- Posted by maedstudent on March 27, 2008
Things to look for when shopping for the right online school:
Is the school accredited? If so, what body of accreditation is it? Regional accreditation will almost always guarantee that that school participates in some type of Government loan program and then a Pell Grant may be available to allow you to go to school for little or no money. Another thing to look at is how long has the school been doing online? Some brick and mortar campuses are successful only as just that. And others are masters at online too. Take the University of Phoenix- they are the largest private accredited college in the country, and they pride themselves on the fact that they have campuses in about half of all the states and even a campus in Hawaii and Puerto Rico. I have recruited students’ for them before and their main emphasis is online and they have mastered it quite well and have built a reputation as a school that can meet both brick and mortar class needs as well as the online environment.
What ever you do stay away from the so-called schools that offer you to get a degree just by paying a fee, as there could be no way that such school would have any type of accreditation that is worth anything and those diplomas would then be worthless.
Price might also be a factor that you want to look at too, as most expensive does not mean better by any means. I think one of the most important factors that I considered when choosing my school was the platform in which the class was delivered. The school that I attended used outlook express with newsgroups to deliver the class and it was easy and very user friendly. This school also had a web based platform for those that had either a MAC computer, or were away from their home computers. After all, online is about convenience right?