Online college and university degree

  See, many of you may have noticed and became attracted to the million offers in the Internet giving you the opportunity to take an online degree in almost no time at almost no or symbolical fee and then work the desired profession of yours with the certificate you obtain. Well it is not actually true for many of the cases. The term accreditation comes on the scene here, cause no matter what kind of diploma or document for any kind of education you have, no employer will consider it valid if the academic institution that has signed the document has accreditation license from the Department of Education specificly for the United States of America. This rule holds especially in the cases for Bachelor degrees and Masters degrees and sharply in the cases when the field of education is Engineering, Business Administration and Management. For those cases every time you apply for the job position you have found the HR department in the company checks if the certificates you have are accredited and given by an approved institution that can be trusted and surely have given you enough skills and knowledge to practice the position you apply for.

Accreditation as the first criteria you should have in consideration when researching for online degrees. That is the first step you should take when starting your higher college course in the Internet. Because of the type of studying process here you should gather a lot of information in advance for the university that has your courses offered, because you will be learning distantly on a web site and via e-materials and you should be aware if the courses you are taking are worthy. Even if some institutions state on their website they have all the documents for accreditation the best thing to do is to go and check in the specific regional licensing institute that should have tested and examined the university programs for eligibility in the USA. You can do that on the following address http://www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation/Search.asp

Just make that simple check before signing up for any of the courses listed in other sites or universities apart from those listed on our site, as you can be 100% sure we have researched every single program and university for their validness of the degree certificate you will eventually obtain from their online courses. That is one more thing we want help students with and this way to avoid and protect people being victims of the so-called “diploma mills” that you can read about in one of our sections on the home page.

 We considered important and useful for all of you looking forward to proper higher education to provide the basic facts and stress points around financing your learning by student loans given by the Government and/or the Higher school of your choice. We have summarized and extracted the key elements and information from the prospectus directly from the US Department of Education and sorted them by importance oriented only for online education. You can find there requirements, preparation for applying for financial aid, what to know and research before applying, how to apply and some statistical information that might be helpful.

Here is the information on the Financial Aid for online students. Have in mind that those are just the basics and the most important things you should know. We are going to update this section with every new rule or law if there persist such so check from time to time for updates and enjoy

University of Phoenix online

Founded in 1976, the University of Phoenix state themselves as “ahead-thinkers” for many years. Since the year of foundation this higher educational institution is known to be working with the main primary concern to provide working students opportunities for studying in many ways without changing their every-day lifestyle. For a long time the academic staff in Phoenix has been developing a variety of ways helping people work and study in the same time, no matter if it would be via their online degree courses or other methods of classes schedules according to every specific student needs. All those innovative methods of teaching and learning nowadays e.g electronic books, overnight classes, and distance online education people have used to and now have for granted have been also developed from the very beginning with the guidance and hard work of the staff ot University of Phoenix. And make no mistake about it, those are really high standard achievements we must appreciate and thank them.

Situated in North USA, the University of Phoenix now is proud to be the biggest university on the Continent spread onto 200 different off-line campuses and providing online services to more than 300 countries worldwide. As you can guess the interest in the degree programs of this University is very high, and they managed to give every new student the attention and services needed. The variety can also be noticed in the programs offered there, as they deliver over 100 courses in all the possible higher educational levels associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s as long as the doctoral degrees. And maybe the best of University of Phoenix online programs is the development they do, improving the methods with every single day to stay up-to-date with the latest need an online student would have.

Read the full review of University of Phoenix online degree programs

Colorado Technical University (CTU)

Ever since the year 1967, the Technical University of Colorado is delivering professional and real-life qualification to students off and on line being known as the most progressive higher education University in the USA. They are working on targeting the exact professions desired by their graduate or undergraduate attendants, by providing huge aspect of degree programs for every specific occupation wished and of course having all the general courses required for one to have a lot of choices when choosing a profession afterwards.

CTU’s specialty most valued is the incremental way of obtaining higher education they provide to all of their students keeping them in CTU for all the degrees they need, from associate’s through bachelor’s and finally master’s in order for the online student to perceive the highest possible level of education he wants to. And there are a lot of benefits when taking all the levels in CTU together as they adjust the schedules and timings in coordination with your availability and ease the whole process fascinatingly.

Of course as you can guess from the name, all the technical courses you may think of are offered in CTU, being the most famous and having the highest reputation among the technical universities in the United States when talking about online degrees in Computer Science, Telecommunications, Programming and all the similar computer-oriented certificates that you can obtain in the Technical University of Colorado.

Here is the full review of CTU’s online degree program

 AIU Online degree programs

AIU Online is the parallel version of the American InterContinental University based entirely on the web with full-accredited online degrees offered for higher education. Along with the web-based university, they have campuses in South Florida, Texas, California, Georgia and even in England, exchanging experience with all the UK universities in London. The AIU Online have stressed on the point of delivering international higher education and worldwide licensed online degrees that can help a student originating from any country to practice the job of his/her wish with the certificate obtained from the American InterContinental University removing the locational obstacles for many students all over the world which have no chance of moving to the States or just to attend to a proper college in they home country.

The Online degree programs of the AIU institution over the Internet allow people to study any time possible and develop themselves with the help of online tutors and academic staff devoted to helping students in all ways possible on the Internet: with chat, VoIP and questions and answers. For the years that have passed since AIU offers distance education they have provided over 20,000 people with their degrees in the particular matter, and after the research about the quality of distant learning, AIU happened to be the institution with the highest quality of online education served.

The full review of AIU online degree programs

Capella University

So famous about its accreditation Capella Universities is know to be one of the first members of the Association of Quality and Improvement in Academics (AQIA) back in year 2001. The license that Capella University has for its online degrees is widely popular because of its status and acceptance among employers and other academical institutions. Being accredited by the Higher Learning commission, the degree programs held in this universities stand for highest possible quality of education in the USA as well as validness in every state and jurisdiction a degree could face when obtained. The main difference and advantage in Capella is their new innovative approach of getting their accreditation renewed combined with constant quality development. Not like in most of the other colleges and universities that are obliged to renew the accreditation license of theirs every 10 years, Capella takes part in the program of the Higher Learning commission implicated in the method of reviewing annually all the criteria and factors about online education. That way the particular higher school can also use the many benefits that the government committee gives in return as 3^rd party research on the materials, subjects, way of learning and of course financial aids and scholarships to many students attending Capella University.

 Capella University online courses full review

Westwood online college

Also one of the pioneers in the field of distance education, the online college Westwood took the right decision in the year 2002, launching their online degree campaign which resulted in several years when the first students graduated with great success. Currently, nowadays Westwood college is proud to have more than 7,000 registered online students in more than 50 degree programs over the Internet. And geographically speaking the masses of students include people from all over the world, as they have such from more than 40 countries internationally. As some people may know the other big noise around the Westwood college even before the start of the online programs was and is the Business and Management course known to be with the highest value when reviewed by employers in any company and city in the United States and Europe. And right after the first graduates it was clear that Westwood met the expectations for Business and Management programs even the online way, which gave a lot more people the opportunity to work in this field without going to an on-campus studies.

Read more about the Westwood online degree programs

Many people consider advancing their higher education or turning back to college for some reason but there is one major obstacle in their mind stopping them from signing up in an educational institution again. And what frustrates them the most is the fact that they have to go through all the basics all over again, most of which are familiar to the majority of those who already work their professions for a long time and just need some specific upgrades of their qualification. And as all we know every single college program is planned to start with the basics and advance in time with more complicated and expert matters. It is done for reason, because imagine the high school graduates which have not a single idea of what they are starting to study and have no previous experience. So far so good but what should experienced workers and/or people over 25-30 do if they want just to skip some of the courses or subjects that they already know.

The solution is called “Life experience online degree” and it is named after the method used to give credits to experienced in work or life people that want to obtain an online college certificate in some study. After the masses studying online distantly are not of the same type or age or intelligence level. That is why most of the universities and colleges which offer online academical services have made this to support life experienced students.

How the life experience credit system works? First of all let us tell what actually are the disadvantages of the so-called non-traditional students and what characterizes them. Those students were either students years ago in a higher school and did not finish it for some reason or just have not considered taking higher degree for a long time after graduating high-school. In the mean time they have gained important and valuable life experience such as being in the military service, becoming parents or working on a full time some qualified profession. In each of those cases they have not wasted their time and this should be taken in count. So here are the criteria which give the most life experience credits while applying for an online degree program by some university:

1^st is the Age factor. No matter what people did in the years passed after high-school it is vital for Universities to give them credits for every year of their age in order not to study basic subjects that might even seem to them funny and useless, but which otherwise would prepare a freshman just got out from high school. And of course online degree course is being shortened a bit for aged people, and aged does not mean they have to be old, it just means that every year after the 20s is important criteria.

2^nd most important requirement for getting some degree credits in advance is the high school diploma or certificates taken before college. All the grades and scores on tests exams and diplomas are considered deciding and useful for taking life experience credits as students who performed well like in any other admittance procedure are given some benefits which implicate in credits in this particular case.

3^rd are the Credits earned in a previous college program or course that one has been into. As we already said there are many people that for some reason did not complete the full college course they attended before (it may be many years ago) and now are heading back to higher education. After reviewing those credits and the accreditation of the college that has given them they are all accepted as a good start of your online degree program.

4^th Work experience. And this criteria is a bit controversial. There are two cases here – work experience of a profession that has some similarity with the college program signed up for, and experience in a job position that has nothing to do with the course of desire. Now as you can all guess for similar or same field work experience are given a lot of credits depending on the exact period of experience. And we have to note that even you did not work in the same field that you want to take a degree in, you will also take advance credits, but you have to have in mind that they are not considered that important as the others mentioned above.

Well, we guess that sums up the most important factors that can give you kind of kick-off start in taking your online degree by having some additional easy credits from the beginning. You should also read carefully the admittance requirements and prospectus of the University you are interested in in order to have full knowledge on how they specifically judge the life experience credits.

   Modern society and concepts have proven enough that nowadays not all people need to have higher education in order to succeed in life, of course talking about exceptions in terms of people with really high motivation and ambitious will to prosper in the field or profession they have chosen and like having as a job and every-day activities. Comparatively not a lot of people go to colleges these days. But even having in mind those people, the same rule stands for them, and the rule is that you never know what will happen tomorrow and you can have always on your mind how you can loose your job or just need to change it for some reasons. It does not matter if it would be because you are fired, or you had to move to another city because you got married. And even take for example the women that get pregnant, nearly 80% of them do not manage to get back to their previous job position. There are numerous examples of similar situations, but the common and repeating factor is that you need to apply for a new job, to be admitted to interviews for new positions in other companies or cities or countries, and to prove yourself to coworkers and managers that know nothing about you. And how would you deal with all this if the only point for your qualification in the CV you have made is the previous position of yours, no higher education, no degrees in anything, nothing else? Or just the field you worked in has just crashed worldwide and you need to change the business, and you are limited by the only professional qualification you received working your old job. Now here comes the online degree factor that might become a life insurance policy for you.

No matter if you feel comfortable having your job and paying your bills, but just getting enough money to live, or you are an undergraduate student, make yourself a favor by registering at an online college and obtain the online degree you desire while working. It does not spend your time or make you feel obliged with one activity. You can proceed doing whatever you did before but in 1 or 2 years you will have that degree and then you will feel more stable and safe, because no matter what happens tomorrow you will have the freedom to change your job or employer as a good higher educational qualification will stay behind your back. And if you do not like your current position, the thing to do is to sign up for an online college degree program from another field of profession and that way you can practice and work what suits your interest and desire to develop in.

Many people has done that because of the opportunity to have a “Plan B” if something goes wrong with their careers. But others do it for a major step in their education, plan what do they want to do, take the particular degree and then make a career of it. It works both ways and it surely is a successive comfortable way for you to fill up your CV and make a potential to be filled in the future of course. As you can see in the testimonials of some of the graduated students we helped, there are such that wanted to climb higher in the company hierarchy but did not have the chance without a college certificate for the specific matter. Well we guess you can take that also as an example of how distance education works as a life insurance and we hope this motivational article was helpful for you all.

  For those who have not been around and up to date with the innovations of distance education in the last 2 years we have some facts to present to you, which made online education the way it is right now. And every single change and improvement only shows how this form of learning is accepted by the masses and the institutions as it provides the same and even better methods than the standard off-line on-campus studies. Those features that we are going to present and explain are also in help of those that have doubts about how could such type of learning be equivalent to the old-fashioned old-school going to classrooms, university halls, campuses, listening to lecturers face to face and all the other usual characteristics that defined higher education for centuries. Well, nothing against the traditions, it is just that no one believed 100 years ago that today we are going to hold a phone without a wire and speak with a person on the other side of the World, so I guess a lot of things are possible, or just nothing is impossible. And it is the same with education, no one believed that people will be able some day to study and obtain a degree without even seeing the academic staff, without using a pen and paper sometimes, and look at the situation nowadays: one is studying in the library, another in the kitchen on the laptop of his/her, and other in the subway while traveling to the workplace. Seemed impossible, but it is happening and no one can go against it.

There were two major differences between the usual standard form of learning and the new innovative online way of studying in a higher institution 2 or 3 years ago. By that time those several differences still made a lot of prejudices in people’s mind and gave them reasons not to attend in an web educational institution by some of the big Universities and Colleges that started it all.

Reputation of online educational institutions and degrees. Back then, imagine all the employers all the companies and corporations with their huge departments for Human Resources, hiring so many people that they have almost automated the process, look for the standard certifications and the proper education proofs as a standard criteria among all the others. And imagine that 1 of every 1000 applying for the various positions on the job market states in the CV “Online Bachelor in Science degree” among all the others stating just “Bachelor of something degree” and/or “Master in something-else degree”. How do you think those people’s Cvs will look in the eyes of the HR staff people in year 2002 for example. They would rather stay and stick with the standard safe certified people with the normal University certificates and graduate papers. And that was normal because almost no one had heard about this innovative way of attending a higher education college. Now let us tell you what is happening in year 2008, or in other words nowadays.

Nowadays, year 2008, after all the noise around the six government accreditation institutes stated the full license and approval of online degrees, and after all those colleges that we recommend to you got the certificate for accredited higher education through the Internet, well now it is a bit different. Nowadays the HR departments of every single company have the lists of all licensed colleges allowed to provide such academic services online and all of them have the exact degree specifications which do not differ from the on-campus based and they are accepting every online degree certificate exactly as they accept the off-line one by the same university or college. Now they do not even pay attention to the word “online” just because it does not matter whether it is stated or not. The equivalence and reputation of the college along with its licence to practice internet/web studies are far enough for employers to to even prioritize such graduates as they already know about all the innovative advantages it provides to undergraduates and working students, and to tell you the truth some employers even prefer it in comparison to the off-line one.

Online students loans and scholarships. Another thing that just needed and waited to be fixed, and it was in year 2006 when the other major event around distance education took place. It was in year 2006 when the Ministry of Education changed their loan and scholarship polices regarding higher online education. Before that, there was a rule, a simple but still damaging rule for having a student loan if you are having your studies online. That rule implicated in the requirement of the Ministry for a student to have not more thatn 50% of his/her courses over the Internet, and the rest on-campus in a real off-line University. As you can guess that law stopped many from signing up for distant education and did not helped at all those who had decided to proceed with or without having a loan from the Government. But in 2006 it all went into the past when this rule was canceled and deleted and now even students that have their learning 100% online can get a student loan without any additional requirement, just like normal on-campus students do. And that is the way it should be, as imagine what disadvantage was this before that, especially for disabled people or travelers from small towns far from the university or college they want to attend to. It was an obstacle for motivated and ambitious students, and it just had to be removed as it is right now. It may look like a small change, but it really boosted online college education and increased the percentage of students that chose this form of studies and courses. And numbers are fascinating, as statistical information shows that in the period 2002 to 2005 the number of online students has grown from 1,600,000 to 2,900,000. And that’s only the new sign ups for every year between those two, can you imagine, because we can as we see the high interest of people that we’ve helped in the whole process and academics.

    Some of you may have forgotten about them, but they are there, all the people that have no opportunity to attend to a normal campus-like college off-line and saying that, we mean really not a single perspective of going to a higher educational institution. You may ask how come there are such people. Well if you ask, then may be you should feel a little bit ashamed of yourself by forgetting all the people living in small towns far from cities and campuses, all the citizen of mountain towns and villages, and along with them all the disabled people who “can” go to a proper college but every morning getting there is a whole hard adventure for them, with the special transportation, with the special ramps, with the special staff that they need with the stairs and elevators and imagine also how they feel seeing the other students who do not value how easy it is for them to just walk into the campus get to some lectures, miss some others and do not care if they’re late or absent.

    We personally have some friends from small towns far in the mountains which shared that years ago they really wanted to have a higher degree, to continue studying after they finished high school, but the very fact that they were isolated thousands of miles from a college and their families could not afford all the expenses one student will take studying far from home, this all just stopped them from even thinking about a college or a University. And they all admit, it would be far different if online degrees existed in the past, but as everything there is a right place and time of it to appear.

    Every day, in the office of AboutOnlineDegrees we receive tens of letters from another part of the motivated student crowd. And we do not exclude them from the others like some do. Yes, they are the disabled people in wheel chairs or with some condition that prevents them to go a offline college to obtain a higher degree. All those people have so much potential and thank us for giving them the opportunity to study in a college, and finally to have a normal college degree without even having to go to some campus or city far from them and to feel like outcasts. And of course, it is not we that have invented this method of education, but it is good for us to know that we actually help people in real need, not only easing education, but providing a chance that otherwise would not be available. So, do not thank us, thank YOU all that have decided to design your future and careers with your motivation by yourself with online college degrees. You all are very brave!

   From time to time we constantly receive thankful e-mails and letters from people who have attended some of our recommended online colleges and already have the degree and position they desired before starting their higher education in the Internet. So until now we were just pleased to know how we really help people get the proper education they need, but we thought it would be useful for you to read and witness others success achieved so we made a special page where we are going to put the most interesting and fascinating successful stories of people that have prospered after having their degree over the Internet, as well as how exactly their life changed after that and what careers they developed. And the variety of students is astonishing, as we receive stories from high school graduates who have continued their education online, and also from adults over 25 or 30 that have decided to control their future by attending to a college online and changing their career or plans for development. Some of the newest and catchy stories you can find here at the College students Testimonials page.

If you also have a story that you want to tell about how your higher education has changed your life and/or way of thinking, or you just want to thank a college or a site, write to us and if your tale is worth, we will put it online for others to see and get an example of how dreams come true.

    We think it would be useful for you to know a bit deep about the online colleges and their degrees before actually diving in the online education world. And we are not talking about the colleges we offer and recommend to you, but in general offers for higher education over the Internet in the web. As we all are familiar that many many sites provide online degree information and guidance to certification from an University in Internet. Well you should know that very high percentage of those prospects in the web are not accredited and have no legal license or give you any legal qualification. For your information we should explain what accreditation of online colleges mean.

    Accreditation of online college degrees is the actual certification of the the degree itself from one of the six accreditation institutes which only have the right to prove that the document you have obtained after studying in an online higher education institution is valid and means something. In any other case no matter what document or degree you have on paper or e-mail, it is worth nothing. And that is also one of the reasons that we help you in your choice of college and program you want to take part in. That way you avoid the possibility to be scammed by a fake degree or course, and of course our information is all there free and available, just because we are totally against such degree mills as they are called.

   Here you can find information about accreditation of online college degrees.

Profession and degree match. So by now you should know the first and main reason why we actually have worked hard to sort and choose which colleges to present to you, who are planning to study online. Second, but same in terms of importance is the most usual mistake people do when starting their education in the Internet, and namely to mismatch the degree taken and the the profession they desire. That is why we have sorted not only universities by names of Bachelor/Master degree courses offered, but by occupation type with the particular certificate, as well as employer type listing in order for you to plan and choose the best field, program and job type that matches best your wishes and personal profile or just the one you are most interested in.

Online college reputation and history. Third, but like the previous two is the factor of popularity and history of the educational institution you register at. All of you know that every aspect of todays life has levels, all the companies all the businesses and of course all the universities and colleges have different history, reputation and popularity. And without a doubt everyone wants the best for him/her in order to succeed in life. Now, when it comes to buying something or renting something you limit yourself to the sum you can afford, which is not the same in education online. Almost all the colleges have similar or the same prices like others, but it is very important that you choose a college that has its reputation and employers know it. The explanation is simple, imagine you take part in an interview for a job position and you have a degree from a college called “noname” that no one has heard of and you opponent for the position has an Oxford degree (a college that all people know). The example is a bit exaggerated, but you all know what follows – he gets it, and you don’t. So that is one more favor we have done for you, listed and sorted only online colleges with the strongest reputation and longer experience in order for them to speak enough with the name standing in your CV.

The main and primary concern of University of Phoenix is to deliver the services of college education and professional qualification development to prospective and undergraduate students from all over the world who meet the requirements to take part in their online higher educational courses and respectively receive skills and knowledge which all the graduates can implicate after obtaining the degree and start practicing their occupations. As one of the members of the Research about online education held in 2007, the University of Phoenix has proven that in time people there are working on improving the studying and learning process of the online students providing them with the freedom to take this process step-by-stem from the workplaces that suit them best and make them feel most comfortable. The academic staff in Phoenix also has shown us many times that along with the professional skills they teach to the students how to think critically, how to develop and use their communication in the best way possible and how to become leaders in the todays professional society, no matter what field of study and work they have choosen.

History of the University of Phoenix starts in 1972, when founded, and for 36 years it has become the biggest college institution with online as well as offline oriented courses and studies. Of course, because of the huge interest to this university it had to be expanded and currently operates with more than one campus, as a new one was opened in 1978 in San Jose, CA, with another thing really significant – it is also known to be the first higher educational institution to offer some type of off-campus based studies after in 1990 they created the first network made especially for people to take part in courses and subjects without having to be in the campus.

One major innovation that the founder of University of Phoenix noticed back in the time it was still a new college institution is that higher education was mainly designed, structured and organized to fit the needs of mostly freshmen coming from high schools and not for adult students who have decided to take their degrees later in their life or just needed to do that in a later stage. And that fact leaded Dr. Sperling to design and organize not only courses and programs suitable for adult learners on campus, but was his main reason to start and develop the online college educational system in the university. And the years of experience they already have speak for themselves, as no other college can offer so clean and developed then nowhere in other universities.

Of course, we have to mention that programs offered in Phoenix are not limited only in the Bachelor level, but in Associate’s in Master’s and even in Doctoral which for the last was is totally unique in the whole world as no other online campus offers a doctoral degree over the Internet, just because no other college can achieve the quality they had managed to reach in Phoenix. So we hope this information was useful to all of you who are wandering if to apply in the University of Phoenix online college degree program.