Do employers accept our online degrees?

Has anyone applied for a job but got knocked back for having an online degree?

 

My guess is that generally, people will not know the answer to this question. If you interview for a job and it ultimately goes to someone else you are rarely (if ever) told specifically why you did not get the job.
Jack

 

My employer know and pays for my online MBA. (100% tuition up to 15K a year - wow - not bad!)

Of course with the hours I work (60+), I doubt I could go to SJ State even if I wanted to. Because I am going to a B&M state college that just happens to have a online version, no one will ever know unless I volunteer the info.

 

It would be nice to be able to get an employer to admit that s/he had discriminated against the online version of a degree that is identical to its brick & mortar version; with both versions being from the exact same, regionally accredited institution. That, it seems to me, might be actionable in a court of law... and, if so, it would be nice if someone could pull together just such a suit somewhere, and get alot of press for it, to drive home the point that there is no difference.

Just a thought.

 

I have went to two job interviews in the last two years and at both the interviewers have asked if the college I was attending was as a distance student. Both actually made negative comments about correspondence work during the interview. No witness. So they will get by with the comments. One interviewer I know, actually got his degree from a distance education college.

Michael Gates

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Do employers accept our online degrees?

Yes. Or no. Or something in between. Your question is too vague.

How about: To what extent do employers accept online degrees, compared to degrees earned via the classroom?

Answer: We don't know.

Vault.com did a survey of HR people in 2000, asking about the acceptability of online degrees. The results showed a lower level of acceptability, but it was nuanced with the fact that HR managers tend not to know how candidates earned their degrees. So, asking if an online degree is acceptable might get you one answer, but asking if a degree from a particular school (without revealing that it was earned online) might get you a completely different answer.

BTW, this is why degree mills flourish: HR and others don't check. But it's also a good thing, because it causes one to avoid the prejudices we sometimes see towards legitimate degrees earned nontraditionally, as noted in other posts above.

 

An employer who would discriminate against me because I earned my degree as a DL student is an employer I would not want to work for anyway, so it doesn't matter.

That being said, I posted a similar question in the form of a poll at the Ashworth student message board on Yahoo. The majority of students said their employers were supportive of their coursework at Ashworth.

 

I don't know if any of the jobs I applied for and didn't get were because of my DL degree. I do know that I have a teaching license and have held public & private school jobs with one. I've also been accepted into multiple grad schools.

There is more in the mix than the degree. Unless it is explicitly stated, you'd never know. I'm with TCord1964 -- I don't want to work for someone who'd snub their nose at my DL degree.

 

I will preface this post by stating that I have an obvious bias in favor of online degrees, since I am currently working on a DL MBA (and plan to follow it up with a DL Ph.D.)

I work for a large school system and I am personally responsible for the hiring of several hundred new teachers each year.
In the past two months I have seen more DL degrees than ever before. My recent hires include a TESC grad, a COSC grad, several Excelsiors, a CSU-DH and a Regent grad. I hired them because they were good, strong candidates. Period. I passed on a Penn State (B&M) grad and I passed on a UMUC grad because they were weak candidates. Period.

I believe that discrimination does not affect all DL degrees -- typically, it is just the for-profits that have this problem. If the school does a lot of advertising in a particular area, chances are the hiring officers will know that it's a DL degree. If it has a 'cheesy sounding name', chances are there will be discrimination. (The degree mills have figured out ways around this, it always amazes me that the legit DL programs have not.)

There is an interesting double standard when it comes to DL. Employers are generally in favor of employees getting degrees via distance learning. They will pay for them and will be supportive because it means that the employees are able to study and earn degrees without missing work to go back to school. If they already know the employee is good, they have no problem paying for a degree at Good School That Unforunately Has A Cheesy Name International University.

While a college grad has every right to be proud of his or her degree -- no matter how it was earned -- here are a few recommendations from an HR point of view that might help to keep the questions about how the degree was earned to a minimum:

-- Do not put degree dates on a resume. While you may be required to put the dates on your application, keep in mind that most employers will make first, quick impressions based on a resume and not on an application.

I recommend this for two reasons, actually -- the other being potential age discrimination. In fact, I have left my degree dates off my resume for years -- even before beginning a DL degree for that very reason. Additionally, without a date on the resume there will be no question as to how you were able to earn a degree from CSU-DH at the same time you were living and working in NJ.

--Realize that degrees earned in 'record time' may raise eyebrows. Case in point, I saw a degree the other day that was earned in six months. Was I skeptical? You bet. If nothing else, I would seriously question the rigor of that degree.

-- Don't put 'online degree' anywhere on the application or resume. The name of the college or university is all you need.


I believe that acceptance will increase over time -- especially as more and more big name state colleges and universities get into the DL game. A Penn State or Nebraska grad degree (both of which can be earned online now) will continue to impress employers. (Moral of the story: pick a school with a strong football legacy.)

Until then, my advice to candidates is to use a 'don't ask, don't tell' rule of thumb during interviews. There is no need to over-explain during an interview. Let your performance speak for itself. Our performance will be the very best way to re-educate employers re: what types of employees earn DL degrees.

 

So, then,"The Catholic Distance University" is a particularly unfortunate choice of institutional names, isn't it.

 

My employment policy at my last job reimbursed for education and specifically excluded all DL schools / classes. They said since we had universities in our area, they would not reimburse. I took it up the ladder, and got the policy changed, but this was only 4 years ago.

 

I suspect I may run into a problem with "Thomson Education Direct" on my resume. However, since I plan on pursuing a BS and an MS or MBA, my ASB from Thomson won't stay on there for long. I'm not ashamed of pursuing my associates from ED, but there would probably be some bias against the institution with a "cheesy sounding name."

 

Marylars:
"A Penn State or Nebraska grad degree (both of which can be earned online now) will continue to impress employers."

But there are also a lot of obscure B&M school degrees that I would guess pale next to the bigger name schools. My own feeling is get the best DL degree you can and let the chips fall. In my case and I'm sure many others there would be no degree otherwise without DL so I don't concern myself too much what people think. Most don't seem to care anyway.

Dan

 

Thomsons Direct is actually better than many other DL schools, for example Deselm mentioned the Catholic Distance University is far less attractive. As least Thomsons Education has been around for many years.

 

One of the conclusions of my doctoral dissertation was that the name of the school seemed to have a remarkable effect on the acceptability of the degree. A well-known (but well-named) diploma mill did a lot better than all the accredited schools on the list.

The saving grace (get it?) of CDU is that it caters to a particular population, one who might be more interested in the fact that one did a degree there than they would be in the mode of study. But, generally, I'd avoid a school with a messed-up name unless I was already pretty secure in what I was doing for a living.

 

As a federal government employee seeking promotions, I have found that dl degrees and course-work from accredited colleges and universities has been generally well received. I feel that my past course-work was a significant factor in me being selected for the two promotions I have received in the USDA. On my promotion applications and resumes, I always listed dates of attendance at the various schools which coincide with dates that I worked in different cities and parts of the country. In the past, when the budget allowed, the USDA had a reimburment program for work-related courses, whether dl or b&m. Of course, the federal government's acceptance of dl, especially the USDA, cannot be compared to the private sector.

Institutional names rarely come up in informal conversation. The Public Health Veterinarians mention school names more than others. My circuit supervisor( non-PHV) has a BS in Chemistry but I have no idea what school. One of my colleagues has an AS in Marketing but I didn't ask where she went to school. The USDA mentality at my level has become one of "getting the qualifications" without the "name game". Accreditation is the important factor.

 

For me, I don't list dates on my resume. Doing this makes me a "stealthy" DL Learner.

I am fortunate to have DL degrees from schools where I have actually worked. I was stationed in California, near LA, and now have an MBA from CSU-DH. I was stationed in upstate New York and have a USNY(Excelsior) degree. I was stationed in Arizona and am now in the Northcentral PhD program. Employers think nothing of it and I don't say that I did anything distance either. The other schools on my resume were regular schools with regular brick and mortar attendance.

One of our network engineers got his BS at CSUDH and he saw my alumni pencil mug on my desk one day. He said, "Oh, are you from LA?" I told him no but I was stationed out there and did get an MBA at CSUDH. He never knew it was distance study.

Much of the negativity with DL degrees comes from the mills that came before, and are out there now. As regular schools embrace DL more, I think that the old thoughts may eventually be replaced. More good DL schools means more graduates. This means more DL people in the workforce. We have the likes of Hamilton, Kennedy-Western, Eastern, and CULA to thank for many of the negative vibes coming from DL. All the more reason to stay with RA schools, in my opinion.

Bing

 

Actually, I think Catholic Distance University (CDU) is very attractive, as far as its programs go. It's just its name that's potentially troublesome.

Exactly. So, then, if referring to one's degree on one's resume as having been earned via distance learning is, as Marylars suggests, not the smartest move, then getting a degree from CDU pretty much outs one from the outset.

Why, yes, we do. Very clever.

Exactly. And there are certainly plenty of people out there like that.

Good advice rarely gets better than that.

Agreed... strongly.

I disagree that it should be limited to RA. Statements like that help to earn us the inaccurate "RA or no way" accusation in other fora. If RA is all that's good, then the USDE imprimatur is of no value and regional accreditation agencies should just be their own highest authority. USDE and/or CHEA approve many other accreditors... many of them as good as, or better than, some regional accreditors in their own ways. In a thread here, once, I made the mistake of stating that regional accreditation automatically passes muster with the state of Oregon, and Alan Contreras (Director of Oregon's Office of Degree Authorization) corrected me by pointing out that any accreditor -- not just the six regionals -- that is approved by USDE and/or CHEA is acceptable to that state. And I think that's probably the right approach. Sure, an argument can be made that the six regional accreditors may be inherently "better" than, say, ACICS or maybe even DETC (heck, for that matter, an argument can be made that one regional accreditor may be inherently "better" than another regional accreditor), but if USDE and/or CHEA approval is truly the minimum standard of approval that makes any accreditor legit, then we need to actually let that be the case...

...or so it is my opinion.

 

Hmmm. The board you refer to might be the one that rarely has an original thought to write, too. Much of the time their fodder comes from what we write on this board. They will actually quote a thread here and then comment on it there. Other than that they are touting how great K-W, Akamai(sp?), Robert Sorbon, or some other mill is.

I took a look at their board the other day and found they hashed up a thread from "eons" ago on MIGS. Come on. When there is so much to discuss in DL they have to puke that back up?

You make a good point on DETC. I feel DETC is OK. However, it still will not be looked at by employers as equal to RA. Many employers won't even reimburse for DETC courses. For many employers it is RA or no way. Yet, one might be able to get a license in some fields with a non-RA school, or even a SCUPS for that matter. A non-RA school could meet the needs of many.

Good point on the Oregon deal, too. Even my employer now requires an ACE membership rather than just going by RA. So, they would not pay for Touro tuition but will pay for Northcentral.

Bing

 

Heh, heh, heh. That is about as spot-on an assessment of Jamesville as there is. That and the line about not having an original thought of their own (and pimping diploma mills). Nice shot, Bing....