Spare yourself the confusion and headache. Don't let the lower price and 3 year promise fool you! I did have some great professors, but you can find great professors at other schools and in the academic community. Some of the doctoral faculty seem to forget many of us have been working in higher education AND TEACHING longer than they have. Finally, be prepared to deal with a bit of what I like to call attitude. Yes, quality is preferred over quantity, but seeing DISSERTATIONS less than 100 pages was quite surprising for a rigorous program ACE claims to be. If you are a current student, take a look at the sample dissertations provided. I wrote a 120 page quality thesis in 6 months, and have plenty of experience in researching and writing, so I KNOW it is possible to complete a dissertation in a years time. Before you say it, yes, I know some people can take years to write a dissertation. Good luck at getting to choose for yourself. At ACE, you create a concept paper first (a needless hoop to jump through) before even being assigned a committee. When I obtained my Masters degree, I worked with my 3 person committee right from the start. I attend ACE full time, worked diligently on my concept paper, and am still in the program, 4 years later! The entire dissertation process, which is currently being changed has students sending papers back and forth through several instructors and reviewers, wasting time and energy. I have yet to find more than 2 people who have completed in the 3 year completion they sell you on. Admin had no idea she was gone! Don't they check in on their faculty?!? They have recently revamped the program, leaving many of us to take new courses not originally on our degree plans. It wasn't until a classmate contacted an administrator that we found out what happened. I once had a professor who showed up the first 3 days, then was gone until Week 4. The classes are fine (expect to receive late feedback, announcements, etc), but the dissertation process is a NIGHTMARE. "As several others have mentioned, don't do it, at least not for the Doctorate. They change the program to make the process longer, and offer no support to students. After 15 courses, I earned either 99% or 100% in every course. The good news is that the grading is very easy. It is very concerning that this is taught at the doctoral level. Any middle school math student will understand that coin flips are independent events. In another question about whether someone (who guessed a series of fair coin flips correctly) would correctly guess the next coin flip, he will accept the answer as either an independent or dependent event. Unfortunately, this is just math done incorrectly, but he cannot understand that there are rules about when to use a formula for dependent vs independent events. His reasoning is that there are lots of ways to do things in statistics. The statistics professor will literally argue that 125/510 (a fraction taken from a chart provided to students) must equal 0.276 (not 0.245) using his formula - because he does not understand the difference between dependent and independent events when calculating probability. Most concerning is that a significant part of what they teach you is simply wrong. Save your best for your final draft in your final course, because you will not be permitted to use work that you have previously written, even if you cite yourself. Write the bare minimum many of the instructors do not read your work anyway. It is not an iterative process, so do NOT give them your best work early on. Students are expected to write and re-write a draft of their concept paper no less than five times, each time keeping the Turn it In score to under 20% similarity. The school did offer to provide a refund for those redundant courses, but there is no way to get back the time and effort already invested. Many students will now have their earliest possible graduation date extended by six months, through no fault of their own. In several courses, I received no feedback at all, other than "Good job." The doctoral program has been revamped midway through, and students have been told that some of the courses they were required to take will no longer count. Professors are rarely involved and provide minimal feedback. I am now 2/3 of the way through, and it is both a joke and a nightmare. "Run away from this doctoral program! I am sorry that I selected this school over others.
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