Find the Best Online Universities

October 10th, 2005

An alarming number of college students choose their university based on where their friends from high school are going, who has the best football team, what college is cheapest or what college is closest to their home. While these factors will always influence your college decision, they should certainly not be the only factors.

The college where your friends go may not offer the program that best matches your career goals, the college with the amazing football team may be too overcrowded for your tastes and the cheapest or closest colleges may not have the best reputation. The college you pick can help set the course for the rest of your life, so it’s important to put some careful thought into which one will best suit your needs.

Before you even go about choosing a university, you should have a clear picture of the major in which you are interested. All too many students waste time in the wrong major (and even at the wrong university) because they are wishy-washy about their educational interests. Know for certain what area you wish to study so that you can effectively compare the cost and quality of different universities’ programs.

Let’s say you are interested in studying journalism. Start by researching which universities have strong journalism programs. Some universities offer journalism as its own major while others wrap it up into a larger focus, such as mass communications. Pay attention to which universities have created their own colleges or schools or journalism. This indicates that the university has devoted enough faculty and resources to the journalism program that you will receive a rich educational experience. You will also need to examine which journalism programs are accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

You can apply this same process to almost any other major. Study which schools are well-known for their programs in, say, nursing or political science or business and then further narrow down your decision by quality and cost, always ensuring that the program is accredited by a known accrediting agency that looks exclusively at programs in your major.

Weigh the positives and negatives of going to school out of state. Can you find a program of similar quality in your own state and save yourself the additional cost of out-of-state tuition? Do you consider getting out of the comfort zone of your state as essential to your college experience as the quality of the college itself?

Finally, consider if an online university can best meet your needs. Do you need flexibility because of work or family obligations? Can you learn independently? You may not even need to leave your home to gain an excellent college education.

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