Choosing an Online College: Sometimes Local Presence is Important

Posted by Jeff Davis on December 31st, 2008

When I first began my search into selecting an online school and furthering my education, it was important to me that the college I choose have a strong internet presence as well as a local presence. After all, there are many online colleges to choose from but not all offer a quality education. Call it personal preference or what you will but I preferred a more recognized school over a mere local educational institution. Not that a local school would have been a bad experience or anything, but it just would not have fit into my life’s schedule as well.

After much research, I determined that there were quite a few online schools that actually had a good reputation for offering a quality education but not all met my personal criteria. I based my final decision on factors that were important to me at the time such as class sizes, accreditation, cost, available online resources, and the simplicity of being able to get help and/or support if necessary. Most of my ideals leaned me towards selecting the University of Phoenix and so I chose to pursue my degree within this environment. Locating an excellent online school that will meet your educational goals should really be no trouble if you do your research and find out all the answers to your questions beforehand.

Based on the items mentioned above, this has been my personal experience and I found a wealth of resources available on the internet in helping me make to make a final decision. There are numerous guidelines available for further consideration but the college websites were full of pertinent information and staff support is just a phone call away. I found my online college experience to be educational and self-rewarding. I would highly recommend attending an online college to anyone who is considering of returning to school.

Tags: accreditation, class size, local schools, resources, school cost, school reputation, University of Phoenix

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Local vs. National Online Programs, Student Voices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.