Northcentral University

I hear what folks say when they state, "not everyone is cut out for a doctorate." That is in many respects true. The issue I have/had with NCU is the apathy I found with the professors and especially my dissertation chair and committee. The committee members kept changing because of turnover and I had to nearly start from new when that happened. In a bricks n' mortar university you have a chair who is accessible and who gets to know you and invest in you. Not so with NCU. It is far too easy to write people off when you don't see their faces or listen to the ideas and concepts of the dissertation. I've a friend that went through a doctoral program at U of Texas and I saw him interact daily with his chair. I found attending NCU to be a monumental mistake that I will pay for until my mid-sixties. Not a great way to treat people. And, NCU, we are people.

Completing a dissertation at Northcentral University is the hardest thing that I’ve ever done. In retrospect, if I could do it all over again, I would NOT pursue a doctorate because it’s simply too hard and it’s too much work. Yes, I now have a regionally accredited doctoral degree. A dissertation is what separates the men from the boys (or the women from the girls). The attrition rate at B&M doctoral programs ranges from 50 to 70% (once students get to the dissertation) and I speculate that NCU has a similar attrition rate at the dissertation. No matter where you go, the dissertation process is unequivocally brutal. The coursework that leads up to the dissertation is doable, but the dissertation is a nightmare. A monkey can do “coursework,” but few people can complete a dissertation. It’s a very painful and heartbreaking process for some people when they find that they cannot get passed the dissertation brick wall. My recommendation: if you get a chance to do a dissertation, DON’T!!!