Online Bachelors and Masters: Are these degrees respected?

I'm on my phone now so wont write all of my thoughts on this subject due to my fat thumbs getting tired.

Online degrees are great and I'm sure you'd be surprised in knowing how many professionals, especially ones who earned them for career advancement (while working full time) have received an online degree.

In selecting a school though...my best advice is to attend a school who not only has a sports team, but one that is operating under the NCAA (whether that be at the division 1, 2 or 3 levels). Reason for that is the NCAA has set guidelines that meet the national accredited requirements. The NAIA division would also fall under this.

Also check to see if the University has dorms. They have dorms....that is also a good sign.

Schools that would fall under what I said above are also, more than likely going to have a discounted rate for current Military and Veterans.

Like I said, I'm on my phone so if you have anymore questions just hit me up and Id be more than happy to help you out since I have done the classroom bachelors degree and the online masters.

It really depends on what your degree is in, and how you apply yourself towards the career field of your choice. For example, receiving an engineering degree online may be questionable as you may have no hands on experience with the work itself, however if you have work experience to back it up, it does help.

If you are already in the field and want the education to back you up, it's a good plan. Is it as powerful as a degree from Harvard, no. I would research the university you are getting your online degree from.

No one cares where a degree is from, only that you one and it's an accredited school.

It really depends on the degree as some will have labs, practicums, and internship requirements. Others just want your writings. I prefer the brick and mortar schools because of the interaction in class they allow. Plus, having to go somewhere for class helped keep me on track.

i'm a bit biased... but i have also taught at some online schools. it depends on the degree you get. DeVry is fairly good. and their Keller business school is first rate. ITT Tech (now defunct) graduates wouldn't have gotten to the interview stage for me. University of Phoenix... if you are out for a fuzzy studies degree, go for it. If it's a technical degree, *I* wouldn't hire you, others might.

The main thing that I encourage people to do is to see if your credits will transfer to a state university or a regionally accredited major private school. If you can't transfer your credits it is a huge negative and an indication that your school is not a very good investment. Frequently smaller state schools or community colleges are even cheaper than for profit diploma mills and their credits will transfer anywhere.

Saw a number of folk talking regional vs. national accreditation. The value on them depends or one can be irrelevant. An example is the Engineering accreditation. If you want to register as a professional engineer, your curriculum must be ABET EAC credentialed, period. It's national. I don't recall regional bodies dabbling in this one. So it's important to find out what counts for what. One piece of Snake Oil out there related to engineering is a number of schools have Engineering Technology programs, some registered under ABET TAC. Those don't count for engineering registration. So just because it's ABET doesn't mean everything is the gold standard. Make sure your curriculum, degree, subsequent license, etc. pieces fit together.

Biggest thing to ensure is that it is Regionally accredited, not nationally.

You might consider being a part time student. At Camp Lejeune I knew of a number of Marines who took 8-12 credit hours every semester, (including summer semester), at UNC Wilmington, instead of the traditional full-time load of 16-18. The commands were helpful in making it possible. They got the idea from fellow civilian students that couldn't balance a full-time schedule with the requirement to hold a full-time job. They were still finishing in 4-5 years.

Usually, (not always) the biggest factor affecting your salary 10 years into a company is your salary when you started. Some of that is determined by the college you went to. My wife is HR director for an environmental lab. The Ivy League and "top tier college" grads normally command a 10%-20% higher starting salary than the "others". At least in environmental sciences, on-line colleges credits from degree core curriculum credits transferred to a brick and mortar university are pretty much disqualifiers.

Honestly I would wait. A few years back my spouse actually wanted to earn a third degree through a major online college yet in the last semester decided to go to a state school for clinical purposes & when they accepted course credits we found out we wasted over $37,000 with the online "college" because they accepted NO credits from them... BUT! They DID accept credits from a no longer existing map dot college in Kansas that my spouse had attended in the mid 80s... Definitely be careful if you do decide to go that route because if the classes completed aren't accepted elsewhere then who knows how the degrees could be seen...