Question:
I am a MBA student graduating in May 2000. I will also sit for the CPA exam in 2000 as well. Some of my long range plans include teaching accounting/finance at either an university or community college setting. To help facilitate this, I am thinking of applying to Indiana U's distance Master of Science in Adult Education program. My questions are:
1) Would the combination of a MS in Adult Education and a MBA be sufficient to teach at 4 year colleges w/o graduate programs? 2) Would the MS even be necessary (beyond attempting to achieve a competitive advantage) for teaching at the CC level? 3) Are there distance DBA or Ph.D. programs that are widely accepted for aspiring professors?
Answer:
1) Probably not. Even at most small colleges they get their share of Ph.D. holders. Too many people with doctorates and lack of jobs in higher education translates to increased credential requirements even for small colleges.
2) The last hiring committee I was on at the CC level we had people with significant experience. It depends a great deal on what you have been doing besides teaching. I've never been on a CC hiring committee (and I've been on about 7, I guess) that didn't have so many applicants that the person hired had years of experience as well as at least an MA, plus experience in a related area (in this case, educational technology, computer-assisted language learning (CALL), etc.).
3) Widely accepted? That's difficult to determine. I *think* that if you don't have experience other than being a student that it would be difficult to be taken seriously in a business department no matter where you got your doctorate. From what I gather, this has changed in the last couple of decades. Every example that I have seen in this newsgroup and in real life had the doctorate but also had lots of experience.
I guess what I'm saying is that it isn't cut and dried. Applications (with the exceptions of those schools, Ivy League, etc. where the school where you got your doctorate seems to be more important than anything else) are viewed as a whole. If your only qualification is your doctorate from the University of Sarasota (with apologies to graduates of that fine school), you will likely have problems. If your qualifications are that same doctorate, plus published articles and conference presentations, and some work experience (in the case of doctorates in business and in education), then perhaps things are viewed differently. Of course the same argument could be made for those people who get doctorates at lower-ranked institutions. You have to prove your worth.
