Stay Close to Home or Venture Out?
Posted by Jen Zeman on December 30th, 2008
Having an online school close to home was not a driving factor on where I would attend; however, I did consider in-state schools before considering out-of-state schools. For me, it was more of a comfort factor. I was working at a local community college when I was looking at schools to transfer my associate’s degree credits to. While at the community college, I had a great deal of information available to me about local universities and the programs they offered, so I felt a great deal of familiarity with local universities. With this information, I found UMUC and the perfect online degree program. Knowing I could easily transfer almost all my credits to UMUC was reassuring – I wouldn’t have to spend time and money on a bunch of additional classes. Plus, the tuition wasn’t too far out of reach for me. Because I found the ideal online school within my home state I had no need to look out-of-state.
My advice to others:
- Start your search with local colleges and universities to see what online programs they have to offer and if they coincide with your desired program. But don’t settle if they don’t! If local institutions are not offering an online program in the discipline you want to study, broaden your search to out-of-state institutions. A complete online program will not require you to attend or even visit the physical campus. I have even found that some online schools do not charge a higher tuition for out-of-state students attending online programs (i.e. you pay what in-state students pay).
- If you are currently attending a community college and need help searching, enlist the assistance of an academic advisor with your search. Most have a good grasp on what’s being offered at various institutions and can offer advice on your search.
- Make a list of important criteria for an online school before starting your search will also make the process easier. This way, you won’t settle for an institution that may not fulfill all your needs.
Tags: online degrees, online schools
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 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.
