Capella Ain’t the Problem: Access Is

By The EdD Project

Let’s talk about it.

There’s a running joke in academic circles that if you didn’t get your doctorate from an R1 or a traditional, nonprofit university, it somehow doesn’t “count.” Schools like Liberty, Capella, Walden, Northcentral, University of Phoenix; they’ve become the butt of every LinkedIn whisper and faculty lounge smirk. But here’s the truth: Capella isn’t the problem. Liberty ain’t the issue. ACCESS is.

For every person enrolled in an online doctoral program at one of these institutions, there’s a story: a full-time teacher, a single parent, a nonprofit leader, a pastor, a social worker, a school counselor; people doing real work in real communities who couldn't afford to stop their lives and move across the country for a traditional program.

So let’s kill the noise. When you finish the work, defend your dissertation, and walk across that stage with the hood on your shoulders, it all says the same thing: Doctor. The IRS doesn’t check your university’s endowment. Your employer doesn’t, either. Your mentees and community care about your impact, not your institution’s name.

You know what does matter?

• Can you lead with integrity?
• Can you design systems that serve marginalized students?
• Can you speak truth to power in rooms where decisions get made?
• Can you turn your lived experience into evidence-based practice?

Because let’s be honest: some of the most elite institutions have produced gatekeepers who protect theory over people. And some of the most “unranked” schools have graduated change-makers on the ground doing the work.

What we're talking about is access. Access to time,  flexibility, financial aid, culturally responsive mentorship, and access to programs that fit the lives of grown adults.

Many online or for-profit EdD/PhD programs filled the gap that traditional institutions left open. Instead of shaming students for choosing them, we should question why the “prestigious” schools made themselves so inaccessible in the first place.

The person who chose Capella might be a 15-year veteran of the classroom. The Liberty grad might be working on youth recidivism in a rural county. That Northcentral doc might raise a family while serving as a principal. These aren’t academic tourists. These are real scholar-practitioners with purpose.

As academics and scholar-practitioners, we’ve got to stop policing the path to a doctorate. Everyone’s journey is different. And everyone’s fight to finish looks different, too.It matters if your program gave you what you needed to grow, lead, serve, and think critically.We need to move away from questions such as " Where did you get your degree?” and move toward questions like “What are you doing with it?”Who are you building with?” “What systems are you disrupting?”

The funny thing is: we all end up in the same place anyway.

The work doesn’t stop with a diploma; we must get out here and prove it.So whether you graduated from Columbia or Capella, Liberty or Harvard, Northcentral or NYU, your job now is to serve. To give back. To mentor the next. Stay humble, sharp, and committed to the communities you came from. Degrees don’t define destiny. Purpose does. So, let’s stop fighting over where we start and focus on how we show up.