Opinions on Master's International University of Divinity

[isaachunter]

It really depends on your current location and willingness to travel places. For example, Virginia Bible College (TRACS-accredited) offers a three-year Doctor of Ministry program with a $163 per credit hour tuition.  Since each of their courses is valued at 4 credits and 36 credits constitutes the required total, you would end up paying $5,868 USD. While the program is online, you would actually need to travel for a couple of on-campus seminars.

Virginia Bible College would be the perfect fit except it is not a PhD program. It's a DMin which is ministry oriented while the PhD is typically academic in approach. I could "theoretically" be open to travel. Of course, at the moment everyone is getting locked down in my state and national lockdowns are sure to follow after January so that will not be a feasible option I would say for another year or two if not more. But my preference would be for a school that was 100% online. NationsU did this quite well right up to the end and then they sprung the comp exam on me (did not mention it previously) so I had to scramble to find a proctor. This is why I'm drawn to CES as it is writing based, though again it has no accreditation. VBC is similar in many respects to Antioch School. Nationally accredited and around the same price but there are in person project requirements and the degree is a ThD and not a PhD.

As for Master's International University of Divinity, you can get the same ABHE accrediting body affiliation and a lower price with Andersonville Theological Seminary. However, I am not convinced that this would be a good route for any type of academic teaching. It would be a huge risk in terms of future prospects due to the lack of accreditation, or even a state degree-granting license (the latter being seen with non-accredited, but genuinely state-licensed institutions like Florida Christian University). We're talking about mere religous exemptions in those two cases, which means that these schools aren't even recognized within their states. They are just allowed to operate and grant degrees due to separation of church and state, as it is understood within a particular state.

I'm well aware of Andersonville. But, like you said, it is not a good route for academic teaching. Whether the school itself or its curriculum is challenging doesn't really matter when it has such a negative cloud over it. It kind of makes me sick. Academic instruction should be based on the merit of the curriculum alone. Not on a popularity context or how much the school has paid to some private company to play ball. I've compared the curriculum between MIUD and Liberty - they are virtually the same! Liberty's program takes 2 years. MIUD would take me 6 months. Not because it's less work but because there's no arbitrary or fabricated structural limits imposed like there are at Liberty. If I were allowed to progress through courses as I finished assignments and met requirements rather than being stuck in a semester basis (which is in place more for the school to make money than for any other reason) I could finish that program in 6 months too. 

I would jump at the chance to attend Redemption Seminary even though it is not accredited. I really like the competency based program and the individual mentorship rather than individual professors. But, they do not have a PhD at the moment, just an MDiv. Plus, for an unaccredited school, their tuition is WAY too much. Same with Grace School of Theology. Except they have no PhD program and tuition is over $400 / credit.

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It cost only about $7000 if I set my location to Indonesia. So it depends on the location I suppose?

What is your denomination preference? Is there any possibility to relocate, let say abroad? Do you have a recommendation from a church?

NationsU price is based geographically too. I'm okay with that. But I am not willing (or really able) to relocate. I have no recommendation from a church which is another reason I would like to pursue an academic program rather than a ministerial one.

I would go on to the MDiv at NationsU but after checking into the program it is not at all what I'm interested in and not at all adaptive to my research interests. Interviewing 90 people does not sound like something I would be good at! When I first started at NU it did not have this odd practicum in the program. Instead it had a dissertation-like research project but the student had to select from the community 3 people who would be on your committee. They would do the reading and approve or disapprove your work. I found this to be very odd as well. It would be akin to me handing out my dissertation to say 3 strangers on the street or posting it online and asking for unqualified feedback. It appears they've scraped this for the practicums. 

With the state of the internet today, it is a shame there are not real solutions available that don't price people out. But, I guess if everyone was able to afford a PhD they would mean less than they already do.