Is having an online degree a joke?

MYOS1634
Fri, 11 Oct 2013 16:40:23 +0000

online classes are better if you’re a working adult or as a complement to an oncampus degree (ie, you take 4 classes on campus and 1 online - that’s perfectly fine). It’s also possible as a graduate degree but it’s still less recognized - some colleges/grad schools specify “no online degree” for example. They want you to have attended an actual college. Once again, taking some classes online (like 1/5 per semester) is fine.
The problem is that it sounds as if your parents want you to take the entire degree online and it’s not clear whether it’d be from a brick and mortar university, or if it’d be from a purely online outfit. I can guarantee that there’d be a problem getting classes from a purely online outfit recognized, there are enough horror stories out there. At least community colleges are regionally accredited, their credits (mostly) recognized.
Entirely online undergraduate degrees for traditional-age students aren’t recommended because most students don’t finish them. At age 18, 19, you need to be in a classroom with peers and a professor in order to learn well.
As for schools that don’t have a campus at all, they’re often “for profit”, meaning their goal isn’t to make you learn and graduate, but to keep you as a paying client as long as possible so that they can make a profit off you. Explain to your parents that paying for these classes is not efficient.
Online classes from brick-and-mortar universities are more and more recognized, but I would need specific examples of regionally accredited, not-for-profit, purely online undergraduate degrees (is there even such a thing?), that are also as valid and as recognized as a state directional’s, let alone a state flagship or a respected private college.
Of course, you could want to major in something that’s not offered online - double major in Arabic and Political Science, or in Philosophy and Neuroscience - what would your parents say? Or is this “online degree” idea just a pretext to try and keep you at home, or prevent you from going to college?
If your parents are being controlling you must apply to the “automatic full tuition” colleges.
Have you tried talking to them about the women’s colleges, might that help alleviate their anxieties?
Would your parents change their minds if you got an awesome scholarship somewhere? Or if you got into a “prestigious” school - and what would they consider “prestigious”?
Would they accept a boarding junior college if they don’t want you to attend a 4 year university?
When do you turn 18?
Would your parents let you attend Zaytuna?