Ok so a little background. I’m a very non-traditional student. I’m 30 years old and a police officer for the last 10 years. I began taking classes at my local community college about four years ago as I have realized I do not want to make a 30+ year career out of law enforcement. My passion is history (specifically medieval and warfare), always has been, and I’m finally deciding to make that the focus of my professional life (or at least one day down the line). Problem is money isn’t free and my schedule as an officer makes attending school, especially day school, virtually impossible. I have already dropped numerous classes throughout my community college career due to my job and had to retake them, as a result my transcript has tons of lovely W’s, but also A’s and B’s.
I want to know what would be a good school to attend? My local university is San Diego State, and a little further off is CSU San Marcos. I have heavily researched online universities and while I understand they are not respected what other choice do I have? The ones I have put the most looking into are Troy University and Southern New Hampshire University. Both have undergraduate history degree programs that are online and appear to accept my 70 or so semester hours of general ed I have completed.
So what does everyone think? Find a way to take maybe a class or two a semester at SDSU for the next 5 years (10 years for a bachelor’s degree), or give in and go for the “best” online degree I can get? Thanks in advance for the insight. . .
I assume you’d like to teach. Have you looked into your odds of finding a job as a history teacher (high school or college) with an online bachelor’s degree? I don’t mean doing online research; I mean actually contacting employers. I understand online education is becoming more prevalent, but if your odds of finding a decent teaching job with an online degree were poor, that 30 year law enforcement career might become a reality. It’s obvious you don’t want to quit your job right now because of the income, so I can’t see you quitting it 6+ years down the road if you can’t find a decent teaching position, especially when you have more seniority/income.
If you are serious about changing careers, you’ll figure out a path to make a clean break, where your odds of success are the highest. In all likelihood, your odds are best if you attended university full-time at the best school possible. But part-time studies would work, too, if you can’t or don’t want to lose your income. The first steps, though, are to assess your goals and how eager you are to change careers, then determine if an online degree is capable of getting you where you want to be.
I suppose another option would be an online bachelor’s degree and a conventional master’s degree. But same deal: do some research into how easy it is to get accepted to a decent conventional MA program with a good online BA degree. You need to be clear about how much power/respectability that online BA actually has before you throw money at it.
Are you planning on self-funding the rest of your education?
Are you planning on going into teaching with that major? If not, what?
?? Since when is SDSU not respected???
No point in paying more for a history degree, particularly for education. If SDSU is cheaper, go there.
Yes my education will be funded by me (or loans to be specific). I don’t think SDSU isn’t respected, but I do know that it will basically be impossible for me to take more than one or two classes a semester with my schedule. I work a job with constant rotating hours that makes going to a brick and mortar school virtually impossible. That’s why I brought up the online options like Troy or SNHU. It’s either something like that or spend the next 5-6 years attempting to take a class or 2 a semester at SDSU or CSU San Marcos. . .
Just looking for options that will one day allow me to teach at a community college or something. You can only chase criminals and kick doors in for so long before you want to do something else. . .
San Diego State isn’t a bad school.
If you can’t attend a brick & mortar school, then I’d recommend online schools. As long as you’re willing to do the work, there’s some fine online colleges.
This is from thebestcollleges.org
The Best 10 Online Colleges For Teaching Degrees:
-Ashford University
-Capella University
-Regent University
-Xavier University
-Concordia University
-Rasmussen College
-Grand Canyon University
-Northcentral University
-Kaplan University
-Liberty University Online
This might not be a realistic option, but universities all have campus police departments. University staff tend to get free tuition after a period of time. (You’d have to check, but it’s not onerous.) Lots of people put themselves and their kids through school, even pricey ones, by working as staff at universities. Pay wouldn’t be as good, but benefits and working conditions would sure be better for you long-term goals … just a thought.
Good idea on the university police departments. I will be looking into that. Thanks to all for the information. As I’ve said, it will be very hard for me with my career’s lifestyle to attend a brick and mortar school. Which is why I’m trying to find a “good” online school that could one day way, way down the line get me into a legit Master’s program somewhere. That way in the future I have an education that could get me out of law enforcement and into say a community college teaching job or something bigger if that even is realistic.
If anybody has anything else, I’d love to hear it. 