Quoted: While there are a some legitimate brick-and-mortar programs that are starting to offer on-line/remote courses and possibly even diplomas, MOST of the on-line degrees are not accredited or legitmiate, and I think that most people are wary of considering them to be anything even close to a "real" degree. If you just want the knowledge, I'd buy some used textbooks from a college bookstore, and plow your way through them.  If you want the legitimacy and credibility, you'll often have to get a traditional degree.   But, I may be biased, since I work for a highly ranked (and grotesquely expensive) traditional university.

-1.

Many of the programs out there are offered through regionally accredited universities, such as Regis University, in Denver.  This is the school where Pres. Clinton met with the pope.  I believe the University of North Dakota is going to soon be offering online engineering degrees, if they aren't already.  USC offers an online MS in Engineering.  

That said, be careful of the degree mills, such as "St. Regis" in, I believe, Liberia.  They take your money and give you a degree with no meaning, based on "giving credit for experience."


edited to add:  Whatever college / university you decide upon,  make sure they are REGIONALLY ACCREDITED.  That's R-E-G-I-O-N-A-L-L-Y accredited.

Depends on your field.  In the nursing field, it can be fine.

I got my AS in Nursing from Regents College ( now Excelsior University) in 1999 and started in a major Level One Trauma center  ER in Kansas City.   Within 3 years I landed my current House Supervisor job.

I have not found the "where" to be any sort of impediment to me moving ahead.  Of course, Illinois and California restrict Excelsior grads, because of powerful lobbies.

It is not true that "most" online programs are not accredited, as was stated by DKProf (apologies to my fellow Missourian :) ).  These days there are a myriad of fine programs that are distance.  Some are indeed degree mills and scams, but do your homework and you will find a good one.

Find someone successful who has such a degree - first hand evidence of an acceptable program!

PS - we used the exact same texts as the brick and mortar programs.  

Quoted: No, my right to bitch comes from the fact that I went to a Big 10 school for my graduate degree full-time (last year)and still maintained my household, and I have to listen to whiny shits who think it's too tough to show up for a real class.

You are not making a very good showing for your "Big 10" school there bub.  The sad thing is, there are folks in hiring positions with this kind of ignorant, self-important (and jealous) attitude.  Luckily, fewer and fewer all the time...

True weakness and insecurity is NEEDING a professor to hold your hand and assign your reading every night.

Quoted: Quoted: No, my right to bitch comes from the fact that I went to a Big 10 school for my graduate degree full-time (last year)and still maintained my household, and I have to listen to whiny shits who think it's too tough to show up for a real class. You are not making a very good showing for your "Big 10" school there bub.  The sad thing is, there are folks in hiring positions with this kind of ignorant, self-important (and jealous) attitude.  Luckily, fewer and fewer all the time... True weakness and insecurity is NEEDING a professor to hold your hand and assign your reading every night.

Edit:  You know what, I'm sorry.  I am just really tired of seeing every damn thing that used to be hard to attain made easy.  

Give everybody berets, no problem.  Give everybody college degrees, great.  You see where I'm going with this?

Quoted: Edit:  You know what, I'm sorry.  I am just really tired of seeing every damn thing that used to be hard to attain made easy.   Give everybody berets, no problem.  Give everybody college degrees, great.  You see where I'm going with this?

I agree with that sentiment in many areas these days - just not in regards to adult access to higher education.  I see it as a positive thing.

The beret thing?  GRRRRRRR..  

Quoted: My question is are online degrees well regarded?  For those that have obtained them, do you have any reccomendations/suggestions? Also, what are the top institutions that offer them?

Hey, I want an online degree in a totally useless major. Imagine having a 1-month online degree in kinesiology on your resume.

Quoted: Edit:  You know what, I'm sorry.  I am just really tired of seeing every damn thing that used to be hard to attain made easy.   Give everybody berets, no problem.  Give everybody college degrees, great.  You see where I'm going with this?

- If I'm doing the work, who is giving me anything?

Quoted: Quoted: Edit:  You know what, I'm sorry.  I am just really tired of seeing every damn thing that used to be hard to attain made easy.   Give everybody berets, no problem.  Give everybody college degrees, great.  You see where I'm going with this? - If I'm doing the work, who is giving me anything?

Online degrees AREN'T easy.  Actually, it's harder because you are pretty much on your own, expected to complete the same course in 1/2 the time, while maintaining the rest of your life.  You must be committed and disciplined because no one is standing over you after you get home from work tired to make you do your assignments.  Your grading scale is the same.  There is no excuse for absenteeism, there are no make-up tests allowed, late assignments are a "0 - No Exceptions".  There is no extra credit allowed - no exceptions.   You have to be your own kick in the pants.

When I spoke to the SVP of H/R at my company, an entity employing 18,000 people grossing over $5B in revenue last year, she told me the following.  "Online degrees are highly regarded now because after many studies analysts determined the online student is more applied and works harder to grasp the same knowledge without the campus aids traditional students have.  We used to feel the way smaller companies did until we were shown the extensive research.   We now hire many people with online degrees and by and large it's been a win-win for us."

My education was paid for by me.  I worked full-time and went to school full-time for 5 years equating to an 80-hour week every week for me.  No vacation.  No days off.  I studied 7 days a week.  I didn't have rich parents that could take care of the bill while I sat and partied in a dorm room or frat house as a young kid.  You could ask anyone that knows me and they will tell you...I rarely slept, I kept it all together (exemplary service at work with bonuses to prove it, spotless home, hot meals on the table every night, laundry done, and pressed all the clothes myself...but God bless it...I finished school ANd kept my life together!  I worked my brains out to earn that degree.  It wasn't by any means easy...it was absolute sacrifice.

The college where I earned my degree is fully accredited and highly regarded.  I spent three years in night college on campus before I moved to an area where night programs did not exist.  I was forced by my location to finish using an online program.  I sought the advice of 2-3 previous professors at my previous university.  They pointed me in the direction of five highly regarded schools that offer classes online.  The program I entered was recommended to me by the CIO of Kraft, my professor for all my IS classes.  I didn't sign up for "Johnny's college" but did my research.  I wanted a degree that was worth something.  After all, I paid $55,000 for my degree.  It isn't easy.  It isn't cheap.  It's not for the faint of heart or the lazy-minded couch potato.  It's roll up your sleeves and quit your crying hard work.

Most college professors do their graduate work online.  Do you want to tell them they got it easy?  Trust me, they will beg to differ.  Those who knock online degrees have never even attempted an online course at a REAL university that expects the same of the online student as the traditional campus student.  And...if online degrees are not respected explain why I had execs at three large corporations keeping tabs on me six months before I graduated?  All of them said, "When you finish, look me up.   Keep in touch."  These were SVPs of H/R, CFOs, and EVPs - not the underhanded H/R lacky that will get a friend a job with benefits, ok?  

I know from experience that you haven't really "done your homework" and merely present a myopic view on something about which you know little.  (pun intended)

What's easy?  Going to college and letting Mommy and Daddy pay for you to live in the dorm.  Meanwhile, you are partying your butt off at school, you do not hold a job, pay rent, pay utilities, or do anything remotely responsible except bathe.  The same graduates without liability and launches out to find a job clueless as to how much that education really cost.  THAT is easy.
You think my life's been easy?  Run alongside me for a week and you'll fall on your face from exhaustion by Wednesday.

There's nuthin wrong wit a little on line edyoucashun...is dare?

Well said Erin,
I finish mine in less than 3 weeks, started nealry 18 months ago and it is not easy.

Quoted: You don't need a fancy pants Degree... I ain't got one and I'm the one interviewing the people with Degree's looking for work. Now that REALLY rubs them up wrong! ANdy

C'mon Andy, you should sign up for an online degree just to make 'em feel better. How's a degree in online basket weaving sound?

Hell, some brick and mortar school only offer some degrees online.  I have a friend that is going for her Masters in HR at ISU(), and most of the program is online!

Quoted: [My education was paid for by me. Me too.  You may have heard of this thing called the GI Bill and Army College Fund.  That is, my bachelor's. Most college professors do their graduate work online.   In what universe?  Not at Indiana University, I guarandamntee you that. Do you want to tell them they got it easy?  Trust me, they will beg to differ.  Those who knock online degrees have never even attempted an online course at a REAL university that expects the same of the online student as the traditional campus student.   WRONG.  I took several.  They were not EASY.  But I don't want the whole program to become online. And...if online degrees are not respected explain why I had execs at three large corporations keeping tabs on me six months before I graduated?  All of them said, "When you finish, look me up.   Keep in touch."  These were SVPs of H/R, CFOs, and EVPs - not the underhanded H/R lacky that will get a friend a job with benefits, ok?   I know from experience that you haven't really "done your homework" and merely present a myopic view on something about which you know little.  (pun intended) What's easy?  Going to college and letting Mommy and Daddy pay for you to live in the dorm.  Meanwhile, you are partying your butt off at school, you do not hold a job, pay rent, pay utilities, or do anything remotely responsible except bathe.  The same graduates without liability and launches out to find a job clueless as to how much that education really cost.  THAT is easy. Yeah, that's how I did it. Life was nothing but argyle sweaters, penny loafers, and fucking girls named Muffy on Saturday nights.   Oh, wait, nevermind.  I was in the Army three weeks after my 17th birthday, and never set foot on a college campus until I was almost 22.

The world doesn't drop off at Indiana U.  You went to one university.  All universities attended were brick-and-mortar with my degree granting institution offering online courses.

The Dean at my previous university held 4 master's degrees (two of them were earned online).  Every professor was pursuing 2nd, 3rd or 4th masters degrees while employed full-time.  Two of them were pursuing doctoral degrees online.  When you are teaching day and evening classes, you do not have the time to sit in class yourself.  

So, based on what everyone here is saying only the aristocrats and people receiving the GI bill are entitled to an education?  No one is allowed to go back and finish school while working full time?  So, poor white people in the land of the free and the home of the brave should just lay down and die?  You just want to keep your foot on everyone's necks denying them the right to raise up and make just as much money as the privileged blue-bloods.  

You have to knock the degree earned because you couldn't tolerate it if a poor white girl got a degree and took your job.  Since you look down on those born minus the silver spoon, your opinion does not count.  Daddy's or Uncle Sam's money never guaranteed intelligence -- it just paid for your education.  If I went all 5 years in a campus-based program, I would have been on public aid to eat.  However, I am an honest hard working American and I don't believe in welfare or free rides.  I paid for my education myself because that is the honorable thing to do.  I didn't choose to sponge off of a government program and sit on my ass.  

Hell, the GI Bill/ACF is paying for my online degree right now

Quoted: Quoted: [My education was paid for by me. Me too.  You may have heard of this thing called the GI Bill and Army College Fund.  That is, my bachelor's. Most college professors do their graduate work online.   In what universe?  Not at Indiana University, I guarandamntee you that. Do you want to tell them they got it easy?  Trust me, they will beg to differ.  Those who knock online degrees have never even attempted an online course at a REAL university that expects the same of the online student as the traditional campus student.   WRONG.  I took several.  They were not EASY.  But I don't want the whole program to become online. And...if online degrees are not respected explain why I had execs at three large corporations keeping tabs on me six months before I graduated?  All of them said, "When you finish, look me up.   Keep in touch."  These were SVPs of H/R, CFOs, and EVPs - not the underhanded H/R lacky that will get a friend a job with benefits, ok?   I know from experience that you haven't really "done your homework" and merely present a myopic view on something about which you know little.  (pun intended) What's easy?  Going to college and letting Mommy and Daddy pay for you to live in the dorm.  Meanwhile, you are partying your butt off at school, you do not hold a job, pay rent, pay utilities, or do anything remotely responsible except bathe.  The same graduates without liability and launches out to find a job clueless as to how much that education really cost.  THAT is easy. Yeah, that's how I did it. Life was nothing but argyle sweaters, penny loafers, and fucking girls named Muffy in my Bimmeron Saturday nights.   Oh, wait, nevermind.  I was in the Army three weeks after my 17th birthday, and never set foot on a college campus until I was almost 22.

You left out the most important part!

Quoted: Depends on your field.  In the nursing field, it can be fine. I got my AS in Nursing from Regents College ( now Excelsior University) in 1999 and started in a major Level One Trauma center  ER in Kansas City.   Within 3 years I landed my current House Supervisor job. I have not found the "where" to be any sort of impediment to me moving ahead.  Of course, Illinois and California restrict Excelsior grads, because of powerful lobbies. It is not true that "most" online programs are not accredited, as was stated by DKProf (apologies to my fellow Missourian :) ).  These days there are a myriad of fine programs that are distance.  Some are indeed degree mills and scams, but do your homework and you will find a good one. Find someone successful who has such a degree - first hand evidence of an acceptable program! PS - we used the exact same texts as the brick and mortar programs.

I got my AS in N from Excelsior as well.  

For nursing, they are fine.

I beleive other fields care more.

FWIW I plan to go back and get my BSn as well.

I just finished my graduate certificate (3 classes) in Homeland Security Studies at Michigan State University and am taking a semester off before I start a M.A. in Criminal Justice, mostly because I'm broke and exhausted.  I put 15 hours of work a week into one class, this while working 50-60 hours a week on rotating shifts (including midnights) and trying to maintain a semi-normal relationship woth my toddler and my wife.  Don't tell me it was easy, because it wasn't, and damn sure don't try to take anything away from it.

[/rant]

Quoted: I just finished my graduate certificate (3 classes) in Homeland Security Studies at Michigan State University and am taking a semester off before I start a M.A. in Criminal Justice, mostly because I'm broke and exhausted.  I put 15 hours of work a week into one class, this while working 50-60 hours a week on rotating shifts (including midnights) and trying to maintain a semi-normal relationship woth my toddler and my wife.  Don't tell me it was easy, because it wasn't, and damn sure don't try to take anything away from it. [/rant]

if you're on student loans, make sure that the semester off doesn't screw things up for you.  A classmate of mine told me several times that if he took a semester off it would activate his loan payments.

Would you rather get treated for an illness by a MD that got his/her degree online or at acredited med school?

Would you rather have a lawyer represent you that earned their degree online or via a reputable and acredited law school?

Etc Etc.

Online degrees are really only recognized by the actual school that gave it to you.

Get the real thing.  You' ll be way ahead when you earn your REAL degree.

Quoted: Would you rather get treated for an illness by a MD that got his/her degree online or at acredited med school? Would you rather have a lawyer represent you that earned their degree online or via a reputable and acredited law school? Etc Etc. Online degrees are really only recognized by the actual school that gave it to you. Get the real thing.  You' ll be way ahead when you earn your REAL degree.

What if that online degree comes from a brick and mortar university and the degree says the same thing for either program?  If it's real to the college, then it must be real to the employer.

I don't think you critics of online education are really very familiar with it.

Quoted: Online degrees are really only recognized by the actual school that gave it to you.

- Wrong

Get the real thing.  You' ll be way ahead when you earn your REAL degree.

- Last time I checked, online degrees are "real" degrees.  

This has been my experience: Ability, Hands on experience, attitude, and connections (not necessarily in that order) are much more important than where or even if you have a degree.

You can't go wrong with a distance learning type degree from an accredited brick and mortar school.

Some "online" degrees are more expensive than class room ones.

If you have a particular job in mind, ask the H.R departments of the companies you are interested in.

Be sure to check in with the CO hometown board when you get here.


+1000 on the clep tests.  You can clep out of classes just by taking a short test.  They are multiple choice and pretty easy.  Get accepted, then find out which classes will grant credit for a passing Clep test grade.  Study for and then Clep every class that you have a reasonable chance of passing.  They are an excellent way to get past classes that would otherwise waste your time.

Quoted: Most college professors do their graduate work online.  .

They do what now?  

Maybe the ones that teach at online universities do that, but I have NEVER meet a full-time professor (at an accredited university) that did any graduate coursework on-line.  Everyone I know spent between 4 and 7 years full-time in residence at their doctoral program.




Other than that technical point, I agree with most of what you were saying.

Having obviously managed to jam my foot directly into my mouth, I hereby edit my previous reply and profusely apologize to metroplex.  My comments below are after having IM'ed with metroplex.

Quoted: The foreign students (Chinese and Indian) students flock here because its easier to get a degree in the US than in their countries. Chinese and Taiwanese universities are significantly more difficult to get into and graduate compared to the top 5 grad schools in the US. In addition, it looks better on THEIR resumes to have a US degree compared to their colleagues in their home country when they go back to get a job there. The girls just eat it up there: "woooooo you went to school in the US??!?!!!"

Those guys don't get the chicks just because they got degrees from American universities, they get the chicks because a degree from the U.S. is worth a lot in Taiwan and they can make more money with it.  American universities have good reputations.  Schools at all levels in Taiwan tend to be based around the "memorize and regurgitate" Confucian model, which simply isn't all that useful now that creativity has become the only way to stay competitive against the China threat.

The same holds true for European university degrees.  Australia and England are both advertising pretty heavily on the MRT and on campuses as well.

It's not that getting into a top university in the U.S. is easier, it's that even a midrange university in the U.S. will attempt to educate a student in ways that Taiwanese universities just don't.  There's a much broader selection in the U.S., too.  Here, you have three or four top schools and then there's the muck.  In the U.S. and Canada, there are plenty of schools that have decent quality (assuming you really want an education and not just a four year party).

Quoted: The majority of them don't even know proper English, let alone write proper term papers but they somehow manage to get their degree.

As far as work quality, most of the Chinese students I've known (and worked with) in the U.S. and here didn't read/write/speak English very well, but they were incredibly hard workers and did fine at math and science at U.S. university programs.  I worked in industry in the U.S. for over a decade before coming over here, and worked with several mainlanders who got degrees in the U.S. and stayed on in post-graduation work visas;  none of them were slackers or cheaters.  I can only think of one with whom I had problems;  he was convinced everyone was racist against him, quit quickly, and hired a lawyer to force the company to let him keep a hiring bonus that he didn't stay long enough to be entitled to.

None of the Chinese I've worked with were in "soft" fields, they were all math/science/engineering types.  The content of the term papers and theses tended to be more important than the spelling and grammar.

Quoted: Online degrees piss me off.  They don't do anything but devalue the traditional degree by giving degrees to people who wouldn't have ordinarily been able to get one.   You want a degree, or a graduate degree?  Oh, you wanted it to be easy?  Fock you.  Take out a loan and take your ass to class.  Can't do it?  TFB. This kind of shit is why a bachelor's degree isn't worth any more than a high-school diploma was 25 years ago.

The reason a BA nowadays is worth about what a HS diploma was a few decades ago is simply because educational standards have declined across the board.  I was in "advanced placement" classes throughout high school, in a GOOD high school, 25 years ago, and the coursework I did was not nearly as high level as what my father went through thirty years before that in a run-of-the-mill small-town high school.  Of course, we had "social studies" classes and other drivel to make us more culturally sensitive to others, so that probably means a lot.

As far as your grand sacrifices and how worthy of praise and awe they are, well, I will take my next dump in your honor.  Congratulations!

Quoted: Quoted: The foreign students (Chinese and Indian) students flock here because its easier to get a degree in the US than in their countries. Chinese and Taiwanese universities are significantly more difficult to get into and graduate compared to the top 5 grad schools in the US. In addition, it looks better on THEIR resumes to have a US degree compared to their colleagues in their home country when they go back to get a job there. The girls just eat it up there: "woooooo you went to school in the US??!?!!!" You obviously don't know shit about Taiwanese universities, much less Taiwanese culture. Quoted: The majority of them don't even know proper English, let alone write proper term papers but they somehow manage to get their degree. So?  How good is your Chinese?  Speak much Mandarin, do you?

I know enough to avoid the dog meat restaurants in Taipei (legit delicacy)

Quoted: I know enough to avoid the dog meat restaurants in Taipei (legit delicacy)

Argh.  My bad, my sincere apologies.

Out of curiosity, where do I find the dogmeat restaurants??  Already had the snake soup in Snake Alley, and the mystery meat in, umm, most restaurants here.

Quoted: Give everybody berets, no problem.  Give everybody college degrees, great.  You see where I'm going with this?

Give everybody computers, and look what sorts of posts we get on boards nowadays.  I tell you, things were so much better back when computers required serious effort and intelligence to purchase and operate.

Quoted: Quoted: I know enough to avoid the dog meat restaurants in Taipei (legit delicacy) Argh.  My bad, my sincere apologies. Out of curiosity, where do I find the dogmeat restaurants??  Already had the snake soup in Snake Alley, and the mystery meat in, umm, most restaurants here.

Ask around for the (loosely translated) nice smelling meat store (shong zhou deng) , it's something I was told to avoid unless I want to eat dog

Being from Ny look into Empire State College it is a  SUNY school that allows Distance Learning as im a Fireman I dont have the time to dedacate to classroom schooling either.