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Businesses Education

How Do Managers Rate On-line Universities? 109

Posted by Cliff from the real-world-perception-of-online-degrees dept.
pstreck asks: "I've been going to a traditional university part-time for a couple of years now and am finding the pace slow, and classes to be at inconvenient times. So I have been considering transferring to one of the on-line universities like ACCIS or the University of Phoenix. How do you managers look upon a degree from one of these universities?"
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How Do Managers Rate On-line Universities? More

How Do Managers Rate On-line Universities?

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  • A Degree is... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Evanrude ( 21624 ) <david AT fattyco DOT org> on Friday October 03, 2003 @10:46AM (#7123812) Homepage Journal
    Unless you are looking for a job that requires a Masters or Ph. D. most managers just appreciate the fact that you took the time to go to school. Having a degree demonstrates to them that you can be taught and are willing to learn. Most of the time, where it comes from isn't a critical factor.
    • Well unfortunately I must disagree.

      Most larger tech companies I know have HR departments that rate universities. The top rated universities graduates have a much easier time than others. Recruiting is also targeted at the best rated schools.

      I think this is even more prevalent with business degrees.

      Now, that said I did get my Masters degree from NTU (National Technological University). NTU is a pretty neat program. NTU works with member university's and just uses classes they are already having. By d

    • Re:A Degree is... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by bwalling ( 195998 )
      Unless you are looking for a job that requires a Masters or Ph. D. most managers just appreciate the fact that you took the time to go to school. Having a degree demonstrates to them that you can be taught and are willing to learn. Most of the time, where it comes from isn't a critical factor.

      I completely disagree. If I post a job on Monster for a programmer, I'll get 100 resumes in no time. University of Phoenix and community colleges are sorting to the bottom, unless there is some solid work experie

  • Alternatives to the slow pace (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FreshMeat-BWG ( 541411 ) <bengoodwyn AT me DOT com> on Friday October 03, 2003 @10:47AM (#7123824) Homepage
    I always felt that the university classes were slow and watered down. As such, I got books on varying topics that interested me and not only read them, but made myself complete real projects with the newly learned skills (not the cheesy example projects in the books). I picked up several skills this way.

    The cool part was that when I went to interview for jobs, I had a lot of knowledge on varying subjects in the interview. The interviewers either didn't ask where that information came from or were impressed that I had gained that information from my own personal studies.

    Sure, you can probably rush yourself through an online U faster than brick and mortar, but in my case I was better suited to take my time in school and use all of the slow time to expand the breadth of my knowledge.

    Just because you didn't learn it by getting a sore rear end in a classroom doesn't mean you can't put it on a resume.

  • you dont have to spend much time on HW or in class (Score:4, Insightful)

    by stonebeat.org ( 562495 ) on Friday October 03, 2003 @10:50AM (#7123857) Homepage
    UOP claims that you dont have to spend much time on HomeWork, or in Class. It is for people with Busy Schedules.
    I didnt know learning was so easy. If you want to learn something, you have to make sacrifice. I remember when I was in school for Computer Science, I spent close to 40+ hours/week for my final project and classes.
    I understand that people who have fill-time jobs, and families dont have that kind of time, but as i said earlier, learning requires sacrifice. If you dont have time to take 2-3 classes, just take 1 class/semester at a regular uni.
    • If you dont have time to take 2-3 classes, just take 1 class/semester at a regular uni.

      I don't think it's just a matter of having the time to go to class. When I was in school full-time, it seemed like the majority of the work was really on my own time anyway, and that most of the actual courses were extremely slow-paced. Even when the teachers could manage lectures in a fairly quick time and let people go once all of the questions were answered, the time between classes and the frequency (ie 2 or 3 time
      • While I agree with most of what you've said, I have to state that in my experience, knowing how to learn doesn't amount to a hill of beans in an interview. Most of the interviews that I've been through can be summed up as, I don't care if you can learn, if you don't already have the skills to complete this required task within X amount of time so that I can then dispose of you, you are waisting my time. Some interviews have been less direct, some have been more direct.
        • I agree on that point.

          On the other hand, almost every project I've worked on has required a significant amount of ramp-up time to get familiar with the specifics peculiar to that project. Although most of my work so far has had significant overlap, there's always been a lot of new ground to cover before real work starts.

          That being said, the position I was originally hired for is nothing like what I'm doing now (they were basically hiring anyone that could do some moderate lifting and follow directions to
        • I have to state that in my experience, knowing how to learn doesn't amount to a hill of beans in an interview. Most of the interviews that I've been through can be summed up as, I don't care if you can learn, if you don't already have the skills to complete this required task within X amount of time so that I can then dispose of you, you are waisting my time.

          That may be true in some (maybe even most) cases, but as they say, the exception makes the rule... In my own case, when I was hired for my present jo

    • Re:you dont have to spend much time on HW or in cl (Score:4, Informative)

      by acousticiris ( 656375 ) * on Friday October 03, 2003 @11:38AM (#7124359)
      UOP claims that you dont have to spend much time on HomeWork or in Class.

      Having attended the local UOP classes and now being a UOP Online attendee, I can tell you that there are stark differences between the two. I found that the UOP standard classes were, IMHO, about equivelent to the local community college (which I also attended for a semester). There was a reasonable amount of homework and if you failed to achieve the minimum requirements that a college would expect of a student, most of the professors would reflect that in your grade.

      The online university was quite different. The first thing I realized was that it was the first time in a university setting that I actually learned something.
      You have to realize that the people in most of your classes are presently employed doing the things that you are learning. Because of the participation requirements, you learn far more from the students themselves than you ever learn from a university class at an undergrad level.
      An outline of the typical class goes as follows: Each week you are given 3-4 questions about the reading/lecture that you must answer (different requirements per class on what constitutes an answer but usually a 100/200 or so word essay style question is asked). In addition to answering the questions, you are expected to post well-thought-out replies to the answers of other class mates (typically minimum 3 reponses per day for 5 days out of the week). This is your participation grade. In addition to that grade, you receive a grade on written assignments (usually 2/3 per week depending on the class, content, and professor).
      Then comes the group project that starts in week 2. You are given a major project that you must complete in a group setting with 3-4 other students. The projects range from introducing 2/3 more written assignments per week to just a single large (report style) project you have to complete at the end of the class.

      I was very surprised at the extent of work each class required. Now, of course, there are professors who will let you get away with doing next-to-nothing, who relax the participation restrictions (including one who didn't get the notice that I dropped his class and gave me a full passing grade in week 3...even though I had done none of the work) But you get that kind of crap in the university setting. The things I didn't get in the university setting was a group of professors with Master's degrees who had been working in the field (after degree completion) for at least 2 years. It's amazing going to a computer class being taught by someone who is presently employed in the field talking about the *real world*, not some BS set of concepts that programming instructors teach that when you get to the "First Job" you realize are done completely differently.
      And I'll tell you, if you're aiming for a 4.0 in the class, you spend an hour or two per day just doing your participation requirements. You also dread landing a class where there are too few or too many students (too few means you can't come up with posts to make your participation grade, too many means you spend two hours reading through replies).
      • Very interesting comments. I just started at UoP -- my 2nd class started last night. I have been considering switching to the all-online version due to travel requirements for work, the slow pace of the classroom, etc.

        One thing I'm [f|c]urious about is the Microsoft requirements/bias throughout the UoP classes and websites (have to use Powerpoint to do your presentations and interact with the SmartBoards, stuff distributed in .DOC format, etc.). For example, it appears to me that you *have* to use Outloo
        • The MS Requirements are buried all throughout their program. Almost as if MS gave them a grant to require them to use their technology. For a while they were using online books which were available in PDF for MS-Reader format (I'm personally surprised it wasn't all MS reader).

          It's the biggest drawback of their program, really. I tried to us Mozilla's Mail/News reader but I had trouble configuring it to use the Secure Password Authentication system they were using. I didn't spend much time on getting it
        • Welcome to the almost real world. In the real world, things are a bit more harsh, but this sounds like a good introduction.

          Outside of /. universe, people actually do use MS, in fact, most do. When you get a real job in the real world doing real work, you will use the OS, the IDE, the programming language, the utilities, the hardware, the everydamned lil'ol'thing that your employer tells you to use, or you will be fired. That is, if your employer doesn't outsource your job to an Indian making 1/10th your pa

      • Re:you dont have to spend much time on HW or in cl (Score:4, Funny)

        by iamcadaver ( 104579 ) on Friday October 03, 2003 @01:40PM (#7125700)
        2 hours a day reading posts....
        Why does that sound so familiar?
        • -Before I part with'em: two pennies weigh ~4.996+/-0.014g,

          Just for the record, dimes and quarters are $20 to the pound. Pretty much exactly, enough that you can accurately count money on an electronic grocery store scale.

          Yea I know, totally OT but Im wicked undercaffeinated this morning.

  • Think about. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by FreeLinux ( 555387 ) on Friday October 03, 2003 @10:55AM (#7123896)
    Hello Bob. I hear that you graduated from Harvard/Berkley/MIT/UVA, that's great!

    or

    Hello Bob. I hear that you graduated from the University of Phoenix online school. Tell me about that. Zzzzzz

  • Can you do the work? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by awerg ( 201320 ) on Friday October 03, 2003 @10:59AM (#7123935)
    Currently, I am a project manager and I do not care if you have a degree or not, only if you can actually do what is required for the job. If you are going to define success in education as a degree, then you should graduate from the most impressive University you can. However, in hiring for projects Cert's mean more than a degree. They are tangable and directly apply to the job. I have found that people who invest the time in their education are the same people who will invest the time necessary to learn and complete the tasks assigned to them. But, you can get more milage from attending classroom training on relevant topics than on a degree. It may not be the best thing in the long term, but to get a job today, you must have something that separates you from the rest of the resumes. Just my .02
    • However, in hiring for projects Cert's mean more than a degree.

      Are Certs with Retsin even better then? Do they make the network minty fresh?

    • Thats kinda interesting. When I was responsible for hiring people, a cert was a big strike against you. Most of the people with most certs (and there were a few exceptions - but they were rare and not usually in the field I was hiring. I was looking for programmers at the time.) had gone the route of

      1. Read cert prep book
      2. Take 1 day seminar on cert
      3. Take test
      4. Pass test

      and didn't really know anything about the field they had just certified in. Quite honestly, I didn't care about the details of the l

      • When I was responsible for hiring people, a cert was a big strike against you.

        Then you were doing yourself and your employer a disfavor. Certification certainly doesn't PROVE that you know what you're doing, and I'm sure there are plenty of "paper <insert certification>'s" out there, but there is another side to certifications.

        Take a fairly difficult certification, like Sun Certified Java Programmer... you cannot take a 1 day seminar and pass the SCJP test. And it would be difficult to pass th

      • Most of the people with most certs [...] had gone the route of
        1. Read cert prep book
        2. Take 1 day seminar on cert
        3. Take test
        4. Pass test

        If it takes a day to get a cert now then difference in standards between industry certifications and degrees is getting really obvious. I picked up seven degrees last week just by replying to my e-mails! Two of them were PhDs with gold certificates and it only cost me an extra three quid. :-)

        (Seriously, I completely agree with everything you wrote. An

      • >When I was responsible for hiring people, a cert was a big strike against you. (insert sweeping dismissal of certs here)

        I think more then anything this illustrates that the hiring process is just a great big ego reinforcement act for the hiring manager. They all want to hire whoever mirrors their own worldview to prove it's correctness.

  • Depends what they're looking for (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cperciva ( 102828 ) on Friday October 03, 2003 @11:00AM (#7123946) Homepage
    If the manager is looking to sign off on a checklist (position foo needs a masters or higher degree in bar), then online "universities" are wonderful -- they'll give you a piece of paper which allows you to claim that qualification.

    If the manager -- or anyone else -- is actually looking for the degree as a sign that you are qualified for a position, having a "degree" from such an institution is only going to hurt you, because it shows that you look for the cheapest and easiest way of getting a piece of paper rather than looking to obtain a real qualification.

    You know what people say about MSCEs? This is the academic equivalent.
    • Cheap? UoP is anything but cheap.

      As to the quality of the education I can't speak.
      • UoP *is* cheap, when you compare it to taking several years off work so that you can get a real degree.
        • So then it proves to the hiring manager that you are capable of doing more than 1 thing at a time and working in high stress situations is something you've been doing for years. Not only that, but you've continued to gain expierence during the few years that it took you to get your degree.

          OR..this:

          Hiring Manager: Hmm, I see here that you haven't worked in 4 years, can you explain to me why?

          You: Well yes, I put my entire life on hold for 4 years, quit my job and everything, to go back to school. But now t
          • Or maybe that you were actually committed to the learning process and wanted to focus on that. Just saying "I took four years off work to get a degree" doesn't show the whole picture.

            Saying: "I wanted to chill for four years, drink cheap beer and chase skirts. Oh, and by the by, I picked up a Business Admin degree" is probably not going to work.

            Mentioning the projects you were involved in, the groups you were a part of, etc, on the other hand, show a whole other set of skills that the employer can exploit
          • You can work and go to school at the same time. I'd venture to guess over 50% of people in school work.

            I took 5 years to graduate with degrees in MIS and Finance. I also have a minor in French (you need ~130 hours to graduate, I had 183 at graduation). The entire time I worked 35-40 hours a week waiting tables and made more than enough to live on (btw Oklahomans tip like shit). It can be done, you just have to do it. This is how I got my first job. My GPA sucked (2.97 Overall) but when you list outside act
            • Man, I wish it was that high. Personally I only know 'two' other people that work and go to school full time. And only one of those go to the same school as me. What's really annoying is that the teachers simply assume that people who work are the rare exception, and as a result the scheduled activities will often run all over the clock.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • it shows that you look for the cheapest and easiest way of getting a piece of paper rather than looking to obtain a real qualification.

      Agreed. In a age where real universities such as City [city.ac.uk] and Oxford [ox.ac.uk] do part-time courses, it's very difficult to justify a "rubber stamping" course.
  • That depends on how much the university cost. I would be more willing to take seriously an online degree that took a couple years and several thousands of dollars to complete then a quickie diploma that cost a couple hundred bucks.
    • That depends on how much the university cost. I would be more willing to take seriously an online degree that took a couple years and several thousands of dollars to complete then a quickie diploma that cost a couple hundred bucks.

      Then have I got the course for you! Send me a couple of thousand dollars (cashier's check or money order please -- no personal checks) and I'll get back to you in a couple of years....

  • Even more important: (Score:3, Insightful)

    by base3 ( 539820 ) on Friday October 03, 2003 @11:11AM (#7124070)
    Regional accrediation. If you ever want to go to grad school, or if your employer is savvy about this, the "accredidation" claimed by some schools isn't worth a hill of beans. (ACCIS, in fact, used to be the AICS, which claimed accredidation from the bogus "World Association of Universities and Colleges.")

    There is a list [ed.gov] of accreditors recognized by the U.S. Department of Education--make sure your school's accreditor is on it, and verify with that accreditor that the it accredits the school--before you spend your first dime.

    Also, even though the Distance Education and Training Council (through which AACIS now has accredidation) is a recognized accreditor, a degree earned from an insitution accredided by it will not be as well regarded as one from a school with regional accredidation.

  • depends on subject (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dh003i ( 203189 ) <dh003i@gmail. c o m> on Friday October 03, 2003 @11:28AM (#7124251) Homepage Journal
    Some things can be taught well from a distance. For example, mathematics, economics, philosophy, history, computer pgoramming, and so-on and so-forth. Some things, however, can't be taught particularly well from a distance -- like biology and chemistry, which usually require hands-on interaction with professors.

    I don't doubt that you can learn more quicker from an online course. The idea that everyone needs to be stuffed up in an auditorium with a lecturer droning on and on to learn anything is as dated as oil-lamps. Real learning isn't achieved by passively sitting back and barely making it through lectures awake. Real learning is done by actively pursuing information that you think is useful and interesting. I learned more about economics in the week it took me to read Human Action than in the 6 weeks it took me to complete a boring and useless introductory economics course at the University of Rochester. Real learning is done by actually thinking about things, not slavish memorization (though memorization is important).

    So, basically, I think the idea that online courses aren't as good as live courses is bullshit. If anything, online courses weed out those who can't hack it better, because with an online course, you are completely responsible for taking the initiative. It's very easy to just not do the necessary work when you can schedule it for anytime you want. Quite frankly, I think employers should be impressed by those who set aside their "leisure time" away from work to actually learn something.

    Of course, what impresses individual employers will vary. However, a piece of paper from Harvard is just that -- a piece of paper from Harvard. It doesn't prove that you can hack it anywhere. On the other hand, someone without any little certificate may be able to hack it anywhere he pleases; you may have to volunteer to work on a trial basis for free for a week or two, though. Sufficed to say, if you have the knowledge, talent, and work-ethic, employers will recognize that.

    • Hands-On (Score:2, Funny)

      by clonebarkins ( 470547 )
      Some things, however, can't be taught particularly well from a distance -- like biology and chemistry, which usually require hands-on interaction with professors.

      I knew a girl who was taking chemistry and had some hands-on experience with her professor. Needless to say, she was expelled and the professor fired (he wasn't tenured).

      • Though I realize the humorous intent of your comment, if two consenting adults want to sleep together, they should be able to. A rational university would mandate that the professor defer that student's grading to another teacher. Of course, as an anarcho-capitalist, I believe universities should be allowed to have whatever backwards rules they want.
    • If mathematics, economics, philosophy, history, and computer science can be taught at a distance, than so can anything else. Pretty much the whole gamut has been covered by that list.

      Anything can be taught at a distance. All of the disciplines will be better for having hands-on experience. All disciplines have the potential for greater understanding through more contact with people who are experienced in the field.

      The point being that book learning has a limit, in any field.

      • Most "hands on" contact in classes consists of the professor droning on and on. You can get more from reading a book, and do so in a quicker period of time. As for actual discourse, that can also occur at a distance online, most likely more efficiently and better so than in person (have you noticed that people tend to write more coherently than they speak).
        • ...book? What is book? You mean it's possible to learn from something other than a power point presentation? I wish someone would inform a couple of my professors about this.

          • lol (Score:2)

            by dh003i ( 203189 )
            I agree, though slide-shows with handouts are useful, because they allow students to focus on thinking, instead of slavishly writing. It'd probably be best, however, to only give students the handouts after-class, so they can take their own notes during lectures.

  • State of education (Score:5, Insightful)

    by the Man in Black ( 102634 ) <jasonrashaadNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Friday October 03, 2003 @11:30AM (#7124284) Homepage
    I think it says something about how we as Americans perceive education when we have to look at it from the viewpoint of "Can I get a job with this?". Education is it's own reward, in that it gives you options in life, not just the workplace.

    Least that's what I think. Personally, with s omuch of America's workforce working 50-60 hours a week (at least us IT types), it can be an impossibility to go get a post-graduate degree. I hope the idea of online coursework becomes more prevalent for this reason. It will give those of us with the will but not hte time the chance.
    • Well, I have a wife, and two kids. If I want to learn something, I'll do it on my own. School (which I am thinking of doing quite seriously) is to get a piece of paper to further my employability.

      Yes, I'd look at it a bit differently if I was single, especially if I was young.

    • I think it says something about how we as Americans perceive education when we have to look at it from the viewpoint of "Can I get a job with this?". Education is it's own reward, in that it gives you options in life, not just the workplace.

      I used to say the same thing, but not any more. Education is expensive both in terms of money and time. I do believe in education for its own sake, but when it comes to spending large amounts of money to do so I think it makes sense to look at it as an investment that

    • Reality check ... College degrees are not and have never been for "their own reward." They are passes.

      A Bachelorate (sp?) degree is a pass to earn between 25-40k, a masters 40-60, and a phd, 60-100. That's all it is and all it's ever been. Western society suffers from overwhelming credentialism. You can't do *SHIT* in this society without a credential. If you don't believe me, I'm now going to paste for you a list of professions the state of california issues licenses for.

      ACCOUNTANCY Individual Li

  • I have forked over a shitload of my hard earned American dollars to bullshit online courses. I speak with authorita.

    The thing is, if you give two shits about your learning, save your money and go to a Real school with Real teachers. If you want to get knuckled fucked, don't give a flying fuck about learning anything, and have incredible self-dicipline, then maybe check this crap out.

    Crap is being nice too.

    Here's how it works: you pay lots of money and don't learn a fucking thing that you can't teach your
    • Online education flies in the face of thousands of years dating back to the fucking greeks where education is done in a classroom, with interaction, with a learned instructor (usually).

      As does the auditorium model where you don't interact with the instructor.

      At least online with a web form, if you have the ideal teaching application, it will keep presenting and quizzing you with the material you miss and race through the material you're good at. That plus some web chat with the instructors might be bett
    • Online education flies in the face of thousands of years dating back to the fucking greeks where education is done in a classroom, with interaction, with a learned instructor (usually). There's give and take.

      How ironic that you post to a discussion website to complain about the lack of interaction available online.

      I completed my degree from RIT (well, actually I'm one library fine away from having my degree...) by taking online courses while I worked. I started my degree full-time going to 'Real' classe
    • Unfortunate for you, PF, you should've studied. Also copying drawings from the back of a matchbook doesn't really count.

      The University of Phoenix is a real brick and mortar university here in sunny Phoenix, AZ. I don't go to U of P but I do have a buddy that teaches there and says the classes in a classroom are good. He also states that they put alot into the online stuff so that, just like a brick and mortar school, the student gets out of it what they put in. I'd bet that just as many, if not more Stu

    • Here's how it works: you pay lots of money and don't learn a fucking thing that you can't teach yourself.

      Maybe not, but you don't get a nice diploma for teaching yourself..

  • As the use SPAM as part of their advertising (well U of P does anyhow).

    Also one of the traditional UK Uni's (Liverpool) are using this route too. Not impressed :-(
  • When my Dad is hiring for his company, he said that if he has two applicants, one from community college and one from an online University, he would hire the community college student if both applicants abilities were equal.
  • Many people have mentioned being managers and only caring if the job gets done. Which is what I think most managers really care about. Except when it comes down to it, you will never get the opportunity to show you can do the job unless something about your resume or background strikes them are particularly applicable.

    My boss has an MBA from U of M. One of his profs said that it doesn't matter which school you go to in terms of what you learn. Instead you pay for the school with the most strict admissions.
  • I grew up in NJ, and at least one of my relatives got a degree from Thomas Edison State College [tesc.edu]. Sound like a normal state college? Well, it is a state college, part of the state system, yadda yadda -- but it's specialized in distance education and education for people who're in the workforce already, for about 3 decades.

    A lot of "real" colleges and universities are making more and more stuff available via distance/online education programs these days, as well. So maybe you can get a degree from a scho

    • A lot of "real" colleges and universities are making more and more stuff available via distance/online education programs these days, as well. So maybe you can get a degree from a school that'll make the PHB's happy, while not having to spend too much time on campus.

      That is why, when you interview someone, you should ask innocous but highly informative questions about the education, such as "Were you in a frat/sorority? Did you live in the dorms, or off-campus? Who was your (least) favorite professor?"

      • Why would someone taking a distance learning class not have a favorite professor? To my surprise I found that one of the classes I'm taking at a brick and morter school is actually a distance learning class, and the professor has quickly become one of my favorites. Despite having only seen him face to face a handfull of times, I think I've had more interaction with him than in many of my more power point oriented classes.
      • I went to 1 school for a year, aced it, transferred to an Ivy League school and went there for 4 more years. At my first school I lived on campus for the first semester. It was terrible. My roommate was a druggy smoking pot, taking LSD, etc. right in my room. There were drunken girls getting into my room in the middle of the night because I forgot to lock the door. Sometimes I think I could hear people having sex right in the hallway. I went through the second semester and subsequent 4 years at an Ivy Leagu

        • There were drunken girls getting into my room in the middle of the night because I forgot to lock the door. Sometimes I think I could hear people having sex right in the hallway.

          That's one of the best parts of college!

          One way to tolerate people you don't like is to deal them on a professional basis only. Living with them makes it personal and shows your ability to handle personal, not professional, situations.

          If you are with a group of people for 8+ hours a day for 5 days a week, it will become

      • The justifications for getting an on-campus education are getting flimsier and more pathetic by the minute.

        What would you say of someone who went to school phsyically, but did not stay in resident housing? What about someone with their own condo? Someone who lives at home with their parents? Or are you only going to hire someone rich enough to afford 4 years of campus living?

        Lastly do you think university is the only place where one can learn social skills? What if the person has them already?

        If all a Un

        • The justifications for getting an on-campus education are getting flimsier and more pathetic by the minute.

          Keep on telling yourself that.

          What would you say of someone who went to school phsyically, but did not stay in resident housing? What about someone with their own condo?

          If they have their own condo, either their parents have a good deal of cash, or they will have a bunch of room-mates anyway, even though they aren't in the dorm.

          Someone who lives at home with their parents?

          If someone ca

  • if you want a piece of paper. Go to a real university. You can make new friends generate new ideas etc. Maybe you will like their other schools and transfer over to something entirely different. Don't forget the opposite sex either........
  • I just finished a degree completion program at American Intercontinental University [aiu-online.com] and I would recommend it to anyone considering UOP. They were roughly the same price, but I got my BS in Info Technology in just 13 months, and UOP wanted over 2 years. The coursework was relatively fresh, including Windows2000, Redhat 7.3, Java, Oracle 8i, etc.

    Two thumbs up, and nobody seems to care what school name is on the degree. I really think that matters more for advanced degrees.
  • Check out the University of London External Programme [londonexternal.ac.uk]. It's been around since the 19th century and University of London is a prestigious institution.

    You may also want to take a look at University of Waterloo [uwaterloo.ca]. It has an excellent distance program too, and it is also a prestigious institution.

    Finally, if UoL and UoW are not on your short list, check out this awesome list of accredited distance education schools [degree.net].

    I was in a situation similar to yours and I didn't want to waste time and money on a bullshit

  • Disclaimer: I speak only of University of Phoenix.

    I will appreciate the fact that a working adult spent the time and effort to get a degree. But, having attended the University of Phoenix for two years, I can confidently assert that the education received there is useless and that a resume that comes across my desk had better impress me with a lot else besides educational background.

    This topic is still young and already I see a bunch of posts along the lines of "it doesn't matter where you went, 'caus

    • Though I enjoy the discussions and articles I find on /.. I rarely sift through the message boards. Click and read. Click and read. I'd much rather flip a page in a book (but thats me). As far as tech institution and online universities, I think the reason they are successful is because they are filling a need. The need for more flexible class offerings. I have been considering for some time to either return to one of the concrete-and-steel beam universities here in Florida or to goto a tech school or tr

  • How I qualified ACCIS as my university of choice (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Gunfighter ( 1944 ) on Saturday October 04, 2003 @12:33AM (#7130601)
    I am currently enrolled in the ACCIS BSCS program. I've been programming for years, but felt it would benefit me to take the next step and actually get the experience and, more importantly, the degree.

    I did two years of undergrad at Virginia Tech back before the dot-com boom beckoned me into the Hells of the corporate world, so when it came time to decide whether or not ACCIS would be worth my while, I called the Virginia Tech Comp Sci department. One of the professors there was nice enough to speak with me. I asked him to look over the ACCIS BSCS curriculum for me and let me know if completion of that curriculum would be considered a good step towards entering the graduate studies at VT for a Comp Sci Masters Degree.

    As soon as he emailed me back and "yes, it looks like a good curriculum and will more than satisfy the requirements for CS graduate studies at VT", I enrolled. I know you don't have to have a degree in any certain discipline to take graduate level courses, but he has a doctorate or two (including Comp Sci) and gave his stamp of approval. That's good enough for me.

    Now if only I can actually get some time to do the work. It's hard with all of these website review [packetvision.net] requests [mailto] coming in ;)

  • A degree can serve one of three purposes:
    • Bar to employment. Many jobs require a certain degree to be considered for a job. A degree from almost anywhere will work.
    • Prestige. There are some universities that will get you a job. Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT, etc. Your interviewer will be damned impressed that you went to such a school. Of course, this is only helpful if you can actually get into (and afford) one of these schools.
    • Commonality. This is the most important reason for a college degree. Y

  • Depending upon the course, you have to consider the benefits of social interaction. For example, debating with other students or the teachers, or interacting in tutorials, or practicals (for science/engineering), or networking (e.g. if you are a mid-career professional taking a more management style course, then part of the experience is to meet others with similar backgrounds/experiences - not only is this rewarding just to share the experiences and learn from others, but it can be good networking for care
  • ...you could get a degree from Penn State [psu.edu], R.I.T [rit.edu], or Skidmore [skidmore.edu]. All are among the top "brick and mortar" schools and have Online/Homestudy degrees. RIT, for example, appears to have been rated in 2002 as being in the same league as CalTech by U.S. News and World Report.

    = 9J =



  • Don't mind those people... they're totally unrealistic. Comparing an online university to Harvard or Ivy league ones is ridiculous, 'cos most people can't get into these anyway.

    I don't know about UoPhoenix or DeVry, but what i know is that the MBA from The Open University in England has a very good reputation, and it's a correspondence school. I am not sure about their other courses but i know they have a long long history of corresponce degrees and are generally respected.

    That said, however, I'd sug
    • I've been with the OU (as we call it here) for four years now, and am about to complete my DipComp. Has been easily fit around work and family, but it is all corrsepondence, so that makes it easier. Highly recommended, and they do ship overseas....
  • With a BSCS, and I really liked the program. I went to a community college for a year, and enjoyed that a lot too. If I had enough time and money, I would have liked to continue in a regular college degree program, and graduate from a physical school. I think there are a lot of important experiences there that are not necessarily related to CS that will serve well in the real world. But I got a job, and tried going back, and it just wasn't working. It was exhausting going back and forth, and the pace of th

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