<p>Some friends have said that Southern New Hampshire and Regis let you do your whole undergrad online and you still get a normal BA or BS degree, it sounds interesting. What do you think of this? Are these program thought of to be just as good as other degrees when it comes to employers?</p>
<p>I' thinking of doing this but my parents don't think online degrees are "real" so I wanted to make sure.</p>
<p>Why would you want to give up your college experience by doing your undergrad year online? It seems to me like you would be missing out on the best years of your life. Anyway, I’m pretty sure that the degree you would earn would be legit and employers would be ok with it.</p>
<p>Well the thing is I don’t know if I’m not ready to be tied down to a place. I think if i do my undergrad online it means I can travel and take opportunities wherever they come up.</p>
<p>Instead of doing your undergrad year online, you could just defer your admission to a college/university and take a gap year. That way you could take time to mature a little bit, do whatever you want, etc. I don’t know it just seems to me that you would be missing out on something if you just went to college online.</p>
<p>Why is it not mature to not want to go to a campus? 
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<p>to me it sounds its kind of like homeschooling, only for college and I have friends who were home schooled for hs and don’t feel like they missed out. </p>
<p>What does everyone else think?</p>
<p>If you earned an on-line degree, you will be at a disadvantage when you are looking for your first job. Most employers are not familiar with online colleges.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about employers not being familiar with online coursework. Many colleges and universities offer some online coursework, and even degrees that can be earned completely online. In most cases there is nothing whatsoever to indicate to a potential employer whether the degree was earned online or through classroom-based instruction. Provided your degree is from a regionally accredited college or university, you should be fine. For specific ideas, see the Online Degree Forum: [Online</a> Degrees - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/online-degrees/]Online”>Online Degrees - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>What I would be concerned about is that online coursework requires much more self-discipline than classroom-based coursework. Depending on the format, you can be required to log in at specific times, and for specific lengths of time. If you are travelling from one place to another, your internet service may not be reliable enough to make this possible. If there are no specific due dates for assignments (most of the online classes that I’ve taken were like this), it is very easy to let things go until the last minute. Instructors may be even less available than in a regular college or university setting, and it is almost impossible to get “live” interaction with them. They (like their students) can be anywhere on the planet, and their own internet service may be less than reliable.</p>
<p>In my own case, the program I completed online made it possible to pursue a specific course of studies affordably (the courses were about half the price of the closest brick-and-mortar setting), and without having to spend more than an hour commuting each way. It worked for me, but it isn’t for everyone. Many people would find this style of teaching and learning to be isolating. They would prefer live face-to-face human interaction.</p>
<p>You don’t have to decide right now what you want to do next. If you don’t think you want a typical on-campus college experience that is OK. Find out if there are any colleges you can commute to from where you live, or check out colleges that are in the middle of a city and that don’t have much “campus life”. If you’d like to travel and see the world a bit first, then investigate Gap Year options including exchange programs such as [Youth</a> For Understanding](<a href=“http://www.yfu.org%5DYouth”>http://www.yfu.org) and [AFS</a> Intercultural Programs](<a href=“http://www.afs.org%5DAFS”>http://www.afs.org)</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>
<p>Thank you so much, happymomof1!! what college did you go to online? Was it for undergrad?</p>
<p>I completed a graduate program in TESOL at Shenandoah University. When I was enrolled, live classes were taught on campus once each year, and off-site students received video tapes (or later on, DVDs) of the lectures. If we took it the same term as it was offered on campus, we got the recordings about a week later. If we took it in an “off term” we received the whole set at the beginning of the term. Our homework assignments were submitted through Blackboard, and our classroom “discussions” also took place inside Blackboard. For the first course, I had to find a proctor for my final exam, and take it on paper, then fax it in. For later courses, the exams were administered through Blackboard.</p>
<p>There are many different ways to deliver distance programs, so you do need to find out what the format will be like and what computer hardware is necessary for one that has a significant online component. I do not know if anyone still offers paper-only correspondence courses, but some distance programs do have some paper and/or in-person components. If you pop by your local public library, you could ask the reference librarian to give you some help researching Distance Education.</p>