Northcentral Tuition Increase

It is a reasonable request to at least grandfather current students enrolled in the doctorate program, so they are not burdened with such a tuition hike.

Please grandfather current students. It is not ethical or fair to change the agreement after the fact.

I agree about grandfathering current students. I am in my fourth dissertation course, and I am looking at completing my Ph.D in another two years. The increase in tuition for dissertation courses beyond the fourth dissertation is a considerable increase to current students. I have about two more years with the increased tuition rate. This is a considerable increase that I did not budget for and plan for when I enrolled at NCU. Please consider grandfathering all current dissertation students in at the reduced dissertation course amount. It is not appropriate nor fair to have all current dissertation students pay at the increased dissertation course amount. Thank you for your consideration.

I agree with Julie and am opposed to the tuition increase. I am in my sixth year at NCU and what initially started as a reasonable financial commitment is rapidly becoming unaffordable and strapping graduates with enormous debt. Students who began the degree in good faith should be extended the same good faith by the administration of the institution.

Although at the beginning of my journey with NCU, I am watching the experiences of those near the end with interest. This is a very acute concern, especially with the experiences of the first courses regarding how communication between faculty and students is designed.

I'm in my 6th dissertation course. Too much for.me.to accept tuition increase. Please consider maintaining the same fees for the students who are already in old structure (already in dissertation)

I agree that grandfathering current students is the right thing to do. I personally have experienced what many other reference with long turn-around times delaying progress and working with mentors who do not have me as a priority.

I agree with Julie Radachy. When I started the program, 6 years ago, I was under the impression that it would only take 4 DIS courses to complete my dissertation, especially since we are required to take methodology courses, a concept paper course, etc.. I thought that once you passed your concept paper course, your concept paper would be submitted for approval, and then I would start writing my dissertation proposal. To make matters worse, They changed my dissertation chair after about a year, and not because I requested it or that she requested it. This change set me back at least 6 months to a year. I think that it is great that they added more support and more staff, but I think I asked the librarian for help once, and today I sighed up at the ASC for webex to talk with a statistician. I thought that we had a 3 person dissertation committee, so that one of the committee members would be able to clarify a few questions that my chair thought should be clarified. I have been working full time and working full time so that I can finish my dissertation. I have student loans that are continuing to accrue interest (unsubsidized), that I thought I would be starting to pay off as of last year. It would only be fair for NCU to grandfather us in and have the new students that are getting additional support pay full price after DIS5. I have always had good things to say about NCU, and both of the dissertation chairs. If they go through with the price change, I will no longer recommend this university to anyone. I hope everyone signs the petition.

I also agree that those who are already in the dissertation sequence--and preferably everyone enrolled in a doctoral program at the time of this change--should be grandfathered into the 1-credit DIS 5 (and beyond) courses. I realize that you will lose money if you grandfather those of us presently in the dissertation courses, but know that many of us are past DIS 4 because of the policy changes that you have made during our time enrolled in the program. For example, I spent much of DIS 5 waiting on NCU's IRB to acknowledge the fact that they had already given me provisional approval before the application process had changed, and I had to re-apply for NCU approval, wait a few weeks, and then finally receive approval. Unfortunately, my story is not unique; it is just one of many examples of times when students were delayed because of new policies. If you want us to support you in continually changing the dissertation process, especially without having those already in the process being grandfathered in, then you also need to support us by providing feedback more quickly so that future students can likely graduate within the four dissertation courses.

i am getting no extra help than I was before. If you don't want students to have to go into reduced cost semesters, than you should increase supports to get students through quicker.

I agree those us in the process (Post DISS 5) should be grandfathered. I also agree about turn around time-at some points I waited 21 days for feedback-made the corrections within 2 days then had to wait another 21 days. If we are given 7 years to finish this process why should we have to pay full price if we don't finish it in the 4 courses?

Grandfather clause for those of us post DIS5

I agree with this petition. Especially that all dissertation chairs should be required to send feedback within 7 calendar days. Otherwise, at certain points in this process, we are left floundering about because we do not have the feedback necessary to make progress. If the response times for dissertation chairs matched what we are required to do (7 calendar days), while we might pay the full price for four dissertation courses, we would have the chance at completing our degrees without needing DIS 5 and beyond.

I strongly support this petition. Students chose NCU based on a program in the catalog year they started outlining one credit courses past DIS4. It is current best practice to keep students in their program based on their catalog year and grandfather them to changes that would affect their continuous enrollment. Please consider a grandfather clause for all current students.

As an alumni of NCU I think the increase in the price of tuition on classes beyond the 4th DISS is ridiculous and needs to be reversed. If you are going to raise tuition, at least grandfather in those who have been in the program prior to this year. The school is financially screwing students by doing this. Most students are already knee deep in debt to go through these programs. Tuition was raised from $1800 a class when I first started in September 2010, to over $2600 for my 4th DISS class, nearly a 50% increase. There is going to come a day when people like Elizabeth Warren scream loud enough and schools like NCU will be forced to account for their tuition increases to prevent them from ripping students off blind.

I support this petition.

No more increases for current students. NCU chairs slow the process down to apparently collect more money. Grandfather those of us already in DIS 5 or above.

I agree with this petition.

I agree with this petition

The increase should leave out those of us in Diss 5 and above leaving the price increase to those not yet in final stages. This could affect my ability to graduate.