Beware of Northcentral

[RAW]

DI Administrator Randell1234 is about to learn first hand what many of us here have been saying for literally years.  The NCU PhD program is STILL in chaos and the administration is STILL arbitrarily applying policies as they make them up.  Randell is about to go down the dumper after wasting a lot of time and money on a HORSESHIT PROGRAM.

Quote:Here is the timeline for my Concept Paper Course
Assignment 1 – turned in on June 1 and graded on June 1 (accepted)
Assignment 2 – turned in on June 1 and graded on June 1 (accepted)
Assignment 3 – turned in on June 1 and graded on June 2 (accepted)
Assignment 4 – turned in on June 2 and graded on June 3 (accepted)
Assignment 5 – turned in on June 3 and graded on June 4 (rejected)
Assignment 5 – turned in on June 4 and graded on June 5 (accepted)
Assignment 6 – turned in on June 6 and graded on June 7 (rejected)
Assignment 6 – turned in on June 7 and graded on June 8 (accepted)
Assignment 7 – turned in on June 8 and graded on June 9 (accepted)
Assignment 8 – turned in on June 10 and graded on June 12 (rejected)
Assignment 8 – turned in on June 14 and graded on June 19 (rejected)
Assignment 8 – turned in on June 22 and graded on June 24 (rejected)
Assignment 8 – turned in on June 24 and graded on June 26 (accepted by chair and forwarded to committee review)
Assignment 8 – turned in on June 26 and graded on July 8 (rejected by committee)
Assignment 8 – turned in on July 9 and graded on July 18 (rejected by committee - they rejected for a new set of "issues")
Assignment 8 – turned in on July 19 and graded on July 25 (accepted by committee and forwarded to SRT)
Assignment 8 – turned in on July 25 and graded on August 6 (SRT - rejected)
Assignment 8 – turned in on August 9 and now I am waiting.

After this level of review it needs to go through the university review. The class ends on 8/24 and I don’t think it will make it through the process. I was told that one reviewer was holding it to Dissertation Proposal Standards when it is a Concept Paper. I don’t know about anyone else’s Concept Paper but mine is 50 pages with the Annotated Bibliography.

I was also told that the school just added another level of review and realized it was not a good idea so they are taking it out. Basically, I am the victim of bad timing. I am so frustrated I actually started to call other schools and asked how many credits they would take…asking if they would take an ABD and let me just wrap up the program with them if their process was better. I know that is extreme but I am pissed. After all of this, if I do not pass the course on time, I lose the $1,500 tuition assistance. I was told that during the accreditation review the school was told they needed to step up the academic quality of the dissertations so now they are going over board. Sorry for the rant but I am really, really frustrated. I can understand reviewers asking for different things but this is just plain wrong!
__________________
Randell

http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread....a0&t=31622

A victim of bad timing?  No, a victim of a really rotten, crappy, fifth rate scam of a school.  

Just plain wrong?  Tell it to NCACS.  They accredit this mess.  This is your RA "gold standard" in action.  Hecht takes the gold and you get the standard up your ass.

[RAW]

Found in between the obvious shill reviews at Online Degree Reviews, more negative comments about the still ghastly NCU:

Quote:NCU no more
Northcentral University
Reviewer: Anonymous (Degree In Progress) on April 9, 2009

This school is a waste of your time and money. If you want to do Doctorate degree, seek for a well established state University not one with 100% online. What do you plan to do with your PhD or DBA after graduated? Teaching? too bad, NCU PhD graduate is not up to the standard to teach in other state universities. But you can try your luck with NCU. May be, to use that Online Phd degree to get an executive position? Unfortunately, most executive position do not require PhD degree. Even if a company is looking for a PhD candidate to fill a position, it wouldn't be NCU.

From personal experience, the homework turnaround is more than 24 hours. Some courses simply lack of students where the lecture do not bother to do anything. I have been in a DBA course with only 3 students, 2 dropped and I was the only one left. Requesting more information on assignment will get response 2 days later and only couple days left to finish up a 20 pages paper with strict guidelines. This school has dropped the writting assistance in the middle of my program. I have to pay local writting professional for editing for couple of my courses. Those costs added up fast!

Also, just wait till you want to get out of the school, you will be charged with all kind of fees. Withdrawing from NCU will be more expensive than registering.

NCU has one advantage I must admit. They have very good online research library. But hey, you pay big money for it and expecting to solely use it for the rest of the program. Most professors have unknown degree to teach a class. English major is teaching OB???? I am expecting to learn real Organization Behavior from the professor not from textbook. I don't need to pay someone to tell me what to read. I am an executive and what I need is real world example. I have 0 discussion in my OB course. Just read the chapters and write papers every week to get through.

Be real, NCU is not a university, it is a company there to make profit !

Quote:I graduated from NCU with a Phd and...
PhD in Business Administration
Reviewer: Anonymous (Graduate) on May 3, 2009

let us not exaggerate. This is not a traditional DL program as the vast majority of courses do not have or do not utilize a discussion board. The program resembles the old correspondence courses. Essentially I was on my own during the process. I would get remarks to change this or that but never on how to implement these changes. I was expected to research on the solutions. Definitely I was on my own.

The greatest obstacle is the idiotic process of two PhD committees. In traditional schools you report to your dissertation committee. In NCU once you get the green light from your dissertation committee, the paper or proposal or dissertation goes to the Review Committee that usually slaughters the first "approved" review. Often they disagree among themselves. Why? Because they are ignorant. And because they are ignorant, they torture the candidate.

No sour grapes here. I did get my PhD. But I left the place with a bad taste in my mouth.

I wish NCU would realize that having two committees that disagree strongly on their assessments is bad advertisement. Horrible marketing. You have one set of professors say to another “You do not know how to detect mistakes.”

If anyone reads this, FIX the problem now.

Quote:A Real Student
MBA
Reviewer: Anonymous (Degree In Progress) on July 9, 2009

I can't help but wonder if some of the positive reviews aren't courtesy of the NCU marketing department?  I am a real student and I would not recommend NCU.  I graduated from UMUC, which is an awesome school, and I regret not staying there! Ugh!  NCU is a "for profit" institution.  Since I enrolled, they have significantly jacked up the tuition rates, so I feel like I fell for a "bait and switch" con.  The course material is ambiguous and the instructors really don't care.  The "turn around" time for a submitted assignment is glacial!  Don't bother asking a question about an assignment, either. NCU is not worth the money!  Trust me, I am a real student.  I do not work for their marketing department!  

Quote:Worst college I've ever attended
PhD in Business Administration
Reviewer: Anonymous (Degree In Progress) on July 21, 2009

I was in my last course at NCU (before starting the dissertation sequence) when I received a bad instructor. I was informed by one of the Academic Advisors that most students complain about this instructor, and that her feedback, comments/expectations were rather far-fetched and irrelevant to the course. Anyhow, I submitted my first paper, only to receive one point above an F, with comments/feedback that made absolutely no sense. The instructor did not read the instructions for the assignment (so she had no idea what it was even about) and obviously did not use the book because the feedback/questions she asked were contradicted by the assignment and the questions in the book. I contacted my academic advisor about this problem, and after getting the run around, was surprised when the school informed me that this was my problem, my fault, and I needed to deal with it. I submitted a second assignment and, received the same far-fetched feedback and low grade from the instructor. I attempted to schedule a phone appointment with the instructor, but she declined. I e-mailed her several times trying to understand what exactly it was that she was looking for and why she wasn't going by the instructions outlined for the assignment and the questions listed in the book...but I kept receiving an evasive response. I contacted just about every administrator in the school, and finally received an e-mail from only one, and that was the dean of the business department. Once again, I was informed that this was my problem, my fault, and that the instructor was a wonderful asset to NCU. I have two MA degrees (from different schools) with a 3.9 and a 4.0 GPA average and NCU in effect tried to infer that I was some bumpkin who should have been honored to attend such a prestigious school. At this point, I realized that things were only going to get worse, and the last thing I wanted was to shell out more money only to be abandoned half-way through the dissertation process. At this point, I realized that the college was trying to rip students off by making them pay for the same class more than one time in order to make more money, hence, the purpose of hiring teachers who are out to give students a hard time and a bad grade. NCU does not have the best reputation, and a degree from that school isn't considerably valuable, and after talking to several college administrators, was informed that with a PhD from NCU, I was not going to get the job I was looking for. I have two Masters degrees from two other colleges and have had a good experience and both of those colleges, but this PhD program at NCU is awful. Going to NCU is like digging through the garbage can trying to find a piece of crumpled trash that looks like a degree. To me, an NCU degree isn't worth the paper it's printed on.