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Concordia University is founded on community. Everything from class to chapel to athletic events to student life is centered around building relationships and loving each other. There is so much joy on campus that it flows between students, faculty, and staff alike. The professors are top notch and give students the ability and opportunities to succeed, not only in academics, but in life as well. The main reason why I chose to come to Concordia was the bases of Christianity. Being able to live out... Read More my faith, talk about what I believe, and know that I will not be put down for it is really encouraging in a world that is trying to push faith aside. Concordia is nothing short of a home for me. I am so blessed to be in this incredible place!

This is an MBA Cohort which is a great way to learn to work collaboratively. The people in my cohort are incredible, this is the best part of the program. The program itself is very disorganized and not in touch with what the students really need. Many of the important courses are cut short (2 hours) in order to add a 1 hour leadership seminar. This is the first of many problems with this program. In this level of education, leadership should be incorporated into every course. There is a Organizational... Read More behavior and Ethics combo courses split between two teachers which was the worst class I have ever taken. There were two books required that we did not use. There was no new information in this class. One of the final projects was identical to the final project for Critical thinking taken two semesters before. We had two teachers for the course and neither could attend all of their eight week portion. So they told us this was a hybrid course (in person/online) which is not what we signed up for and paid for. Their solution to making up for classes that they (the instructors) can not attend is to assign random papers in its place. Which leads me to one of the biggest problems of this program. These courses are 16 week courses and the program is designed for taking two at a time. Unfortunately they are unable to find instructors who can commit to the full 16 week time frame are having to adjust the classes to accommodate the teachers. Every single class thus far has required an adjustment to our schedule and extra useless writing assignments to make up for instructor absence. This is extremely unprofessional. There are a few solutions. first find instructors that can commit to the entire course they have been assigned or change the course to all eight week courses. Most of the more reputable programs are designed to take one eight week course at a time. This makes the program more flexible and surely you can find teachers that can fully commit to eight weeks. Second loose the stupid leadership seminars. At this level all the courses should have leadership incorporated into the course. Have only three hour credit courses instead of snip-its of courses. Organizational behavior should be its own stand alone course. This is a really important course in the MBA program and we covered absolutely no important concepts during our combo course. Ethics should be woven into the leadership portion of each course because each business aspect has its own ethical challenges. Other really important courses that should not be cut short at this level are one Operations Management and Technology. These should be separate stand alone three hour courses. They are both too important at the upper management or executive level. Technology is critical in todays world, this course should include managing technology, social media, Information systems, legal and ethical issues etc. It appears to me that CTX is attempting to make the program unique by having these weird and inflexible sniped and pieced courses which only make the program weird and inflexible. There are better ways to improve the reputation of this program. Offer the opportunity to take certification course that would be valuable to companies and make the graduates more marketable. Examples of valuable certifications would be Lean certifications, Project management, certified purchasing professional, logistics, etc. . Outside of possibly the certification courses, all classes should be standard three hour courses. This provides the most flexibility for a working professional. My last point is regarding the course options. If a student signs up for an in person program, they are paying for an in person program and should not be required to take a course that is online or hybrid at the whim of the school or to accommodate a professor's schedule. Just as an online student should not be randomly required to attend an in person class. If the school wants to provide a hybrid program option, advertise it as such and clearly define what will be online and what will be in person. All discussions for in persons courses should be in the classroom not on a discussion board which is really just a short essay about a topic or reading. Real discussions do not have a required word count or a specific amount of required responses. I love Concordia University Texas and I think the idea behind a cohort program is fantastic for graduate level programs. This MBA program has great potential but really needs to be overhauled in order to provide the students with an education that makes them stand out above the rest. Until they make big changes, I would recommend looking at other less expensive programs.

I am a member of the first cohort of the doctoral program for Educational Leadership at Concordia University- Texas. I love the cohort approach and have already learned to rely heavily on the relationships that I am forming with my Cohort family. The course work is well designed to complete in the 3 year process and has a good balance of rigor and an understanding of the busy lives of working professionals. The hybrid approach is excellent. We have weekly assignments and discussions on-line, lots... Read More of reading and scholarly writing, and meet face to face once a month. The coursework is developed to support the successful completion of the dissertation. We began working on narrowing our topics, writing towards and developing the skills needed to conduct the research from day 1. The classes are taught by qualified faculty and the administration and professors really care about the students' experiences, making adjustments as needed. I would recommend this program to any working professional in education who is interested in taking the next step with their own educational process.

I do feel that my experiences at Concordia University will prepare me for my future endeavors. I took online courses due to the conflicts I had as a coach for an extracurricular activity at a high school. However, it sounds like the students who took the actual class had to do less work than the online students. Both groups should be doing the same amount of work. I will admit though that I think the online classes were better prepared for the state examination. I passed the state examination the... Read More first time.