Walden University

This was a very demanding program--harder than I expected. There were several times when I wanted to give up, but thankfully I did not. While this program is expensive, it is considerably less expensive than the "top-tier schools". My only complaint is that this is a management degree but there were no "financial business course", like accounting or finance. I think having at least one of each would have rounded the program out nicely, since in most business environments, managers deal with budgets and financials. At most other programs, this is the case. A MISM is usually a combination of a technology degree and business degree and that should be reflected a little more in the curriculum.

It was a hard degree but worth it. Four of us graduated in the inaugural MISM class in April, 2010. Commencement was in July. The two year effort was clearly not for everyone and many chose to not complete the program for one reason or another or to repeat certain classes and extend the length of the program. I learned far more than I expected from the program and apply it to work and my career regularly. I expect the degree curriculum will evolve based on feedback from our class and other of the early groups. I would recommend this degree program to others with the warning that it is not a mail order degree. It requires real work. Also be sure to have a powerful PC/server with a lot of available hard drive space. You will be installing and learning about many different DB, visualization, Web, Java and other application servers and clients during your two years.

After extensively researching online schools for a graduate level program offering classes in current technologies to upgrade my skillset and compete in a tough market, I enrolled in Walden University. Walden appeared to offer most, if not all, of the courses I needed. The curriculum included Java, HTML programming, object-oriented design, SOA, network and website design and development with few unrelated management and general education type courses that clutter up many other online universities' advanced degree programs. I had high hopes but they soon were dashed. Walden's program follows a progressive schedule with each class leading into the next and where eliminating one class can effect a student down the line. This happened with a critical class in UML and Java. Our class and others on the same schedule could not access or deploy the resources and the class was changed in midstream to pure research. No programming. Current classes now require us to code and many, myself (have a programming background - just not the time to teach myself)included are lost. Instructor support and feedback in all my classes so far has been minimal or non-existant. Now we have a major development project due in two weeks requiring apps built using, guess what - UML and Java. Moreover, the instructor just posted he will be off until after the class ends. My experience echoes what many others have posted here. Thus far: Poor resources (One book, 2005- a lifetime in IT) Little or no instructor support/feedback (We have an instructors?) Just turn it in - you will get an A (Buying a degree?) Poor writing skills of degree seekers and blatant plagarism (Buying a degree, maybe?) I have 3 degrees from traditional colleges. I am not a whiner nor do I shirk hard work. While education and psychology pursuers may fare better as those courses require mainly research papers, technology seekers beware. Without instruction/resources/tools, IST is darned near impossible online and I agree with the sentiments of many posters here -- If you want to pay over $2,400 to teach yourself, try Walden.

The MISM program at Walden University is a tough but rewarding program. I am an R&D director in Silicon Valley and chose this program after exhaustive analysis of reviews and reports of the comparative Universities. I knew this would be a tough, time consuming endeavor coming in. I was not wrong. However, I have learned even more than I expected. Hands on applications with Web 2.0 technologies, examinations into globalization cultural implications and a host of other considerations I was not aware of are but of a few of the areas I have been opened to. It is not an easy degree. However, it is a rewarding and useful degree.