Each doctoral candidate's requirements will be tailor-made to incorporate the previous experience that the student brings to the program. Except for students who elect to serve internships or residencies, all coursework involves online study modality.

A Doctor of Naturopathy degree is an advanced post-graduate degree that connotes that one has reached the pinnacle of his or her academic life. Today, a doctorate degree is becoming a nearly-essential qualification to obtain the highest level career positions, whether working in an institutional framework or in private counseling practices, research endeavors, or writing. It also provides you with the academic and practical knowledge to demonstrate to an employer that you have the essential education needed to function professionally in this increasingly-complex world. A Doctor of Naturopahy or Ph.D. in Naturopathy will help you to showcase your expertise as a potential leader in your career field.

Greater earnings come with a doctorate degree: Statistically, someone with a Ph.D. earns roughly three-and-a-half times the amount earned each year by someone with just a bachelors education. (Survey, salary.com.)

Ph.D.'s earn considerably more in today's market...

Online Education is growing incredibly rapidly: Salary.com says: "Online education is widely accepted as being just as valuable as the classroom experience." They add: "The growing popularity of online courses is undeniable, with online enrollment currently growing at a staggering 33% a year. There are more than 3 million students currently involved in distance or online learning according to the Distance Education and Training Council. And in today's increasingly connected world, this number continues to grow, and at a faster rate."

Saint James College is proud to offer a premiere online educational program, and is one of the least expensive degree-granting institutions in the United States (due to our being owned and endowed by an inter-faith spiritual denomination, The Love Church Worldwide).

What's Required for a Doctor in Naturopathy Ph.D. at Saint James College: 1. 60 credit hours are required for a Doctor of Naturopathy degree or a Ph.D. in Naturopathy. 2. A portion of the 60 credit hours required for a Natropathy doctorate may include up to 25 credits from earlier study (or equivalent CEU credits) earned at a previous college or university (more is possible with faculty permission based on individual academic background). Alternatively, this option may be met by "real-life experience" of candidates who have participated in a related field that the faculty recognizes as equivalent to an internship or practicum. For example, a candidate for a Doctor of Naturopathy degree could show having previously earned 12 credit hours in Naturopathy, Pharmacology, or Mind-Body Health, Nursing, Healing Psychotherapy or Social Work, Massage or Contact Healing, Chiropractic, etc. Or, he or she could submit evidence of having a minimum of two years professional experience in a related fields. 4. You May Choose between a Dissertation or Other Approved Project a. Dissertation Option: The College is cognizant of the fact that the vast majority of its student body is comprised of adult learners who may have already made significant professional contributions within their chosen field of expertise. Doctor of Naturopathy candidates may therefore choose a variety of "final project" options. One of these is to research and write a traditional doctoral Dissertation. If this option is chosen, the Dissertation must be original research or a report outlining topically pertinent information. It must be of publishable quality. Dissertation topics and format must be pre-approved. They are required to range between 100 – 200 pages with at least 100 words per page, as determined by the faculty. b. Learning Journal Option: If a mid-career Doctor of Naturopathy candidate has at least two years "real-life" experience in her or his chosen doctoral field, the student may substitute a Learning Journal Project instead of writing a dissertation. This journal will be assessed by the faculty or doctoral committee and must satisfactorily document that the candidate has a full grasp of and is competently conversant with the essentials of the chosen field of study. This journal will become part of the College's permanent archives and must be written in such a manner as to serve as an instructional resource for future students or for professionals working in the candidate’s field of study, such as counseling, nutritional education, healing spirituality / divinity, hard science, nursing, massage, chiropractic medicine, health and wellness, etc. c. Residency / Fellowship Option: As an alternative to the Dissertation or the Learning Journal option, the Doctor of Naturopathy candidate may serve a pre-approved fulltime 6-month (or part-time, 1-year) Residency in a professional or not-for-profit institutional setting consistent with her or his chosen field of study. This could include a counseling doctoral candidate serving in a women's health clinic, a hospice, or a drug and alcohol treatment program. Or, a nutritional naturopathic doctor candidate may be authorized to serve a Residency in healing center mentoring program or by working in a nutritional counseling office or retail setting.. NOTE: Under exceptional circumstances, the faculty may deem that previously-completed service (or service currently in progress) may satisfy Residency or Fellowship requirements. Examples might include military service, Peace Corps, work in a research facility, approved teaching, nursing, or dietary, or nutritional/healing professional service experience. The Residency or Fellowship may be professional, volunteer, or be underwritten by a grant. NUMBER OF CREITS EARNED BY A DISSERTATION, LEARNING JOURNAL, OR RESIDENCY: Twenty units of credit are awarded for an accepted dissertation or an approved substitute Learning Journal Project or Residency. TUITION COST FOR A SAINT JAMES COLLEGE DOCTORATE.: All tuitions are determined by the amount of previous academic and real-life experience that students bring to the program. Depending on the scope of documented experience in a student's portfolio, tuition may range from $7,000 for a well-prepared candidate to $10,000 for a student who enters the program with little previous graduate credits or experience. Saint James College has very limited scholarship funding available but routinely arranges for convenient payments to be made at zero percent interest.

SAINT JAMES COLLEGE Credit for Real-Life experience details: Based on your Real Life Experience, our government charter permits us to grant you in advance up to 50% of the 60-credit hours required for a Doctorate degree. So, if you have worked in naturopathic or healing field for some time and have acquired significant hands-on experience … you may be able to obtain your Doctorate degree at Saint James College by completing fewer academic requirements than those which would be expected of an incoming candidate with no such background. Each student's request for the Real-Life experience waiver is evaluated by The College on a case-by-case basis.

ALL previous college / university credits will be accepted: It is often a fact of life for mid-career adult students that their previous college experience occurred in the in the somewhat distant past, frequently a considerable number of years ago. Adult learners frequently have a great deal of difficulty transferring these fully-legitimate-but-old credits into new educational programs. Unlike most colleges and universities, Saint James College routinely accepts all documented academic credits that you have earned previously at other institutions of higher education. This is true even for credit hours earned years previously. As an example, if your credits were earned ten years ago, most schools require that you re-take large numbers of courses when you enroll in their programs. Naturally, this brings in tidy amounts of extra income for them. But, with Saint James College, we do not use requiring you to re-take classes as a profit center.

How long will it take me to get my Doctor of Naturopathy degree? If you bring only limited pre-existing graduate-level college credit and if your "real-life experience" is limited in scope, it could take from one to three years of self-paced study. However, students with some graduate-level college credits (or CEUs) coupled with a strong background in "real life experience," it is possible for organized and dedicated students complete their studies in months. We are not a diploma mill! You must study and complete courses, or you must have the necessary background for our Fast-Track Program©. But, if you do, and if you invest the appropriate amount of time in our online distance-learning program, you may complete your Doctoral degree program rapidly. Each student works at a different pace, so it’s up to you how quickly you can complete your studies.

Two caveats: We are accredited by the Association of Accredited Bible Schools. We strictly adhere to our mission of providing world-class education in a conveniently-presented distance learning format. Our courses are academically sound, our faculty and instructors are highly-competent and helpful, and we strive to offer among the lowest tuition rates in North America. Because we are a relatively new college, we are not yet regionally accredited. This is less and less important in today’s job market where employers are hungry for qualified employees and have fewer concerns about regional accreditation than in the past. Our degrees are not regionally accredited by an agency accepted by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, but they are real degrees, legitimate, and awarded by a college that is sponsored by a fully-chartered parent, The Love Church Worldwide inter-faith denomination. As many as 99% of non-traditional education students surveyed by a government-sponsored study said that they feel their degree meets or exceeds a traditional degree.

The study showed that roughly one-fifth of those who were awarded a non-traditional under-graduate degree went on to obtain a masters or doctorate. 97% of the non-traditional undergrads were accepted by the grad school that they preferred. Three percent reported some difficulties in presenting a non-accredited degree or transcripts from a non-accredited college, or for having obtained real-life experience credits. The bottom line is that the study showed that a full 94 percent reported no difficulty in being admitted to graduate school due to having an unaccredited degree or earning it through non-traditional or online education.

(See Sosdian, Carol P. and Sharp, Laure M., The External Degree as a Credential: Graduates’ Experience in Employment and Further Study, Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.)

The second caveat is that Saint James College degrees must have a "spiritual flavor" to them. Due to being owned by a chartered religious denomination, the government requires that our degrees be awarded with a relationship to a church or spiritual competency. You may sign your name with your credentials, such as Kathy Smith, Ph.D., or Larry Jones, Ph.D., but the government requires that your actual Saint James College diploma must say "Doctorate in Business Administration for Religious Institutional Management" or, perhaps, "Ph.D. in Spiritual Family Counseling." Because our degrees were designed at the outset to assist priests, ministers, and spiritual workers to increase their competencies and advance their careers, this has been consistent with our mission. It also enables us to offer Bachelors and other degrees for as much as 95% below the "market" cost in traditional education. Nonetheless, this requirement may not be acceptable to all students. Consider all higher educational degree programs carefully and choose one that matches both your budget and also your professional needs.