A Damning Article About Online Education from NYT

merlinjones
Wed, 02 Aug 2006 15:41:36 +0000

Well, bluerain, I think that it is maybe a bad idea to go to a school which only exists on the Internet. I think that the best way to go is to make sure it is also a “real” University also.

For example, I am going to SCU as well as BYU. I know of BYU very well, but SCU was somewhat new to me. I actually went to Alabama (which was not really hard because I live in TN, it is not super far away) in order to doubly make sure that the University was also a “brick and mortar” University and I did that after triple checking their accreditation claim.

Going above and beyond things and triple checking certain things might sound like a lot. But, it is not a bad deal.

With regards to employers. I just truly think that you have to make your own decision. Staple a copy of your diploma to your resume and maybe even obtain a statement from the school proclaiming their accreditation. Making a prof write out a generalised statement of what you have learned is not horrible either because no one is going to doubt a PHD.

I have a different mentality than some folks because I live where there is horrible poverty and not scads of jobs. So, fibbing is obviously bad. But, protecting your own rear isn’t.