--If I may interject my opinion -- If you are in the United States, and you are thinking about college -- there are several ways of getting through college. Some are better than others, and I am going to comment only on my personal experience with the education system here. I AM NOT TRYING TO START A DISCUSSION ON POLITICS. With that said, I went to ITT Technical Institute for an associates degree. Yup, I spent the time and money to go to that wonderful example of private education, and it was horrible. I am still paying back the money for ITT tech, and probably will be for many years (it is at least 33k to go there, or was when I attended in 2003). Having spent that kind of money, I was obviously interested in transferring a few of the credits towards my BS degree. Asked UCF (University of Central Florida, a public university) what I could transfer, they said "Exactly nothing." Given this, and knowing how these stupid colleges work, I assumed that DeVry would transfer at least some of my ITT credits. They would (not many, only a few) but it was going to be another 40k to get my undergrad. I have a small bit of experience with DeVry, it is (IMHO) not too far from ITT tech in quality of education. Some people get a lot out of it, others not so much. My current plan (which is basically on hold because I have other things going on) is to complete another Associates Degree with a community college, and then transfer to FSU (Florida State University) for a BS in Computer Science. The whole idea of the degree is of dubious usability to me at this point since I am coming up on 10 years of professional experience in Computer Programming. Obviously I am a CS major, so perhaps for other programs something like ITT would be good (they did seem to have some decent electronics instructors - at Troy,MI Campus, but I never took any electronics courses, and wouldn't know bad from good anyways). With all that said -- * Online is OK if it's offered through a public university (many are beginning to offer this because the demographic of the college going public seems to be shifting to working adults) * If you go private, expect to pay much more for your degree * Many private schools are just degree mills (note, there are plenty of good private universities out there, I am talking about the ones that advertise on TV primarily). In other words, you are buying a degree. Don't expect to learn a thing about what you are going to school for. Don't expect to earn a good wage with this "degree." (there are exceptions, particularly if you are good at what you are going to school for, but the degree is nearly useless). * Public universities and colleges will almost always transfer credits amongst themselves. Private colleges and universities may or may not (expect that if you got your degree at a degree mill, you will not be able to transfer your credits to a reputable public university) * There is no easy way to a degree. Expect easy degrees to come from degree mills and be of near zero usefulness in a professional environment. * Going to a public university means a whole bunch of extra courses (here in Florida, you need at least one year of foreign language to even touch the junior level courses for example). There is no way out of them. * Going private doesn't mean you will be absolved of these courses. * If a private college doesn't make you take liberal arts courses (English, Public Speaking, etc.) then I would run. Generally, in my experience, this means they are either a degree mill or a tech school (career training). I said that all to say - in the US (IMHO) there is basically one big distinguishing factor. Either you are going to a degree mill, or a good school. The former is almost always going to be a private school. There are some public universities that are not as good as others, but in my experience, if they are public you will proabably get a cheaper education, and one that is more useful to you professionally. Another note, if money is a factor, always go in state. In state tuition is almost always cheaper than out of state. I know that is a no-brainier to most people, but when I started researching it, I was completely floored by how much of a difference there was. Finally, be careful about Universities that tout their accreditation too much. In my experience, this means that the accreditation is useless (ALWAYS research their claims), and that they are pushing it because they have little else to bring to the table. Aleksei On 1 December 2010 09:12, Xiaofan Chen wrote: > On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 7:03 PM, CDB wrote: >> >> :: "Don't even think of putting that university on your UCAS form. >> :: Apply to Leeds and York instead." >> >> What's wrong with the Open University, or has that gone downhill as well= ? >> >> (Memories of Dr Allan Solomon with the widest kipper tie to grace >> television and bell bottoms). > > Open University is one of the =A0UK universities which are > not that recognized by quite some employers here in Singapore. > > > -- > Xiaofan > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .