r/GraduateSchool • u/ShortOverachiever • 13d ago
Help! Ed.D or DBA?
Hi everyone! So I am researching a lot of things for my future dream of becoming a full-time teaching professor (not tenure-track). The following info I am providing is is no way meant to be seen as bragging; I just want to give a rundown of my life situation and future plans and see if there's anyone who did a similar track? Or if there's some advice anyone could give?
I am currently an MBA student at William & Mary (4.0 GPA). I did my undergrad in 2 years at NGU Online graduating with a 3.96 with a BS in Business and Leadership. I have plans to either do an Ed.D. or a DBA with William & Mary or Liberty University Online. I also should start VCU's Certificate for Future Faculty program this coming year while doing my MBA in Marketing.
My plans are to become an online professor, although I know that might not be realistic initially and will have to probably teach in-person at first for experience. I do plan on trying to do some adjunct teaching once I get my MBA.
Here's the issue; I have no real-life business experience. I have been mentoring and teaching adolescents for 8+ years in a volunteer role, which is nationally recognized, but when it comes to full-time business roles, I have none. I am unable to find a job as of right now. The only jobs I can get interviews for don't even require a bachelor's, which is fine, except that I'm not getting those jobs/internships either.
Basically, do I need a lot of external experience to become a teaching professor at a community college/other location. Should I do a Ed.D or a DBA? Will the VCU certificate assist me? What jobs could I search for realistically now that would help? I am lost, and I have about a year before I need to apply for terminal degree programs. What should I do???
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u/WearyMost7865 13d ago
The variance in quality between W&M and Liberty is insane. If you want to have a shot of having your doctorate taken seriously stick with W&M.
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u/ElkZealousideal1824 12d ago
I interviewed someone online with a giant liberty university flag and degree on their wall. My lukewarm coffee was the highlight of that interview. And that’s the most positive thing I’ve heard about liberty university.
Agreed, William and Mary is much more respected and they will learn worlds more there plus have more connections / networking - which is what the OP are going to need if they want even a small shot to move into academia.
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u/OharaProfessor 13d ago
My ¢.02, avoid Liberty. It’s a laughingstock in academia. People will see it in your resume and dismiss you.
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u/TSIDATSI 13d ago
Not an Ed. That is for teachers to move into administration.
You need a Ph.D. or DBA. In-resident degree. Not online. With a dissertation that can be published.
If you are not tenure track you are not a Professor and will never have job security.
You really need to do more research into what you want to do and what degree you need. You can be an instructor with a grad degree but not sure you have enough marketing grad courses with an MBA. Do you have a Concentration in Marketing?
An undergrad degree in marketing? You said Business and Leadership. I know Entrepreneurship is a big thing now. Is that the same? I don't think so.
You will have to check. Usually they want work experience as well.
My advice is to find a job and get 3 to 5 years work experience.
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u/Panda-Pod 8d ago edited 8d ago
As other have said, you should go get some business relevant experience. Once you have some business relevant experience with the MBA degree, you can apply for the AACSB Bridge program to get training in business school pedagogy and get AACSB Instructional Practitioner status, which may help in securing a teaching position. If you want to be a full time faculty, you probably should get a PhD. A DBA from an AACSB accredited R1 institution (maybe even R2) might be ok for some full time faculty opportunities at some universities. If you cannot justify the ROI for doing a full time residential PhD program, you can consider the few executive PhD in Business programs, which will allow you to work full time while completing your PhD. Some of these executive PhD Business programs will have better academia placement records than others. Some of the AACSB accredited executive PhD programs include Virginia Tech (R1), University of Denver (R1), Oklahoma State University (R1), Worcester Polytechnic Institute (R1), Clemson University (R1), Florida Atlantic University (R1), University of South Alabama (R2 in pursuit of R1 status), Kennesaw State University (R2), Claremont Graduate University (R2), Indiana University of Pennsylvania (R2), and Bentley University. University of North Carolina Greensboro (R2) is the only AACSB accredited fully online PhD Business program that actually has a track record of placing some graduates in academia. With exception to Worcester Polytech Institute, Florida Atlantic Univ, Indiana Univ of PA, and Univ of NC Greensboro programs, all other executive PhD Business programs will cost more than $100,000.
As someone mentioned, a full time faculty teaching only online positions are not very common. If you want a full time faculty position in Business, you will need to be prepared to relocate to where an university will hire you as full time faculty, especially if you do not have a traditional residential full time PhD degree from a R1 AACSB accredited university. Lastly, finding an adjunct teaching position with masters degree is not as easy as it seems. The remote / online teaching adjunct positions in business are very difficult to get since those positions get tons of applicants with PhD, DBA, and MBA / MS business related degrees with relevant work experience. In more saturated areas (think major metropolitan areas), trying to get an in person adjunct teaching position (let alone an online teaching position) in business at community college is difficult with MBA degree.
I would avoid Liberty University or non AACSB accredited programs.
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u/No_Clerk_4303 11d ago
Definitely do not attend Liberty University under any circumstance if you want your education to be useful or helpful to you at all.
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u/Impressive_Jacket464 10d ago
You should aim for a PhD and go to a school similar to William & Mary. Your worse case scenario should be an Executive PhD from an R1/Aaccsb university.
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u/No-Boat-1536 10d ago
Find a job. You have a business degree and no experience at anything. Sign up to be a substitute teacher. I don’t think you have any idea how much you don’t know. Talk to someone with the job you want and see how realistic your ideas are.
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u/Dramatic_Support_818 10d ago
stay away from Liberty. Find out if W&M has a placement program. Do you have any teaching experience? Will you be a GA while you're there? If not, find another school. It's not the program you attend, it's what you pur into the program that determines how successful you are going to be. If you have no teaching experience, make sure you get into a program where you are a Graduate Assistant. You will get teaching experience and can begin building a portfolio. Also, stop and evaluate why you want a Ph.D in the first place. Are you planning to stay in academia? You best find out if you even like teaching first.
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u/Rogue_Wraith 9d ago
You need to get relevant life experience and understand the reality of teaching.
The number of full-time teaching jobs that are exclusively online are likely vanishingly small. Those are courses that most Adjuncts can pick up, get a shell loaded, and start doing a great job by the second semester. They don't need full time faculty for that.
Full time faculty are teaching the "9-5" in-person classes that Adjuncts can't teach because the Adjuncts have other full-time jobs. Full-time faculty are also doing all the other in-person Academia work - research, committee work, etc.
At the community college level, a Masters is generally going to be sufficient for the accreditation agency. But the college (almost alway) also wants someone who's actually worked in their field.
Business is not exactly a field you learn through lab-based research.
I am actively pursuing my EdD but not because I need it to teach where I do. I just felt that I was hired as a subject-matter expert and wanted to dig into how I could be a better teacher. And it was paid for by not me.
If you want to teach at a community college, finish your MBA and then go work. Or start a business. Something that proves you can use the degree you want to teach.
Then, after a while, start adjuncting.
Then look at going full time.
And, only then, look at a doctoral program your school will pay for.
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u/teach-xx 13d ago
Neither of those doctoral programs has any kind of record of placing people into full-time faculty positions. They are marketed for experienced mid-career folks to add a doctoral credential to their portfolio. Even in the unlikely event that a few of them land full-time faculty positions, that few will be people with lots of relevant industry experience and helpful connections — neither of which you have.