Is there a service to help identify a distance program for engineering degree?

I completed 100 hours at a well known 4 year university. I left my senior year to take a job I was interested in and never completed the business administration degree. I subsequently enrolled in night classes at a state university for 3 semesters, but work and family commitments made continuing difficult. I managed an international company for 12 years and started my own business in 1985. I now own 4 very sucessful businesses and have gained a great amount of knowledge in managing and marketing them. I now have time to complete the bachelor's degree and want to do so in engineering.

I have purchased some of the Bear books and have researched the distance universities online. I still can not determine which university can best provide an engineering education and degree for a reasonable cost.

Is there a service or a professional individual that can be recommended to help in the selection of a distance education program and how can I locate them?

 

There are a small number of them.

Vicky Phillips, one of my worthy competitors in the books-on-alternative-education game, runs one at www.geteducated.com.

And there Degree Consulting Services, the one I started a really long time ago, and sold in the early 80s to Peter Proehl, who still runs it. www.degreeconsult.com

But I'm not sure you'll find a accredited engineering degree by distance learning at the Bachelor's level. Most, perhaps all, of the distance programs (U of Idaho. Stanford, etc.) are at the Master's level -- assuming that you already have the hands-on training that comes with the Bachelor's, and are now ready for specialization.

 

Excelsior provides a "QuickStart Personal Review" for $19.95 through Peterson's website -- http://www.petersons.com/regents/quick.html

There are a few undergraduate programs in engineering and related fields, but most of the engineering DL programs I've run across are, as John says, at the Master's level.

Some degree programs that might work for you, even though they're not specifically engineering degrees:

Excelsior: Bachelor of Science in Technology degree program with several options for specialization.

Rochester Institute of Technology: Bachelor of Science in Applied Arts and Science

Thomas Edison State College: Bachelor of Science in Applied Science and Technology degree completion program.

See http://distancelearn.about.com/cs/engineering/ for links to these and others.

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Kristin Evenson Hirst
DistanceLearn.About.com

 

When looking for an engineering degree, there are a few things to look for. First, an American degree should be accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (www.abet.org) in additon to regional accreditation. Second, the top-of-the-line degree will have a title such as Bachelor of Science in Engineering or Bachelor of Engineering. If the degree is BS in Engineering Technology or Bachelor of Engineering Technology, this is in between a technician program and an engineering program.

Gerry Ashton PE

 

I have been doing some research on this myself since I would also like to obtain my BSME. Currently I have a traditional A.A.S in Computer Aided Design from SAU Tech and many additional hours where I have tried to go back under "traditional" conditions and had to stop again because of the same work and family obligations.

The ONLY place I have found that doesn't look even the least bit shady is from RIT (http://www.rit.edu). The distance learning program at RIT is, as best I can tell, no different than the traditional degree and accredited the same (regional as well as ABET I believe). The material is supposedly the same as what's on campus, taught by the same instructors (videotaped lectures), with the same exams, taken at the same time during the 11 week class span, with the very same diploma when you're all done.

The only thing that's making me pause however is the hefty ~$280/credit hour price tag and the 5 required (3 day long) on campus lab visits over the course of the 5 year program. In all fairness however, RIT undergrad tuition is normally over $6k a quarter by traditional means (ouch!) so I guess that's not really all that bad in the scheme of things.

The only other place I found that was even accredited at all by anybody was Century University (http://www.centuryuniversity.edu) but my experience has taught me that if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. They are supposely accredited by some outfit called Accrediting Commision International (http://www.accreditnow.com) which is unfortunately not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education because (qouted) "Due to the views of most of our schools concerning the separation of church and state, we have never applied to the U.S. Department of Education for any affiliation with the government." I'm not sure which one seems more shady, the University or the company that's accrediting them.

Orion College (http://www.orioncollege.com)looks promising as well, but appears to still be courting several accreding organizations that are recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. I refuse to waste my time with anything that is not, but maybe they'll pull it off.

If anybody knows of some that I may have missed please let me know.

Daniel Alexander

 

Daniel, as a fellow Arkansan I'm obliged to tell you that Accrediting Commission International is run from Beebe, has no recognition, and any school it accredits has an automatic red flag.

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Bill Gossett

 

Thank you for this information as I have been trying to make a good decision for a long time, and these resources will certainly help. Also, I enjoyed your books I purchased as they have assisted in my quest.

 

Thank you. This information about engineering degree resources saved me a lot of research. I had never located these webpages before and they have some great contacts! I'll be contacting these colleges for additional information.

 

You might want to contact the University of florida, which was supposed to start ofering an online BSc. in Electrical Engineering this fall. UFL has,according to US news, one of the best Engineering programs in the US.

Good luck