Do degrees from online college's mean less? Even if they do, I'd assume an online degree is better than

Question

nothing?

I meant from online colleges

Answer 1

Wow, most of these answers are crap, some are not bad, and a few are good.

First, let's discuss accreditation. Accreditation comes in two forms, institutional accreditation and program accreditation. Institutional accreditation is an accreditation of an entire school. In simplest terms, this will be in four levels:
1. Regional
2. National
3. State approved
4. Unaccredited

Regional accreditation is granted by one of six regional accrediting agencies recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. This is widely considered to be the highest accreditation for an entire institution available in the U.S. All publicly funded state universities and colleges will be regionally accredited.

National accreditation is granted by at least two different agencies recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and there are probably more. The two that I am referring to are DETC and ACICS. The DETC is a well-known agency that accredits distance learning schools. The ACICS accredits schools like ITT Tech and other similar vocational schools. Typically, regionally accredited schools will either refuse credits from a nationally accredited school or will accept them on a limited basis. There are a few regionally accredited schools that are more accomodating, but you have to search for them.

State-approved schools are institutions that are either very new and haven't had the opportunity to become regionally accredited or have never been good enough to pass regional accreditation standards. This should tell you something. If a school can't pass the quality standards set forth by the regional accrediting agencies, a degree from one may not be worth much. In fact, many states are starting to write laws against using degrees from such schools. There are a couple of schools in Alabama and California that aren't acceptable to the State of Oregon for example.

Finally, there are the completely unaccredited schools. These may have a license to operate, but aren't actually approved by the state where they are located. Some states are beginning to toughen their laws so someday, the only unaccredited schools available will be off-shore. Avoid unaccredited schools completely.

Program accreditations are usually over and above regional accrediation. These types of accreditation will only cover a particular section of an institution and usually require regional accreditation first. For example, AACSB accredits business programs, ABET accredits engineering and technology programs, APA accredits psychology programs, TEAC accredits teacher education programs and so on.

Since I have said so much about accreditation, I should let you know where you can check on accreditation. The Department of Education has a searchable database at http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/search.asp You can learn more about accreditation at http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html

As for the utility of online degrees, this is very subjective and it depends upon who you talk to. In my opinion, if all else is equal, an online degree won't be as useful as a degree earned on-campus. However, an online degree is still useful. Here is the way that I see it.
1. An on-campus degree from a top 25 school - BEST
2. An on-campus degree from a standard state school or well-respected private institution.
3. An online degree from a standard state school or private institution that is both regionally and program accredited.
4. An online degree from a mostly online school that is regionally accredited. (ie. University of Phoenix)
5. An on-campus degree from a nationally accredited school (ie. ITT Tech)
6. An online degree from a nationally accredited school (ie. Penn Foster)
7. A degree from an unaccredited school (whether there was real work involved in the degree program or not) - USELESS.

There may be some overlap between the above categories, but they are generally going to follow that pretty closely. So, if two people are applying for the same job, typically, the person with an on-campus degree will beat out the University of Phoenix degree holder most of the time. Sometimes the UoP degree holder will win, but I would say most times not.

Of course, this is just in general terms, you may run into people who don't care where a degree is from, they are just looking for someone with a degree. In those situations, an online degree will be just as good as any other degree. Other times, you may encounter people who have a bad opinion of schools like University of Phoenix and those will reject an applicant with such a degree even if they are the only person applying for a job.

So, to answer your question, do degrees from online college's mean less? Sometimes. Is an online degree better than nothing? Yes, if it is accredited.

Good luck

PS. Avoid online college search sites. Most are advertising driven and therefore direct you to for-profit schools. Some will even direct you to unaccredited schools. While for-profit schools may provide you with a perfectly valid education, most will overcharge. Your best choice for an online education is to attend an online program at a state university or community college.

Answer 2

This question is frequent. Instead of giving you a three page answer, look at it this way:

An online degree from a college that has a brick and mortar counterpart and is not-for-profit is the same as if you were in the classes because they do not distinguish the difference.

All other schools that are just totally online or have both brick and mortar and online but are for-profit are usually not good despite accreditation.

I can go and get accredited for a college if I had a degree outline and taught the required hours. Accreditation is the LEAST you should settle for. Private accreditation recognized as excellence is what you want (i.e. ABET).

But yes, an online degree is better than none, but it will cost you a lot of money. Your better off getting an assocaites degree from community college and its way cheaper and more recognized. Don't fall for advertisments either as pointed out.

Answer 3

Online degrees are not a total crap, however one needs to check what it can deliver and also what it can help to improve you upon.

Case 1> You are a successful businessman and need a MBA or an online degree to have a formal and textbook like educational training to give you the polish and direction in your work.

Case 2> You are a manager in position and already does management as a professional duty, but need a MBA or a online degree merely to revalidate what you already know, as well to as some branding to your resume.

Case 3> You are from a foreign country working in the United States , already posses the required skills, but feel your educational degree and qualification in your native country is named differently and has a different nomenclature, then to solve that problem you can do a equivalent online degree in the US to ratify what you already know and learnt, just in a degree equivalent in U.S standards.

Case 4> You are a person who needs to travel a lot for work so its a good chance you might not meet the attendence requirements to a part time or evening program at the college/school. In that case its good idea to persue a online program.

Having said that you fall under the 4 valid cases I described you must also check for the following 3 parameters before you persue a online degree.

a> If its a Business , MBA, Accounting degree look for the AACSB Accreditation.

b> Additionally look for the regional accreditation.

c> Finally also look weather the particular online degree also has a part time/ full time program with same curriculum at the school premises.

If it satisfies all these parameters and you also fall under the 4 categories I described, yes Online programs can be put to good use.

Answer 4

An online degree from an unrecognized college will do nothing but leave you with less money. They have little to know credentials and will hand out degrees for stupid things like "life experience" as long as your cheque clears.

Employers know this so they usually don't even recognize them at all.

There are so many people out there with proper degrees that will get the jobs you are trying to get. Many real universities offer some online courses though, so maybe you can get a degree with only being in class some of the time?

Answer 5

Watch out for any online degrees or private schools that claim they are accredited. There are different kinds of accreditation: Regional, Private School, State. If a School has Regional or Private, they may not be recognized by the state and may not transfer or be worth anything in the end. It would suck to pay for and spend time getting a degree that no one recognizes.

Answer 6

Yes, a degree from a For-Profit Online Company is worth less than an online degree from an actual educational institution. An online degree is worth less than one that came from someone who attended in person... but not enough less to worry about.

A degree from the University of Phoenix is not better than nothing. You have nothing. It's one step up from a diploma mill, and is having professional acredidation problems that may cause you worse headaches in the future than if you had not done this at all. (And, with SUBSTANTIALLY less cash in your pocket.)

Answer 7

It depends. The univesity that I attend has a distance and online program. There are a few programs that can be completed either online or on campus or both. If you did your degree online from my school, you'd get the same credit and exact same degree as someone who went to lectures and the employer would never know the difference! In fact, no one ever would unless you told them or they looked up your transcript and then looked up your section number.

Answer 8

Online degrees from accredited schools carry weight. The work is just as hard if not harder online. University of Phoenix and Kaplan come to mind.

Talk to people who've done it before, see where they went, grill the college ahead of time and ask for statistics of what graduates are now doing, and make your decision after researching all of that. Good luck in your endeavors!

Answer 9

As long as it NA or RA accredited it is good enough for the US govt/military... Some employers and colleges have too much pride and only want your ivy leave degree, most employers don't care.

Answer 10

It's a waste of money, it doesn't mean anything in the real world.

Go to a Community College and then a University.