Online Degrees

[BunnyHardaway]

What is your opinion on them? Because of the crappy situation Bloomsburg U. put me in, other than community college this appears to be my only option, but I'd rather do it online because I would be able to work more and I'm already so far behind everyone else that CC wouldn't be worth it. I'm a little hesitant though because of the reputation they have. I pretty much want to know:

-Do/will employers look down on those who get online degrees, thus making it impossible to get a job?

-Do you know any success/failure stoires concerning people that got their degree online?

I've been putting it off for months because my luck, I'll do it and won't get a job, so I figured this would be as good a place as any to get outside opinions.

[Dog]

Re: Online Degrees

What happened at Bloomsburg? That is one of my choices after I transfer from Bucks

[Chaos81]

Re: Online Degrees

What kind of online degree are we talking here? If you can find one through a real school, don't worry about it, but if you're talking about something like Phoenix, I'd stay far far away.

That said, I don't get your comments about being "so far behind" everyone else at a CC. Far behind how exactly?

[BunnyHardaway]

Re: Online Degrees

What happened at Bloomsburg? That is one of my choices after I transfer from Bucks

The first week of classes this semester they called me and pretty much said "oh by the way, your financial aid didn't go through and you owe $3,900 by Friday", so I had to drop my classes because I had no way of paying for them.

What kind of online degree are we talking here? If you can find one through a real school, don't worry about it, but if you're talking about something like Phoenix, I'd stay far far away.

That said, I don't get your comments about being "so far behind" everyone else at a CC. Far behind how exactly?

It's one like Phoenix.

And by far behind, I mean I'm like 4 semesters behind most of my friends.

[phenom1990]

Re: Online Degrees

And by far behind, I mean I'm like 4 semesters behind most of my friends.

Don't worry about how many semesters you are behind your friends. Just worry about whether you are on the right path to pursuing what you want to do in the future. At Temple, I already know it is going to take me an extra semester to graduate and to be honest, it is going to take a lot of people I know an extra semester to graduate due to the way things are scheduled.

[BunnyHardaway]

Re: Online Degrees

Don't worry about how many semesters you are behind your friends. Just worry about whether you are on the right path to pursuing what you want to do in the future. At Temple, I already know it is going to take me an extra semester to graduate and to be honest, it is going to take a lot of people I know an extra semester to graduate due to the way things are scheduled.

Well, another thing that throws a monkey wrench into things is my cruddy GPA...basically the only place I could get into would be a CC. That was another reason for maybe doing online classes.

I would go back to BU, but I'd have to pay for the first semester out of pocket and that's just not happening.

[Scottdau]

Re: Online Degrees

If you are a very organize person. Then you can't beat online classes.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Online Degrees

As long as the school has an actual physical campus, then online degrees are fine. Do companies look down upon them ? Yeah they do, just like they look down upon community colleges and smaller colleges period degrees.

So that will put you at a disadvantage in the fact once you graduate you have to sell yourself even harder to prove to them your degree is just as good as a Michigan or Notre Dame degree.

Teachers make the education, not the school. I would take a good teacher at a small school over a bad teacher at a big name 5 star school anyday.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: Online Degrees

, but if you're talking about something like Phoenix, I'd stay far far away.

I tend to agree with this. I know a few people that have gone the University of Phoenix route for getting their Masters and have tough times getting employers to take that degree seriously, especially when their competition has gone to brick and mortor schools.

While it is convenient, I think most employers think it is too convenient and view it more of an easy way out when compared with those that get the basic classroom education.

I'm not sure I can disagree with them. I know three people that have gone this route and all three of them had GPA's between 3.8 and 4.0 and these are people that struggled to pull a 2.5 in their undergrad from normal universities. All three of them said that it was much easier to get their Masters than their Bachelors. They did very little studying and courses were just very easy overall.

[ryan36]

Re: Online Degrees

JJ, the difference is accrediation. If you get a degree from a real university and mix in online classes, that's fine. If you go to an "online college" you're wasting your money...and don't get the education you're paying for

[dickey1331]

Re: Online Degrees

I go to AMU online since Im in the military and I enjoy it a lot. They really work with you and your busy sked.

[dickey1331]

Re: Online Degrees

JJ, the difference is accrediation. If you get a degree from a real university and mix in online classes, that's fine. If you go to an "online college" you're wasting your money...and don't get the education you're paying for

There are online classes that have accreditation. Like AMU is both nationally and regionally accredited. They are accredited by the same people who accredited schools like the Univ of Michigan.

[Hova57]

Re: Online Degrees

Like Ryan said steer clear of the online universities. I work for a career school. We have meetings all the time about the crookedness of some these type schools. They take out too much money for financial aid and half their programs aren't accepted. If you look to relocate or even move closer to the city make sure its the type of degree that can be accepted in most work places. you are better off doing online classes for Temple, Univ. of Penn or Pitt than doing something with the Phoenix or kaplan places like that.

[fistofrage]

Re: Online Degrees

Take some advice from me on this.

After interviewing many people over the years, I find that most people with online degrees are ill prepared compared to their counterparts. I don't even bother interviewing University of Phoenix graduates anymore.

The most valubale part of an education is the interaction with your peers. Specifically at the graduste school level, most of the education comes from discussing real life situatuions and applying your education to them.

In all honesty, if you are low on money, go get a library card and study your intended field for a year as if you were going to school, learn what you need to learn and go back to CC get a 4.0 and transfer to accredited brick and mortar university of your choice. May sound like a long road, but it will pay off more in the end than a piece of paper you are overpaying for from an online university.

[ryan36]

Re: Online Degrees

Yeah, the other thing to consider is the reputation online schools have, bud. Most people hiring (who's opinion matters) don't like the University of Phx etc, type schools.

Unless you just need "any ol' degree" to become eligible for a manager position at your current job or something, I'd still go to a normal state school, even if you go online, those classes don't show as "online."