Phoenix Online School

[Pirian]

4 years at UNC =/= 90k. far less.

4 years at dook =/= 90k. far more.

My step-sister is at duke right now and god damn this is true lol. Luckily she doesn't have to worry about student loans because she's not going to be making anywhere near what it would need to pay them off (not sure what major off the top of my head, but last I talked to her she wanted to get into theater management). Why she went to duke for that is beyond me, but I guess why not when someone else is paying for it, and also the fact that she got in (She's a sista, so that helped, but also incredibly smart so can't say affirmative action all the way).

[Sirenia]

Well I said I'm going to nursing school therefore I am in the Health Care field. I do have experience in said field too. I am not going to end up having 90k in student loans, more like 50k but that counts the 2 years of prereq's. Maybe I am naive but I think I will have a better chance at a better job then someone who went to an online school or a community college. I always get a "Good for you!" and a "Wow I heard it was hard to get into there" because it is highly competitive to get in. Also the fact that I spend 2 years there and get my Bachelors but in the same two years at a community college I would only have a Associates. It also sets me up well to get a master's later on.

[Moss]

Not to hijack, but is there anyone with an HR degree/in an HR career?

[Milton]

Well I said I'm going to nursing school therefore I am in the Health Care field. I do have experience in said field too. I am not going to end up having 90k in student loans, more like 50k but that counts the 2 years of prereq's. Maybe I am naive but I think I will have a better chance at a better job then someone who went to an online school or a community college. I always get a "Good for you!" and a "Wow I heard it was hard to get into there" because it is highly competitive to get in. Also the fact that I spend 2 years there and get my Bachelors but in the same two years at a community college I would only have a Associates. It also sets me up well to get a master's later on.

too bad you still don't know "then" from "than"

[Sirenia]

I do, whoops I made a mistake. Imagine that!

[Meresgi]

A good school with internships will def help get you a better start then online courses, though the field i'm looking to go into I would hope it would weigh more on my portfolio rather then what college I came from.

[Skyylya]

I actually work for an online school now so if you'd like i can have a private discussion with you. University of phoenix is very shady.

For starters when you begin taking classes there you don't even begin at phoenix. They send you to an affiliate school of their scalled Axia college which is NOT accredited where you get your associates degree. Then when you finish your associates, the only school that will accept the associates so that you can finish your bachelors...is pheonix so you're kind of trapped.

Also they don't give you real text books, they give you e-books which you download yet still charge you full price for them. They don't even include it in the tuition which is generally higher per credit hour.

The ONLY thing they have going for them is that they are regionally accredited, which means any credits you do get from phoenix itself would transfer better, just not if you start out at axia.

They have had problems with their accreditation in the past and lost it for a while. People get suckered in because of their marketing but there are much better schools out there.

The one I work for, for example which I won't name, but it's a very good school and actually cares about it's students. AIU is a good one, also regionally accredited.

Kaplan, Devry, Everest all have a lot of issues.

like i said before i'll have a private conversation if you want, because i deal with all of these schools every day.

[Meresgi]

Skyy, what about Art Institute Online? Their degree program actually piqued my interest more the Phoenix. Though I spoke to a rep today from Phoenix and I do like their 1 class every 5 weeks approach and how they run for the entire year. But AIO does that as well, and does 4 semesters a year, 2 classes for half 2 for another half of each semester.

[Cyn]

The difference between a GED and a high school diploma is you likely got the latter by the time you were 18 and got the former later in life because you were unable to get the latter earlier. The assumption is, therefore, you were unable to complete the material once and had to 'redo' it to get the GED. Failing high school is generally taken as being dumb.

I'm not sure how this translates into the stigma against online universities.

I got my GED at 15 and started community college courses at 16.

My step-sister is at duke right now and god damn this is true lol. Luckily she doesn't have to worry about student loans because she's not going to be making anywhere near what it would need to pay them off (not sure what major off the top of my head, but last I talked to her she wanted to get into theater management). Why she went to duke for that is beyond me, but I guess why not when someone else is paying for it, and also the fact that she got in (She's a sista, so that helped, but also incredibly smart so can't say affirmative action all the way).

Haha, that is indeed silly when one of the best theatrical programs in the country is an hour and a half from Duke.

[Acturus]

I was evaluating online programs for my Masters last year, and ultimately, what I came up with is that nowadays, all you need is a piece of paper from an accredited school. If you have experience in the field, then that experience is valued so much more than any degree granting institution's logo on your piece of paper.

Degrees today are benchmarks. If it's accredited (which is important for everyone, but specifically for industries with professional licenses like CPAs), then it counts. What will always count MORE is what you know in addition to your piece of paper.

I have a bit of luxury in my endeavors with my Masters because by the time I'm finished with the program, I will have 5 years experience in Health Care. Having a Masters will enable me to look for a higher level in the industry, but the experience is what will get me hired.

What positively blew my mind though, was the cost of tuition for online programs compared to physical programs. When I looked around, I found that Webster has a campus here, and an online program. The campus here will charge me $425 per credit hour. Webster's online program is better than $700 per credit hour. I can't understand how an online environment is more expensive than the classroom. Webster's online program is as expensive per credit hour as the University here.

[Zoolander]

Honestly, I cannot see how anyone can offer Graduate level work online. I guess maybe it would depend on the field, but the idea of that just seems completely retarded. I really don't even see how it works with anything after an associates degree, but again I suppose it depends on the degree you are pursuing.

Don't see why anyone would willingly rob themselves of the college experience either, unless you are a non-traditional student. Fuck being so ridiculously practical, most people I know didn't go into debt but sure as hell would have to get the experiences they've had along with the education. Idk how financial aid and scholarships work with online schools, but the prices being thrown around here are expensive as shit. You guys don't have scholarship opportunities at in-state public schools? Maybe I'm just spoiled with the solid public schools here in FL...

[Acturus]

Maybe I'm just spoiled with the solid public schools here in FL...

I graduated with my BA from the University of Central Florida at the peak of testing online classes. UCF's programs and projects are actually responsible for a number of major online degree programs, including DeVry (and it's sister school, Keller).

I hated online classes, but my wife, who completed the entirety of her upper level bachelor's work (60 hours) online through UCF several years later, absolutely loved it. She's a book learner, I'm a classroom learner.

Unless the course material requires hands-on experiences, online learning is just as valuable as classroom learning. The only thing it lacks is direct interaction, and to be honest, between 500 person classrooms and professors who just assign work instead of teaching material, one could argue that the online classes don't lack much at all.

But obviously no one method works for 100% of the people, or 100% of the subjects.

*edit* and if you think online Masters are bad, I found an online PHD through Phoenix NOVA where the "clinical" hours are basically a two week course in Kentucky where you take a law class on-site. THAT was astounding.

[Meresgi]

I will say that going to a small Community college spoiled me, actually being able to sit down and chat with the teacher during classes, and only being in class sizes of about 10-20 ppl was really nice. It's the same way in the online courses supposedly, they have a max of 20 ppl per class so to allow the teacher to interact with the students and communicate with them in a timely matter. There's no school close by that has the degree that I want and i've had the "college experience" and didn't care for it. I'm not a very social butterfly and usually spent most of my time in my dorm reading, playing games with a friend from back home who roomed with me, or going home on weekends.

The price is kinda iffy, but remember with online courses you don't have lodging costs, so I just need to math it out if the hike in course costs outweigh the cost of room/board+courses, or are about the same.

Online courses also allow you to have a job at the same time, campus schools do as well but you have to limit your work schedule, while online requires you to show up 4 days out of the week online, but you can show up when you have the time.