DL degrees and grad schools

Do most traditional universities accept applicants who have DL degrees for grad school?

I'm looking at schools in both America and the UK... what are my prospects?

 

I think you're making a common mistake:

• Equating with low quality the fact that a degree is
  delivered fully via a distance learning methodology.

There is no correlation. Whether a degree's delivery method is via distance learning (DL); or via on-site, residential, traditional brick & mortar (B&M) isn't what matters. What matters -- at least in the U.S. -- is whether the degree, regardless which method (either DL or B&M) by which it is delivered, is accredited by an agency approved either by the US Department of Education (USDE) or by its Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)... or both. If it's accredited by a USDE- and/or CHEA-approved agency -- especially if said agency is one of the six regional accreditors -- then it won't much matter (or at least it shouldn't) whether its delivery method is DL or B&M (or any combination thereof).

Now, all that having been said, there are people in accredited college/university/grad school admissions offices, or in corporate HR/personnel offices, who think that DL coursework is substandard; or that DL degrees are little better than diploma-mill worthlessness. They're more rare than common, but they're definitely out there. Your job would be to either avoid them altogether, or to educate them. The former would, obviously, be somewhat easier than the latter.

Others around here have commented on this extensively, and you should be able to find threads about this subject by using this forum's SEARCH feature (that is... if it's finally working properly). Or perhaps someone here who reads this and who has a great deal of experience in this area will chime.

 

Way back in the late 70s, researchers Carol Sosdian and Laure Sharp published a large study on accredited non-traditional bachelors degrees available at the time. Their findings supported the idea that such such degrees enjoyed high acceptance in the job and grad school markets.

Since then, acceptance of distance learning degrees has grown much higher. It is now commonplace for recipients of DL degrees to be accepted into grad schools.

Tony Pina, Ed.D.
Administrator, Northeastern Illinois University

 

It is important to be aware that certain schools have a written policy regarding the acceptance of degrees, which may adversely affect non-traditional students.

For example this is what UCLA says:

 

If you have a undergrad degree that is RA, or foreign equivalent with a decent GPA, I would think you are eligible for about 95% of all Graduate programs.

Dont waste a moment fretting over such matters, there will be plenty of time for getting your chops busted, like trying to figure out how much money you can spend and of course....studying!

It's 2005 and almost everybody and their brother offers online classes and very few graduate programs could care less how you earned your degree.

Keep in mind most Dean's want to see their pet programs/ departments/divisions grow, thus most are your best ally. However, I would safely bet a review committee places a lot of weight in determining eligibility by an applicants demonstrated tenacity...so an "online degree" may actually be a shoe in!

Best, Gavin