South College DBA Program (IT Specialization) - Progress Tracker

[SteveFoerster]

Perhaps someday WGU will offer doctoral programs....

Doubtful. I love WGU, but their mission is to offer degrees that lead to real jobs. Doctorates, for the most part, many times have a zero or negative ROI. I'd love for them to offer a DBA, EdD, or something along those lines, but they'd have to change thier model dramatically to do it effectively.

Alas, I know you're right.

[wiresandscreens]

Hey everyone, I wanted to come back and provide an update on my progress at South College.

TLDR: I am 1 assignment away from completing the program. This is just waiting on my capstone defense with my chair and other faculty member and then I am done with the program. This will put my completion at 6.5 months conservatively.

I am now just waiting for my chair to schedule my capstone defense and then I'm done with the program. Unfortunately, due to slow grading in the course prior to the capstone course, it added around 3 months out of my 6 month term. While they were following policies on grading times, it is the single factor that led to this taking me more than 1 term.

I may be the first person to graduate from the capstone option (although I can't confirm this) and the capstone course itself is rigorous and demanding. Each chapter (out of 4 total) requires a significant amount of work to complete and my Chairs feedback was both relevant and detailed. On weekends it wasn't uncommon to dedicate 8-16 hours over two days just on a single chapter.

While I can't comment on specifics of my capstone until I'm done with the course, it totals around 250 pages and is something I feel the course itself prepared me well to write. Ive spent around a month writing the capstone and making revisions based on my Chairs feedback and it was given a final pass around 4 days ago. This left the capstone defense presentation to be made after. This presentation only took a day to do, but it was an effort to condense 250 pages into a 30 minute presentation.

While I have no information on the actual defense until I get it scheduled and complete it, I'm conservatively putting completion of this degree at 6.5 months in total for me. If grading followed WGU standards, this would have been around 3-4 months in total. I understand the school has had a large influx of students into these CBE programs so the delays on grading are not a surprise, just be aware going in.

I also can't provide insight on the capstone vs dissertation route as I have only worked on a capstone, but at around 250 pages, don't consider the capstone an easy way out. My literature synthesis alone is made up of over 70 sources and comprises over 80 pages, not including the rest of the chapter. The remainder of the paper is much the same, and by following the capstone course assignment guidelines, it turned into a legitimate academic paper that is adding to the body of knowledge on my topic.

I'll be sure to provide a final update once my actual defense is completed, but it's at the finish line and I'm glad to have completed this at an accelerated pace.

[wiresandscreens]

Update: My defense occurred this morning and I received word that I passed, which closes out the degree. I am waiting on graduation information which I expect in the next few days.

[MyUsualTagWasTaken]

Greetings. I am about to begin my coursework in South College’s DBA program and I just came across this thread. Your tempo is extraordinary. I would like to, if at all possible, emulate your methods in the hopes that I might achieve even half the speed that you have achieved. Would you be willing to share the details of your writing process (workflow, tools, techniques, tips, etc)?

[bjcheung77]

Greetings. I am about to begin my coursework in South College’s DBA program and I just came across this thread. Your tempo is extraordinary. I would like to, if at all possible, emulate your methods in the hopes that I might achieve even half the speed that you have achieved. Would you be willing to share the details of your writing process (workflow, tools, techniques, tips, etc)?

It's great you're trying to emulate another person. Having said that... You need to start the program and go at it your pace, you can try to speed things up by effectively/efficiently concentrating on tasks, time management, and limiting your commitments, but there are so many variables at play.

[MyUsualTagWasTaken]

Thank you for your response and I don’t disagree with those fundamental tips. However, I’m not looking to emulate a person or their timing. Rather, I’m looking to, if possible, emulate the OP’s methods/process.

[SteveFoerster]

Thank you for your response and I don’t disagree with those fundamental tips. However, I’m not looking to emulate a person or their timing. Rather, I’m looking to, if possible, emulate the OP’s methods/process.

Sure, it's helpful to know what the path to success looks like for someone, even if that's just a starting point for your own plan.