Starting September 5, 2007, I will be a student in the Doctor of Science in Information Systems program at Dakota State.

The school is one of the very very few non-profit, regionally accredited universities in the country that offers a doctoral program in information systems via an external (or distance learning) program. The DSU D.Sc. program is still fairly new with only about 15 students and the faculty seem very good and very experienced.

The program looks very interesting and very thorough and my specialization will be Decision Support, Knowledge Management and Data Management Systems (DSS for short) although I have no real idea what my research and dissertation topic will be yet.

If everything goes according to plan, I will be done sometime in 2010 or 2011 if everything goes according to plan. Yikes…another 3 to 4 years of school.

Why do I want a doctorate? Personal satisfaction is the biggest reason and the only one that will really drive me to finish but I also have an interest in the process of earning a doctorate. The research, writing and pure critical thinking that is utilized during the doctorate program is something that I’m very interested in and can’t wait to get into. Ask me in six months and I may say that those things don’t really interest me as much. 🙂

A by-product of the journey to my doctorate will be the my improved research and writing abilities as well as my knowledge in the field of Information Systems. I hope to be able to leverage this knowledge and experience into an interesting consulting career down the road.

If anyone out there has an interest in the non-traditional education methods (e.g., external research, distance learning, etc) then you should read the page that I created titled “Education“. This page has a brief outline of my journey over the last 1.5 years to find a doctoral program that works for me as well as a good description of why I didn’t choose some of the other programs out there.. There are a lot of programs out there, but few that focus on IT & Technology, are non-profit and regionally accredited.

For those that are interested, I looked very closely at the following schools during my search…all have great programs and should be considered by anyone else looking for an IT/Technology type of program:

• Univ of Alabama @ Huntsville – PhD in Engineering Management – Little emphasis on business & IT but that may change soon according to the school. Would be a great school for someone from an engineering background and who wants to stay in engineering.
• Indiana State University – PhD in Technology Management – Good program but limited specialization options. I think this program’s use of a ‘consortium of schools’ should be the model for other schools around the country to follow for DL doctorate programs.
• Grenoble – DBA Program – Great program with excellent credentials but just not what I was looking for.
• Walden – PhD in Applied Management & Sciences – Expensive compared to the others + it is a for-profit….but well regarded around the country by people ‘in the know’.
• Colorado Tech University – Doctor of Management – Good program. Another for-profit school that has some detractors and some cheerleaders. The lack of a dissertation bothered me…but also intrigued me.
• Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Lille – PhD in Strategy & Project Management. Good program for someone looking to specialize in PM for their career.

There were a few other schools that I ran across, but none that really tweaked my interest like the above schools.

Keep checking in…I hope to keep posting updates to this blog to let everyone know how the program is going.

[tags] Dakota State University, Doctor Science, Doctorate, Education, Information Systems [/tags]