Trident University International

I have been contemplating writing this review for a long time. Today I decided that it is time to stop procrastinating and maybe help someone else. I have been in the PhD program for the past 4 years. I have finished all the courses and am now working on my dissertation. I would like to share with you a few insights I have now that might have helped me make a more educated decision five years ago when I was looking for a university. 1. The total price of your PhD is not a constant but rather a variable. In my case, the University raised my tuition twice over 4 years resulting in a 40% increase in total price. This is in spite the fact that they specifically assured me that they have no plan to change tuition in the foreseen future. Naturally, after I had started, I could not change course. 2. The time frame of your PhD is also flexible and not necessarily in a good way. While the rate of your courses is up to you, once you get to the stage of working on your dissertation, you are in the hands of your committee. In my case, I can report that the pace is unbearably slow. On average, I invest about 3 days of work for every month of waiting for feedback. If you are not in any kind of hurry, that might be fine. If on the other hand you have other things you would like to do in your lifetime, this pace is not beneficial to your mental or financial health. 3. The dropout rate is very high. Although it is difficult for me to assess exactly what the rate is because people take courses at a different pace, I can none the less tell you that in the first courses we had 15 to 20 students yet at the finish courses we were only 3. Besides for being lonely at the top, it is also disconcerting to learn that in retrospect your statistical chances of making it to the end are not good at all. You could come to the conclusion that this is proof that the process is serious and rigors. You could also arrive at other conclusions. I will let your imagination wander… 4. Although almost all the professors I have been in contact with over the past 4 years have been courteous and helpful to some degree, I have had more than a few situations where I got the feeling that my success at achieving the goal of attaining a PhD, was not very high on the list of - Turo International / TUI / Trident – objectives. I am not saying that they were interested in me NOT finishing my degree. It was more a flavor of indifference. When comparing this attitude with what I heard from my friends in other PhD programs at other universities, I know that this aspect leaves much to be desired. All in all, I have learned an unbelievable quantity of stuff. I also have no doubt that much has been accomplished. On the other hand I feel that the path was not what I had expected. Hopefully I will reach the finish line in my lifetime and maybe I will update this review then. In the meantime, I am left wondering whether looking back, I would do it all again.

The course assignments apparently are written by people in some foreign country where English is not the native language. Such concepts of "subject" and "verb" apparently are not important enough to incorporate in the material. Unless you are clairvoyant it is impossible to know what you are required to do to complete your assignments. Perhaps they are relying on the fact that most of the students are military and thus used to following blindly the incomprehensible orders of idiots. Unless you speak ebonics or comprehend pidgin English, AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS!

I am employed at an executive level and am no slouch, have earned only one C in my undergraduate work at another regionally accredited school, no C’s in my Masters Degree at yet another regionally accredited school, and am working very hard to get through the Trident University International Ph.D. program which is extremely challenging. There aren’t many of us left. People who were able to earn Masters degrees just couldn’t transition to more demanding rubrics. The program is rigorous, yet the staff are very supportive. I wouldn’t trade this experience nor what I am learning for anything in the world. There is not anything you could post on the Internet that some are not going to love and someone else hate. The only cost of blogging is your time and some folks just have an axe to grind. A Trident Ph.D. is a great value, but is not cheap in terms of required time and commitment. I can’t speak for Trident’s undergraduate nor other graduate programs as I have not had the pleasure of having attended them.

I have attended Trident University for the past 4 years and it is NOT a degree mill. Just like any other school, some professors/classes are more difficult than others. It worked great for me because I have a family and a full time job. I did the majority of my course work on the weekends and evenings. Each course is broken down into 5 “modules”. For each module, you get background reading materials and then write a paper based on what you read (they call this a “case” study). You then choose a real-life situation and write a paper based on the subject (they call this a secession long project). You do this for all 5 modules-so there is a total of 10 papers for each class. Each paper is expected to be approximately 3-5 pages in length. In addition you must take part in a “threaded discussion” which is like class participation. The professor asks a question specifically about the subject in that module and each student is expected to answer-giving their personal opinion. Everyone in the class sees your response and has the opportunity to follow-up to your response. It was the perfect fit for me.

The courses were interesting and I learned a lot, but when I started talking directly with faculty, I began to lose respect. Perhaps my analytical background overmatched them. It was frustrating when they misunderstood or didn't comprehend what I was talking about. Perhaps this would be a problem anywhere, but I'm not sure of that. The real beginning of the end came when I started receiving conference programs from AOM and realized that most of the discourse is inside the community and not so much the outside world. If actual businesses pay little attention to what the profession is doing, how relevant is it? There are occasional gems, but for the most part this sector of the academic community speaks only to itself. I lost respect for the field. The actual university is sort of homebrew, some of it excellent, some of it just a cash collection machine.

I was a 2006 PhD graduate. I essentially went full-time for five years. It was the single most challenging thing I've ever accomplished in my life. I my international research has since inspired others. I am a full-time Associate Professor of Business in Texas at a renowned university. Was granted tenure this year. You will only succeed in this method of education if you have self-discipline and a thirst for knowledge. I not only learned a lot about how to research and about my research focus, but I learned a lot about myself. This is no degree mill. The professors are resident at many top universities in the country with a core staff of professors at the central campus. Like any university, I found some courses tougher than others and some professors tougher than others. But overall, I was pretty impressed with the credentials and experience of my professors and the rigor of the academics. While I work full-time at a Texas university, I was invited to teach part-time in Trident University's MBA program and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with my MBA students, many of them deployed military. I maintain high standards and rigor. I've read here that some find they are able to cheat the system. Yes, I've had a few students attempt to submit plagiarized work. Some try, many are caught at it and a few probably even succeed at it. Happens here in Texas where I teach as well. But, students only cheat themselves in the end and I do not see student cheating as a flaw that can be assigned to this university. More a flaw in those particular students. Feel free to contact me about my experience with this university. I think my email should be displayed. Not sure. If not, I endorse this university

I want to speak about this university from experience. I completed a PhD degree at Touro University in the period where it was sold and its name changed. Before undertaking this degree, I had written two popular books and run a small business. I earned undergraduate degrees in France and Germany and an MBA in Canada, all at established universities. I also worked at the local McDonald's to help pay the bills and provide for my family. I simply could not afford to go half way around the world again to earn another degree. As an accredited university, TUI offered an attractive alternative. They made me work ‘very’ hard for my degree. They also allowed me to gain valuable work experience, first as a graduate assistant and later as an assistant professor. I admit I was one of those instructors others here have complained about as grading “generously”...why not? I felt it was my job to encourage students and there is really very little difference between students anyways that 5 or 6 categories of grades would not cover. In short, I treated students as I wished to be treated – with respect!!! It comes as no surprise though, if a student did not hand in the assignment(s) requested, they flunked the course. Yes, the university is now for profit but investigate further who it’s associated with it before making negative blanket assumptions. Did you know that one of the investment partners of Summit Partners, which owns TUI University, is Notre Dame University? There are many other big name partners too associated with this partnership, Google “Summit Partners” for the names of other s. For me personally, this association alone balanced the for- profit aspects of the university, which I too do not favor. An on-line education is primarily for disciplined learners. They realize it’s the process that teaches you to follow an established order of steps to accomplish goals. Mature learners realize that by following these, you are most likely to succeed with any other goals you establish. Has TUI helped me? Professionally, I now work as a senior technical writer for an on-line provider of business education. In terms of contract work, I have the ability to pick and chose assignments. Next summer I will have completed the first of three musicals, each with a research component attached to it to further my investigation of consumer behavior – my small company will be releasing these and you will definitely see the university’s name mentioned proudly in the introduction. True, I am a hard worker anyways but it’s all about the process learned. If you are a motivated person who wants control over your learning environment and not needing to have an instructor looking over your shoulder all the time to produce, TUI is likely right for you. It worked for me and my family!

Don't be fooled. This is absolutely a degree mill. You could turn in work done by your third grade child and still receive an A for your "effort". I truly believe that any positive reviews posted here are planted by employees.