Sunday, December 24, 2006

Online Colleges Cost Less But…

Online colleges can be a great way to receive an education. Many times the courses cost several times less than traditional colleges, though many more popular online colleges are beginning to charge tuition that is the same as some physical campus colleges.

Before you enroll in an online college, take the time to research the school. Though many online colleges are legitimate programs, unfortunately many of them are also not. Some online colleges will provide you with a degree that isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Be sure you don’t end up wasting your time and money. While it’s hard to choose between colleges anyway, it can be even more difficult to safely determine which online colleges are one hundred percent legitimate.

If you sign up to receive more information about an online college and when they contact you begin asking for a class ‘reservation fee’ or some other amount of money for anything other than tuition, walk the other direction. These are scam colleges. These degree mills often don’t even have the licensure or accreditations to be offering degree programs. And even if they are fully accredited, no legitimate school worth attending is going to ask for money to reserve classes or anything else like that.

Don’t listen to the online college’s own hype. Sure their website looks awesome, why wouldn’t it? Sure their claims of excellence sound good, they’re trying to get your business. Before enrolling in an online college, do some research about online colleges in general. Find out how viable a degree from an online college is going to be.

For some careers online college degree programs are more viable than for other career types. It’s up to you to find out if your career plans match up well with an online college. If attending classes online works out for you it can be a very convenient situation. Many times you can complete projects and other assignments with greater deadline freedom than with traditional colleges.

Online college is not for you if you have trouble managing your own time. Online college still has class times at which you must be online to participate in class discussion. Some classes will not require this, but most do so that they still resemble traditional college in some ways. If can manage your time and prioritize, then online college may be just the thing for you.

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