Bluegrass Lass

So my OH has been steadily taking classes over the last few years towards completing a computer related degree. He just got admitted to a (somewhat) local uni that offers an online CIS degree, but they charge $360/credit hour. To complete his degree, it will cost an additional $25k on top of the ~$20k he's already spent.

He was doing some research and came across London University which offers essentially the same degree and similar course work. To complete his degree with them, he said it would cost £3500! Obviously this is a tremendous difference in price since we could pay for the rest of his degree in cash, instead of taking out student loans.

So, what can anyone tell me about LU's reputation? Is it pretty good, or not so good? Would there be any drawbacks to him using an UK-based university to complete his degree, while he's living in the US? Does anyone have any experience of using a degree from this uni to get a job in the US?

elfman

The University of London is not a single entity – it’s a federation of many separate university-level institutions all with quite different characteristics and specialties. Kind of like the “University of California” in that (someone correct me if I’m wrong) that’s not one single institution but lots of separate ones, i.e. UC Berkeley, UC LA, UC Irvine, etc. Which one is he looking at?

Bluegrass Lass

The division is Goldsmiths. I don't know if that's a good one or not.

Kate2112

Its a very well respected college.

Bob

Bloody good college for what it's good at.

The missus just finished doing her masters through Kings College (part time over 3 years), which is part of LU. £3K a year, which when she started was a bargin, in the middle not quite so and the final year was waived because I got laid off and she was just about to deliver our daughter, so they gave her maternity leave on top to catch up, took a while to process but they sorted it all out (had the odd email from IT to come by the office to verify certain things, which obviously couldn't be done, but course supervisor was really good).

Got a whole bunch of student discounts which she didn't use like to the union book shop and Borders etc, a NUS card so if ever in blighty, can get student rates, able to use all the university facilities for free if ever over there and accomodation at reduced student rates.

Also able to use the library, which was really handy because Kings has one if not the largest digitised library in Europe and had loads of journals etc on hand for free or heavily discounted.

She wasn't doing a CIs degree though and there's only a few courses in the US that were respected for what she studied, but they were in the order of around $25-35K a year...Northeastern, your having a laugh, orange line is a crap hole as is the location

made of kent

Goldsmiths GOOD, very good, we wouldn't band round the story of my Grandad the farm hand who got a scholarship there, but couldn't take it as the family couldn't afford the books and uniform! (fees and accommodation taken care of)
and as far as I can tell still good, I went to South Bank!!!! great tutors, poor system and NO info, they never even used to send a letter to inform us of term start and what building we would be in for our lectures! let alone room!!!
I found out about term start, 1 year from a friend who had visited the library, kept phoning for info on what time my lectures where and what days, no response, arrived day one at 9am to cover the bases, and turned out my first lecture was at 9 that day! but hadn't been allocated a room???WTF
In case you are wondering, working full time and studying part time 1 day a week and living 70 miles away, so not exactly living the student life, hearing term dates ect in the Student union! or surrounded by friends in the know, most of us travelled great distances (mine was one of the shortest! 2 women travelled from the Isle of Man weekly), so making friends was hard, and as soon as lectures where over, straight to the library or bookshops to study.

mekadag

goldsmiths is a great university - my daughter gained her BA there and then took a teaching qualification at institute of education in the university of london.

julia

Bluegrass Lass

Thanks for info everyone. I think my OH will definitely start the process of getting admitted there. Our only concern at this time is whether or not he'll have to start repaying the student loans he's already taken out. We're not sure if him taking classes at a foreign university will be acceptable to keep deferring the repayment period. Would anyone happen to know who we could call to find this out? I don't know if it would be better for him to call his loan servicer or to call FAFSA directly.

The_English_Bride

I'm pretty sure that as long as you're still a FT student, you don't have to start paying your loans back, but it's hard to find specific info on attending a foreign institution.

Bob

You have to use the letter of acceptance from the uni, but it can be used to defer student loan repayments, but when doing the thesis if you have to do one, that part doesn't count. Not all uni's are able to defer payment, LU is one that allows it. Finance department, when you don't get a thickie asking you to swing by their office are actually pretty helpful and sort everything out.

Also, not that this applies to you, but you'd not be eligble to get federal student loans to pay for this.

Bluegrass Lass

Yeah, we know we can't use federal aid to cover the costs. The degree program he is going to sign up for is an online degree, so hopefully it will go relatively smoothly for him to get admitted and whatnot, esp since we aren't travelling back to the UK anytime soon.

We have to say that we are pretty much shell-shocked at the price difference for him to complete his degree with LU compared to the cost to finish up here. I mean, there is huge diff between paying $6k-$7k versus $25k! I guess US universities are cashing in on the huge convenience of an online degree (even tho their overhead costs are a lot lower) and are being just plain greedy.