Walden University

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
I'm a recent graduate of Walden University's Doctor of Business Administration Program and I would have to say that I'm very happy and pleased with my experiences at the University. I thought about giving up over 10 times because I was constantly challenged and pushed beyond my limits while working 60+ hour work weeks and being deployed to various contingency assignments while working for the US Military. I regularly spent 8+ hours daily working on my doctoral study and getting my proposal and doctoral study kicked back many times throughout my doctoral study journey. It?s not easy which is why many don?t graduate. Walden University has made tremendous strides in increasing the level of academic rigor in their programs thus why you are seeing an increased rate of students not succeeding. Before attending Walden University I also graduated from two previous brick and mortar institutions with a focus in Accounting. It's interesting to see that most of the negative comments are from students who simply did not have what it took in order to perform at a graduate level.

I would have to admit that I think Walden University accepts more students already knowing most of them don't have what it take in order to graduate. In return, Walden University makes a tremendous amount of profit because of this. I remember attending my first DBA residency and looking across the room at a number of people and asking myself how in the heck did "they" get in the door. But there were also hundreds of talented business professions attending the residencies as well. From VP's of Boeing, Motorola, Lockheed Martin to CEO's of major logistics, consulting and financial companies HQ in Dubai, Saudi, Switzerland, Brazil, the USA and many more. It was an amazing networking event if you took the time to talk to people and get to know them.

But the bad part in accepting students you already know will fail is what you see in comment boards such as these. Where disgruntled students enrolled into a program thinking something would be handed to them and in return failed miserably. I remember asking for the statistics of Walden University DBA graduates around November 2013 from the university and I was told since the DBA program was initiated in 2007 there have been less than 46 graduates from the program. Now remind you this equates to less than 8% of people who enroll in this program have graduated. This is not because they didn?t like the program but because they couldn?t get their research proposals approved by their committee members. Walden University academic standards in the DBA program I must admit are tough.

It would be interesting to take a survey of those who have posted negative comments in this board and find out whether or not they graduated. From reading the previous comments it appears 93% or more of them didn?t graduate!!! And as a result of not being handed a diploma they are now bitter. In the PhD, DBA, DM, Ed programs etc at Walden University many of them simply can?t get their proposals passed by the institutions academic review departments to include the their first and second committee members, methodologists, their URR, the CAO and so on. These people never get to the part of completing their doctoral study because they can?t even come up with a hook and anchor for their problem statements.

It?s intriguing to read the comments where the graduate student couldn?t perform at Walden University and received bad grades and are now deciding to attend other institutions they think are harder. I'm not connecting the dots with understanding how you think you will perform better at another institution you perceive as being more rigorous in comparison to Walden University where you failed and in return claimed the coursework was not challenging. This does not make sense!! With that said I?m proud to be a graduate of this school because I know I worked hard to earn my degree.