Consider online schools reputation with employers before enrolling
As the economy continues to spell bad news for recent college graduates, potential employers are paying more attention to the quality of education received by job-seekers – and those employers have pretty strong opinions about their likes and dislikes.
A recent article from Bloomberg.com examined the value in today’s job market of a college degree from for-profit online colleges. Such colleges are popular education options for military learners, in large part because of the convenience and flexibility of their programs.
Criticisms of for-profit online institutions by others in the higher education community are not new and some of these criticisms are legitimate: There are plenty of schools out there that are glorified diploma mills, preying on military learners. But there are also many legitimate, high-quality for-profits schools that truly have the best interests of the students at heart.
In the Bloomberg article, criticisms of the value of for-profit degrees are not limited to peers in higher education. Employers and job-search firms go on record citing reservations about the quality of degrees earned from for-profit online schools.
I’d be curious to see a similar article exploring the weight, in our current economy, of degrees from different-caliber traditional schools. How does a degree from “Podunk College,”
December 28th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Thank goodness someone is paying attention to this. I’ve been researching this same topic and have found the same results with these colleges. Someone has to put an end to these schools robbing us of a sold education and our hard earned education benefits! It is my hope that I can eventually do my part and educate our military members that schools such as the ones mentioned in the bloomberg article are a scam and are not looking out for our future – just their wallets.