Tips for Choosing an Online Program: from Experience

MCPWannabe

Having just finished my online MBA, I can comment on a few things to look for when getting an online degree. I've learned quite a few lessons from the school of hard knocks.

Mistakes To Avoid:

1st: Whatever you do, don't allow search engine optimization to make your decisions. What I mean is this, you'll notice that certain companies have employed SEO companies to practically monopoly Google when looking for an online degree. You'll see multiple copy websites, etc..

While I applaud them for this business initiative, don't make the mistake of missing out on some other great degree offers. Often, you'll notice plenty of schools that offer superior education and benefits.

2nd: Realize that you will never get an accurate graduation rate from the school. Nearly all of them lie, so don't make your decision based on that.

Actually, there is a way to sort of estimate the real graduation rate. Do a Freedom of Information Act Request. I think that the first 50 or 150 pages are free.

Request: Cohort Default Rate, Graduation Rate, Number of Students Enrolled in Each Class, All Complaints Against Organization from Inspector General's Office and Civil Right's Office and Group that handles that School's Region.

That will give you a better idea of what is going on with the school. Look at the number of people entering the class, then go on the site and count the number of graduates 4 or 5 years later. From there, you can see the graduation rate.

Good Research is Essential. Here is a helpful link:

http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/foia/foia_request_form_1.html

3rd: Don't Make the Mistake of Not Considering Price.

Student Loans are so easy to get. But trust me, there will come a time when you have to pay them back. You will thank yourself a million times over for choosing the cheaper alternative unless you are attending some prestigous school with lots of job offers.

4th: Ask if they offer video lectures in the curriculum:

After having finished my MBA, I realized that it amounted to nothing more than standardized tests and books. The professors were lazy and didn't do anything. Our courses consisted of a textbook and a syllabus with recommended reading. Then, we took our two or three exams that were proctored and came straight from a text bank. While I learned the information on my own, I've strongly felt like I could have gotten more out of it with more learning aids.

Questions you should ask should be like this.

Example: recently, I called Capella and spoke with them about their Doctorate in IT. I asked how the lectures were conducted and the representative couldn't answer my questions. I then called the University of Pheonix and the reps couldn't answer my questions. I then called Jacksonville State and received some excellent answers. Not only was the program fully accredited by ABET (engineering association), it was cheaper than both of these schools.

Look at things like this.


5th: Know how to look for Online Degrees

A sad fact is that many of the best schools have horrible search engine optimization techniques. You will have to take the time to hunt for them yourself.

http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ/state/

That's a great place to start looking. But unfortunately, there is no way around it. You'll have to start looking through every single school to see if they offer an online program and a price. I did this and found several very good, cheap schools with FULL ACCREDITATION.

6th: Department of Education Certification Just Means that you can government backed loans if you go to a school.

Here are the requirements for a school to be certified: accreditiation by one of many accrediting bodies.

Regional accreditation should be the first basic step, but you need to ask for more. For instance, my MBA was regionally accredited. While nice, you will need the higher level accreditations to be able to teach at a school or get into some graduate schools.

I was told that I would have to re-do all courses for my MBA if I wanted a Doctorate in Finance. I could have avoided this by choosing a school with different accreditations.

Likewise, many programs have different levels of accreditation. ABET is the gold standard for Information Technology and computer related certfifications. It actually gives you the title of a real 'engineer.'

And your credits are gold if you want to transfer anywhere or go on to another degree or join an engineering society, etc..

***Important Edit: I forgot the 7th and last point***

If possible, try to go to a school with a career fairs office with active companies coming to recruit. You will thank yourself a million times over. It's a great way to get ahead in the job market.

Hope all this helps!! I learned this from a lot of experience..

dynamik

Bookmarked! That was really informative, thanks! I'm going to have to make a decision on a master's program pretty soon, and this will come in handy.

What were the other good, affordable schools you found?

darkerosxx

Nice post!

AACSB is major accreditation for MBA programs. Check here to look for AACSB schools:

http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/AccreditedMembers.asp

The purple star is a link to their website. The red gives information on the school and you can go in there and look at the demographics of the school. Pretty neat when looking for schools.

hypnotoad

Wow nice post -- most of these apply to physical schools as well.

I am synthesizing some college marketing materials as we speak... let me just photoshop some minorities in to this picture and make sure I get the good laptops out of storage so they don't see the piles of junk we have in 99% of the areas.

MCPWannabe

Thanks everyone.

This definitely comes from some painful lessons learned.

Speaking of new programs, I'll be getting one more Master's Degree and then I will forever be finished with school. I hate to do more school, but eventually, to move into IT management at a big company, I would need to have a Masters in Science since my Bachelors was in a different field.

I've gone through several programs and found some great options, but I haven't made up my mind on what I will be choosing.

I can't decide between a Master's in Information Technology, Computer Information Systems, Sofware Engineering, and Applied Computer Science. Those are my options as of now.

I'm taking this year off school to get certifications, but I'll be starting again next Fall. They had some nice non-ABET approved programs, but I wouldn't touch them. Though I don't think that I will have any more school in me after this, you never know if you will get the itch to go further down the line.

darkerosxx

From what I've seen, you really want a MBA if you're going to target management as a career, especially in IT, although I guess it really depends on the courses offered where you'll be attending.

mog27

Buyer Beware!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,405786,00.html

dynamik

mog27 wrote:

Buyer Beware!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,405786,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,407301,00.html

MN is on their twice!* Although, I have never heard of Waldon before, and the associate dean scared me off their site

*Unfortunately, so is AZ and IL, and we all know what people from those states are like...

undomiel

Wow! Fox news said "research and compiled." That's amazing!

meadIT

Another WOW!! Granted, I didn't do a lot of research, but it would cost me anywhere from $300-$500+ per credit hour to finish my bachelor's degree online (checked Strayer University and Drexel) for a grand total of $38-$42k for the two years. That's compared to the $70 per credit hour I paid for the local community college. Even going to the University of Virginia is cheaper at $10k per year.

JDMurray

Yes, a very nice list indeed!

The graduation rates are not usually reported by online schools because the actual numbers look bad and are not an accurate indication of the quality of a school or a specific program. Many people start out in an online school, discover that they don't like the experience, and transfer to a brick-and-mortar school. There's nothing wrong with this and it's not the school's fault. People also have problems with funding or time commitments that force them to transfer or drop out. Again, not because of a problem with the school. All of the same factors that make the graduation rates at brick-and-mortar schools look bad affect online schools too.

And yes, there is no such thing as an inexpensive student loan. You spend $50K for grad school without realizing that Sallie Mae wants you to pay it back over 10 years at $650/month. You can re-negotiate a lower monthly payment for the first year, but then subsequent years the monthly payment is even higher than before. Some payment plan penalize you with higher rates if you try to pay back the loan to quickly in order to save on the interest. You really need a financial councilor to look over the details of an educational loan so you know what kind of financial responsibility you will have in 3-4 years. People that have family or an employer that will pay for their degree are so very, very lucky.

Forsaken_GA

I finished my Associate's at a local tech school (which has regional accreditation) and I was looking into finishing my Bachelor's online.

So I sat down and crunched the numbers.

Then, on a whim, I checked what it would cost me to go to Georgia State (it's literally within walking distance of work). I was surprised to find out that it would actually be cheaper for me to pay the residential tuition. Using the SallieMae planner, it'd cost me roughly $25 grand if I wanted to attend as a fulltime student for 4 years. It'd cost me more than that just for two at most online universities, and that's assuming all my credit transferred. And I'm not entirely sure I used up all of my HOPE elgibility on my Associate's, so I may catch something of a break that way as well. Either way, if the majority of my credit transferred, I could pretty easily pay tuition out of pocket to finish up my bachelor's (though I'd probably take out a student loan anyway, just so I wouldn't run the risk of an unexpected expense screwing me over).

I always figured that an online college should be cheaper than local, the only real benefit the online colleges have over a physical school is that you're not tied to a schedule.

JDMurray

Forsaken_GA wrote:

I always figured that an online college should be cheaper than local, the only real benefit the online colleges have over a physical school is that you're not tied to a schedule.

One other benefit is the ability to get a degree in a specialization that is not available from any of the brick-and-mortar schools near you. That's how I ended up going to an online university to specialize in InfoSec.

It does appear that online universities are not cost-effective at the undergraduate level, but make more sense for graduate and post-graduate degrees.

MCPWannabe

undomiel wrote:

Wow! Fox news said "research and compiled." That's amazing!

No kidding. They pulled that list straight off of a 2 minute google search. I think that finding an online school is like anything else in life. The best things come to those who are most aggressive and active.

I failed to do this with my first online degree, and though I got an MBA and even got published, but I could have done a lot better and had more opportunities if I looked more closely.

I've done plenty of searches on the internet and I'm convinced that a person won't find the best deals by going through the standard search engine means.

Likewise, JDMurray mentioned another situation. He wanted an Information Security Degree. Right now, the best bet for that would be an expensive online college. They tend to be ahead of the more traditional programs when it comes to offering programs to meet economic demand.

dynamik

undomiel wrote:

Wow! Fox news said "research and compiled." That's amazing!

They say that all the time. Why are you amazed?

JDMurray

dynamik wrote:

undomiel wrote:

Wow! Fox news said "research and compiled." That's amazing!

They say that all the time. Why are you amazed?

No, Fox says "fair and balanced" all the time. No organization that relies on advertising revenue can be truly "fair and balanced." Maybe Fox has alternate definitions for the words: fair, balanced, researched, and compiled.

MCPWannabe

JDMurray wrote:

dynamik wrote:

undomiel wrote:

Wow! Fox news said "research and compiled." That's amazing!

They say that all the time. Why are you amazed?

No, Fox says "fair and balanced" all the time. No organization that relies on advertising revenue can be truly "fair and balanced." Maybe Fox has alternate definitions for the words: fair, balanced, researched, and compiled.

Amen!