Is an online degree completely worthless?
Are online universities merely money making machines perpetuating the rote memorization of facts and parroting of opinions?
As useless as a fifth tier college degree major, in say, sociology is, is an online degree any better than this?
If your name is Levicoff, you can go piss up a flagpole.
johndoe2 Wrote:Is an online degree completely worthless?
Are online universities merely money making machines perpetuating the rote memorization of facts and parroting of opinions?
As useless as a fifth tier college degree major, in say, sociology is, is an online degree any better than this?
If your name is Levicoff, you can go piss up a flagpole.
No bona fide degree is worthless. Whether the economic return exceeds the investment is a different issue, but a degree represents much more than just expected financial yield. If nothing else, it shows that the holder is capable of enduring to complete a lengthy and fairly complex project within established guidelines. Since that pretty much describes most jobs, the relative value to the holder in the eyes of prospective employers is obvious.
Many universities seem less interested in education than they do in making money, but this is true of both online and B&M schools.
Even a degree from a fifth tier college or in an obscure or seemingly irrelevant major can have value, whether online or not.
I suspect Levicoff has other uses for flagpoles.
johndoe2 Wrote:Is an online degree completely worthless?
Why so morose this evening, Mr. Doe? Are you not getting the mileage you expected from your online degree?
johndoe2 Wrote:Is an online degree completely worthless?
Are online universities merely money making machines perpetuating the rote memorization of facts and parroting of opinions?
As useless as a fifth tier college degree major, in say, sociology is, is an online degree any better than this?
If your name is Levicoff, you can go piss up a flagpole.
Of course an online degree isn't completely worthless. How valuable it is and how much utility you get from it depends on individual circumstances. In 2009 and beyond I'd venture a guess that the degrees themselves are accepted at face value and the biggest factor in determining perceptions is the same as it is for B&M schools-reputation of the school or program awarding the degree.
In the case of an online only school, a number of them have developed good reputations (Capella at or near the top of that list) and their degrees are accordingly valued by knowledgeable HR people. Numerous graduates have found their degrees widely accepted. This is where the individual circumstances come into play. A poster at degreeboard and elsewhere named Shawn ("Capella Rocks") teaches at a community college on or adjacent to an Indian reservation. He recently completed his PhD at Capella and it was completely accepted by his employer. Numerous posters at these various fora teach at public schools and their degrees are accepted as well.
However, due to competition for scarce positions, don't plan on a degree from any online program to make you a candidate for a tenure-track position at any major university. Here is the dirty little secret that no one says aloud: "You were not going to get one of those jobs anyway." Such jobs are not filled by nontraditional candidates of any type. Look at the bios of the tenured profs at those schools. undergraduate-masters-doctorate, research and teaching assistantships, publications, post-doc research, grants and the other indicia of the professional academic in any field.
Paradoxically, outside academia online degrees are much better received. If you want to work for the government at any level, though, you need to make sure that you choose an accredited school. You can thank that asswipe Alan Contreras for that!
First, if anyone thinks of ANY degree as a bank note that INVARIABLY WILL bring him home a specific income or land a specific job, he's SERIOUSLY DELUDED. There are lots of ifs and buts; forget telepictures and slick ads citing 'studies' that swear that in your area your demographic group with degree X brings home N figures...that's tantamount to saying your demographic group eats caviar once a week...there are few people who eat caviar everyday and countless people who've never seen it...that's how studies work. Schools have to 'sell themselves' and alas, MLM gurus have already supplied the jargon...get rich quick...turn $10 into $10.000 virtually overnight with our secret forex trading scheme ebook...only $19.99.
Quote:As useless as a fifth tier college degree major, in say, sociology is, is an online degree any better than this?
So you're saying that Harvard or London University are no longer valid in their online version?
Sounds nonsensical to me.
I see we're talking prestige here...if you want to turn heads, get in debt for life to buy a Porsche, a gold Rolex, snake skin boots, three kgs of gold necklaces and honk your way to fame.
Quote:Are online universities merely money making machines perpetuating the rote memorization of facts and parroting of opinions?
While it's true that most universities serve as relay station for political hacks trying to endear themselves to their wire pullers and to opinion leaders, online education allows to keep them at bay pretty well, as opposed to B&M. While my B&M years are invariably associated with Marxist hacks droning on, my online years aren't yet.
The truth?
The same applies to the DL/B&M divide...
With B&M you get tasty 'contracts' to the delight of contractors on friendly terms with the B&M establishment with the blessings of its 'elected' puppeteers; you get sporting halls, fantastic 'varsity sport' contracts and other paraphernalia worth millions.
You pay for that in taxes & tuition fees EVEN IF you hate sport & never visit sporting halls.
I am NOT paying for that stuff anymore.
johndoe2 Wrote:If your name is Levicoff, you can go piss up a flagpole.
Did someone step on a freudian banana?
Don Dresden Wrote:johndoe2 Wrote:Is an online degree completely worthless?
Why so morose this evening, Mr. Doe? Are you not getting the mileage you expected from your online degree?
No, my degree is not online. I have strongly considered online education, but I have become increasingly disenchanted. I get my education from the library now.
Quote:However, due to competition for scarce positions, don't plan on a degree from any online program to make you a candidate for a tenure-track position at any major university. Here is the dirty little secret that no one says aloud: "You were not going to get one of those jobs anyway." Such jobs are not filled by nontraditional candidates of any type. Look at the bios of the tenured profs at those schools. undergraduate-masters-doctorate, research and teaching assistantships, publications, post-doc research, grants and the other indicia of the professional academic in any field.
An academic career streamlined...
I knew this fellow in university...John Lennon glasses, shoulder length hair, the typical hippie Marxist clone, son of another Marxist tenured hack. He went on droning on every possible wave of the Marxist/postmodern spectrum badly trying to merchandise himself...he wrote on anything from queer sex therapy to obscure writers, but eventually he seemed to go nowhere: a true genius or an egocentric amateur.
The syllabus for a course he designed would have been alright for East Germany in the 1970s, but eventually he seemed to go nowhere: a true genius or an egocentric amateur.
Finally he landed his dream job...short hair, no Lennon glasses and vitriolic accusations against both Marxists and neonazis who conspire in order to bad mouth Israel and negate Nazi crimes (?!): tenure.
The kind of person who would agree his mother had sex with mules in order to land a job...hell, he'd even supply you with the photos...
THAT is how to land a job, forget degrees...
PFFT!
Brick and mortar is a whole lot more fun than online.
You miss out on a lot of stuff online. I would not encourage the yout's to do online. If you are old, and employed, then online might be useful to climb another rung or so up the corporate ladder of your flattening and downsizing organization.
If you want to be "educated" go to the library. You don't need to sit in a classroom either in real life or online in order to learn something. What ever happened to self-learning? Has online education usurped that?
Quote:You miss out on a lot of stuff online.
Nothing I am (or ever was) interested in...
Quote:Yet, if you insist on becoming a college man anyway, citing the salary discrepancies between the have degrees and the have not degrees, my advice to the young men who wrote to me, those holed up in college libraries clutching Mises and Rothbard to their furrowed brow, is to take stock of where you are and what college is really about. Think about what position you are in.
A recent blog post by Lew Rockwell sums up that position perfectly – "as I walked on a university campus this morning…the girl-boy ratio was overwhelmingly girl." Haven't you watched Animal House? What in God's name are you doing in the library? Who the hell goes to college to learn anything? Understood properly, America’s college system is not a haven of learning; it is a four-year party with the background noise provided by tenured hacks giving their interpretations of foolish utopian schemes culled from other long-dead hacks.
In college happy hour is every hour, so remember to ignore your professors and let your dog off the leash; it’s hunting season. You are there to network, drink, smoke, and build up the fond, blurry memories that will allow you in later years to watch a porn movie and reminisce about when you used to get up to such wondrous madness. Stop wasting valuable college time reading Mises and Hayek – they’ll be plenty of time for that later – and cease frittering away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
I want to learn,
not:
1 "Animal house"
2 Marxist hacks
3 Genocide studies...African studies...queer studies...women studies...la raza studies...black month...mestizo month...gay pride...genocide day...
If I want a crack wh-re, I go to a brothel or pick one up on the streets...no need to get one in a dorm costing me $400/credit hour + room & board.