Online College

[madwabbit]

Like it or not, someone that worked a full time job and still managed to get their rear to school on time shows time management, discipline, and a myriad of other beneficial traits of a prospective employee- traits which cannot be taught and that they'll need if they have any idea of being successful.

You know, as opposed to just opening multiple tabs in their browser while they sip a beer and text their girlfriend.

I've attended and graduated from an online program from Northwestern State, and I have a degree from Campbell "brick and mortar". I assure you the quality of education (I don't mean whats in the text books) is far, far superior.

That being said- the degree itself doesn't hold much merit in todays world. What that resume bullet tells me is that you can manage your time and schedule, you can prioritize, dedicate, commit to a goal, and accomplish tasks with deadlines. If you did so while working full time, it looks far better. Attending online presents the image that you skirted all this. The advice was "attend online from a brick and mortar university" that way you can say 'Bachelors of Science- Louisiana State University", and not "SNHU.EDU Online"- and its golden advice as the best of both worlds. Sorry if I insulted your e-degree. I've got one myself.

fwiw I'll hire ten guys with Cisqo certifications before I hire one bachelor grad with no field experience- and pay them more.

 

[jasonj5313]

Like it or not, someone that worked a full time job and still managed to get their rear to school on time shows time management, discipline, and a myriad of other beneficial traits of a prospective employee- traits which cannot be taught and that they'll need if they have any idea of being successful.

You know, as opposed to just opening multiple tabs in their browser while they sip a beer and text their girlfriend.

I've attended and graduated from an online program from Northwestern State, and I have a degree from Campbell "brick and mortar". I assure you the quality of education (I don't mean whats in the text books) is far, far superior.

That being said- the degree itself doesn't hold much merit in todays world. What that resume bullet tells me is that you can manage your time and schedule, you can prioritize, dedicate, commit to a goal, and accomplish tasks with deadlines. If you did so while working full time, it looks far better. Attending online presents the image that you skirted all this. The advice was "attend online from a brick and mortar university" that way you can say 'Bachelors of Science- Louisiana State University", and not "SNHU.EDU Online"- and its golden advice as the best of both worlds. Sorry if I insulted your e-degree. I've got one myself.

fwiw I'll hire ten guys with Cisqo certifications before I hire one bachelor grad with no field experience- and pay them more.

Not insulted at all, that response gives me a better understanding of your view point and your views are not unlike mine.


My point is, a blanket statement of online college degrees not holding merit is false.




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[JadeRaven]

When you receive dozens or hundreds of applications for a single position, there has to be a way to weed them out before interviews.

 

[JadeRaven]

OP, many of these online courses offer an opportunity for education and self-improvement, but at the end of the day they are all created for the purpose of earning the underlying institution more money.

If it's just for your own benefit, or to get a promotion etc with your current employer, then find an economical one from a prestigious university. If you're trying to make yourself more marketable then try to find real classes that you can attend at night.

 

[UnseenUSPCompact]

It gets better/easier when your experience outgrows your schooling...after that they dont even ask if you graduated HS. (Strickly with my career field anyway)

 

[whitsend]

Thanks for all the replies. Lots of great discussion.

I wanted to get to this earlier but been in meetings ALL day.

I intentionally left it a little vague to get the discussion going, but now time for a little detail of the who and why.

This is for my wife. She's been in Healthcare administration for the last 10+ years but only has a HS diploma. She's plenty smart and can do the work, but as has been mentioned, getting your foot in the door on a new job can be an issue. (As we found out last year when we were both off work for over 2 months) She is currently the Assistant Administrator/COO at a rural hospital but her job situation has become unstable over the last few years due to management and board of director changes. She has a preliminary job offer at another facility with a former boss, but it's almost impossible to move any higher (CFO/CEO) without a degree.

Definitely looking for somewhere with a physical campus. And yes most are private and not cheap, 120 hours at $400-$500 per hour.

 

[JadeRaven]

If you actually go to LSU, for example, it's about $4k/semester of tuition and fees, and you can take as many hours as you want, or about $200/hour. I think you need permission from the dean for more than 19, if I recall. If you spread the intro & elective classes with the more difficult ones, it's very doable. Also, she'd end up with a real diploma in a few years, vs years and years of online school. What state schools are nearby?

Also could she simply get some sort of executive mba, etc, which is just a year long?

 

[BigNick73]

My wife got her MPA (masters of public administration) from Belhaven in Mississippi completely online. She seems to be happy with it. She did her undergrad there as well, but on campus the traditional way.

I just looked and they have this http://online.belhaven.edu/Health-Administration-Degree.htm as well as a Masters program. Plus side is you're only a hour or two away from the actual campus in case you needed to go for some reason.

Just be sure an have an actual plan and need for the degree. I spent a lot of money at Millsaps, after being told by various guidance counselor types how "prestigious" and great it is, I've yet to have a job that even requires a degree, much less even meet someone in HR, outside of Jackson, MS, who's even heard of it.

Do any of the facilities she works for offer tuition reimbursement? Be sure and run the numbers on this as well, will the potential increase in salary offset the cost of the degree? If going into debt to fund this, any raise could very well get eaten up by student loan repayment. You could also find yourselves with an extra bill and no extra income as a result.

 

[whitsend]

Due to life, traditional college attendance is not an option at this time. (job, kids, etc.)

Just a degree should get her about a $5-$10k annual increase.
Moving into a CFO or CEO position would net an annual increase in the $15-$35k+ range.

A move to CFO could happen as soon as she gets a degree in accounting, a CEO position could take a year or two more.

We've discussed her getting a BS in both Accounting and Healthcare Administration, or a BS in Accounting then a MBA in Healthcare Administration.

We need to narrow our school choice down to 2-3 and let her speak with a counselor at each school.

Being able to get both at the same school would be nice but not a firm requirement.

 

[whitsend]

I've been home sick today so I've been looking online at colleges most of the day.

I did find this nice tool today: http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/

I found the Northwestern in Natchitoches offers a BS in Accounting online for ~$7500 per year.

EDIT:
LSUS offers a MBA in Healthcare Administration online.

 

[BigNick73]

When I was in school the bachelors in accounting was usually a bachelors in business admin that they'd do some extra accounting classes as a "masters" (155 hours total) or "certificate" (150 hours total) in order to get the individual to 150 hours to be able to sit the CPA exam, so you might not see too many dedicated accounting undergrad programs.

I can only imagine taking the advanced accounting classes online would be a total pain in the ass with a high drop out rate.

 

[whitsend]

NSU offers a B.S. in Accounting all online.

Accounting Curriculum: http://business.nsula.edu/assets/120-Hours-Curriculum-for-Accounting-by-Semesters-f2011.pdf

She is going to contact NSU this week to get the process started.

She's been doing accounting work for the last 7-8 years.

 

[whitsend]

Thanks to everyone for the discussions and information. It was all helpful in reaching a decision.

After spending all last evening looking over and discussing the options we narrowed it down to NSU or ULM for a B.S in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting. The curriculum is very similar to the accounting curriculum with a little more focus on the business side. Being that it is not specific to Healthcare it opens other option should she decide to get out of healthcare. The plan is to immediately follow this with a MBA in Healthcare Administration.

All plans are subject to change.