The constant negative controversy surrounding Capella and other institutions of this type is deserved. They are not really "non traditional" excellent institutions as much as they are advertising savvy businesses. They seek out and use four types of students: 1) students who are not very adept at finding good institutions, 2) students who doubt their own abilities, 3) student who cannot overcome the psychological barrier of being outside of perceived mainstream systems, and students who want a simple way out of the challenge of good competitive educational excellence. These people are great sitting ducks for trashy institutions like Capella that are really all about misuse of government loan funding. When Cappella's low rent degrees are exposed to hiring entities aware of good education practices, they do not hire these so called degreed graduates. I recently was involved in a conversation at work where a Capella PH D student was so ashamed of the school for his "in progress" degree that he did not want to mention the name of the institution to the group. When they, in error, thought he was at the University of Arizona and were impressed, he just let them think that, turned red, and left the conversation as soon as possible. Knowing that he was in the Cappella program and then seeing his embarrassment said volumes. There are many mainstream online classes through good universities. Capella is a disgrace and people who enroll there are fooling themselves. There are always lucky people who will get ahead with any degree. Capella is a junk degree sold to a disenfranchised group who are looking for a Ph D in all the wrong places. PhD's from Capella are the equivalent of a medical degree from a Wal-Mart pharmacy. People who have PH D's from Capella are academic QUACKS...and perceived as such by people who know higher education.