<p>I don't know how many people agree with me, but - MBA/MD/JD aside - paying 40k+ on a graduate degree is just wrong, let alone for an online degree!
but ivy league schools have been doing a lot of that lately, especially cornell and columbia.</p>
<p>so what's your opinion on these programs? are they worth the investment?
i would have not even bothered to ask, but this is the ivy league - so a degree should have some merit, especially if your degree is identical to the brick and mortar one.</p>
<p>When a school charges that sort of money from an MS, the intent is that employers will pay for it. Most engineering employers these days fully fund MS degrees in engineering.</p>
<p>^^^I wonder if that’s the case anymore. With all the cutbacks these days, I’m willing to bet that funding graduate degrees is among the benefits companies are withdrawing. Lots of major companies no longer offer health insurance and pension plans, so I don’t think high priced grad degrees are safe from landing on the chopping block.</p>
<p>Recently I’ve seen companies cut back on MBA’s - what was once guaranteed now must be approved and is limited to fast-track employees. I haven’t really seen a cutback on MS degrees yet. Since it is training that improves the capability of the company, I think what you’ll probably see first is a requirement that you guarantee 2 or 3 years of employment after the MS degree is earned.</p>
<p>What I have seen companies do is put a cap on tuition reimbursement to like $4000 or $5000 for a calendar year. Well, schools like Columbia and Cornell are like $3500 to $4000 a course so a working graduate student will not be able to take the needed 2 courses/semester without paying some out of pocket.</p>
<p>Thanks to California State Univ-Dominguez Hills, I was able to pay for 9 credits of Statistics-type courses that I transferred to U-Wisconsin. CSU-DH is very cheap in graduate costs.</p>
<p>Many companies would rather put the money into tuition reimbursement for their employees rather than pay state and federal corporate tax. Reduces their tax burden.</p>
<p>If a company is struggling, they obviously may look to eliminate or reduce the education reimbursement benefit.</p>
<p>Typically, the way it works is the employee actually pays for the class(es) up front, needs to get at least a B in the class (but not always, sometimes just pass), and then applies to be reimbursed from the company after receiving the grades. That’s the way I’ve seen it for quite a few companies, but I’m sure there are several different ways to run it.</p>
<p>Some Executive-MBA programs are extremely costly. UW’s Foster Exec-MBA program costs $75,000. I’d hate to have to front that kind of money just to wait to get reimbursed.</p>
<p>Executive programs know it works this way, and often will delay your required tuition payment as long as you have a letter of sponsorship from your company. The school will require some nominal amount up front then will schedule payments to coincide with your reimbursement schedule. </p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that executive programs usually don’t run on a typical semester system - they typically schedule classes in block format where each class lasts 4-6 weeks before you earn a grade.</p>
<p>Alright thanks for the input, but the operative word is ‘online’ - say for example the online MS in Systems Engineering from Cornell or Penn, so as to avoid EMBA stuff. How much respect do these degrees have, because I don’t believe it is enough to justify their cost.</p>
<p>Even if the employer is paying, unless they expect a significant return, why pay the big bill for a degree where their employee is not even ‘going’ to school.</p>
<p>You do go to school with those online degrees. The lectures are taped and you watch them later. You have to turn in the same assignments, just by fax. Also, you take the same exams (you have to go to a local college or Kaplan testing center and the exam is send to the proctor). </p>
<p>As far as prestige, they carry as much as going to the school. Though for something like Systems Engineering, you might be better off with Georgia Tech’s online degree or Stanford’s online degree.</p>
<p>Maybe if you don’t have a lot of experience, a company MAY say a thing or two about an online program. Once you have experience, you are basically “checking off the list” when it comes to grad school. Some higher positions ARE tied to academic level so if you are applying for the “chief engineer” position at some company, it may require an M.S. + 15-20 years experience. As far as the hiring folks are concerned, it is what it is…an M.S. degree.</p>
<p>thanks for the responses so far…
On a related issue, what about online classes and webinars given by professional societies, like ASME or NSPE… they are somewhat expensive but are they worth it? especially that they are online so no networking is feasible.</p>