The University of Massachusetts - Boston

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Linguistics (This Major's Salary over time)
The greatest mistake of my life was to enroll in the University of Massachusetts, Bostons Applied Linguistics Online MA program.

Two weeks after receiving a general e-mail welcoming students to the program, I e-mailed the program coordinator, Elizabeth Cobb, regarding transfer credits I sought to have evaluated (end of May 2008). Little did I know that this would turn into Odyessian task that would span over six months of constant inquiry. Finally, as the fall semester was about to end in three weeks (mid November 2008), I contacted the Program Director, Dr. Panagiota Gounari. Dr. Gounari said that this matter had “slipped through the cracks. Due to her upcoming pre-tenure sabbatical. Bear in mind, that my schedule had been previously been changed to accommodate this potential transfer credits by the coordinator. Thus, while consistently asked for information regarding transfer credits for over six months, in the end I was BEHIND my cohort due to these unwarranted schedule changes.

Please do not be bamboozled by the programs webpage”this was not a friendly, professional means to receive your MA while working overseas, as many in the ESL profession do. Consider:

In terms of enrolling and registering students for classes the program was always late. The only silver lining was that they waived their own self-induced late fees. One course even began two weeks late”students, of course, were informed week after the start date.

You will not receive individual advising though they advertise this frequently in e-mails.

Online course offerings are far more limited than those at the university. Of the three professors I had, two were knowledgeable professors but clearly more devoted to their offline students than their online students. One professor didnt even bother to read our weekly responses. Grading in that class was arbitrary. Many of these professors are not even in the state of MA which is fine for online program but consider there is little monitoring or repercussions for poor performance. I suspect many of these professors were seeking additional employment due to the uncertain economic times.

As I was placed (without permission) into two cohorts, I got to see first and second year students. The students in my cohort were friendly, talented, and a diverse bunch while as the second years were extremely apathetic and anti-intellectual.

I only recommend this program to those in the philanthropic position to “donate your tuition to pre-tenure sabbaticals.