Start your career sooner with an accelerated Ed.D in educational leadership

What do current and aspiring educators gain by attaining an Ed.D.? Pursuing this specific graduate degree is often a superior option to the traditional Ph.D. track, since candidates get to focus on the development and mastery of hands-on educational practices, rather than the creation of new research.

Moreover, with this sort of experience, Ed.D. holders have many career trajectories in front of them, at both the K-12 and postsecondary levels. Possible job titles include academic dean, school system superintendent, professor, even college president. PayScale data indicates that the broad category of “executive directors” with Ed.D.s can make up to $143,206 in salary.

Life in the fast lane: How an accelerated Ed.D. program can jumpstart your career

Although a graduate degree offers such clear benefits in terms of career advancement and compensation, each student ultimately needs a program with a class schedule, coursework load and instructional model that is sustainable for him or her. Graduate students must frequently juggle other commitments, such as jobs, with their academic work. Plus, they have to establish a solid rapport with classmates and instructors.

An accelerated online Ed.D. program in educational leadership, available at Gwynedd Mercy University, can thread all of these needles. Students are empowered to finish their degrees in less than three years, with strong personalized support from faculty and staff from day one that ensures on-time completion of their program courses as well as their dissertations:

“As a grad student in a doctoral program, it can be easy to feel disconnected, especially because our primary means of communication is via the online platform,” stated one Ed.D. student at Gwynedd Mercy. “Fortunately, that’s not how the program was designed or implemented in my experience. From our first mandatory cohort meeting, I felt supported, encouraged and most importantly valued during my journey. I can’t imagine being anywhere else or having come this far without my professors or the friends I’ve made along the way.”

Doctoral students can also obtain a Superintendent Letter of Eligibility en route to getting their Ed.D.s. This credential is an important stepping-stone for superintendent jobs throughout Pennsylvania, and it further enables Ed.D. recipients to get their post-program careers off to a fast start. You can learn more about admissions and curricular requirements on the main program page today.