All distance learning graduate programs have their own way of doing things. At OGS, room-and-board is covered by two payments. One payment is the fee for the one-week residency and another is (by-the-day) for the use of a local Holiday Inn Express.The residency fee is a standard kind of fee every school will have, which covers all of the direct costs for your week of residency at the school. Included in this fee at Oxford Graduate School is your lunch and dinner for the week. At OGS, attendance at lunch and dinner is required for both students and faculty and is considered faculty advising time. The cost of this could change, so I'll include a link to the Oxford Graduate School Catalog where the current fee can be found. Search for "User-Pay Fees" and look at the line-item "Core residency fee" in the OGS Catalog (when I posted this it was on page 41).
The cost for your room at the HI Express includes a full breakfast and many of the faculty come to have breakfast with the students every day (more faculty advising time). This daily cost seems to be a 40% discount off the regular rate for this motel. Isabel and I shared a king-non-smoking room that was large enough for us to have two tables to use for our laptops so we could work in our room. The hotel was clean and comfortable with an exercise room and an in-door pool.
In our experience at OGS, the costs and the facilities for room-and-board were appropriate, the facilities were excellent, and we have no concerns about them.
What is your experience with your distance learning doctoral program? How were the facilities and the food for your room-and-board? Did you feel like these costs were appropriate?
