Online schools?

I have a few questions about online schools and distance learning programs. I am an adult who completed only 3 years of college and am looking to transfer my credits and complete my Bachelor’s online.





1. Are their degrees accepted just as any other degrees are accepted when it comes to employment? They seem rather easy to get accepted to so are they frowned upon in any way?





2. Would my degree be accepted at other Universities if I were to apply for a Graduate program?





3. What are the most reputable online colleges?





Sorry for all of the questions! I'd especiallylove to hear from someone who's had experience with an online school or a distance learning program.

Online schools?
1. Are their degrees accepted just as any other degrees are accepted when it comes to employment? They seem rather easy to get accepted to so are they frowned upon in any way?





No, generally speaking they are not yet as well accepted. However, some are better accepted than others and some are better accepted than some traditional schools. It's all about the reputation of the college that awarded the degree and not whether it was online or not. If you get a degree online from U Mass. - it says nowhere that your classes were online. They aren't all easy to get accepted to. Apply for the Master's in International Human Rights Law at Oxford (which they teach completely online) and see if it's easy to get accepted. ;-) Many are open admission though - this is because of the logistics of distance ed and not about quality of program. Some though - they'll take anyone with a credit card. Those aren't the schools you want (online or traditional).





2. Would my degree be accepted at other Universities if I were to apply for a Graduate program?





It depends on where you get the degree. If you get your degree from a top ranked college then you have a degree from a top ranked college. If you get the degree from one of the bottom feeders, you have a pretty low quality degree. Grad schools know who is who.





3. What are the most reputable online colleges?





They are the same as the most respected traditional colleges. Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, UMass, Florida State, Duke, UNC, UCLA, etc.... all teach online. Your choices are very many. Almost every college in the USA now teaches online. University of YourState probably offers a few degrees online; it's not 1981 any longer. ☺
Reply:All the info you ever need http://EduInfoForYou.com about online colleges. I found my college there it was a lifesaver for me . I was able to earn a degree in sports management online and now i love my job (first time in my life i can say that)
Reply:Do your degree by distance and online programs that are offered by 'traditional' or 'brick and mortar' schools. Although there are some quality distance universities ie. Athabasca University in Canada, they are few. If you find a quality program, you should have little problem getting accepted to post-graduate studies. As for employers, some may have prejudice against distance education that's why going through traditional schools is important. You'll get a diploma that reads "bachelor of whatever" and your employer, short of reviewing your transcript and looking up section numbers, will never know how you took your classes!
Reply:Theoretically, you can probably learn almost as much online as you do in a classroom. But it requires much more initiative and self-discipline than it does in a classroom. You have to know yourself and be honest about how you learn before you can know how right it is for you. I'm a college math teacher, and every semester I have at least one or two students who come into my classes in the second week of class, telling me that they had signed up for an online version of the course, and immediately discovered they couldn't possibly learn that way.





Now, although I said that it's theoretically possible to learn almost as much online, the fact is that graduate school admissions committees, as well as employers, will NOT value a degree from an online school as highly as they will a degree from a standard college. (And if the school isn't accredited by one of the established regional accrediting agencies, they'll treat you as if you hadn't gone to college at all.) Whether that's fair or not is a matter of opinion, but it's a fact.





As far as reputable, the University of Phoenix is the largest and best known, and I believe it's accredited. Most online colleges are not even accredited, and you would be totally wasting your time and money to enroll in a non-accredited school. But I have to also tell you that the University of Phoenix is constantly used as a bad example in discussions among academic people, when they say, "we don't want to be like the University of Phoenix."





To follow up on what another responder said about online courses from established schools, that's a different matter entirely. If you take and pass online classes from a reputable, established university, then graduate school admissions committees and employers will give you almost the same credit that you would receive if you had taken the classes in a classroom. That's because the established schools are very careful to establish standards that ensure the online courses are taught to the same level as the corresponding classroom classes are.
Reply:Unfortunately, I've never tried transferring online credits to grad school, but I did get a few I'd taken in high school to transfer to a state school just fine.





To go point by point:





1. It's a bit of a stretch to say they're just as accepted, but impressions are improving with time. In the resource link below, there is an article that discusses the issue in more detail, with some further links to a few news stories and studies that seem to indicate that while there is some hesitancy to accept the degrees, this is changing quickly as more and more people go through online programs.





2. I think a great way to find this out would be to call up some of the schools you're thinking of attending, and talk to them about it. I'm sure they'll be able to give you a better answer than the best of us could.





3. Try to find programs that aren't just online only, and are offered through reputable traditional colleges. This way, you'll have a name everyone recognizes on the degree.
Reply:Please steer clear of those online, for profit schools such as university of phoenix and strayer as they are merely out to 'make a profit'. Former students of u of phoenix started this site: http://www.uopsucks.com





Traditional colleges may offer some online courses: http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ