5 Things Veterans Need To Consider About Online Degrees

You have to make sure that you meet these two criteria.

1. It is regionally accredited. There are many accreditation agencies and they are not worth anything unless they are regional accreditation. National accreditation is worthless. If your online school is just DECA accredited than it too is worthless.

The list is as followed
Middle States, Association of Colleges and Schools
New England Association of Schools and Colleges
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Western Association of Schools and Colleges; Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges

If you are getting a business degree than you also need to insure you school has AACSB accreditation too.

2. Insure you school is not the University of Phoenix. Though they do hold regional accreditation they have a bad name with headhunters, employment agencies and such. They have three major problems for them.

a) Over advertisement diluted their graduation percentages, and has made them seem like a school for people that cannot qualify for any other school.

b) UOP costs are so high; it shows that people that attend the school have a hard time weighing risk/benefit, fiscal strategy, easily fall prey to marketing and influence, and cannot understand long term strategic planning (i.e is my degree from a reputable school). You can get a Bachelor’s degree through Maryland, Northern Arizona, and American Military for the cost of a Phoenix associates degree. According to the UOP web site a BA degree will cost you $66,275. They are more expensive than many non-primary state schools, private schools and are damn near getting into Ivy League prices. A Bachelors degree at AMU is about 32k, and is well respected and consistently ranks within the top 20% of online school according to US News. UMUC is around 35-38k for a BA. As you can see it would be silly to hire someone that may not understand fiscal responsibility, let alone allow them any decision that my effect my bottom line. As a disclaimer I did get my BA from AMU, but after a lot of research and talking with actual agency headhunters, and intelligence hires an AMU degree would be just as good as any run of the mill (non-primary) state school, but it will never compare to a top tier school.

c) It is well known that a lot of the work in UOP is group work. HR knows this, head-hunters know this, so what comes into question is "How much work toward your degree is your own, and how much did you leech off of other people". Some people will argue that UOP model shows that you know how to work in a group setting, but I have been told and I also believe the opposite. It shows that in the long term you know less and run the risk of being an employee whom still leeches off of other people work.

This is my 6 cents, and it may be as worthless as that national accreditation or UOP reputation. However, I spent 4 months doing nothing my analyzing schools, terms leingth, costs, flexibility, after graduation support and other factors. It was a crap shoot between a few but I ended up with AMU over NAU, UMUC, Troy and a few other due to the fact that books are of no cost at AMU. One school to consider is the University of Texas at El Paso. I did not really hear about them until after I enrolled in AMU, but they offer a lot of great programs, have a great online program and are very military friendly. In fact the Sergeants Major Academy is partnered with them to offer Masters in Management (or something) I am considering them highly for my Masters.

COL Mikel J. Burroughs Sir, this is great information. As a part time adjunct professor I will report that legislative efforts are closing this black hole of debt. Programs which do not have an adequate placement record into careers which are related to the degree and provide an income which is stable and substantial enough to pay not only student loans but average debts are being "taught out" and the programs discontinued at for profit schools.

For online degrees, I believe it's a good idea to choose a school which has an online program as well as an on campus program. At the end of the day, your diploma won't say online. Of course doing research on a good school is also a plus as some questionable schools also offer on campus.