scrubbedexpat099

How about the Tri Valley University in California, helps if you are Indian it seems.

Kaffy Mintcake

It can be done actually, I pursued a masters degree while working full-time. I won't lie though, at times it is rough and you do give up most of your free time to make it happen ... but it can be done 1-2 (or even 3 if you're a glutton) classes at a time.

I agree with the others ... if you go online, go online with a traditional school vs. an online only one. My organization (and I to be fair) have the same prejudices against online only, justified or not.

fora

hey thats a very good option...u can get ur online degree if at all u r working ....

anotherlimey

Things are easier if you have an address in the UK, and someone willing to forward the mail.

deng890

I've never done one, but from people I know that have, it seems as if online learning is only a good idea if you're already in an established career, with contacts and experience, and you need the degree to learn a few things but mainly just to fulfill some company formality (ex. you can't move up higher than a certain paygrade in Corp. X without a masters). My brother is taking an online course becauseof this, and in this situation it doesn't really matter where you go (although its key that it be accredited).

IMO, it's probably a very bad idea to depend on an online degree for a career change or trying to get a start in a certain field or industry. Most of these online only schools are seen as nothing more than for profit overpriced diploma mills with very lax entrance requirements (mainly, that you have a pulse and are eligible for federal student loans).

TimNiceBut

That's my impression as well, although I think the pulse might be optional.

Bluegrass Lass

I can agree with your statement only as it applies to non brick-and-mortar universities. My husband is studying for a degree online that will lead him to a career change; however his degree is offered by a brick-and-mortar uni that has offered this degree traditionally for a very long time - and his diploma will make no distinction that it is an online degree.

fsm

Another way you can explore is if you have a local community college, you can save some money by doing courses that will transfer to a 4 year college.

scrubbedexpat091

Really depends on what school is from, many public colleges and universities offer distance learning now, and a degree from those schools is the same, can't tell if the person did distance, on campus or a mix.

I'd avoid any of the for profit schools like University of Phoenix or ITT and such.

Michael

Use caution when selecting a for profit school. Currently students attending for profit schools have the same possibility of obtaining low interest deferred government school loans as students at public colleges. However, many of the for profit schools have graduation rates that are well below the public colleges and/or students only getting low paying jobs upon graduation so can't pay back the student loans.

Obama has recently proposed regulations aimed at for profit schools that have low graduation rates or high student loan defaults would no longer be eligible for student loans.

Republicans oppose the regulations even though it would save the government a ton of money since they believe that any non government school has to be better than any government run school.

http://www.citytowninfo.com/career-a...-debt-10072601

The regulations were proposed due to the following GAO report.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10948t.pdf

The for profit schools have filed a lawsuit to stop the regulations from being implemented.

http://chronicle.com/article/With-La...Profit/126042/

You may also want to look at taking evening classes at community colleges. You could start slow and just take one class initially. Just make sure that the evening classes that you take are credit courses.

sime303

That's pretty much what I am doing right now. It's through the University of Maine system. I can attend on campus, ITV (interactive tv where I watch the on campus lecture at a distance site, and on my laptop after the class is finished) also live classes at distance site and online classes.

As I am working full time it allows me to be really flexible with my classes.

Duncan Roberts

A few thoughts, didn't bother reading the rest of the posts cos I'm lazy so it might have been said.

1. A lot of the big colleges offer distance learning via community colleges. You will pay the home college tuition but you may go a couple of nights a week to a local college and sit through a class that is streamed to multiple locations.
2. Some colleges do hybrid degrees/certificates where a lot of components are online and you have minimal face to face time.
3. If you are choosing a for profit school, make sure they are financially stable. I know of somebody who was a couple or so months away from graduating when the school went under and all was lost.

devon dumpling

I have been reading this thread with interest as a current UK-based OU student and was wondering how an OU degree would be regarded in the US? Would it be as disparaged as it seems the US based distance learning degrees are?

TimNiceBut

I don't think anybody over here knows what the OU is. Given that it's an accredited university, I don't think you'd have much of a problem with an OU degree.

anotherlimey

No, to most US employers a UK degree is a UK degree no matter where it's from. That's not to say they'll actually hold a UK degree in high regard either; some people have had problems with that in the past too.