3 Tips for Your Online College Search

In a lot of ways the search for an online college is the same as the search for a traditional college. There are however a few areas where there are differences. The big ones are that a lot of the on campus facilities are not going to matter if you are not going to be physically attending the school. There are however a few things that you have to keep in mind when you are looking for an online school, the following tips will address the most important of these.

1.    Accreditation is Critical: There is little value in going to the trouble and the expense of getting a degree if that degree is not useful. In order to make sure that is the case you have to get your degree from a properly accredited school. In the United States this means that you need to get your degree from a school that is regionally accredited. There are literally thousands of regionally accredited online colleges so there is really no reason to waste your time on a degree that isn’t.

2.     Consider Scheduling Issues: One of the great benefits of online schools is that they give you the freedom to take classes at times that are convenient for you. How much freedom you have in this regard however does vary from school to school. Some online colleges offer courses that allow you to set your own schedule entirely, there are no due dates for assignments for example. With these courses you generally get six months to work through them at your own pace and you will have little interaction with your teacher or other students.

 Other schools however actually have quite rigid schedules. Not only does this mean that you have to submit assignments at specific times but often you have to be online at certain times for chat sessions. If sticking to a schedule is a problem for you it may be a good idea to think hard before you enroll in a school with a rigid schedule.

3.   Think About the Costs: An online degree is one of those rare cases where you may not actually get what you pay for. There are lots of very expensive online schools, rarely however do they offer anything that you couldn’t get at much less expensive school. If you are getting a traditional degree it might well be worth the expense to go to Harvard because of its reputation, online schools however do not have the same reputation so there is no reason to pay a huge sum for your degree. The best option is usually your local state university, if not there are lots of other good quality schools that offer online degrees at reasonable prices.