Decided on NCU for a PhD in Business Administration

[ryoder]

After much thought, I have decided to pursue the PhD in Business Administration at NCU.
I finished my MBA there and I totally dig the style of coursework. I found out that my company will reimburse for a PhD so I submitted the paperwork, which has been signed by the next 2 bosses up the chain from me.
Earlier I thought the company would only cover a cert so I enrolled in the CAGS in E-Commerce.
Now that I know they will cover the entire PhD I am going to do a general business PhD with a sampling of courses from information systems, ecommerce, information security, applied computer science, and management.
I am going to have to proceed slowly through the program to maximize the amount of tuition assistance I can get. This is really going against the grain for me and it will take all of my self control to not finish courses faster than 8 weeks. I just have to sit back and enjoy the work slowly.

I am currently half way done with my first course in e-commerce.

[scorched]

Simply amazing! a PhD!!
I wish you the best in moving forward, we all know you will make it happen!

[Storyteller]

Wonderful decision! Congratulations.

[ryoder]

Thanks guys. I think it will take 2.5 years to finish this thing.

[CLEP101]

Thanks guys. I think it will take 2.5 years to finish this thing.

That's great news, 2.5 years from now I will be right around the corner to retire from the Military. So I should be calling you "Doc" by the time I get out. And atleast people will start calling me by my first name instead of my rank.

[ShotoJuku]

...I found out that my company will reimburse for a PhD...

That'$ the best new$ of all - Congrat$!

[dcan]

2.5 years for coursework and dissertation, and all paid for by the company? That's amazing. Way to go dude! I smell executive grooming in progress here... :coolgleam:

My late boss and mentor had his PhD from Nova Southeastern, and he told me that a friend of his who went through there did his in 3 years which was considered ridiculously fast. I work with a master sergeant who is working on his PhD right now in quality management (Six Sigma type stuff). His school has him complete all coursework in 2 years and they start the dissertation in the first class and work on it concurrently, so they graduate with their PhD in that 2 years. Until now his was the only program I'd ever heard that went that fast. He also mentioned that he's about a year in and about half his cohort has already disappeared. We have another doc at work who said that's pretty standard, so expect there to be a 50+% washout rate in your path.

So... dissertation topic picked out yet?

[ryoder]

Actually my company tops out at 7.5K per year so I would need to stretch this out over 5 years to have it fully reimbursed. If I pay for half of it then I will be out of pocket about $20k which I can live with. I only said 2.5 years because of the reimbursement policy. 2.5 years will allow me to be reimbursed 3 times.
There are 20 courses for the PhD. 4 of them I have already taken at the MBA level, 6 are the concentration or general business courses and the other 10 are research methods, advanced stats, comprehensive exam and dissertation courses. The first 10-12 courses should not be a problem for me over the next 12-18 months. I think the dissertation will take me a year to complete, given what I have heard from others.

I have not chosen a topic yet, but I am always on the lookout for topics and have read so many scholarly research articles in information systems that navigating the literature will not be a problem when I do have to choose a topic. In my applied comp sci capstone, I identified an area in the literature that is lacking. I conducted a lit review on ERP systems implementations in recent years and found nothing tying old-school ERP systems to modern smart phone applications. I know there are products out there for this, both first and third party, but there is NOTHING written about it. My dissertation could actually be a massive lit review and a recommendation for future research I think.

[skyfall123]

Great job Ryan! Congrats!

[ryoder]

Thanks Geezer. I am taking this slow so that I can get as many years of reimbursement in the process. My first 8 week course in e-commerce ends this weekend. I am writing a 12-15 page paper on security in e-commerce and mobile payment processing.
These topics are all very relevant to my current line of work.

Here is the course sequence for the certificate. I am in the first course.
1. e-commerce basics
2. e-commerce on the managerial level.
3. supply chain mgmt and design
4. e-commerce marketing
5. mobile e-commerce
6. e-commerce capstone