Posted by Solstice on December 17, 2010, at 13:34:29
In reply to Online Degree?, posted by Christ_empowered on December 17, 2010, at 10:20:19
I think what you're talking about doing is Exciting!
I'm quite a bit older than you. I had some college after high school, but ended up sort of falling into a fabulous career early in my college days - way before I had enough credits for a degree. I worked my way up and absolutely LOVED what I did. I made good money, had earned a reputation of competence in my field - it just couldn't have been better. Unfortunately, my line of work was crushed by the economic crisis. I survived the first year and a half of layoffs, but got bit at the very end - and have been unemployed now for 15 months. After spending some time with headhunters, it didn't take me long to realize that it was going to be very difficult to get back into my field until it recovers substantially - and it doesn't look like that will happen until well after the retail industry is thriving and expanding. At my age - without a degree - I was looking at being very under-employed despite my extensive experience. So I went back to college, initially thinking of just completing my degree. For obvious reasons, I was motivated to accelerate my degree too. I took my first two semesters online.
Here's what I can tell you.
Online classes are frequently MUCH more time intensive - and just plain ole HARDER than in-class courses. My third and 4th semester, I took all my classes on-campus, and the difference was amazing. Here are some things to consider:
1. On-campus, professors see you and you see them. Communication is MUCH easier. Online professors are frequently difficult to hunt down - you can wait forever for responses, and that can really cause you problems with getting your work done by deadlines. Miss those deadlines and it can hurtcha pretty bad.
2. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the social environment. On-campus gives you lots of access to things that will help tremendously - tutoring - help with research - fellow students who form study groups. Online classes, however, can feel very isolating. And it's frequently heavy on reading and writing... so if those aren't areas of strength for you...
3. On-campus is very friendly toward the working populace. Most classes have day and evening offerings. You need to check out your local college's class schedule to see when various classes are offered. I think you'll find it fairly easy to fit classes around your work schedule.
4. Most colleges do offer accelerated programs on-campus. They have summer semesters, and during Christmas break and spring break most college offer 3-week 'mini-semesters' where you get one 3-credit class out of the way. it of course works best for courses that don't have intense material.
5. On-campus college tuition is usually much less expensive than on-line schools. I took my on-line courses thru my local college, and they charge an extra fee for each on-line course. During my initial research, I discovered that colleges that operate entirely online are the most expensive of all.
Regardless of what you choose - I think you're doing a good thing for yourself. I just think you should check everything out before you decide which way is best for you. If you take your first two years at a community college - you'll have the advantage of a much more student-friendly environment (much smaller class sizes) and less expensive tuition. Then you can transfer those first two years of credits to university for jr & sr years. you'll be much better prepared for it doing it that way.
You may want to set up a time to meet with a college counselor. They can be marvelous at helping you figure out what will work best for you - and at clearing up any misconceptions you may have about what's availble.
Solstice
poster:Solstice
thread:973778
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20101122/msgs/973788.html