Walden University Reviews of Doctoral in Criminal Justice

I don't know what happened in the criminal justice program, but all of the instructors I took classes with ten years ago are gone. I had such a good experience with my bachelor's and came back for my doctorate after a long break. I didn't recognize any of the professor's names and the classes were terrible. Luckily I dropped out very early on, but it was a costly mistake. Speaking with students who stuck with the doctoral program, all of the classes are outdated, and their assignments are nothing... Read More like the ones I am taking at my current university. I don't tell anyone here I even attended Walden because faculty and students at real universities make fun of online PhDs and of Walden. There is absolutely no way that I would have been prepared for a dissertation with the faculty they have now and the quality of the courses. The faculty they had a decade ago were much more attentive and challenging. Do NOT waste your money. Anything positive you may have heard about this program no longer exists. I suspect the good faculty refuse to teach in the doctoral program because it is such a joke, or they quit. Either way, I don't blame them.

Walden University enrollment staff was not truthful from the start. It was never disclosed when I started the enrollment process back in December 2016 that the school was under investigation by the Department of Justice and U.S. Department of education for deception of students. If I knew this I would have never applied. I was told the total cost would be 60 thousand from start to finish, which instead was per year, which if it was disclosed I would have never applied. The course use the same structure... Read More across all courses, with the only changes being the course title, and readings. My entire time in the course work I had one professor that took the time to grade and challenge me, the rest of the instructors just gave out A's. My last term before starting the dissertation, I had advance Qualitative Methods and Writing a Quality Prospectus. The methodology professor was missing the entire term, so the instructor teaching the Prospectus class took over. However, the Prospectus instructor just said everything looks great for their course. When I started Dissertation Summer of 2018, my entire committee did not get along with each other or with myself. The entire term there was one disagreement after another. It got to the point where the committee told me to go talk to people younger than me and sent me to the local amusement park for 9 weeks, which I did. On one of the days I was on the phone with my committee being yelled out, one of the workers at the amusement park overhead the whole thing, grab my phone and hung up on my committee. When I reached out to Walden University leadership about this, they were quick to fix it after jumping through a bunch of hoops. The problems with the committee was just a stall tactic by Walden University to keep in the program longer so the University could just collect more money from the Federal Student Loan Program. I got a new committee and everything went smoothly until COVID happen. This time Walden University IRB made life difficult to collect data and made students jump through hoops to switch their participant recruitment to online which left me spinning my wheels for 6 weeks. At the same time in March 2020 Walden lost it ability to process, receive, and distribute, federal student aid, which was never disclosed and in fact Walden went out of their way to hide it from the students. I completed my dissertation on August 5, 2020. Since that point it has been impossible to obtain teaching position at any school due to Walden University reputation, DOJ and U.S. Department of ED investigations, Walden being a for profit school, the multiple class action lawsuits and the new set of DOJ and U.S. Department of ED investigations into Walden Nursing program.

Hello, As a retired law enforcement officer (30 years of service), I started my Ph.D. program in November of 2016. I had 20 credit hours transferred from my Master's Degree to my doctorate program (BIG savings in tuition). I found my professors to be fair and knowledgeable, and the process was fairly straight forward. If you are a procrastinator FORGET about registering here (you probably won't finish.) I completed my degree (Ph.D.) in 4-years (2-years core courses and 2-years dissertation). Oh,... Read More I was also awarded a Master's degree as I was completing my dissertation (TWO-degrees). However, I believe this is only given to those in the Criminal Justice program. I had NO complaints about the staff, faculty, or resources available to the students. Ph.D.'s aren't made to be handed out without the work being COMPLETED. No or little work equals NO DEGREE. If this was a SHAM school (as I have read by a few posters) I must have missed that bus (remember I was a police officer/detective for 30 years). Walden is a VERY GOOD school!

I would give them a 5, but I thought the cost was a little too much and didnt like the idea we had to pay extra for residencies. You get out of Walden what you put in, and if your dedicate, you can navigate and be successful. I hear many complaints about the dissertation process, but I went from prospectus to IRB in two terms. My chair generally answered my email the same day, with the latest being the following day. My slowest part was URR approval, and it took 14 days which is still within the... Read More guidelines. I would also like to point out I finished my degree for under 40K and wondered how people can spend 200 K and not have a degree!

I currently attend Walden and only had a problem with one instructor. I requested to be move classes, and I was the same day. The dissertation process has not been hard, follow the rules and you will fly through it. My Prospectus was approved in 4 weeks, and my proposal was approved by the end of the first quarter. I will probably be done with everything toward the end of my second quarter, even though I am required to completed two more to obtain all the required credit. Again, if you follow the... Read More directions and DONt wait until last minute to start your actual dissertation, you will FLY through it (I actually want a second Ph.D when I complete this one).

The program is a joke and I wonder if my instructors are actually qualified to teach. When I compared my work with my friend's (currently in a residency PhD program), the instruction I got was a child play compare to the advanced statistics in his first year work. The program in no way or shape gives you the foundation of being a researcher. I quit last spring and try to transfer out; no school would accept my credit. An absolute waste of money. I am embarrassed to tell my friend I went to Walden... Read More and not to imagine telling my future employer. Just stay away.