Online College Question

wormie_sl said:

Good call. Considering the widely avalaible online degrees from real colleges, anyone who has a degree from one of these diploma mills is either: a) lazy or b) dumb. There are zero reasons to give these "schools" your money so the only explanation is stupidity or apathy.

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Bingo.

Pretty much the only reason to get a degree from an online-only would be if you are in a current job position, you are qualified for a promotion, but you have been told you can't be promoted without a degree(for whatever reason). Then get the quick & cheap degree just to satisfy that job requirement.

Trying to actually use it on the open job market isn't going to do much for you at all.

You can rent books from Amazon for $18-30 now or just buy an older edition. I've bought older editions for at least 15 different classes and labs in subjects like Biology, Organic Chemistry, Physics, History, and English. Not once was I ever out in the cold because the lecture covered something that wasn't in the book. It's a HUGE racket, but there are plenty of ways to get around it without spending $1k+ a semester on books.

I also trash any online degree. I feel a bit bad, but I need some criterion and that is a good one to get me towards a more manageable level. I personally do not trust the degree and I typically hire in the science field and without lab experience you are essentially useless.

McCheese_sl said:

I used to think people trashed resumes with shit like University of Phoenix on them. However, in my current job I've seen hundreds of resumes of people working on government contracts and the amount of diploma mills listed on them is staggering. All of these positions are IT/tech related, so maybe the degree isn't as important in those fields? Whatever the case, have a "for profit" university diploma doesn't seem to be quite the black mark that it used to be.

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Seems like all my coworkers got their MBA's from online schools. Places I've never heard of. They keep telling me I should do it since we get tuition assistance, but I'm like...what for? Just to have it? Sounds like a waste of time/money.

I thought about going to UCLA or USC for a full time MBA, but even then I couldn't justify the cost and 2 years of not working. Even if I landed a strong six figure salary, it wouldn't really be worthwhile.

The problem with old editions is if the teacher assigns problems from the book. A lot of the time the problems are slightly different between editions.

Internet age. Any kind of physics, math, or chemistry class is going to have homework posted online through mymathlab, masteringchemistry, or whatever. No college professor in 2013 wants to spend 20 hours a week grading homework from problems assigned out of the book. Maybe there are some colleges or dusty old professors out there that still do, but im 112 hours into a BS in biology and I haven't been required to work a single problem from the back of the book.

Elurin_sl said:

Seems like all my coworkers got their MBA's from online schools. Places I've never heard of. They keep telling me I should do it since we get tuition assistance, but I'm like...what for? Just to have it? Sounds like a waste of time/money.

I thought about going to UCLA or USC for a full time MBA, but even then I couldn't justify the cost and 2 years of not working. Even if I landed a strong six figure salary, it wouldn't really be worthwhile.

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Government hiring is all about checking the box. They don't care what you did to get a masters as long as the box is checked and then you get whatever points is assigned to that check box. SO while outside the government it may be useless, inside it counts just as much as say an engineering masters when trying to go from a GS-12 to a GS-13 or 13 to 14.

TheBeagle_sl said:

Internet age. Any kind of physics, math, or chemistry class is going to have homework posted online through mymathlab, masteringchemistry, or whatever. No college professor in 2013 wants to spend 20 hours a week grading homework from problems assigned out of the book. Maybe there are some colleges or dusty old professors out there that still do, but im 112 hours into a BS in biology and I haven't been required to work a single problem from the back of the book.

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chegg

My profs for msc econ gave questions from the books all the time, but never without posting those questions up so it wasn't like saying open your book and do question 2.a or whatever.

If you are hiring and throw out a resume based on "online degree" alone that is silly. Unless you are dealing with 900 applications.

Im hiring two positions now. Lots of online degrees, lots of normal "in field" better known colleges, lots of ITT Tech bullshit, and ten times more SUNY DEGREE IN BULLSHIT FIELD.

If im hiring IT, ill take someone with a Phoenix Online degree over someone that went to Syracuse for Anthropology, or Theater Design, Or Art History with a concentration in 13th century france or one of the other "non real world job" degrees. I focus on experience, job history and if they look promising interview skills.

This isnt the 50s. A college degree is just a check in the box for EVERYONE.

That said, Online classes gouge on the books, never buy from the "school" - always shop used book sites. Buy them for cheaper, then sell them back for a little bit. Still going to take a big dick in the ass on costs.

I've only worked with two people with online degrees. One from DeVry one from ITT. The former is a very competent programmer the other was a moron.

Thats about par for the course in all walks of education

True I work with quite a few people from traditional CS routes that can't program out of a brown paper bag

Every colleague I have who has a "degree" from places like University of Phoenix, Kaplan, etc., write shit like "could of" or "should have did" in their professional writing. I don't know if they're just idiots or what, but I know during my first degree at a real college if I had written that garbage on papers I would have been skewered.