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We know. You're naturally curious, committed to lifelong learning,
and generally ambitious. Those are great reasons to pursue
an education. But with the high price of college, it's safe
to bet that you're also hoping that degree will pay off in
more practical terms--with a first job, a promotion, or a
job change, perhaps.
The good news is, it probably will. In simple terms of dollars
and cents, a college degree can be worth millions in income
over the course of your life. According to a July 2002 United
States Census Bureau survey, people holding bachelor's degrees
are expected to earn $2.1 million over the course of their
working lifetime--almost $1 million more than the $1.2 million
in lifetime earnings for people who hold high school diplomas
only.
But before you pile up those riches, you first have to get through
the door of the human resources department. As a current or
prospective online student, it's important to consider how an
online degree will measure up against those earned at traditional
brick-and-mortar programs.
Attitudes in flux
When asked directly, well-known Fortune 500 companies such as
Intel and Wal-Mart said they'd accept online degrees, provided
they come from regionally accredited programs.
The last time the question seems to have been put to human
resources departments on a broad scale, however, was in late
2000, when Vault, a job-search service and publisher, surveyed
almost 300 hiring managers. At the time, 77 percent of respondents
said online degrees earned from well-known schools--the Stanford
Universities of the world--were more valuable than those from
online-only institutions.
A lot has changed since then, including the number of people
enrolled in online courses. According to a recent Sloan
Consortium report, more than 1.6 million people logged
on to at least one online class in the fall of 2002. That
number is expected to increase by almost 20 percent in the
next year alone.
Support from employers
If you're attending a school that offers both campus-based
and online courses, chances are your diploma won't distinguish
whether you logged on or sat in a traditional classroom to
earn it. At Columbia University, for example, online students
can earn various graduate engineering degrees through Columbia
Video Network (CVN). There's no need to distinguish the degrees
as having been earned online because they're identical to
the courses delivered at the physical campus.
"The degree (CVN students) earn is identical to what
the offline students are getting," says Evan Jacobs,
marketing manager for CVN. "The modality is secondary;
the content is what's important and it's exactly the same."
Many of the CVN students are adults with full-time jobs,
and as such, Jacobs estimates that 80 to 90 percent have their
tuition reimbursed by their employer. The University of Phoenix
estimates that a similar percentage of its own student body
also has their tuition reimbursed by their employer.
"They have the full support of their companies,"
Jacobs says. "The fact that the employers are reimbursing
them for their tuition is really a validation of our program
and of distance learning."
"We've heard from a lot of students that they didn't
feel they'd have been able to get that promotion or that next
job without the skills and knowledge we provide," he
says. And as the number of online students increases, attitudes
toward online degrees should continue to open up even further.
The bottom line
Randy Miller, CEO and founder of ReadyMinds, which offers
distance career counseling to everyone from students in college
to adult learners, says that just in the last two years, human
resources departments have become more comfortable with online
degrees.
"They're realizing a lot of quality applicants are going
the nontraditional route--if you can still call it that--and
they don't want to miss out on this quality applicant pool,"
he says.
Indeed, a July 2004 survey by the Distance Education and
Training Council (DETC) found that almost 70 percent of corporate
supervisors rated the value of a distance degree as "just
as valuable" or "more valuable" than resident-school
degrees in the same field. The survey pool, however, was comprised
of managers with at least one employee who had earned a degree
through a DETC-accredited distance program, suggesting that
familiarity breeds acceptance for quality programs.
In the end, Miller says, job seekers of all types have many
of the same challenges. "It really comes down to the
individual--they still have to distinguish themselves,"
he says.
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