OT......Online Degrees......

www.grantham.edu has an bsee all online.

someone look at it and tell me what you think

To each their own

I checked it out, and I can't stress it enough. No ABET accreditation. The whole program looks like it's a half BSEE, half associates degree in electronics.

I started working on my degree at UWP all the way down in college algebra. Calc 1 was the lowest level of math that is even applied towards my degree, which means I took a full year of math between algebra and trig to get me up to snuff to even be accepted by the engineering department there.

I'm currently in Differential Equations, which at UWP is next up from Calc 3. The online program from Grantham shows the highest level of math at Calc2. Thus, I think you'll be hardpressed to get anywhere else to count it.

I don't want to sound like I'm slamming anyone's education. I just want to stress that accreditations are huge when it comes to transferring credits, continuing education, and yes, on the job. I can't speak for most of industry, but at 3M, if your degree is not ABET accredited, it's going to hit you in the pocket book. You may still get the job, but you won't get the title, or the same pay scale.

One example, we had an opening for a resident PI&C engineer. The guy who got the job had graduated from Devry. No ABET accreditation when he graduated. The result, yup, he got the job, but his title is PI&C Technologist, and he's on a lower pay scale. I don't know that other companies are like this, but the one I work for is.

I also know that if this guy wanted to go for his masters at say any University of Wisconsin school, he'd first have to obtain a Bachelor's. Yet, there is no doubt in my mind that after I'm done, if I chose Devry for a masters, I'd be accepted as a BSEE.

As I said before, the quality of the education is not what I'm talking about here, it's the political complications and future frustrations that you may have later. I myself went to a community college years ago and got an ***. degree. 9 of those credits were accepted into the U.W. system. I got burned, and I hate to see others get the same.

I'm currently in Differential Equations

Click to expand...

Good show. Does that mean you can follow the advanced control threads?

BTW, I don't think there is anything like competing with a big class with students from all over the world. It prepares you global competition. I don't think you learn as much when you are a big fish in a gold fish bowl.

I will attempt to clarify some of my statements. I recently returned to school enrolling at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB). In this endeavor I had to obtain transcripts for high school, secondary school, and take an entrance exam.

Of my secondary school credits I was given recognition for one class, Trigonometry. I have no idea how you could recieve a Trig credit without other math credits but alas it happened.

With that said you need to obtain all previous educational transcripts then decide on a path to follow. If you have numerous years working in an engineering type position then any paper stating BS may suffice. Only you can decide if what is offered is what you really want.

If you want a "bona fide" i.e. degree that should be accepted anywhere then look into taking classes at local universities or community colleges with transferable credits.

As mentioned the requirements for most BS degrees is 128 credit hours, the first 64 are usually "core" classes that can be applied toward any degree.

What you need to do is determine what "core" classes you may need and try to take as many of those that you can online, start simple to make sure you have the time, place, etc to fulfill this classwork.

I do not remember the exact numbers but a 3-4 credit hour class may take 8-10 hours of your time. Some classes, even when they have a classroom, have most of the work or testing done online. This can be expected of many math classes now.

Psychology 101 I took as a lecture class, it was basically read the book and memorize. I thought it was easy, the hard part was it required you to participate in "studies" etc which were not part of the classroom, not sure how this works online.

Chemistry is another that may be wierd if done online. I could learn the information but they had a tendency to test in a different manner then was taught; if that makes sense. Plus this and other classes usually require lab classes which work better if done in person.

Its all in the planning, you do not have to go for an online degree in my opinion, just find classes you need to fulfill requirements then at a later time work on attending your school of choice.

I think many schools these days are a ripoff, try and stay with community colleges and universities.

FYI, ABET has a site where you can find schools in your area etc http://www.abet.org/schoolstate.asp#I
I mentioned Indiana University and their distance learning program in a previous post, it is in the ABET list.