Not All Doctorates Are Earned The Same Way
Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash
I still find myself stunned that doctorates earned in other places outside of the US are dramatically cheaper and include things like "fully paid" and concepts like "...while you...", "support for projects", etc.
When I sat down to my first of three required residencies of my doctorate for Capella University, my fellow IDOL (instructional design for online learning) students started talking about prices...as one does with students 'talking in the hall'. I had researched and sought out a program that met 2 requirements for me:
- It must be online. That limited me to maybe 3-5 universities. (Capella, Walden...maybe Liberty?)
- It must be the cheapest of those that met requirement #1.
As far as programs, faculty, type of research conducted..pah! I didn't care. I knew all of that could be scrabbled together within a program. (I was right, although I'm pretty sure God had a lot to do with the fact that I found a dissertation chair that held his check-in meetings in Second Life.)
But #1 and #2, online and cheap were my by-words. Still, I can tell you that a price tag OVER US$50,000 was what I was facing. Capella refuses to estimate how long the "dissertation phase" will take because it varies by the learner and type of research. So the $50,000 was only for about 1.5 years of classes. Now that I've been there/done that, I can tell you that tuition at US$4,000 per 10 weeks during the dissertation phase is SUCH a ripoff. Anyways. 😡
As the students talked, I was astounded when they said that Capella was the cheapest option they had found and the next closest competitors were over US$100,000 for the degree. When I recovered from my shock (as I was still not liking the over $50,000 price tag) I thought about it and remembered that a friend had indicated her 6 figure student loan for her PhD.
Time warp: I remember thinking that those of us dedicated to math and science were supposed to get the carpet laid out for us in college. At least, that's what it felt like in high school in the 80s--still swinging out of the space age, the shuttle was still going to space, and girls in particular needed to go into math and science. Where did those shiny promises go? They never showed up. Not once.
In the end, I did the entire degree "As fast as possible" since time was money. I do feel the dissertation phase is a ripoff as I had one 10 week term where I received one review of my writing (err...maybe a chapter...in dissertation terms). At no time--- and I don't mean to offend but-- did I ever feel like I was receiving $400 a week of services from Capella. Nope. I shudder to think of the poor wages they were probably paying their faculty too. Blech. 😔
But I hear that doctorates can be had in Europe for dirt cheap prices US$3,000-$5,000 range and they throw in things like "getting a stipend", "teaching while..." and that kind of stuff.
I pulled my PhD full time while I was also working full time and received NO support from my workplace (and I used my own data, nothing from my worksite). They were pleased as punch to have another faculty member with a doctorate (at no cost or burden to them) and I flew in under the radar of one of the last years they offered a raise with higher degrees earned. So I didn't get paid to do it, but I was paid more once I had it. P.S. the very year that happened was the same year I was specifically told that I did NOT get a raise for my performance, as that was the lawsuit year where I whistle blew.
My total bill for my PhD was US$64,000. All in student loans. All student loans are now paid off.
The fact that Capella's tuition magically was exactly the same as the maximum graduate student loan is/was a huge tip off. They are private and for-profit too. If there is ever a class action lawsuit against Capella for what feels like price fixing, gauging (?I don't know what it would be called?), sign me up.