Southern New Hampshire Univerisity online IO prgram

[goozfraba]

Is anybody familiar with this college's online IO program? The rolling admission's and no GRE requirement sounds too good to be taken seriously, should I go on to a PhD program. Has anybody taken classes within this program? Scam? If you've graduated from this program, are you now gainfully employed or have you successfully entered a PhD program? Thanks!

[Guest joshw4288]

I won't answer directly because I have no experience with SNHU but here are a few thoughts:

1) You might check out this article in the Huffington post about their online education: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/snhu-enrollment-growth-for-profit-college_n_4545871.html

2) Psychology is a research based field and I question how you will obtain good quality research experience in an online program.

3) From my brief look at their curriculum, I do not see a thesis requirement. This concerns me. 

4) The program seems to have very low level statistics requirements/test construction requirements. This may make you uncompetitive for either the job market or PhD programs. Things you should look for: SEM, MLM, CFA, EFA, test construction (i.e., item design, reliability, validity etc.), training in various platforms (MPLUS, R, STATA), and basic coursework in programming. 

5) Your goal seems to be to enter a PhD program in I/O. I seriously question a) how well this program will help you develop as a researcher/graduate student, b ) that this program will be a "red flag" on your application for further study, and c) that it will not adequately prepare you for work in the I/O field. 

6) I should also note that rolling admissions on its own isn't strange. It is an online program and this makes sense within that framework. After all, if you aren't on campus, you don't need a cohort. I also wouldn't write off a program based upon not requiring GRE scores. There are many programs who have decided against this admissions requirement for various reasons. 

Edited April 30, 2016 by joshw4288