Cost of South College DBA program?

[DrMacLeod]

Well, I am a person with a full-time career and family, and I plan on completing this in 12 months.  But that plan is based on having completed the WGU MBA in a single term, so I demonstrated (to myself most importantly) that I could succeed in these types of programs.  I know my drive and what I can accomplish.  I am fortunate to have a very flexible day-to-day schedule that allows me time to work on my studies during the day.  I am able to operate on four hours of sleep and am willing to wake up at 3:00 AM if necessary so that I don't sacrifice time from my family in the evenings.

Not everyone can work without a deadline or in isolation, which is how these CBE programs feel at times.  If you have experienced self-paced or CBE programs before and feel confident in your ability to see them through to completion, then I don't see 18 months or less being unreasonable.  One student has completed nine of the ten courses in one term.  I believe she may finish her dissertation before her term is up.  So anything is possible.

I have seen many people struggle without deadlines and the isolation in grad programs more so than bachelor programs. Might because the work is more challenging. Might be because there's more work. Might be some burnout in there. Burnout is a really thing in academia. I'm at WGU right now and it's a VERY different CBE program than what I'm used to from UMPI. So I can see South College being different from WGU. It sounds like the program at South College is more like UMPI's grad program with the formative and summative writings. Makes sense as both programs are on Strut.

The pre-requisite for entry into South's EdD/DBA program is a Master's degree. I imagine prospective students would be familiar with Master's level work and writing, especially compared to a Bachelor's program.  

Aside from the work, many students going through traditional online programs rely on the "Sunday at 11:59 PM" deadline to get the motivation to complete their school work.  With CBE, all of a sudden, that weekly deadline is gone, and being given full autonomy over getting your work done and turned in takes a different level of motivation.

I also wanted to add some additional context to my previous posts.  I completed my first Bachelor's and Master's degrees in a traditional online format in the mid-2000s.  Even then, I was typically taking four classes per term while working full time, so I have always been somewhat of an "accelerator" when it comes to learning.  Everyone has different styles of learning, and heavy course loads aren't for everyone.  My advice to those interested in accelerating the South CBE program: If you have never excelled with consistently heavy course loads in traditional learning programs or have never accelerated through a CBE program, I wouldn't start a CBE doctoral program with the sole intention of accelerating.