Best Online Education?

In your opinion, which online institution offers the best education and most respected Bachelor's and Master's degrees?

I'm planning on getting my BIT online and there are just too many places I can go to. So far the most popular one seems to be University of Phoenix.

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Drakonblayde

I'm planning to enroll with Excelsior University (www.excelsior.edu). One of my teachers recommended it, and their accreditation is solid. They also give credit for most popular certifications, cutting down on the amount of classes I need to take.

dubious

Yeah the accreditation is always something I worry about.

Excelsior College isn't among classesUSA's top picks

http://www.classesusa.com/featuredschools/fos/index.cfm

dubious

Anyone else

Webmaster

I can't recommend one, but I can give you some interesting statistics of the www.techexams.net/degrees.shtml page:

ACCIS, De Vry, and ITT are the most popular as for people who actually request information after looking at their site. ITT Technical Institute and Northface university are the most visited (from the above page) sites, by far. Of course this does not mean anything in regards to quality... just thought it might be interesting.

The list on our Online Degrees page is far from complete, I've got the complete list in my mailbox somewhere and I'll try to add some more, or all, today.

Good luck in your decisions!

superflyzx3

Check out James Maddiison University's online masters program in Information Security.
www.infosec.jmu.edu

dubious

Hm.. that's interesting.InfoSec looks pretty good but I'm not very sure about the recognition of their degree.

Right now I am thinking about either going to University of Phoenix or Capella University.

bighusker

webwarden wrote:

Hm.. that's interesting.InfoSec looks pretty good but I'm not very sure about the recognition of their degree.

Right now I am thinking about either going to University of Phoenix or Capella University.

No offense intended, but I find it humorous that you're questioning the "recognition" of a degree from a brick-and-mortar institution of education that was founded in 1908 and has an excellent reptuation for their master's programs. US News currently has James Madison University ranked as the 3rd best University in the South for a Master's Degree, and they've been ranked as high as #1 in previous years. And yet, you seem to have no issue with UoP or Capella, which are both relatively new for-profit institutions run by a corporation.

Granted, an online degree is a little different than a "classroom" degree, but I'd still give JMU the nod over UoP or Capella, based on their established reputation.

I don't think James Madison University has a page detailing why their academics suck, but the University of Phoenix and Capella University both do.

I'm not knocking UoP, ITT Tech, DeVry, or whatever....if they worked for you and that degree lead to a job, then more power to you. However, on a personal level, if I had to choose an online degree program, I would stay as far away from the "for-profit" institutions as I could.

dubious

bighusker wrote:

webwarden wrote:

Hm.. that's interesting.InfoSec looks pretty good but I'm not very sure about the recognition of their degree.

Right now I am thinking about either going to University of Phoenix or Capella University.

No offense intended, but I find it humorous that you're questioning the "recognition" of a degree from a brick-and-mortar institution of education that was founded in 1908 and has an excellent reptuation for their master's programs. US News currently has James Madison University ranked as the 3rd best University in the South for a Master's Degree, and they've been ranked as high as #1 in previous years. And yet, you seem to have no issue with UoP or Capella, which are both relatively new for-profit institutions run by a corporation.

Granted, an online degree is a little different than a "classroom" degree, but I'd still give JMU the nod over UoP or Capella, based on their established reputation.

I don't think James Madison University has a page detailing why their academics suck, but the University of Phoenix and Capella University both do.

I'm not knocking UoP, ITT Tech, DeVry, or whatever....if they worked for you and that degree lead to a job, then more power to you. However, on a personal level, if I had to choose an online degree program, I would stay as far away from the "for-profit" institutions as I could.

I'm totally ignorant in the field of online education. Unfortunately right now it's my only available option. The net is not very helpful in this respect.

Feel free to suggest an institution or give me any other information because I do need it.

bighusker

Unfortunately, I must plead ignorance on "online education" as well. I'm currently a junior in college, but I have never taken a class online. The only advice I can offer is second-hand stuff that I have heard, so take it with a grain of salt. But unfortunately, I have not heard many great things about the for-profit online universities (UoP, ITT Tech, DeVry, etc.).

I am sure there are plenty of people out there (and probably some on this board) that have had good experiences with these institutions, so you should also listen to them. I guess I'm just of the opinion that any type of "for-profit" school that is run by a coroporation is going to have a conflict of interest between providing the best education and making the most money.

The bottom line is that you need to research everything thoroughly before chosing any kind of school/degree program. You're certainly on the right track, as you're asking good questions. Hopefully there are some other people who are more informed of the online universities than I on this board.

mikedeek

just to explain it in a nut shell i went to a local college and had some general courses and i didnt like it so i didnt get my degree.... i didnt like how i had to take english and math courses when i wanted to major in computer science...so then i went to the chubb institute and got a diploma in network administration and engineering...now i transfered my local college and the chubb credits into a online college thats fully accreddiated

http://www.tesc.edu/prospective/chubb.php

this if for the associates degree but also its alot closer to my batchelors
(business major) it costs 5k a year (cheaper that a local brick and mortor) and also you can CLEP (CLEP is College-Level Examination Program)out alot of the courses it usually take 2 years to get a BA me it took 8 months at chubb and another 16 months to get my BA.. and i also worked full time...they also take certs as credit i think MCSE is up to 16 credits (which i didnt have)

(If the admin lets me post this...hope im not breaking any board rules)

Here is the 3 fully accrediated online colleges i was looking into

Charter Oak State College http://www.cosc.edu/

Excelsior College https://www.excelsior.edu

Thomas Edison State College http://www.tesc.edu/

also here is a very resourceful forum read and learn http://forums.degreeinfo.com/

CLEP link http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html

Gentlemen i researched this till i was blue in the face....these 3 online colleges are fully accrediated and cheap compaired to B&M schools.....eyes hurt ...will be back on later...

garv221

Nothing can beat a University. I think today online degrees are frowned upon. Nothing beats an all around education from a reputable college. If your young - go to a regular college like everyone else. If your old and don't have time & are switching carrers - go to UoP or something. Education is not the most important thing for these profit schools your money is..... UoP - ITT and so one.

mikedeek

i agree and disagree from garv221.....unless your going to go to a top tier school like harvard or duke (which also got distant learning courses)..they are the cream of the crop.....anything under them doesnt do the same for the resume....it doesnt matter at all as the school is fully accrediated where you get your degree from......i had interviews where they asked my about TESC i told them there located in NJ (which is true)and are fully accrediated and also i am pursueing my MBA from rutgers..... had no problems at all.....also im going for my masters at rutgers so far....and when they saw my BA from TESC they didnt even balk twice as long as i have that tuition payments $$....there are alot better options then UOP out there...go to the forum in my previous post and read on what other have to say...i been there and done that with distant learning...also devry is a very good school but not the DL ...you got to go there hands on is whats most important expecally in the IT field i'll be back

dubious

After all I decided that I don't want to take any chances. I'll do what I'll have to do and go to University of Central Florida.

Drakonblayde

I find it interesting you'd denegrate a school just because it's not listed on the that classes usa page. That classes usa site is not a non-profit organization, so I'm sure that whoever pays them more is going to get a better nod

I wasn't aware of the JMU masters degree, I'm probably seriously going to look into it.

As for Devry and ITT Tech..... eh, all I'm going to say is that I know graduates from both who can't get the kind of job I have (I currently work first level support for a rather large law firm) and end up at places like Wal-Mart and Waffle House to pay their bills.

My major concerns with online universities are transfer credit (will they take, and will theirs be recognized) and accreditation. Unfortunetly, I'm going to have to go the distance learning route, because unless I suddenly come into a large amount of money, I simply cannot afford the havoc an on-site school plays with my work schedule.