Online Study Comes of Age
Online education has been growing at a rapid pace thanks to widespread internet access and due to a populace who has responded in kind. At SayEducate, we’re starting a series of articles about online education beginning with this article which takes a look at this important development. Please read on for background details about the online education movement.
How Did It All Begin?
Though there is some dispute as to who started offering the first classes online, it is clear that the for-profit University of Phoenix was one of the earliest schools offering online studies. Today, that school is the largest private university in the United States, with more than 200,000 students enrolled.
But the University of Phoenix, which has no official campus, isn’t the only school offering online studies or distance education. Traditional universities such as Notre Dame, Penn State University, the University of California, and Duke University all offer online courses in addition to their on campus classes. Some degree programs can be accomplished completely off campus while others may require students to appear on campus for select courses. As long as students have access to a computer, then they can participate.
Degrees Offered For Online Continuing Education
Students have a wide latitude of studies available to them online. In addition, every degree choice is available online: associates, bachelors, masters and even doctorate programs. Certain career education certificates are available for students who want to take remedial or brush up courses not leading to a degree.
Convenience — A Key Factor
One of the chief reasons why a student may elect distance learning is convenience. Most classes are held on your own time (via internet access or CD-ROM) which suits the lifestyle of today’s busy adults. Balancing work and family is considered to be enough of a burden, squeezing in on-campus classes is downright impossible for many prospective students. Thus, accessing a class when free time comes up is what attracts many students to this method of learning for personal career advancement.
Financing Is Available For Online Courses
Just like on campus courses, tuition for most online courses can get expensive. Fortunately, major student financing options such as Stafford loans and private student loans will cover these classes. Financing career education can be enormously challenging, therefore students seeking online degrees need to explore all of their options.
Online Degrees — Not For Everyone
Is online continuing education right for everyone? Yes, but some students prefer to embrace the entire college experience, therefore taking classes, attending sporting events, and participating in other student activities may weigh in their decision to study on campus.
Regardless, the option of taking classes online is a strong one and we hope to provide some useful tools in the decision making process to give you what you need to make an informed decision.
Your high school years have been a success and just months from now you’ll be taking your final walk through the hallowed halls of your school. It will be a bittersweet moment as you mark an important educational milestone and say good-bye to your friends as everyone scatters for colleges across the country, perhaps even overseas.
Well before graduation you will have applied to several schools and, if your grades and test scores are very good, you would have received multiple acceptances from a wide variety of colleges. Should you go to State? Can you afford Stanford, Princeton, or Duke? How much financial assistance is your family able to offer? Will you be saddled by student loans after obtaining your bachelor’s degree?
Some families simply cannot afford the tuition and expenses of a private school, but that doesn’t mean you cannot go to the school of your choice. Thanks to millions of scholarships offered every year, you may be able to attend most any school if you are a scholarship recipient. Before you win a scholarship, you must apply for one — let’s take a look at how you can search scholarships and what you must do in order to apply.
Launch Your Scholarship Search Today
If you are a high school senior, then launching your scholarship search today is important as there are several steps you must take before applying. Time is of the essence; a delay could cause you to miss an important deadline.
There are three scholarship basics to keep in mind:
Your eligibility - most college scholarships come with restrictions and are aimed at one or more of the following types of candidates: college freshmen, need based students, ethnic minorities, military personnel, high academic performers, and more.
Your major - declaring a major before going to school has its advantages particularly where major-specific scholarships are awarded. More than 500 majors are covered therefore you should find enough choices for your specific area of study.
Your college - if you have your heart set on the University of Texas, on Marquette or Brigham Young, or some other school, some scholarships are specific to those institutions. More than 4,000 scholarships are tied in with particular colleges and universities with multiple awards granted each academic year.
Apply For Several Scholarships
Once your eligibility requirements have been satisfied, you can begin the application process. Apply for as many scholarships as eligible, but keep in mind one important thing: your essay will go a long way to determining whether you are awarded a scholarship or not. Therefore, expect to spend a considerable amount of time on developing a well written essay; use family members, friends, and your guidance counselor as people who will critique your work. Some students turn to essay editors to help them out too.
Application packets are sent to applicants upon request, therefore you must be proactive in the process. Getting the application, filling it out accurately and legibly, writing a top notch essay, and sending everything off in a timely manner are essential steps in the process. Repeating these steps with each subsequent scholarship application will increase the likelihood that you will be awarded a scholarship. Use a tally sheet [free download] to track all of the legwork you will be doing to help organize what will seem like a time consuming project. Guess what? It is!
The Pay Off
Although there is no guarantee that you will win one or more scholarships, you can work these odds to your favor by being proactive in your scholarship quest. The pay off for all of your hard work can spell the difference between you attending School Choice A or School Choice B, a responsibility that falls squarely in your lap.
Welcome to SayEducate, your life-event strategy blog.
This site is under development and will officially “go live” around the middle of October. 
Our articles will cover important areas of your life from college preparation through retirement.
Specifically, five subject areas will be covered:
- Career Planning
- Consumer Financing
- Education
- For The Home
- Managing Money
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