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I have the same problem , my daughter is 16 years old and I keep checking on the rising college tuition and believe me it IS going up at an alarming rate . I don't want her to start her own life deep in debt .

WildBill,

I had no clue regarding the transfer of credits going one way, but not the other.

Thanks, I'll pass it along to my granddaughter.

And yes, she has a community college nearby where she can continue to live at home and go to school.

I'll also be looking into the partnering with a larger 4 year school situation.

Thanks again for your very helpful advice and information.

Since we recently went through this and are still in the middle of it, I have lots of thoughts on it. Another very effective thing to do is apply for as many scholarships as she can. If she has good grades, participates in extracurricular activities and does a lot of community service, you'd be surprised how many scholarships are out there that she may qualify and be awarded. Many of them are a few hundred dollars but they add up and are very much appreciated.

My son was recently awarded a nice scholarship by a family that had lost their college age daughter. His college counselor thought he would be a good match and recommended him. He was awarded it and in response to his thank you letter he sent the family, they added another $30,000 to the endowment to assist additional students. I don't know much about the young lady or her parents other than, they must feel tremendous pain and have chosen to honor their daughter by making sure she lives on through others.

He also received a scholarship from the parents of Captain Voss of Boerne. Captain Voss was killed in a crash in Kyrgyzstan while on a mission for the Afghanistan War. The committee that made the decision of whom to award the scholarship chose well deserving young lady to receive the scholarship. A few days later, we received notice from the Voss family that they were so impressed with my son and his essay, they wanted to honor their son by also awarding him a scholarship. For this, we will forever be grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Voss and will always remember what they did for my son in order to honor the son and war hero they lost. Captain Mark Tyler Voss will live on in my family for many many years to come. Man, a severe allergy attack just hit me and my eyes are all wet now. http://www.expressnews.com/news/militar ... 493402.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are many other generous people similar these that have had a tremendous impact on my son and my family. I say all this to encourage you and your grand daughter there are ways to get an education without digging herself into a hole. It is hard enough to get started in building a life without a mountain of debt.

I read this post earlier but was on my phone and couldn't easily post a reply.

As a hiring manager, I usually do look at an online degree a little differently...but not in a way you might think. When I see an online degree from an insanely expensive private/for profit school, especially a bachelors degree, I often wonder about the employee's ability to research different solutions as there are usually cheaper options available. Many state schools have online degree programs that are usually cheaper than private/for profit schools. As a bonus, the degree appears to be just like any other degree being from a state institution. I of course don't apply this thought process to to military folks.

Word of warning concerning acredidation. I was in the process of hiring someone a few years ago and it turned out that his degree he had earned 8-9 years earlier was bogus. We require a degree verification form to be filled out and when he was looking up the contact info for his school via Google he came across this link http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/?objectid= ... 60B3946FBB" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board tracks schools that are not legitimate. In fact, it is illegal to use these schools on a resume to gain employement. I usually check this list, but the school where his degree was from had a similar (same) name as a prominent private school so I didn't bother to check. It really sucked since he would have been a great hire, but I coudn't justify the salary without a degree (damn HR).

Just be sure and do your homework when selecting an online school.

Wow!

More excellent advice!

Thanks again!!

I have some family that are friends with the folks running this. I do not know much about it myself but it seems intriguing. http://pelotonu.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bottom line, there are more options coming available.

I am living this now. My job is General Manager for USA and Canada, I have a freshman living on campus at U of H, I have a freshman attending Lone Star Community College, and I have three more in high school. I'm not Bill Gates, so they have a huge responsibility in helping pay for their education.

My company is an industrial distributor. An online degree would be fine. In fact, it would show me a level of dedication to getting the degree. Online isn't for everyone. It requires a lot of discipline. But our business isn't highly technical nor does it require any special training. Most people that work for me learned on the job. Having a degree isn't required but could help swing the job over a candidate who doesn't.

My community college freshman is planning to transfer to U of H - his major isn't offered online or even in many universities. In Texas, there is a cooperation (Texas Common Course Numbering System) that community college credits can transfer to public universities. We used this resource to ensure his credits will apply directly to his major. He's only 16 so wasn't ready to leave home. Plus he didn't want the extra burden of debt so plans to take as much as possible at community college. He is very practical person. He also wants to buy a scooter instead of a car because it's cheaper and meets his needs. And he hates the popular clothes with their brand plastered across the front because he doesn't want to pay his money to advertise for them. Love that!

My U of H freshman is studying biochemistry with plans for medical school. He's also in the UH Honors College. According to him, the honors college at UH will not accept community college credits though other colleges at UH will. He has a number of scholarships but refused to apply for very many because "there would be too much competition" (his words). So he is taking out way more loans than I'd like. Fortunately, he's paying on the loans while attending school so they won't be so high when he graduates. He is already a licensed EMT, so is able to work for a bit better than minimum wage, which helps. Funny thing though. He lives on campus but chose to take calculus online (through UH) this semester.

So, bottom line, it depends on the student, their career aspirations, financial situation, grades, etc.

Abraham wrote:Given the enormous cost to get a degree at a brick and mortar school and the much lower cost of online schools my question is: Are professions where a degree is required hiring online grads?
Or, as I fear, they don't considered such as really educated or worse, find them contemptible?
What say you?
Thanks!

It Depends. I wouldn't want an online undergrad in marketing or business - basically any competitive field where you really have to make yourself stand out. Computer science or related field, the "online only" degree is going to hurt you a lot less, assuming you're actually good at it.

Disadvantage of an online school is going to be lack of recruiting and support post-graduation - at least tied to a physical location.

For graduate degrees, it matters a lot less... Lots of online MBA-types around here. I think that's stuff is fine.

Be aware - and this is a bit of an inside track - some for-profit online universities are much more about running the business than they are about producing a quality education. Lots of cracking down on recruiting and financing from the universities when the graduation and post-grad employment rate is low. A real university should be able to give you info about starting salaries and % placement for graduates... I'd start there.

I would pursue the local community college or junior college if available, especially for a young adult. However, you need to have a plan for roughly where you want to go and what degree you want to shoot for. That way you can plan classes that transfer. Do you need to get an associates degree or just get core classes done?

Back when I went to Blinn Junior College in Brenham, they told us that kids who are just going to school for lack of anything else to do generally don't finish or accomplish much. From what I have seen, that is true. Without a basic plan, they might as well try a technical school or work a couple years and get their head settled.

I graduated in engineering. I have no idea if online degrees in that field matter, but it depends on the job. Lots of jobs requiring degrees are all management and have little technical requirements.

Another thing to consider is does your kid really need to go to college at all? There are lots of career opportunities that don't require degrees or might only need a tech school to get started. Many pay decently. Kind of depends on what skills the kid has and maybe initiative and such.

MechAg94 wrote:Another thing to consider is does your kid really need to go to college at all? There are lots of career opportunities that don't require degrees or might only need a tech school to get started. Many pay decently. Kind of depends on what skills the kid has and maybe initiative and such.

I've worked for several multi-millionaries that didn't finish school. And I've worked side by side with talented well paid people that didn't have a degree. College doesn't guarantee success. Nor does lack of college prohibit success.

However, a degree makes finding a job *much* easier and statistically graduates make significantly more over their non-degreed coutnerparts over a lifetime. That could be degree-bias, but it's also reality.

College isn't for everyone and there are lots of trades and jobs where you can find success without a college education... However, the education is a big advantage if you have it, especially just entering the workforce. As someone that hires, I've worked places with strict policies where I can't even consider non-graduates for some positions, regardless of how well qualified.

That's not to say that $120k in debt and a degree in Art History is a good choice over not going to college at all.. No offense to Art History majors...

I once took a single math course through University of Phoenix so I could meet a pre-req requirement deadline for my school, and it was $1800!

nyj wrote:I once took a single math course through University of Phoenix so I could meet a pre-req requirement deadline for my school, and it was $1800!

I knew a guy taking classes online with University of Phoenix to complete his Masters. He rushed through a paper as life got in the way. Knowing it wasn't his best work, he was surprised that he still received an A. As an experiment he had his 8th grade nephew do the next paper for him and submitted it. It also received an A. Needless to say, he became very concerned about the credibility of the program. Of course I'm in no way condoning submitting work performed by others and passing it off as your own work.

University of Phoenix is accredited. I did find that they had an accreditation rough spot recently. They're definitely for-profit.

I live outside of the city. All in for a single class for my wife at community college was over $1000 - I think it was 3-4 credit hours. That's $30k a year for a community college... Yea, college costs are not looking good.

PaJ mentioned, and I want to amplify, the course cross-walk that exists, and are public documents. These detail the equivalent courses on four-year and community colleges, and should give you a very good start at determining which courses, at a junior college, should be transferable to a four-year school.

Some problems exist with courses in a particular major, and four-year schools often require a certain (some even used to require all) number of courses in a major be taken at the four-year school ... no idea of how prevalent that is nowadays.

The best way to go about it is to decide on what major you want, at what four-year school. Visit with the faculty counselors at the school in which the major is contained (i.e. don't talk to the College of Engineering about an art degree's pre-reqs and transferability of junior college courses), and see what courses they'll accept from the junior college the student is considering going to. Have all the coursewalks decided, with a signed degree plan, before ever starting at the junior college, and as long as the kiddoh doesn't change their mind and decide on something else, they should be good to go.