Are online courses a good source to earn your degree?
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Answer:
Congratulations on thinking about furthering your education, you won't regret it.
The state universities and community colleges will be the best and least expensive way to further your education online. Usually degrees obtained online from state universities and colleges will be no different than a degree granted to a student sitting in class. A potential employer will never know you got your degree online unless you tell them.
Stay away from the for-profits because of high cost. Some will be reasonable, but most, like University of Phoenix, overcharge.
If you are just starting your college education or have less than 60 semester credit hours, try your local community college first. They may have an online AA degree program. If they don't, try other community colleges in your state.
Once you have an AA degree, you can enroll in an online bachelor's degree completion program at one of the state universities. Many state universities now have online degrees. The following are some websites to get you started.
http://www.fhsu.edu/virtualcollege/...
http://www.peru.edu/offuttafb/degreeprog...
http://outreach.uwyo.edu/ocp/
http://www.distance.msstate.edu/...
http://www.distancelearning.ufl.edu/degr...
http://www.apu.apus.edu/index.htm...
http://www.online.uillinois.edu/...
http://www.depts.ttu.edu/ode/collegeover...
Penn State was mentioned by a previous poster. Penn State is a great school. Their tuition is a little on the high side, but is still cheaper than University of Phoenix. Also, Penn State looks a lot better on a resume than University of Phoenix.
http://worldcampus.psu.edu
When comparing tuition costs, you have to check if the school is on semester or quarter credit hours. To convert from quarter hours to semester hours, divide the tuition by 0.67. For example, if tuition is $180 per quarter credit hour, that is equal to $268.66 per semester credit hour.
When you choose a school, make sure it is at least regionally accredited. You can check accreditation at http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/search.a... You can learn more about accreditation at http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/i...
Finally, there are a couple of forums online with members who have obtained their degrees online. Some have gone pretty far with their online degrees. The forums are free to join but you can read the forum without joining. You just won't be able to post. http://forums.degreeinfo.com and http://www.instantcertonline.com/forums...
Good luck
Depends on where you take those classes. I took my classes from reputable colleges and my degree does not reflect anywhere that those classes where taken on the internet.
University of Phoenix Online and DeVry are terrible schools, and you will get laughed at in the real world. However if you take online classes from a reputable school, and take some courses actually at that school, then you'll do fine. But typically students that attended online only "schools" are automatically put at the bottom of job searches.
Online schools are not bad as long as they have a brick and mortar counterpart. Make sure you go to a known school. Good schools will not differentiate between an Online degree and in class. So no employer would ever know the difference. Stay away from for-profit schools like Pheonix and Devry and ITT though. They might have all online, but are not respected. The best 3 schools I know of are:
www.psu.edu (penn State University)
www.rmu.edu (Robert Morris University - I think only MS right now)
www.rit.edu (Rochester Institute of technology).
Be forewarned that good schools online studies are no different than in class. They will not dumb down the cirriculum like other schools. RIT offers an MS in statics, meaning you have to be smart to get through that program, and RIT knows it so they don't care if you do it all online.
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