A little worried about my decision of going online, if any one can help?

Im a sophomore at Liberty University Online and am a little worried about:

1). I plan on going to P.A school after my military career, and like all grad schools it requires a B.S degree. My question is, after I grad at the end of this year would grad schools accept an online degree? On their site it says, "accredited B.S degree" it does not mention Online or not.

2). Will the actual degree and transcript state that it is from online?

3). What does an online degree look like? Does any one have a picture of theirs?

I am in the military, so I really have no other education options regardless.

 

You won't have any problems. A degree done online looks like any other degree (diploma).


Abner

 

#1 Yes. Grad schools will accept a Bachelors from Liberty.
#2 This depends on the school. I don't know Liberty's policy. My guess is the answer is "no" but you'll need to ask the school to be certain.
#3 We've had a number of scanned diplomas on this site. I don't know if Liberty is amongst that group. Maybe one of our members would help out in this regard.

 

My AA from Liberty looks the same as my AAS from a local community college.

It does not mention online anywhere on it.

 

I'm a doctoral student at Liberty. I have researched those same questions for myself before I enrolled, so I can tell you with confidence that you have nothing to worry about. You will be happy with your degree. There may be some who do not accept your degree because it is from a Christian school, but you probably wouldn't want to work for or study with someone like that anyway. I have inserted answers to your questions below:

You will have no problem at almost all schools with acceptance. Although anything is possible, I have never heard of anyone facing discrimination because of a Liberty degree. Don't worry, it's a great school and your degree will be well respected.

There is no difference in the online diploma and the in-person diploma; they are exactly the same. There is no indication on the diploma or transcripts that it was earned online; it just says Liberty University and that's all. Even if there were a difference, almost nobody will care. The few who will care might be able to figure it out, as Steve has said, but they will be few. I hold a master's degree and an teaching credential, both earned online, and have never even seen someone raise an eyebrow. My experience is that they can't tell and really wouldn't care if they could tell; they are fine as long as your degree is regionally accredited, which Liberty is.

Sorry, I don't have one from Liberty yet. I proudly display my credential and my masters in very nice frames above my desk. They have nothing on them to indicate what delivery method was used to earn them. You are probably finding out for yourself that good online programs are really tough and nothing to be ashamed of anyway.

There are plenty of other good online options out there, if you chose not to stay with Liberty. Charter Oak, Excelsior, TESC, TUI, NCU, Capella, Walden and many others are all good, regionally accredited schools. Plus, many of the state schools are offering great online programs. If you didn't go with Liberty, I would suggest Empire State College, part of the SUNY system, for a great education at a reasonable price. God bless you and thank you for your service.

 

Well, I earned a Bachelor degree from Troy University while on active duty with the Marine Corps. My degree did not mention anything about online; however, my employers could figure out that I earned a degree from Troy, Alabama while I was working at Camp Pendleton, California....the only one that asked me about my degree via distance learning was The Marine Corps Officer Candidate Selection Board. You're fine with the degree from Liberty University. If you afraid of the Liberty low reputation, I would recommend you to continue for a Master degree from reputable school.

Penn State University has good program via distance learning.

 

Most schools don't put "ONLINE" on the records because they want to get your admission. Even though solely distance learning schools don't even put "ONLINE" on records... But I think American InterContinental University used to specified "ONLINE."

 

You don't think Liberty is reputable?

 

Bruce,

I did not say that. I only said if the OP worries about Liberty's reputation. As for me, I would treat tier one schools on top; after that all RA would be the same level. So a degree from Liberty University is the same as a degree from Troy University.

 

Okay, I get you now.

 

PA school can be pretty selective. I suspect that Liberty will be fine for your undergrad, but i would stress the importance of making sure you have excellent grades especially within your pre-med core requirements. I think its 2 semesters sequence each in Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, Chemistry, Physics, along with Math through Calculas (you should check to be sure, been awhile since i considered it). Again I think Liberty is fine, but if your still concerned you could take the core at a school with a bigger name and pad the Liberty degree that way. There is a school in New England that offers the core online and also has a DO program, or just hit up the State U closest to you and do it there. Harvard even offers the series and finishes it with letters of recomendation for your applications. I suspect its overkill, but it would be a proactive way to reduce any perceived deficiency.

PA schools also like for you to have had extensive patient contact. If your not already, I would go get my EMT-Basic or even Certified Nursing Assistant and get a part time job in the field. If you already have this via the military that's great, but I recall it being an important factor in the admissions decision of the schools I considered.

 

This is just untrue, whoever convinced you that your only option for higher education in the military is Liberty University didn't know what they were talking about. There are enough options to make you dizzy. Troy State as mentioned, TESC, COSC, AMU/APU, St. Pete College, U Mass, Harvard, are just the first that spring into my head...they all have legitimate distance options. Some cater to the military specifically. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH LIBERTY, but there are many many choices that might be as good or better for you.

Just had to add that...you definantly have options.

 

I completely agree. LU has some advantages for military students, but they are far from the only option.

 

If your ultimate goal is PA school, then I would have a couple of concerns about pursuing an online bachelor's degree:

(1) First, applications to PA programs have been soaring in recent years -- for example, UC Davis got 270 applicants in 2009, 405 applicants in 2010, and 1,252 applicants in 2011. So PA admissions are typically competitive -- sometimes extremely competitive. The admission rate at UC Davis has dropped from 22% to 17% to only 5.5% over the same period. Not all PA programs necessarily have a 95% rejection rate, but I expect that they are now all competitive to greater or lesser degrees.

But online schools typically do not have competitive admissions -- for example, Liberty's acceptance rate is 96%, according to collegeboard.org. A undergraduate program (whether distance or B&M) that is very easy to get into (95% acceptance) is not going to impress a graduate program that is very hard to get into (95% rejection). Selective graduate programs prefer applicants from selective undergraduate programs.

(2) The second problem is that PA programs are going to be particularly interested in your science background. Unfortunately, lab sciences are one thing that distance learning programs do not deliver effectively. Many PA applicants are science majors from B&M schools with extensive laboratory training and experience. An online program may not be competitive in that regard.

 

Did this affect you getting in at all? What was their response when you answered yes?

I can vouch for this. I graduate in May (hard to believe this) with a master's degree from PSU. It has been the most rigorous academic experience of my life. I've attended two B&M schools as well as 3 schools with distance components, and PSU has been by far the most difficult, but also rewarding.

 

When I said it was my only option, I meant that online was the only option. Thank you all for your input, im pretty happy and settled in at liberty I even ordered a t-shirt and lanyard.

I was just worried, that after I completed my degree and pre reqs that a grad school would not admit me because of online. I got the idea because I was looking at Yale's P.A. program, and it said resident university credits only.... Maybe because it was yale, because no other P.A. school said that. I was just a little worried that I was wasting my time, than you all.

 

You already know that I'm a strong Liberty U supporter, but getting into Yale is another thing altogether. Yale is one of the exclusive schools that might actually discriminate against your Liberty degree. It wouldn't actually be because it was Liberty, but because your degree was earned online.

 

For the Class of 2013, Yale had 36 open slots in its PA program.

But they received 700 applications for those slots, which means that every slot had about 20 applicants competing for it. So of course Yale is exclusive. They have no choice.

To gain admission to a program like this, an application needs to be very impressive. Simply meeting the minimum requirements (bachelor's from accredited school, appropriate prereq courses) isn't enough, when you have to beat 19 other people who also meet the minimum requirements. An application needs to substantially exceed the minimum stated requirements in order to be competitive.