How do Grad Schools Look at Online Bachelors Degrees?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by smaprincess, Mar 27, 2017.

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  1. smaprincess

    smaprincess New Member

    Hi All. I'm new here but have received some great info just perusing previous posts. I'm hoping to get some good advice from people who have either gone through similar situations or who can offer insight because they are in a position of decision making authority at grad schools. I am a 41 yo stay at home mother. I have had a successful career as a corporate paralegal for 20 years, including an 8 year tenure at a Fortune 500 company. So, I have real world professional experience. I do, however, need to finish my bachelors degree. I have been accepted to Marymount California University, a private liberal arts school in Palos Verdes, CA (I applied here because it is very close to my home). Due to logistics (aka, being a mom), I am also considering online options, specifically Penn State World Campus and Northeastern University for their Psych degree programs. Can anyone offer advice as to whether I will have a better chance getting into grad schools if I attend an online major research university or a B&M non-research university? My options are limited for the time being while my son is not yet in kindergarten. So, I need to either attend Marymount or an online school. I am really struggling with the decision because I know that I will need the research background that either Penn State or Northeaster will offer (even though they are online programs) in order to continue to grad school. But I'd love to receive advice from people who have had experience applying to grad school with a degree earned online. Should I go for the B&M school, even though it doesn't have the same reputation as the bigger schools? Or should I go for the better rep research universities, even though the programs are online? Thanks in advance for reading my long post and for your advice!!
     
  2. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Your transcript won't say that you attended online, so no one will be able to tell. Penn State World Campus doesn't award degrees. Your degree will come from one of the B&M, Penn State campuses. Marymount California University is extremely expensive. I think it makes more sense to pay less at a better school whether online or on campus.
     
  3. Helpful2013

    Helpful2013 Active Member

    Find out from graduates of the online programs if they were able to develop relationships with their lecturers that earned them letters of recommendation. If you want to go to a competitive grad school, it will be important for those letters to articulate things beyond 'smaprincess fulfilled requirements for my class'. Some programs will facilitate those kinds of relationships, others won't.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 28, 2017
  4. suelaine

    suelaine Member

    This is just my casual opinion, based on years of reading forums and being involved with distance learning starting in the late 80s before "online" was really an option.

    I believe all but the very most selective and elite schools just want bodies and if most everything looks good on your transcript, plus you have documented positive work experience and have good references, most will happily accept you. Or apply to a few; I'll bet some on your list would accept.

    I've never done it but at times I am tempted to apply for graduate study at a University like Princeton just to see if I would be accepted. I won't ever do it because I know it is pretentious, and I would never actually move to New Jersey to attend. But I am still curious to see how that would go.

    We envision this very personalized decision process where somebody is going to thoroughly check out where you went to school and all other aspects of your life, and are going to make judgements based on all that. Once in awhile, just like with potential employers, you will deal with an individual at the school in question who has prejudices against online study and will see it, and this will flag a rejection, but I think more often they won't ask, won't notice, and won't care as long as it is accredited and your GPA is high.
     
  5. sube

    sube Member

    I have never heard of Marymount California University. That doesn't mean it's not a good school, but with today's technology I'd go for a cheaper, better known college and get my degree online. Before you apply, you should ask what research opportunities they offer for online students. I have a B&M BA in Psych from many years ago and ended up going into a completely different field because you must get a master's in order to do anything with it, so you should be 100% certain you have the time and funds to get a master's before you embark on a psych degree.
     
  6. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    Just likes other contributors' responses, your online degree does not indicate whether you earn your degree from online. Especially, you are staying home mother without working. Therefore, prospective employers and grad schools would not tell if you live in California and your school hundred thousand miles away. Another good reputation online school that fit your category is Arizona State University's BS or BA in Psychology. This might be a good option for you since you are not far from Phoenix. Although the program is 100%, but you can sometimes visiting the campus and join the alumni network upon graduation. I believe you get tuition discount or instate-tuition rate if you are a resident of a neighboring state.

    I also recommend you to forget about Marymount California University, it is not a bad school. However, I have never heard of it until you mention in this forum. I bet 99.9% of Americans do not know if this school exist.
     
  7. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I also believe this to be generally true. I'll even go one step further (?farther?). Even programs that require GMAT or GRE results don't pay too much attention. I think people get all hung up on that "I need a program that doesn't require the GRE because I'm not good at standardized testing." but if you have other positives such as what sue has mentioned, I believe these will neutralize a GRE score that is sub-par with the net result still being successful admission to the program.
     
  8. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    +1 I agree completely.
    What will grad schools say? Well, it depends on where you apply. Grad schools aren't of a single mind. So the first issue is thinking big picture. If you KNOW you're going to grad school, you need to look at the costs ALL IN for both a Bachelor's and a Master's. This will help you get your costs in check. You can absolutely 100% pay cash for an undergraduate degree, and complete it in under a year. I watch people do it every week- real people. So, if you cap your undergrad degree at about $7,000 all in, then start looking at costs for graduate school.
    You didn't say if you were going to stay a paralegal or move to a new field, and that matters, because changing careers requires a slightly different approach to choosing schools imo. If you allocate $25,000 for grad school, you'll have a HUGE pool of schools to choose from that will all HAPPILY accept your "online degree" from wherever you go (assuming it is regionally accredited). That puts the total cost somewhere around $32,000 give or take. If you have to borrow money, don't do it until you are ready for grad school- grad school is harder to find deals and shortcuts than undergrad, which is a piece of cake.

    So, to bring it back around, if you're applying at elite school (or non-profit schools that cost more than $25,000) you can expect some pushback. But who cares? There are thousands of others to choose from.

    If the question is "what will THIS specific grad school say?" then the answer is to call them and ask.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 28, 2017
  9. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    Almost all graduate programs will take you, if you have:
    A. an appropriate undergraduate GPA (their policy will outline this)
    B. appropriate test scores (if required for GMAT or GRE, but many schools are doing away with these)
    C. and most importantly: an open checkbook

    Top tier schools may be much more picky (due to supply and demand issues), but almost all other graduate programs are very easy to get into. If you have a regionally accredited Bachelors degree, then being online is a moot issue (Review C above).
     
  10. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    We played that game here once. Without using Google, generate a list of all the colleges you can think of. Note- the members here are exceptionally well-read in terms of "knowing about colleges" so the lists would be considerably larger than average. I think the average member here topped out around 200-250 schools...out of how many tens of thousands?
    Someone with better recall than I can think of the psychology term that applies- it's when you assume something to be significantly known or understood by many, but it's a form of bias, because it feels so very important in your own mind. This is that.
     
  11. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Of course, we have to begin by defining our terms. Do we include 2 year colleges? Vocational schools? and blah and blah blah. Worldwide the number is going to be around 20K depending . . .

    Approximately 3500 in the US.
     
  12. smaprincess

    smaprincess New Member

    Thanks everyone for the replies and advice - you guys have made some good points. Marymount California University is a very small liberal arts school, so I figured that not many people have heard of it. It's a decent school (non-profit, regionally accredited), ranked 18th in US News's regional west colleges. It's practically in my back yard so that's why I chose it (I'm just not in a logistical position right now to travel too far to/from school). However, it's $35k/yr and I'm pretty sure that the cost is NOT justified. Since I have a family and roots here, I will only be able to apply to PhD programs in the immediate SoCal area. That basically leaves UCLA and UC Irvine (and a few others too, but all top tier). I'm hesitant to go the online route in case that is looked down upon in any way. On the other hand, Marymount isn't a research university so I'd be giving that up in exchange for the sole purpose of it being a B&M school. Another factor, too, is where I think I can get the better grades. Does anyone have experience with online pscyh programs and being able to achieve excellent grades and conduct research in that setting? And also, is there anyone out there who has heard of Marymount??? Any more thoughts and advice is SO appreciated. It's very helpful to bounce this off of people with different perspectives.
     
  13. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    HOLY CRAP I've owned 4 different homes that weren't as much as that college is charging for a degree.

    Also, if I can be frank, you're making a mistake if you just walk in and sign up. That's what 18 year old kids do, and that's why they get in trouble. You're an adult with a family and the ability to weed out the difference between pursuing a credential and buying an experience.

    I want to say 50% of the people who enroll won't graduate, so again, if you're going to pay for an expensive degree, do it for grad school- when you've proven that you can "do it" with the lower level credits that are both cheaper and easier to accumulate.

    Don't buy anything until you have spent a little more time researching. There is a LOT to learn before deciding.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 29, 2017
  14. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    smaprincess,

    I used to live in PV and at that time Marymount only offered Associate degrees.

    But to answer your questions:
    I needed a BS so I checked out the requirements of Excelsior College in NY. I took all the required lower level and Upper Level courses at LA area community colleges and at CSUDH (I also had a variety of courses from the UK and a few other colleges/universities in the USA), plus I took a CLEP exam in English (no longer accepted by Excelsior). I earned my Excelsior BS.
    Then I applied simultaneously to CSUDH and to Embry-Riddle and got accepted by both. So I took masters degrees from both these schools in turn. Neither questioned my Excelsior degree.

    So I recommend skipping Marymount if the cost is high and check out the big three schools (Excelsior, TESU, and Charter Oak State College); credits can be earned at any RA college or from various challenge exams such as CLEP and DSST.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 31, 2017
  15. Cinephile66

    Cinephile66 New Member

    If it helps any, I received my BA from Waldorf University, which is an online university attached to a small, private, Liberal Arts college in Iowa. I earned my BA in Healthcare Management, applied to several graduate programs, and didn't run into any issues because my degree was obtained online. I was accepted into graduate programs at Indiana University, the University of Alabama Huntsville, the University of South Dakota, and a few others that were all research universities and respectable in their own right.

    Since we both live in Southern California, you might went to check out https://www.calstateonline.net/ to see what Long Beach, Fullerton, Cal State LA, and Dominguez may offer online. I know of one friend who completed her Bachelors in Sociology online at Fullerton, and went on to finish her PhD at Brown, so please don't let the online format dissuade you.

    There's also Waldorf! They're regionally accredited, and tuition includes textbooks! Coursework is manageable and the instructors are helpful. Hope this helps! Good luck to you!
     

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