AMU Idiocy

[Armando Ramos]

(04-21-2011 12:06 PM)Armando Ramos Wrote:  The only intelligence degree that has any real meaning is one from the National Defense Intelligence College. You have to be military or a fed to even get in.

The only civilian intelligence designation that means anything is the SCIP CIP offered through the Fuld Gilad Herring Academy of Competitive Intelligence (ACI). There's a few others out there (e.g., ICI) but they have little weight to insiders. The CIP has far more real world value than anything you can get at APUS.

Forgive the self-reply, but here's another online program that rates highly in the intelligence community.

RA Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA has an online Graduate Certificate in Applied Intelligence. This is a three course program and the courses may be applied toward their MS in Applied Intelligence, which apparently is not online. Current tuition is $1752 per three unit course.

Mercyhurst has the added distinction of being a Catholic institution, which makes all its grads eligible for a lifetime of gratuitous insults and degradation from bigoted putz George Gollin.

And to restate the point, if you are serious about intelligence studies and are looking for a program with credibility, AMU/APUS is not the answer.

[Yancy Derringer]

(05-19-2011 08:10 PM)Armando Ramos Wrote:  And to restate the point, if you are serious about intelligence studies and are looking for a program with credibility, AMU/APUS is not the answer.

Right you are, Armando. Here's a couple of other online alternatives to AMU:

Fairleigh Dickinson (RA)
MS in Homeland Security

Henley Putnam (DETC)
MS in Strategic Security and Protection Management

Towson University (RA)
MS Integrated Homeland Security Management


BTW, another source provided me with some background on the origin of the ghastly course materials that are being foisted off on unsuspecting students in the AMU intelligence studies program. As was noted elsewhere, the individual profs don't create the courses but are stuck using a uniform format created by others.

In this case, the illiterate buffoon who creates the garbage used at AMU/APUS is department head Elena Mastors. She claims a PhD in Poli Sci from Washington State University, where apparently being dumber than dirt is no impediment to an academic career.


Elena Mastors
Dumber than dirt

Here are some more examples, this time from her INTL 698 course:

• The word “mandatory” was misspelled repeatedly as “mandatroy.”

• “The comprehensive exam is will [sic] test your capabilities regarding the program objectives….” It “is was” only the second sentence in the course Announcement, but apparently it “is was” just too much work for someone to bother proofreading that far.

• Here’s another one: “This assignment must be completed before the end of week one and is to be a 200 – 250 work [sic] requirement.” Possibly she meant "words," but it’s anybody’s guess. She can't even seem to determine what the subject of the sentence is. Perhaps she meant that the required length of the assignment is 200-250 words, but wouldn't a real PhD just say that?

• One of the students pointed out that although the course “Announcement” was signed by the purported course instructor, it was described as “from” Elena Mastors. The student must read our site because the point made elsewhere about the profs copying their anti-plagiarism course materials without attribution was re-stated there. Shortly thereafter Mastors altered the post by adding this...at the end:

“The following guidance was provided by the Capstone INTL698 lead Dr. Elena Mastors, who is also the Program Director for the Graduate Intelligence Program.”

Apparently she either can’t tell the beginning of the document from the end or she doesn’t understand the difference between “following” and “foregoing.”

And yes, the original was in purple bold letters. Other portions of the same document were in green, turquoise, pink, red underlined and even some in black. The acid trip color scheme may have disoriented her momentarily. Or maybe she just has a retard's fascination with pretty colors.

And her problems are not just limited to her online stuff. Apparently one of the required readings in her INTL 506 class included some of her published crap, and it was completely illiterate as well. Example:

“This is known as the misinformation effect, which occurs when some [sic] incorporates ‘misinformation’ into their memory of the event after receiving misleading information about it.”

Cottam, M.L, Mastors, E., Preston, T. & Dietz-Uhler, B. (2010). Introduction to Political Psychology. New York: Psychology Press, p. 78-79.

You would think that at least one of the four purported authors (or one of their grad assistants) might have done a little proofreading before they started sharing their profound insights with the masses. Plus she was quoting another author so all she had to do was copy it verbatim, but she couldn’t even manage that mundane task adequately. What a complete dope.

Finally, I’m told that the DETC has launched an investigation into the conditions at AMU/APUS. This ought to be interesting. Unlike the regionals, which are pretty much a rubberstamp as long as the bills are getting paid, DETC actually takes their quality assurance role seriously. This might explain why Mastors now is trying feverishly to eradicate the evidence of her incompetence. Let’s see if the DETC can be fooled by ex post facto sleight of hand.

[Herbert Spencer]

(05-19-2011 08:10 PM)Armando Ramos Wrote:  And to restate the point, if you are serious about intelligence studies and are looking for a program with credibility, AMU/APUS is not the answer.

Also note that APUS/AMU is not included among the schools the NSA/CSS designates as National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance.

Among those who are so designated are such DL faves as Capella, UMUC, Nova, Colorado Tech, Fort Hays State, Dakota State, Capitol College, RIT, Towson, and Norwich.

One more reason to steer clear of APUS.

[Dickie Billericay]

(06-11-2011 06:45 PM)Yancy Derringer Wrote:  ...apparently being dumber than dirt is no impediment to an academic career.

I think I have the answer.

Clearly an apostrophe was left off the name of the school.

It's not APUS, it's supposed to be APU'S.

[Herbert Spencer]

(05-19-2011 08:10 PM)Armando Ramos Wrote:  And to restate the point, if you are serious about intelligence studies and are looking for a program with credibility, AMU/APUS is not the answer.

Bellevue University has a well-regarded online program:

Master of Science in International Security and Intelligence Studies (MS)

Bellevue University was ranked number one by the U.S. News 2012 Top Online Education Program Rankings in the categories of teaching practices and student engagement.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/10/4177078...-news.html