Online College Degrees

If you have ever wanted to know what it is like to attend an Ivy League school like Yale, Harvard or Boston College, you may get that chance sometime soon. These learning institutions are coming around to the “distance learning” mindset of today’s student body. So here are a few things to know about taking online courses at Ivy League schools.

Yale was the first one to venture into the distance learning arena a couple of years ago. Harvard has followed suit progressively. But there is a twist you need to understand before trying to apply for these courses.

Ivy League colleges have taken the step towards online education, howbeit carefully. You are able to get the benefit of a partial education. However, as of this date, there are NO completely online courses available at these institutions.

What you can get from Harvard or Yale or any Ivy League institution is access to videotaped lectures and even class materials. The catch is that what you learn is not transferable to a degree program. Some schools have added online coursework for undergraduate and graduate credits. This is not a full degree program and probably won’t be for some time, so taking a Harvard online course or a Yale online course is not completely what it sounds like.

You can apply as you normally would for any higher education school. If you are serious about taking an Ivy League online course, tuition will be the biggest block. Some schools have payment programs and accept Pell grants and other financial aids. But there is always a portion that you pay out of pocket. For the most part, if you don’t have the FULL payment out front, you will not be granted access to Ivy League courses.

This is part two in our series on applying to take a course at a Chrsistian College.  Of course, much of this is true as well if you are looking at doing an entire degree program.  So, whether just one course an entire degree, this is some information you can use.

My personal background, so that you know, is that I am graduate of a B.A. and an M.A. from a Christian College.  I also taught for six years at a Chrisitan university in the Dallas, Texas area.  So, here are a couple more things you will want to consider when looking at your application to apply to take a course at a Christian college. 

When you start to fill out your application here are some tips that will help you stand out from other applicants.

• Letters of Reference – You may want to consider including with your application letters of reference. Some of the most effective letters come from pastors, church elders or deacons, or perhaps the choir director (if the case warrants it). Having others that confirm and testify to your Christian beliefs can go a long way to help you get accepted.

• Statement of Faith – One item that you will find that many Christian online colleges will require that their secular counterparts will not ask for is a statement of faith. You should have a brief (usually one typed page is adequate) summary of your testimony and what your faith means to you. Keep it simple and genuine as over indulgent testimony just sound corny and insincere.

In a few days or so (as soon as I can get a good list together) I am going to post several Christian colleges and univerisities you may want to check out that have online course offerings, or entire degree programs.  It certainly won’t be an exhaustive list, so right now I am looking at a way to narrow the focus in building the list.

This is going to be a 3-part series on applying to take online courses at a Christian college.  There are many good Christian colleges where you can take classes taught by Christian professors, rather than getting pounded by some liberal professor pushing some agenda you don’t want.  Some people just want to take a history course, a business course, etc.  So, we are putting together some tips that you can use.

• Part 1 – Before you apply
• Part 2 – Your application
• Part 3 – Some specific Christian colleges

If you are a Christian and you have already determined that the best way for you to get a college education is by attending college online then you may be looking for some tips for getting started. Christian online colleges offer the same types of education those other colleges online may offer the biggest difference will be that they actually have the same belief system that you have and incorporate God and Jesus into their curriculum.

There are several factors that you should consider as you begin to narrow down your choose of schools to attend. The application process for any school can be long and tedious when you are filling them out so have all the necessities together before you get started. Here are a few tips to help you with choosing an online college that will meet all your needs.

• Accreditation -The first thing that you need to do is check to make sure that the college you are looking at is fully accredited. It is unfortunately but oftentimes you can run into schools that are not properly accredited and then when you are ready to either transfer to another school or present your diploma you find out that the credits you have earned are non-transferable or not recognized as legitimate credits.

One of the things about some Christian colleges is they are not accredited by one of the nationally recognized, regional acrediting bodies.  Make sure it is.  You don’t want to waste any time or money on a course that won’t transfer or count for work credit.

• Requiring Help -Another very important thing that you will need to check is if you have problems understand the curriculum or need to reach the professor for any other reason how do you do it. With an online course your professor could have hundreds of students and may be hard to reach so you need to find out what the college’s procedures are with regards to needing help.

• Financial Aid – If you are worried about the cost of getting an online degree you may be pleasantly surprised to find out that many online colleges offer financial aid. Check with them first and weigh out all your financial options, they may also be able to send you toward some Christian based scholarships that you may have been unaware of.

Part 2 is coming soon.  We are going to discuss what to do after you apply and some of the things you need to know that might be different on a college application from a Christian collge.

Here are more tips for choosing an online college.  I posted 3 other tips, in my previous post you may want to check out too.

1. The next thing that you will want to look into when selecting an online college is the type of prerequisites that institution has in place for students. If you are interested in joining a particular online college, it is important to know and understand what expectations they have in place for new students. Knowing whether or not you qualify for acceptance is a key component in ensuring that you have made the right educational choice.

2. When selecting an online college, it is important to ensure that all of the coursework that is issued to students is done in a virtual classroom. Many online colleges offer courses in the virtual classroom, as well as the traditional brick and mortar classroom. It is important to know what is expected in this area prior to committing to the university.

3. Last, but not least, you should take into consideration what others think of the online college, as well as any relevant experiences that they have had with the online college. this will give you a good idea of what to expect when you are a student yourself.

As you can see, there are many important considerations to be made when it comes to online colleges. The tips listed here will help you to determine if a particular college is right for you.

Many individuals are attracted to online colleges. There are many different reasons why attending virtual colleges and universities online are considered to be appealing to internet users. One, these types of schools often offers an individual convenience. No longer do students have to schedule their lives around their college classes – now, they can go to class any time of the day or night, for as long as they wish! In addition to convenience, online colleges are often affordable and offer the student many options when it comes to coursework. As these educational institutions increase in popularity, more and more are becoming available. This can make it challenging to choose the right one for you. Here, you will be introduced to a number of tips for choosing an online college.

1. The most important tip for choosing an online college is to ensure that the educational institution is accredited. Accreditation means that the online school meets and/or exceeds the educational standards for a particular subject, degree, and/or coursework. This can be extremely beneficial to you in many different ways. First, it means that if you ever decide to switch colleges, you will be able to transfer any credits that you received. Furthermore, when it comes to entering your chosen career path, it is essential to have an education that meets certain standards. If you lack this, you may find it difficult to use the skills and talents that you have acquired in the future, and you may find that you literally wasted your money on an education that just does not count.

2. The next tip for considering and selecting an online college is to ensure that the school offers plenty of resources to assist you in your educational career. Examples of resources include an online school library, peer counseling services, tutoring sessions, and technical support specialists.

3. The third tip for choosing an online college is to research the financial aid options that you have. Many schools will offer payment plans, accept Federal Pell Grants, and similar forms of financial aid. If you do not have the money to pay full tuition at an online university, this may be an important consideration.

I will have more tips for you in a few days.