{"id":11,"date":"2023-01-23T17:58:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T17:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=11"},"modified":"2026-06-29T13:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:40:24","slug":"not-all-doctorates-are-earned-the-same-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=11","title":{"rendered":"Not All Doctorates Are Earned The Same Way"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/giorgio-trovato-BRl69uNXr7g-unsplash-scaled.jpg\" style=\"margin-left: 1em;margin-right: 1em\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Decorative image of many US one hundred dollar bills.\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"3516\" data-original-width=\"5274\" height=\"426\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/giorgio-trovato-BRl69uNXr7g-unsplash-scaled.jpg\" width=\"640\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 640px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 640\/426;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"rTNyH RZQOk\">Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@giorgiotrovato?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Giorgio Trovato<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/s\/photos\/dollars?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Unsplash<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"rTNyH RZQOk\">I still find myself stunned that doctorates earned in other places outside of the US are dramatically cheaper and include things like &#8220;fully paid&#8221; and concepts like &#8220;&#8230;while you&#8230;&#8221;, &#8220;support for projects&#8221;, etc.<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"rTNyH RZQOk\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhMpMGcT-Cby8otZm5f3mBSW2oBX6RDWZuI-HroLZAkLx5McuFOo2qugdGFtQR16e1LQeRMjTZupz5RRcsjL1FLVXJlAbVDBNx7qW3dpTsDbqi1QzXJzAaSI57OOe-InSOgQ6i_kBlknJr6ZM9lVtsqYVRb53hSMaeQhEIcf1dqJFziaMS2MOPiYW6c\/w320-h204\/phd%20internships.png\" style=\"margin-left: 1em;margin-right: 1em\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Decorative image of example doctorate internship ad\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"1072\" data-original-width=\"1683\" height=\"204\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhMpMGcT-Cby8otZm5f3mBSW2oBX6RDWZuI-HroLZAkLx5McuFOo2qugdGFtQR16e1LQeRMjTZupz5RRcsjL1FLVXJlAbVDBNx7qW3dpTsDbqi1QzXJzAaSI57OOe-InSOgQ6i_kBlknJr6ZM9lVtsqYVRb53hSMaeQhEIcf1dqJFziaMS2MOPiYW6c\/w320-h204\/phd%20internships.png\" width=\"320\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 320px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 320\/204;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>When I sat down to my first of three required residencies of my doctorate for Capella University, my fellow IDOL (instructional design for online learning) students started talking about prices&#8230;as one does with students &#8216;talking in the hall&#8217;. I had researched and sought out a program that met 2 requirements for me:<\/p>\n<ol style=\"text-align: left\">\n<li><span class=\"rTNyH RZQOk\">It must be online. That limited me to maybe 3-5 universities. (Capella, Walden&#8230;maybe Liberty?)<br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"rTNyH RZQOk\">It must be the cheapest of those that met requirement #1.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span class=\"rTNyH RZQOk\">As far as programs, faculty, type of research conducted..pah! I didn&#8217;t care. I knew all of that could be scrabbled together within a program. (I was right, although I&#8217;m pretty sure God had a lot to do with the fact that I found a dissertation chair that held his check-in meetings in Second Life.)<\/p>\n<p>But #1 and #2, online and cheap were my by-words. Still, I can tell you that a price tag OVER US$50,000 was what I was facing. Capella refuses to estimate how long the &#8220;dissertation phase&#8221; will take because it varies by the learner and type of research. So the $50,000 was only for about 1.5 years of classes. Now that I&#8217;ve been there\/done that, I can tell you that tuition at US$4,000 per 10 weeks during the dissertation phase is SUCH a ripoff. Anyways. \ud83d\ude21<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"rTNyH RZQOk\">As the students talked, I was astounded when they said that Capella was the cheapest option they had found and the next closest competitors were over US$100,000 for the degree. When I recovered from my shock (as I was still not liking the over $50,000 price tag) I thought about it and remembered that a friend had indicated her 6 figure student loan for her PhD.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"rTNyH RZQOk\">Time warp: I remember thinking that those of us dedicated to math and science were supposed to get the carpet laid out for us in college. At least, that&#8217;s what it <i>felt<\/i> like in high school in the 80s&#8211;still swinging out of the space age, the shuttle was still going to space, and girls in particular needed to go into math and science.&nbsp; Where did those shiny promises go? They never showed up. Not once.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, I did the entire degree &#8220;As fast as possible&#8221; since time was money. I do feel the dissertation phase is a ripoff as I had one 10 week term where I received one review of my writing (err&#8230;maybe a chapter&#8230;in dissertation terms). At no time&#8212; and I don&#8217;t mean to offend but&#8211; did I ever feel like I was receiving $400 a week of services from Capella. Nope. I shudder to think of the poor wages they were probably paying their faculty too. Blech. \ud83d\ude14<\/p>\n<p>But I hear that doctorates can be had in Europe for dirt cheap prices US$3,000-$5,000 range and they throw in things like &#8220;getting a stipend&#8221;, &#8220;teaching while&#8230;&#8221; and that kind of stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"rTNyH RZQOk\">I pulled my PhD full time while I was also working full time and received NO support from my workplace (and I used my own data, nothing from my worksite). They were pleased as punch to have another faculty member with a doctorate (at no cost or burden to them) and I flew in under the radar of one of the last years they offered a raise with <i>higher<\/i> degrees earned.&nbsp; So I didn&#8217;t get paid to do it, but I was paid more once I had it. P.S. the very year that happened was the same year I was specifically told that I did NOT get a raise for my performance, as that was the lawsuit year where I whistle blew.<\/p>\n<p>My total bill for my PhD was US$64,000. All in student loans. All student loans are now paid off.<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"rTNyH RZQOk\">The fact that Capella&#8217;s tuition magically was exactly the same as the maximum graduate student loan is\/was a huge tip off.&nbsp; They are private and for-profit too. <\/span><span class=\"rTNyH RZQOk\"><\/span><span class=\"rTNyH RZQOk\">If there is ever a class action lawsuit against Capella for what feels like price fixing, gauging (?I don&#8217;t know what it would be called?), sign me up. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n&nbsp; Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash I still find myself stunned that doctorates earned in other places outside of&hellip;\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=11\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Not All Doctorates Are Earned The Same Way&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,7,10,6,4,3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capella-university","category-doctorate","category-learner","category-phd","category-price","category-student","category-student-loan","category-tuition","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/14"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}