus for an appropriate dissertation. This gave me a jump start,” he says. He also found that working in the more applied corporate environment and the theoretical academic environment cross fertilized both efforts. “My industrial work motivated my academic objectives, and what I learned in school helped with my career.”
Because his academic research was related to his work at MITRE, he was fully funded to write papers and journal articles, and present his work at conferences. His work also resulted in two joint MITRE-Virginia Tech patents, which are pending. “This is a real plus for Ph.D. students.”
His biggest challenge in pursuing both activities simultaneously was “heavy-duty multi-tasking. I had to balance my workloads between work, school, and family — and each one could be considered a full-time commitment.” His advice for others considering a similar path: “Eliminate the word ‘procrastination’ from your dictionary! If you have a research idea in the middle of the night, get up and work on it immediately. Give it further thought or you might lose important ideas forever. There are many things to distract a part-time Ph.D. student and you must maintain focus.”
After Nguyen completed his degree, his program at MITRE slowed down due to limitation of government funding, so Nguyen decided to pursue new opportunities. He is now at Argon ST, Inc., applying his communications system architecture signal processing, and interference cancellation expertise to sensor applications and satellite systems. “My academic and research achievements from Virginia Tech helped give me the opportunities at MITRE, and now at Argon ST, working with highly competent colleagues on interesting and cutting-edge research programs.”
From single courses to certificate programs to degree programs Virginia Tech ECE offers a variety of graduate study options for students and practicing engineers - across the state and around the world
Part Time PhD
You can't beat perfect
Minh Nguyen earned his Ph.D. last fall after an experience that challenges many common assumptions. He completed his coursework and dissertation on communications traffic analysis and interference cancellation for avionic systems in just three years — as a part-time graduate student holding down a full-time engineering job.
Nguyen entered the Ph.D. program at the Northern Virginia campus in September 2002 and worked with Amir Zaghloul as his advisor. When he started the program, he was a senior communications systems engineer with MITRE Corp. He had thoroughly researched his options and decided that he could pursue a Ph.D. and continue fully contributing at work.
“I was one of the youngest in my division and many colleagues had doctorates,” Nguyen remembers. “MITRE is very research oriented and encourages employees to pursue advanced degrees.” Nguyen had earned both his B.S. and MS degrees from Tech at the Blacksburg campus and wanted to study here for his doctorate as well.
The hardest part, he says, was the decision to pursue the degree, then to go part time. “Once we engineers start working in our professional field, it’s difficult to quit for four or more years for a program that does not have a definitive end,” he says. “We think that if we focus on school, we must quit our jobs.”
Nguyen tried to weigh the economic cost and the benefits of getting a Ph.D. “Was the degree only for personal satisfaction, or would it help me thrive in my career? I had no answer to that.” The option of keeping his job and going to school part time was intriguing. “I talked to 10 people, however, who all said the same thing: that doing a part-time Ph.D. is impossible.”
In the end, he chose the job and the degree. “I could not quit a great job for a commitment that was not well defined. I continued to work at MITRE as a salaried, full-time engineer and performed advanced technology research that I really enjoyed.”
He entered the program with a big advantage for Ph.D. research. He was already up-to-speed on a research topic that was related to his job. “The idea actually spun off from an internal R&D project that I had been working on. Dr. Zaghloul helped me narrow the focus for an appropriate dissertation. This gave me a jump start,” he says. He also found that working in the more applied corporate environment and the theoretical academic environment cross fertilized both efforts. “My industrial work motivated my academic objectives, and what I learned in school helped with my career.”
Because his academic research was related to his work at MITRE, he was fully funded to write papers and journal articles, and present his work at conferences. His work also resulted in two joint MITRE-Virginia Tech patents, which are pending. “This is a real plus for Ph.D. students.”
His biggest challenge in pursuing both activities simultaneously was “heavy-duty multi-tasking. I had to balance my workloads between work, school, and family — and each one could be considered a full-time commitment.” His advice for others considering a similar path: “Eliminate the word ‘procrastination’ from your dictionary! If you have a research idea in the middle of the night, get up and work on it immediately. Give it further thought or you might lose important ideas forever. There are many things to distract a part-time Ph.D. student and you must maintain focus.”
After Nguyen completed his degree, his program at MITRE slowed down due to limitation of government funding, so Nguyen decided to pursue new opportunities. He is now at Argon ST, Inc., applying his communications system architecture signal processing, and interference cancellation expertise to sensor applications and satellite systems. “My academic and research achievements from Virginia Tech helped give me the opportunities at MITRE, and now at Argon ST, working with highly competent colleagues on interesting and cutting-edge research programs.”
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Next steps in midcareer grad school guerrilla theatre - gathering transcripts and taking inventory
I used to think that getting copies of college transcripts for your own use was close to worthless, because they aren't "official" copies which can be sent anywhere as part of an application. But they are useful for some purposes.
Specifically, working deals out. Unless you're headed for some nice canned after-hours program (which is generally limited to masters' degrees), you'll need to negotiate.
And you'll need to find someone on a university faculty to negotiate with. Some professor somewhere will need to decide that you can be an asset to her or his program. You'll need to agree on a "Program of Study", which is a contract between you and the school - representatives of the school and department actually sign off on the POS and there is an actual signed document which you will need to keep a copy of in your important papers.
Chances are, if you're contemplating a midcareer graduate school move, you've had a few stabs at after-hours graduate school already, maybe even gotten a graduate degree of some sort already. It's best if the Program of Study for your newly contemplated program is a shorter path, taking work you've already done into account, than a longer one. You don't want to start all over again if you can help it. The "unofficial transcript" (photocopy of the one you ordered from your school) can be a way for you to inform this kind of negotiation.
How do you find someone to negotiate with? That's the tricky part.
Specifically, working deals out. Unless you're headed for some nice canned after-hours program (which is generally limited to masters' degrees), you'll need to negotiate.
And you'll need to find someone on a university faculty to negotiate with. Some professor somewhere will need to decide that you can be an asset to her or his program. You'll need to agree on a "Program of Study", which is a contract between you and the school - representatives of the school and department actually sign off on the POS and there is an actual signed document which you will need to keep a copy of in your important papers.
Chances are, if you're contemplating a midcareer graduate school move, you've had a few stabs at after-hours graduate school already, maybe even gotten a graduate degree of some sort already. It's best if the Program of Study for your newly contemplated program is a shorter path, taking work you've already done into account, than a longer one. You don't want to start all over again if you can help it. The "unofficial transcript" (photocopy of the one you ordered from your school) can be a way for you to inform this kind of negotiation.
How do you find someone to negotiate with? That's the tricky part.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Obstacles, corollaries, etc.
At a glance, the non-completion rate for mid-career graduate school of all kinds - masters and doctorate - seems very high.
Obstacles:
1. Time. People in midcareer are generally already invested in a time-demanding occupation, which may or may not be related to what they want to study. They may also have families, mortgages, etc.
2. Money. No fellowships for employed people doing part-time school. Sometimes some employer support but funds may be limited.
3. Other. Multitude of individual factors.
Corollaries:
1. Re time: Lack of time could be a showstopper for a part time graduate program. Therefore, anything that reduces time overhead (not study time - that you expect to be substantial - but commute time etc.) greatly increases the chance of success. If the course is on your side of town or on your desktop, that is great. If the course is offered in your employer's facility or on the desktop, that is even greater - a good employee benefit if the course is something you are interested in.
2. Re money: Your employer may or may not be able to fund your courses. Or they may fund one but not the next one you need, so you'll have to pay for that one (or more) yourself - and wait a while before buying new clothes for your next big meeting or job interview. So low tuition helps increase the chance of success, or at least decreases the chance of failure. Some schools offering part-time graduate degrees are very expensive. If the course - or a package of courses, like a company-sponsored certificate or degree program - is offered in your employer's facility AND paid for by your employer, that is a very generous employer benefit.
What programs are cheap and have low time overhead? People should know this. A Consumer Reports on accredited/midcareer/distance/online graduate programs would be helpful.
3. Re other: Complex.
Obstacles:
1. Time. People in midcareer are generally already invested in a time-demanding occupation, which may or may not be related to what they want to study. They may also have families, mortgages, etc.
2. Money. No fellowships for employed people doing part-time school. Sometimes some employer support but funds may be limited.
3. Other. Multitude of individual factors.
Corollaries:
1. Re time: Lack of time could be a showstopper for a part time graduate program. Therefore, anything that reduces time overhead (not study time - that you expect to be substantial - but commute time etc.) greatly increases the chance of success. If the course is on your side of town or on your desktop, that is great. If the course is offered in your employer's facility or on the desktop, that is even greater - a good employee benefit if the course is something you are interested in.
2. Re money: Your employer may or may not be able to fund your courses. Or they may fund one but not the next one you need, so you'll have to pay for that one (or more) yourself - and wait a while before buying new clothes for your next big meeting or job interview. So low tuition helps increase the chance of success, or at least decreases the chance of failure. Some schools offering part-time graduate degrees are very expensive. If the course - or a package of courses, like a company-sponsored certificate or degree program - is offered in your employer's facility AND paid for by your employer, that is a very generous employer benefit.
What programs are cheap and have low time overhead? People should know this. A Consumer Reports on accredited/midcareer/distance/online graduate programs would be helpful.
3. Re other: Complex.
More observations on pathways
Lots of opportunities to do midcareer master's degrees. Far fewer opportunities to do mid-career doctorates.
Why?
Too difficult?
Not profitable enough for schools to support?
Why?
Too difficult?
Not profitable enough for schools to support?
Mid-career graduate school pathways
This is meant to be a constructive discussion, brainstorm, and source of ideas, observations, and lessons-learned about pursuing and successfully obtaining graduate school credentials, particularly earned doctorates from accredited institutions, whilst full-time employed.
First observation with some questions: Lots of part-time and distance master's degree programs of many types, often terminal degrees which lead no further. Also nondegree and partial degree ("certificate") variants, which may be a package of 4-5 graduate courses which could count towards a degree but are packaged as a "certificate" of accomplishment in some field - they could also be a head-start towards a traditional degree at that school.
Questions:
- If you want to get a master's-degree-type credential, there are usually a lot of choices, depending on your field of interest. Why so many programs - supply meeting demand? Are they profitable in some sense for universities to offer?
- What generates the demand - need for credentials by workers, or need for skills by employers? Personal fulfillment? Career change? Re-inventing oneself?
- Degrees appear to run to types
- education/counseling
- business - MBAs and variants
- engineering and related fields (IT, applied science)
- other?
- Who does these and why?
- Who pays for them?
- What are the "high leverage" types of degrees, if any? Are any part-time master's degrees truly life-changing or career-changing? What occupational improvements do they lead to, if any?
First observation with some questions: Lots of part-time and distance master's degree programs of many types, often terminal degrees which lead no further. Also nondegree and partial degree ("certificate") variants, which may be a package of 4-5 graduate courses which could count towards a degree but are packaged as a "certificate" of accomplishment in some field - they could also be a head-start towards a traditional degree at that school.
Questions:
- If you want to get a master's-degree-type credential, there are usually a lot of choices, depending on your field of interest. Why so many programs - supply meeting demand? Are they profitable in some sense for universities to offer?
- What generates the demand - need for credentials by workers, or need for skills by employers? Personal fulfillment? Career change? Re-inventing oneself?
- Degrees appear to run to types
- education/counseling
- business - MBAs and variants
- engineering and related fields (IT, applied science)
- other?
- Who does these and why?
- Who pays for them?
- What are the "high leverage" types of degrees, if any? Are any part-time master's degrees truly life-changing or career-changing? What occupational improvements do they lead to, if any?
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