Provide free online degree advice article and news
9 Jun
Question by Math Geek: Have you been discriminated for having an online college degree?
Do you think you would have better job opportunities if you had a traditional college degree?
Best answer:
Answer by RoaringMice
A lot of employers won’t hire people who got their degrees online. They’re wary of such degrees. They don’t consider them to be as good as degrees obtained offline.
That’s made worse if the school you went to was not regionally accredited. Even if your school had been “offline”, if it’s not regionally accredited, then those degrees aren’t considered genuine by many employers and by most schools.
You can mitigate the stigma of having an online degree if you get it via a reputable university that’s famous for being offline, rather than online; that’s famous for being a traditional university, rather than a for-profit company. So instead of U of P, Walden, Strayer, Kaplan and etc., focus on U Maryland, Penn State, UMass Amherst, Florida State, U Denver, and the other traditional schools that offer online degrees.
But what’s done is done. You already have the degree, correct? Know that some employers won’t hire you – but others will. In fact, contact your college, and find out which employers have hired their graduates in the past. Those would be employers you’d want to target.
Add your own answer in the comments!
Related posts:
One Response for "Have you been discriminated for having an online college degree?"
Doesn’t anyone use the SEARCH function around here? This question has been asked a lot… and also WRONGLY answered a lot. So, maybe, unless you found one of MY answers, it’s better that you didn’t search.
Simply stated, there is nothing wrong with an online degree AS LONG AS IT IS ACCREDITED by an agency approved by the US Department of Education (USDE) and/or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Online does not mean sub-standard. That’s, simply, a myth… and a ridiculous one, at that.
Online degrees have a bad name in the minds of those who don’t really know what they’re talking about (some of whom, no doubt, will chime-in and show their ignorance here) because so many DIPLOMA MILLS and DEGREE MILLS (which, incidentally, are pretty much the same thing… just two different phrases for it) nearly ALL use the “online” modality as their coursework delivery system.
Unfortunately, what MAKES them degree mills is that they don’t really deliver any coursework. They just sell degrees for a price, without requiring real work (often ANY work) on the part of the student. Naturally, such “online” degrees are worthless…. even WORSE than worthless… and can even get one arrested for putting same on his/her resume in some states.
Stupid (and, yes, I use that word intentionally, because at this point in time, one would have to be downright STUPID not to know this) employers who don’t realize that there is a UNIVERSE of difference between an online diploma mill “degree” (and I use the term loosely), and a genuine, bonda fide, fully-accredited, completely legitimate, rigorous college/university degree which just happened to be delivered via distance learning in the form of an online modality, may very well toss your resume (because it lists an online degree) into the trash. Knuckleheads like that are still out there. But if they’re THAT out of touch, why would you ever want to work for one of them? Get a clue.
Even Harvard and Yale offer online programs. The trick, again, is to ensure that whatever distance learning degree program you enter is truly ACCREDITED by a USDE- and/or CHEA-approved agency; and the really easy way to determine that is to simply look-up the online school (and/or its program) which you are considering in either or both of the USDE and/or CHEA databases at:
http://www.chea.org/search
http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation
If the online school (or the school offering the program via some other form of distance learning) isn’t in that database, then it is not accredited. And if it’s not accredited (even though there are, indeed, many unaccredited programs which are, nevertheless, credible), STAY AWAY.
Distance learning students, studies have found, tend to be more dedicated and disciplined (mostly because they have no peer and support group around them, like in-classroom students do, to keep up their spirits and encourage them to work hard and do well). Those same studies show that most distance learning students work harder, too. One such study, by the US Department of Education itself, was released just a month or so ago. Here’s an article about it (which includes a link to a copy of it):
http://www.examiner.com/x-6028-Global-Campus-Education-Examiner~y2009m6d29-The-US-Department-of-Education-releases-a-report-on-online-learning-studies
Do NOT fear an online degree… at least as long as it’s accredited.
Like any other degree, it will be viewed better if it’s from a top-tier school, of course. But it should not be viewed as sub-standard just because it’s an “online” (or any other form of distance learning) credential.
Also, many schools will not put on either the diploma, or the transcript, that it was a distance learning degree. And there’s nothing ethically wrong with not pointing it out (as long as you don’t deny if asked). So, therefore, many potential employers may not even realize that it’s a distance learning degree… that is, unless maybe they look at where you’ve lived, and then realize that the degree was from a school on the other side of the country, and then put two and two together. But even then, that’s nothing to be ashamed of, contrary to what some people will claim. If you’re challenged about it, simply furrow your eyebrows as if you don’t understand why it’s even an issue, and then also SAY that.
If you’re in an interview with a potential employer who challenges the validity of a fully-accredited online degree, then EDUCATE him or her right then and there, by firing back the likes of what I’ve written here. Make sure that s/he does not confuse “online” with either “sub-standard” or, worse, “diploma mill.” And if s/he doesn’t get it after that, then, trust me, you’re better off not working for him/her.
Hope that helps.
Leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.